Review: Leon Vynehall – Music for the Uninvited

Summer is just around the corner, and it’s easy to tell: the days are getting notably longer, flowers are beginning to bloom and far too many people are already walking around in shorts when they shouldn’t be. Bare legs aren’t the only things in abundance this time of year though, for here begins the onslaught of albums recorded with the sunshine in mind.  Whether it’s something befitting for your boozy BBQs or a sublime soundtrack to your sunbathing, every year there’s far too much summery music for us mere mortals to choose from.

Cubed announce Hudson Mohawke & Cyril Hahn, Groove Armada shows

Hudson Mohawke. Credit: Mads Perch Photography

Scottish producer/DJ Hudson Mohawke, much in-demand Cyril Hahn and house music veterans Groove Armada have been announced to headline two nights at Reading club night Cubed.

These two huge announcements follow what has been a hugely impressive few months for Cubed, who have recently played host to the likes of Bondax, Eton Messy and Dusky and were chosen as one of the ‘Best Clubs of the Year 2013’ by Mixmag.

 

“You can often cripple your own creativity with perfectionism”: An interview with SG Lewis

Reading’s electronic music scene is currently thriving. Nights such as CUBED at Sub89 have been on a roll as of late, booking the likes of Bondax, Jackmaster, Boddika and Richy Ahmed, and we recently interviewed some up-and-coming talent from the town in the form of Ben Bowles.

SG Lewis can officially be added to the list of reasons to get excited by the Reading scene right now. At just 19 years of age, he’s been featured on the much-worshipped Majestic Casual Youtube channel – racking up over 500 thousand views no less – and has got plans and ambitions that would be nothing more than a pipe dream to most students. Here’s what we chatted about…

Benjamin Bowles turns up the heat on Cleaver’s ‘Catfish’

In our first ever interview on South East Facing with the Reading-based Benjamin Bowles, he mentioned that he’d been cooking up something special with a young rapper from the U.S. Well, today he’s finally got round to dishing up his first ever collaboration.

“People feel they can relate to us”: An interview with Concept

Basingstoke is hardly a breeding ground for successful musicians. Groups spend years hopscotching between the same few grotty clubs due to a lack of dedicated music venues (which seems somewhat ironic seeing as our MP, Maria Miller, is Secretary of State for Culture and Media), and before you know it you’re old and your children are asking you what you do for a real job.

Concept are an extremely rare exception to this rule. Having only been together just over 2 years, the boy band already has a devout fan base – they have 80,000+ Twitter followers and counting – and they’ve managed to crack the iTunes chart without the help of any record label. Last week the boys sat down and answered some questions that I sent over to them...

“Indecisive and bass-heavy:” An interview with Reading-based Benjamin Bowles

Our first ever interview on South East Facing comes courtesy of producer Benjamin Bowles. With tracks that vary from raucous and euphoric to soulful and hazy, we took the time to discuss his recent output, plans for the future and a forthcoming collaboration with an aspiring U.S rapper.

A greeting.

Welcome to South East Facing, a blog that intends to shine a metaphorical light on a host of promising and wildly underrated electronic-based music emerging from South East England. Believe it or not, there’s more than just floppy-fringed, run-of-the-mill pop-punk bands coming out of the likes of Winchester, Basingstoke and Reading, and hopefully this blog will do its best to extinguish the myth that local music scenes in the South East are all but dead.

The blog is called South East Facing not only due to its geographical focus, but also because it is the optimal direction for a house to face for sunlight, which makes for a very weak analogy to do with shining a light on new talent. Geddit? GEDDIT? Genius, I know.

So, if you are a producer/DJ/band member hailing from South East England, and you think you might fit the bill, then please get in contact with us (email address is in the ‘contact’ tab above) and send us your stuff.