For volume 1, the participating bands have nominated the Arthur Rank Hospice, which is dedicated to providing specialist palliative care and support to adult patients and their family, friends and carers.

The diversity of the music on this first volume is impressive, covering rock, hip hop, folk, indie, punk, psychedelia, pop, jazz, Americana, garage and electronica with nods to all eras of popular and contemporary music. Artists range from those in the first flush of youth and already developing sounds that bode well for the future to more experienced souls continually developing their craft.

For around the price of a couple of pints you can have a lasting legacy of the flourishing scene in a City as diverse and thrilling as the music it has inspired, while at the same time providing some much needed funds for a very deserving local charity.

Trick Bird

Trick Bird is a solo musician from Cambridge called Dominic Kershaw. The sound is influenced by the likes of Teenage Fanclub and Sparklehorse. There is a 5 track EP released last year available.

 

 

All We Earthlings

All We Earthlings are a 4-piece alternative rock band formed in Cambridge in late 2013. Taking influence from bands such as A Perfect Circle, Failure, Queens of the Stone Age and Reuben, they create songs that fuse huge melodies with an atmospheric sound and intricate structures to create brooding, emotional music. Pete Archer – drums, Thomas Mehrer – lead guitar, Sandy Mill – vocals, guitar, and Marek Szecówka – bass.

Broadway Danny Rose

Swing from playing Hawaiian tinged ukulele beach pop with a soupçon of Jaques Brel to vividly cinematic instrumental pieces. Their gentle vocals can be as romantic as their song titles, “Beating Hearts of Birds”, “The Vampire from Bordeaux”, and their rhythmic riffs can be a fun as the attempts of a hapless talent agent to reconcile a lounge singer with his mistress, as he is mistaken for her lover by a jealous gangster- Joe Bell, James Tyrrell, Dale Suttle, Tim Hillary Court. Facebook

I Strip For Couples

Jay Williams (ex The Broken Family Band) calls on a life time of influences, delving into a bucket list of musical ambitions, effortlessly fusing indie rock, rap, alt country, orchestral strings, brass and opera, with more surprises in store; ‘there’s no holds barred, no compromises made.’  He called on the help of a bunch of Cambridge musician friends to get his compositions out there, and then, I Strip For Couples was born….

Black Buttercups

Gary O’Connor, David Middle and Gavin Langford are members of a family of UK musicians that since the 1980s have, and continue to, work together across a number of bands and musical projects including 13th Chime, Long Bone Trio, Clydes Gang, Final Scream and Vanishing Point. The track 209 is from the Black Buttercups album: You’re So Bony… But You’re My One And Only”. It boasts a fusion of dark melodic rock ‘n’ roll and surreal macabre narratives.

The Seven Twenty

The Seven Twenty are an indie rock band comprising James Burling (singer, songwriter, guitarist), Stewart Harris (bassist), Geoff Hinkins (keys) and Helen Robertson (drums).

Following the release of a 5 track demo CD in 2014, The Seven Twenty came to the attention of infamous American magazine “The Village Voice” who called the tracks “beautiful lo-fi genius”, and the band subsequently received national airplay in the US followed by a short sold out tour of venues in New York. Their award winning debut album is available now on Castles in Space records.

Garuda

Garuda – Noisy tunes about pub brawls, the Riemann hypothesis, colonialism and The Incredible Hulk, from Cambridge and London, UK.

Motor Tapes

Motor Tapes are an alternative pop three-piece from Cambridge. Lee, Dominic, and Paul describe their output as a “tuneful noise”, influenced by the likes of the Dandy Warhols, Franz Ferdinand, New Order and Primal Scream. They are a band of light and shade, edgy guitar effects and bold blocks of sound.

Keltrix

The award winning Keltrix presents Keltrix Remix. Their live shows are an eclectic mix of foot-stomping electro folk, interwoven with ambient, acoustic moments and others of infectious beats. These impressive shows have led to the group supporting the likes of Dreadzone, Alabama3, The Levellers and The Wonderstuff, as well as playing festival slots at Bestival and The Secret Garden Party, Boomtown Fayre amongst others

3 Screaming Popes

Three piece wake up a quiet corner of sleepy Suffolk with riffs, changing time signatures and the kitchen sink.  Three Screaming Popes are a three piece (none of them are Popes, though they may occasionally scream) from Suffolk who have been quietly recording and self-releasing albums from the studio owned by singer/guitarist/composer Tim Pannell, along with bass player/keyboard player Steve Hewes and drummer/percussionist Martin Everett.

Bouquet of Dead Crows

Formed in 2013, Bouquet of Dead Crows are a female-fronted alternative Rock/Pop band from Cambridge that combines big riffs with big melodies. The Band released their debut album ‘Of The Night’ on German Shepherd Records at the end of 2015, which was recorded at the Parlour Recording Studio (Evil Scarecrow, Napalm Death, Evile) in Kettering

Eil Marchini

At only 21-years-old Eil effortlessly masters the acoustic guitar and intertwines genres such as psychedelic rock, reggae, blues and soft rock. With influences such as Jimi Hendrix and John Butler Trio, Eil’s sound is nothing more than infectious. Eil is gearing up to release his first album ‘Smile,’ which is 10 tracks deep and was recorded in part in Italy due to drop later this year.

Datum Plane

Datum Plane are a four-piece acoustic rock band formed in 2014 whist front men Andy and Liam were studying in a developmental disabilities research group at Cambridge University. Now two years on and two PHD’s later Datum Plane have released their 2nd EP ‘Show Me the Way from which Lighthouse was their debut single.

Pete Newman Clarinet Project

Pete Newman has been active as a clarinettist/saxophonist on the Cambridge band scene for the last 25 years, as well as performing nationally and internationally. His jazz/funk/world album “Time for Your Bathysphere” explores the use of clarinets in unexpected contexts, featuring his distinctive approach to the clarinet (and contra-alto clarinet) on his own compositions.

Lizard Brain

Lizard Brain – Sometimes poppy, sometimes not; Never in one place long; each one different from the last.. Let us know what you think and it’s great if you can share – it’s hard to be heard out there.

The Scissors

Swirling keyboard-fuelled psychpop with horrorshow freakbeat guitars and new wave post-punk basslines. German Shepherd recording artists and winners of all sorts of accolades for their sophomore album “Haunted Mirror” The Scissors are a must see live band with a unique and compelling sound.

Model Village

Formed in the summer of 2008, Model Village write songs that are confident, mature and utterly memorable at their core. The band’s mix of jangly guitars, boy-girl harmonies, upbeat melodies and downbeat lyrics sit somewhere in the niche between Belle & Sebastian and The Promise Ring, if reviewers are to be believed.

The group has seen a bunch of line-up changes over the years, drawing in people with backgrounds in a whole bunch of different bands, including Econoline, Owl & Mouse, Hey Colossus, Fuzzy Lights, and Reynolds. Their records have been repeatedly played across 6Music programmes, including by Gideon Coe and Steve Lamacq, as well as by John Kennedy on XFM. The group have played gigs with The Lemonheads, Allo Darlin’, Jeffrey Lewis, Half Man Half Biscuit, The Wave Pictures, Adam Green, and Slow Club, appeared twice at Daylight Music at London’s Union Chapel, and featured on the main stage at the Indietracks festival.

Umbrella Assassins

We have been the band- Umbrella Assassins for ten years now, many things have changed in that time…..crocs are this season…s must have and slugs have taken over the world. But some things remain consistent, the absolute need to make music means that where most bands may have sucked off popular culture or just simply called it a day, we just cant seem to do it. Its a sacred thing music, you see. After the release of our latest in the long line of records ‘Build a berk’ we set ourselves a personal schedule of diy recording, hoping to release a single a month for as long as we can, the second of these singles and Novembers song ‘Chicken’ finds us in a strange mood, where we lost all sense of what lies in wait, out in the real world. Enjoy.

Gavin Chappell Bates

Gavin Chappell-Bates is a singer, guitarist, songwriter and live looper from Cambridgeshire, England performing ‘effervescent emotive yin / yang indie-pop-rock’. Having lived with, and overcome, depression, anxiety and self-harm, Gavin writes music which is insightful, thoughtful, heartfelt and uplifting. Music kept Gavin alive through dark times and he wants to share this positivity, and raise awareness about mental health in the process, with the world. He sings songs about rock ‘n’ roll, growing up, politics, suicide, love, hope and determination.