Music: Electro Blues
Nick Hollywood brings a new sound to Brighton’s music scene
Many of you have had a taste of electro swing, the dance friendly amalgamation of speakeasy/swing jazz with modern beats and grooves. Well, it’s time to make way for electro blues! Yep, you guessed it: combining blues licks and vocals with even more modern beats and grooves, it’s the brainchild of local boy Nick Hollywood, who was also responsible for its big sister electro swing. “I’m reluctant to try and define it too much, because in a way it’s more about attitude… But, if I had to, it would be something along the lines: ‘forget everything you thought you knew about the blues’, or ‘it’s a contemporary take on the blues’.”
Not that it’s anything particularly new; the lead track on the first Electro Blues compilation, courtesy of Hollywood’s Freshly Squeezed label, is by one-man band Son Of Dave, and a track called ‘Devil Take My Soul’, which is a few years old now. “It came about initially from electro swing, the idea that you could apply that concept to other types of music. It’s an idea that has been knocking about a while. Something like Moby has been there before, so it’s not rocket science, but amazingly it hadn’t been done before… The compilation is a broad palette, from which this thing will evolve. I know purists will go, ‘this is not really the blues’, but we want to look at it afresh.”
There is a monthly Electro Blues at Green Door Store, featuring live acts, DJs and visuals, and which is proving to very popular. “It’s quite different from the White Mink (Electro Swing) nights which are quite dressy affairs here in Brighton. Electro Blues is much more in keeping with the typical Brighton dressed down vibe, but there is an element of vintage in there…
The first Electro Blues compilation also features the sounds of Credence Clearwater Revival, John Mayall, Electro Swing Republic, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Big Joe Turner and Moby.
Electro Blues, Green Door Store, Friday 8 February (and second Friday of each month), 11pm, free
