Once more Brighton crops up, giving us reason to believe that the number of bands in the city actually outnumbers the population. What's notable about the scene in Brighton is that it's very varied but also willfully non-mainstream. Groups seem to turn up who are making their own forms of alternative rock and pop music, and few of them sound the same. Take new band Octopuses; the sound they make would fit the mould of traditional indie music, that is indie as it was when it began. DIY, eclectic, enjoyable and first and foremost about the songs, not about the image, musicianship or other ego-based virtues. That's not to say they can't play (they can) and they don't look good (we haven't seen them).
With 'Sarcastic' they've made a song that you could imagine Peel playing in the 1980s, you could imagine Mark Radcliffe playing in the 1990s and will probably get spins on some of the alternative stations and shows now. With a simple keyboard riff and scratchy guitar, the song feels delightfully flimsy on occasion, and the near deadpan vocals fit in perfectly, especially for a song of this title, and especially singing "we're too sarcastic to believe in ourselves". They may well be sarcastic, but they have all the ingredients it takes to become a cult band in the style of Half Man Half Biscuit, The Fall or The Wedding Present. Although they don't sound overwhelmingly like any of those bands, their ethics seem the same. They may end by repeating the line "we don't believe in ourselves" but we're pretty sure they'll make believers out of plenty of other people.
Octopuses' website
Catch them live:
24th July - The Albert, Brighton
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