Brighton’s Great Escape festival began in 2006 and has been a beacon of light for new music ever since.
As we approach this year’s festival, we pick out (in alphabetical order) our favourite acts to look out for.
Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard
In 2022 the Cardiff glam-rockers released their criminally underrated debut album ‘Backhand Deals’. Not resting on their laurels, they returned with the harder and darker single ‘Chew’ this last March.
Key Tracks: You / Chew
Deadletter
The Yorkshire outfit relocated to South London to forge a claim as the finest exponents of political polemic of the modern era. With better hooks than Gang of Four and the stylised delivery of Talking Heads, Deadletter will blow Brighton away this year.
Key Tracks: Binge / Madge’s Declaration
DeafDeafDeaf
The Manchester four-piece are destructive gothihc-punks with desolate Joy Division soundscapes to isolate within.
Key Tracks: Nothingness / Bodies
Dirtsharks
Dirtsharks will be on home soil in Brighton. Their throwback outsider rock pulls from the Murder Captial and Fontaines DC fire but always with the hooks of The Amazons loitering.
Key Tracks: Split Tongue / Tides
Dylan John Thomas
The Scottish troubadour is a one-man La’s. Jangling across horizons with Gerry Cinnamon looking on in awe.
Key Tracks: Fever / Nobody Else
Melin Melyn
The effortless jangle of a Real Estate and the mesmerising oddity of a Gorkys Zygotic Mynci. Hailing from London and Cardiff, their 60s baroque pop comes bi-lingually reminiscent of the Gruff Rhys’ fine solo albums.
Key Tracks: Nefoedd yr Adar / Short Haired Lady
Midnight Rodeo
The Nottingham six-piece are a Tarantino soundtrack in the making. Sexy, dangerous, and cool as fuck!
Key Tracks: The Big Melt / Now You’re Gone
Nice Biscuit
Making the long journey from Brisbane are the five-piece Nice Biscuit. They take the psychedelic lunacy of King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard for a joyride with Sugar Candy Mountain and Wolf Alice.
Key Tracks: Fem Chem / Round and Round
Pale Blue Eyes
Hailing from Totnes and Sheffield, the modernist psyche-pop outfit are destined for big things. The folksy mod instincts of Erland and The Carnival unite with nodes of The Cure, Cocteau Twins, and Tame Impala.
Key Tracks: Little Gem / Globe
Rosellas
To date, Rosellas have been a band with great promise. Single after single they showcased something fresh and, on ‘Hideaway’ they have pulled it all together. It’s a thunderous piece of rock-psyche that brings the five-piece out of indie’s shadows into the main stage spotlight.
Key Tracks: Hideaway / Slowdance
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