Arts & Culture
REVIEW: Gappy Tooth brings out the funk with Little Brother Eli

REVIEW - GAPPY TOOTH INDUSTRIES PRESENTS LUCY VEE, QUARTERMELON AND LITTLE BROTHER ELI - SATURDAY 24 FEBRUARY By Jamie Hill Sometimes you like a band so much you buy the T-shirt. But just sometimes you like a band so much you end up buying two T-shirts. Little Brother Eli is definitely a two T-shirt band. The sold-out Gappy Tooth evening started with Lucy Vee, who you might have seen before fronting Oxfordshire band Death Of Hi-Fi. This was definitely a bit of a tantalising entree into the evening’s musical shenanigans. Lucy has a great voice and I loved the lo-fi raw sound to her synth accompanied set. The melodic counterpoints of the synth really set her voice off with real pizzazz. Next up was Quartermelon. I’d never seen this threesome before so didn’t know what to expect but they were bloody brilliant. From the off as they dealt adroitly and very wittily with technical difficulties you could tell that these forever smiling guys knew what they were doing. Quartermelon describe themselves as a ‘tropical trio from Oxfordshire. Singing songs about fornicating, dozing off and sailing.’ And they are full of intoxicating spangly indie goodness with each song tapping a rich vein of melodies that enters the earholes and never lets go. As you can probably tell, I was a bit blown away by these guys. The lead singer’s sweet falsetto accompanied by blasting guitar and drums really found a home in the part of my brain that liked what it was hearing. There was definitely not a single dull moment throughout the entire set and I expect these bunch of Oxford boys will be filling headline slots at many a venue in the coming months. And then we were on to Little Brother Eli. The reason that this particular Gappy Tooth gig was sold out. Just recently the Oxfordshire foursome had announced a slight change of direction from their funky blues rock beginnings with their new single ‘Tooth’. It still sounds like Little Brother Eli but the rock element is now enthused with disco, electro and hip-hop rhythms. And it works. I’ve seen lil’ brother before on several occasions but they’ve never sounded funkier than they do now. The room was pumping, popping, locking and jumping. Lead singer Alex can move. In fact his moves were so funky that they would even put Jay Kay from Jamiroquai to shame. Definitely one of the best frontmen I’ve seen. They’re a tight outfit those Little Brother Eli lads and really know a thing or two about showmanship. I’ve probably used the word ‘funky’ a few too many times already but it just sums up their music so well. It was a set that seemed to be made up of that funky bit in the Starsky and Hutch theme song. I kept expecting Huggy Bear to come on and start busting some moves. By the time they ended, having given us a real taste of their new music as well as a trip down memory lane with songs from their last album, Cold Tales, the crowd were left sweaty and spent. Great stuff. And they also do bloody good T-shirts. I should know. I bought two.    

  • REVIEW: Gappy Tooth brings out the funk with Little Brother Eli