Fear of Fiction Festival

The only magazine to focus on Bristol’s music scene threw a giant street party before winter started to settle in and thwart all endeavours of extending the festival season. Of course, Felix was invited. Set along Stokes Croft - which could be deemed a mini ‘Hoxditch’ of Bristol - bars, cafés, and cinemas showcased exciting up-and-coming artists.

DZ Deathrays Motorcycle Showrooms

No, I don’t know what DZ stands for, and frankly I don’t really care. Watching the music video to The Mess Up in which the two members consume a bottle of Jeigermeister in three minutes, was enough to persuade me to go and catch them. Although not the biggest fan of any kind of remotely guitar-heavy music, the Deathrays’ set was surprisingly very enjoyable. Full of energy, noise, sweat and crowdsurfing, it was a fun contrast to the previous bands’ more conserved playlists. What was really enjoyable was that their aural tantrum was refined by a melodious, charming angle; and the singer stood in the middle of the dancefloor for a whole track (plenty of time for unavoidable touching).

Oliver Wilde the Cube Cinema

Hidden amongst a housing estate, the Cube Cinema was a cute little venue well-suited to the cute little sounds of Oliver Wilde. A groovy (hate to use that word, but it was actually groovy) bass accompanied a drummer with a Darwin Deez-like Movember, violin player, and soft distorted vocals to recreate what music would sound like if it had been channelled through an aural Instagram app before being channelled through your ears. Their softened Britpop sound was a sweet way to start off the festival, but the repeated camera roll of a girl prancing up and down a green hill behind them got annoyingly laborious after a few songs.

Labyrinth Ear Lakota

Labyrinth Ear was the main attraction that drew us to the festival. Although they played in one of those annoying venues where it’s so cold that you have to keep your coat on and it’s too uncomfortable to drink anything except hot chocolate, this didn’t at all ruin the experience of watching this interesting new two-piece. Kicking off with their most, understatedly, erotic track and personal favourite ‘Amber’ was enough to turn a five person audience into a three-quarters full dance floor. Not even the extreme shyness of the endearing elfin-like singer who seemed to refuse to look at anything except the floor or her fellow band member could disturb the crowd’s level of engagement. It is a shame that they have come onto the scene amongst a burst of male/female electronic acts of the moment, being overshadowed by artists such as Crystal Castles, the XX, and Purity Ring; it is understandable why they may be dismissed and tossed onto the pile. However, even if the aesthetics of their sound are not obviously unique, the effect of their music is underrated and yet unparalleled by such acts as the above; demonstrated by their closing piece ‘Humble Bones’, which somehow manages to recreate that excited but intimidating feeling which drowns you around the people you fancy in a non-cheesy dance floor track.

TOY Motorcycle Showrooms

TOY was definitely the least impressive band of all the ones we managed to catch at the festival. In this case their aural tantrum was not refined by anything except a very whiney and painful keyboard which seemed to be played by bashing the keys and then holding the chords for minutes on end. Whatever the singer was trying to get out of his mouth was not audible, and their lack of audience engagement was not at all endearing as was the case for Labyrinth Ear. Their just-yanked-out of the seventies look was not going for them. The whole thing was a shambles. Nevertheless, there was something charming about their set: probably the knowledge that their studio recordings are decent but were just played in a very poor way. Many bands are the same, and many artists need to learn that playing unenthusiastically does not equate to being cool. They are a band that have potential, and whom I would see again in the hope that they would get their act together and actually play well.

Fear of Fiction festival is a new festival held in Bristol highlighting the best in new, undiscovered music. Organised by the labels, magazines and shops that make the Bristol music scene tick, there’s no better way into the local scene.