We’ve made it to day eight of The Joyzine Advent Calendar, with plenty of great free downloads still to come. I’ve noticed an unintentional Victorian theme emerging throughout several of our windows, perhaps not surprising given the era’s influence on our Christmas traditions, and it continues today with the first of our two bands.
Track #1: Bridport Dagger – In the Cold Night (Distant Bells Version)
Bridport Dagger have always had an air of the past about them, digging back far deeper than the 80s synth pop imitators, garage rock revivalists and Beatles fetishists to delve into the darker recesses of our history – their name, taken from Elizabethan slang for the hangman’s noose, is testament to that. So it seemed entirely natural when they forged a partnership with Crooked Tree Theatre to stage a show in the Grand Hall of the Brunel Museum, a cylindrical marvel of Victorian engineering set deep into the bowels of London by Isambard and co., which lays claim to having staged the world’s first underground concert party.
The show itself wove theatre with live musical soundtracks and more standard live music sets, weaving sinister tales of Spring Heeled Jack, US serial killers The Lynch Mob and a Berlin cabaret club in Nazi Germany with a bizarre secret.
The band also released a new single ‘Harry Dean Stanton’ this year, and will see out 2016 with one last live appearance, at Leytonstone’s Ex-Servicemen’s Club on Saturday 10th December as part of the What’s Cooking club night. It’s a pay what you want night, also featuring The John E Vistic Rock & Roll Soundsystem and Snakerattlers, so please be generous at the door.
The Dagger have specially recorded an exclusive track for today’s calendar, titled ‘In The Cold Night (Distant Bells Version)’, which as the title suggests adds a little jingling to their brooding rockabilly vibe.
Download ‘In The Cold Night (Distant Bells Version)’
Track #2: Upcdownc – The Grande Finale
Our second track of the day comes from veteran Medway post rockers Upcdownc, who 16 years on and two members down from their beginnings at the turn of the millennium, are currently working on their seventh studio album, due for release in 2017. This will be their first release as a three-piece and builds on their 2015 horror themed LP Faster Than Evil by exploring a more soundtrack/sludge approach to their signature sound, which they previewed on a string of European dates in October.
Great sound like it sounds like the old walker brothers