Oddfellow’s Casino

From: Brighton

Influences: Soft Machine, Talk Talk, Ivor Cutler, Midlake, Red House Painters, Bon Iver, Mice Parade, Sigur Ros, Caravan, Wicker Man, Fourtet, Efterklang, Tunng, the open road, fish and chips, seances, Radio 4, John Shuttleworth.

Profile: As convenor of debating society The Catalyst Club, writer of the city’s Cheeky Guide and star of award-winning Fringe shows The Haunted Moustache and The Number 9 Bus To Utopia, Dr David Bramwell’s influence on Brighton’s arts scene is wide.

Oddfellow’s Casino is his outlet for his first love: music.

The band has released a series of albums and EPs over the past nine years, which have received favourable comparisions to Elbow and Sufjan Stevens by the likes of Uncut and The Sunday Times.

This week sees the launch of the long-awaited third album The Raven’s Empire, on Nightjar Records, songs from which were first unveiled with a performance in Brighton’s St George’s Church alongside the Brighton And Hove Concert Band back in 2009.

For the album Bramwell’s eight-piece band has teamed up with producer/composer Andrew Phillips from Grasscut, along with the 30-piece concert band.

The themes of the album, of hauntings, family ghost stories and strange experiences, were inspired by the death of Bramwell’s artist friend Greg Daville, for whom the track The Day The Devil Slipped Away was penned.

Along the way there are alien landings in Welsh villages, a plea from the hunted to the hunter, and a song inspired by a 100-word Jean Cocteau ghost story.

This week’s Download is a track that didn’t make it on to the finished album, about a Brighton murder that took place a few years ago, and a strange one-night stand Bramwell once had.

Murder (right click on the track to download, left click to stream)

Website: oddfellowscasino.co.uk

MySpace: www.myspace.com/oddfellowscasino

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Oddfellows-Casino/

Email: info@oddfellowscasino.com