This man needs no introduction – but there are a plethora of wonderful things to say about him – so introduce him we will.

Hailing from Manchester, Alabaster Deplume has become a pillar of the creative world we love in London, and an essential part of the Total Refreshment Centre.

His monthly residency concert, Peach, brought together his favourite musicians and friends, who jam out on their instruments, creating new material each time. At Peach, as with all his performances, Alabaster’s preference to perform in a circular set-up enhances the feeling of community and collaboration.

He released his latest LP Corner of a Sphere last year. Our favourite tracks include Be Nice to People and Is it Enough?

Alabaster is kind in spirit and generous in practice. In the words of the man himself: you’re doing very well. 

ALASKALASKA are an outlier.

In a culture where genre lines are increasingly blurred, the previously tribal worlds that divided music largely disbanded, the South London group, headed by Lucinda Duarte-Holman and Fraser Rieley, feel sent from a not-so- distant future – one where freeform expression trumps any need for categorisation.

ALASKALASKA make music to make out to, and then cry about. They’re in the marketplace, and sometimes in the mountains.

“Plenty of bands throw around the term “experimental pop,” but ALASKALASKA walks the walk” – Pitchfork

“Their mix of woozy, Arthur Russell-inspired music is instantly hypnotic” – FADER

“Melodies that hook into your brain with a definitive swoop” – Noisey

Alice Phoebe Lou’s fiercely independent approach to her music has given the singer songwriter a creative confidence that shines through in her captivating vocals and stripped back music.

Having developed her bluesy, folk sound busking on the streets of Berlin, Alice has caught the ears of a community of music lovers the world over with her honest storytelling and raw, beautiful voice.

‘Allysha’s presence lingered over the entire room as she performed with the elegance and substance of Erykah Badu… With a soul as big as her talent, it’ll not be long before the rest of the world is at her feet with us.’  The AU Review

Allysha Joy is best known for performing in Melbourne Hip Hop collective 30/70, and their success over the past few years lead her to further challenging her expression in a project of her own. Allysha is pushing boundaries as a keys player, poet, singer and producer, and released her first solo record Acadie : Raw in 2018 (hailed as ‘Album of the Week’ by Music is my Sanctuary).

Whether performing solo on Fender Rhodes or accompanied by her band, featuring members of 30/70, Allysha’s steady groove, husky vocal tone and unique style of writing emanates her own personal truth and powerful energy.

Allysha Joy has performed alongside acts such as Sampa the Great, Man Made Mountain, MKO and Simon Mavin, of Hiatus Kaiyote.

It was these words from Nina Simone – “I’ll tell you what freedom is to me, no fear” – that have both inspired and resonated with the life story and music of anaïs. Her new EP ‘Before Zero’ began life when anaïs was studying at NYU at their highly prestigious Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music where her friends and contemporaries were Arca and Gallant.

After moving to London in 2015 she began to make connections and further her music. In her captivating single Nina – an ode to one of her heroes, Nina Simone – a serpentine, Lauryn Hill-like vocal and melody are the bellows beneath a fiery lyric that takes as its inspiration from Simone’s statement. Alongside the exquisite Nina on the EP sit two more original tracks – Set In Stone and Window – as well as a wonderfully moving cover of Charles Aznavour’s La Mamma. All written and produced by anaïs herself, it’s a fiercely intelligent observation of the world from the perspective of a young black woman who’s traveled extensively and has no real place to call home.

Arlo Day is a young songwriter and guitarist from South-East London newly signed to Domino Records, whose unique ear for melody, haunting vocals and rumbling guitar tones have gained a quiet reputation as one of London’s best kept secrets. Having cut her teeth in the same burgeoning scene that gave rise to artists like King Krule, Jerkcurb and Puma Blue – as well as touring with bands like Whitney – she’s honed a distinctive song craft that feels timeless and truly her own.

Based in south east London, electronic musician Ben Hayes creates music somewhere between spiritual jazz, dance music, and experimental electronica. Lacing synthesisers and live instruments with found sounds, he expertly layers organic textures with punchy lopsided beats, whilst pulling out sounds of minute beauty that would otherwise pass us by.

Active in the bubbling south London scene, his work is interwoven into the sound of the area, having produced for Puma Blue, Poppy Ajudha, Oscar Jerome, Maisha and Carmody, collaborated with Nubya Garcia, Joe Armon-Jones and Maxwell Owin, and remixed Vök, Otzeki, Flamingods and SumoChief.

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Biig Piig is a once-seen-not-forgotten new talent who draws on a unique and diverse upbringing having been born in Ireland and moved to Spain (before relocating to London and working as a poker dealer).

Biig Piig has shown an innate gift for storytelling, sharing her intimate, affecting and often brutally frank vignettes on those first loves (and losses); of a young generation navigating their way through late-night city life; and in a sound that draws effortlessly from the worlds of hip-hop, jazz, poetry, soul and R&B. She writes songs about embracing who you are and what you want.

Biig Piig debuted her single “Vice City” on Colors Berlin and released her first EP ‘Big Fan of the Sesh’ in 2018, featuring members of London-based Nine8 Collective who she works closely with.

Brother’s Testament are a groove based jazz fusion band from London. Consisting of Mark Mollison, Hugo Piper, Jack Robson and Munashe-Caleb Manyumbu, their sound amalgamates powerful grooves and stirring melodies whilst also being rooted in the jazz tradition. Brother’s Testament perform from the heart and embrace improvisation, so that the set manifests organically on stage differently each time.

Brother’s Testament have already captivated audiences at Jazz Cafe (supporting Antonio Sanchez), London Jazz Festival under the #jazznewbloodALIVE2018 series, Vortex Jazz club (headline show), Wilderness Festival (in association with Jazz:refreshed) and Jazz FM’s Jazz in the Round.

CALM ROOTS will be a two hour meditative session, happening on Saturday morning in the Kite Bar. The session will be a wake-up experience like you’ve never had: you’re invited to come and get cosy, and drift away in an exploration of sound.

Cykada is an energetic bomb of unique style. It engages distant poles, analogue worlds crashing with electronics, eastern influences crossing with western, harmonising nostalgic moments with dancefloor bangers.

It seems that Western Africa is just bordering with Eastern Europe, where Turkish music high fives Flamenco and all of this is wrapped up with the fundamentals of the London club scene. There are so many inspirations that it may seem impossible to unite them, however they make it happen, creating layers of devastation, beauty and intrigue.

‘An ode to joy, a moment to celebrate growing up’ Gal Dem describe her single ‘Pray’.

duendita simply describes her sound as ‘folk music from Queens, New York’. She wants to create art that provokes listeners to express themselves and begin purposeful journeys. She is guided by her spirituality and a love for the human experience.

duendita has been featured by numerous outlets including The New York Times, Newsweek, GirlBoss, The Fader, Variety, and more. Her debut EP, ‘direct line to My Creator’ was released November 2018.

The Dylema Collective is a poetry-music project with sounds combining Neo-Soul, Contemporary Jazz and floaty R&B carefully blended with a cross-over of Funk, Latin and poly-rhythmic grooves and spoken-word poetry.

Thematically, their feminist poetry addresses head on matters of race, gender and individuality, values reiterated by the hidden message within their lead vocalist’s name’s acronym: “Do You. Let Every Man Adapt”. In short, they love sharing music and poetry that shakes the mind, soul and body.

After their wonderful performance in 2017, we’re welcoming back Equal Echo.

The duo is made up of Alex Harley & Hector Plimmer, who are not only are they musical partners, they are also best friends.

Our dear friend Hector Plimmer makes his own unique style of atmospheric, hypnotically rhythmic music. His debut record Sunshine was released last year to a phenomenal response – garnering support from Gilles Peterson, Lauren Laverne and Jamie Cullum on the radio with press features in Boiler Room, i-D and Fact Magazine among many others.

Vocalist Alexa Harley has already seen her collaborate with artists like Tom Misch, Hybrid Minds & Mt Wolf.

The pair initially started working together for a one off collaboration, but it soon became clear this would be more than just a feature project. For the last year and a half Harley & Hector have been meeting two days a week, almost every week, creating music that shares an equal input of musical ideas from one another. The amalgamation of styles & musical backgrounds blend together to make a sound unlike either Harley or Hector produce alone, whilst still retaining the best attributes from both.

Two glistening EPs (mixed and mastered by Albert’s Favourites Dave Koor) are the product of 2 years of studio collaboration and many more of friendship. Over the last two years the dynamic live show has been previewed at Archspace, Ghost Notes with their premier festival appearances at  Brainchild and Glastonbury Festivals. 

Collaborators Eriksson Kaner & Mom Tudie will be sharing brand new beats, live keys and production.

Eriksson Kaner and Mom Tudie joined us at our first ever DIGS party back in March and at that gig, they put together a set full of new material especially from us as it was the first live jazz gig Eriksson Kaner had played in quite a few years. We felt SO honoured to have been able to witness that magic between the two of them, that we’ve invited them to play at the festival.

The first Eriksson Kaner tune out in the world is Changed Beings: it’s epic, moving and gorgeous, and we listened to it almost every day through the start of this year! Combined with Mom Tudie’s brilliant production, we can’t wait to hear what these two go onto create.

If you haven’t already heard Changed Beings, this is highly recommended listening from us! For people who love everything from 4hero to Maisha – UK to the original days of Southpaw.

Fehdah is an eclectic songwriter who draws on her love of Wassoulou music in forging an entirely new take on electro-soul.

Following the success of her debut EP, “Like No Other”, Fehdah has shared the stage with grammy nominated artists such as Nai Palm at KOKO in London, Thundercat at Vicar Street in Dublin, Hiatus Kaiyote, Taylor McFerrin, Kamaal Williams with IAMDDB and Tank and the Bangas. She has since delved deeper in the direction of the title track of this EP, producing a pioneering sound that she describes as “Sahelian-Electrosoul”.

Her upcoming single, “Saharakungoh”, scheduled for release on Valentine’s Day, is a vocally rich, heavily syncopated and lyrically vulnerable love song. A new and cohesive moulding of contemporary electronic and traditional instrumentation which is aligned with today’s paradigm of the 21st century Afrofuturist.

Vocalist George Riley, beat-maker Oliver Palfreyman and drummer Eddie Amos are coming together at Brainchild 2019 to bring their brand-new experimental RnB. In their words, serving soulful spaceship vocals n baselines.

They performed at our first ever DIGS and totally blew us away, we can’t wait to come back for 2nds.

QTPOC & LGBTQ+ FOLX! ♥ 

Let’s Have a Kiki, London’s iconic ballroom party, is throwing a lil’ taster event for the Brainchild fam to close the Kite Bar on Saturday night of the festival and you’re all invited!

It will be THE MOMENT to throw down the moves you’ll have learnt earlier in the day at JayJay Revlon’s Voguing Fem Workshop.

If voguing is something you’ve always wanted to try, or you’d like to connect with the ballroom scene, then this is for you!

Levitation Orchestra exists as a platform for musicians of all walks of life to meet and create music collectively, responding to each other’s unique and personal vibrations.

The ensemble aims to raise up and support all involved, musician, audience, and future participants through this process of creating music free from market pressures and commercial ambitions. Each project involves creating new music, new themes, and a rotating personnel. The membership is currently drawn from the London scene, with directions in music from trumpeter, Axel Kaner-Lidstrom.

Lunch Money first met at a local library as part of a rapidly expanding philosophical reading group. Forming the cultural arm of the organisation were the musicians that would later be known as Lunch Money.

Soon becoming dissatisfied with the direction of the group, they split to form a purely musical cell, whose wordless communications would prove the most effective medium for their message.

(In their own words)

Lunch Money are not your standard band. Comprised of members of Touching Bass Church Of Sound and Total Refreshment Centre they make music with synths, live instrumentation including trombone, sax and whatever they have to hand – all generated with a bag of forward motion. It’s going to move you. It’s going to surprise you. It’s just…. Going.

With a family that hails from Iraq, Syria, Armenia, Algeria, France, Spain, India and Finland, Billie George grew up surrounded by a suite of cultural influences.

After three years studying anthropology at Oxford, she began to apply her nerdy inclinations and love of all things international to music. Completing the BWIM Mix Nights course gave her the tools to begin blending tracks from across the genres and continents, ultimately evolving into her self-described ‘erratic’ musical style.

She explores this in her show ‘Tapestry’, which you can catch between 1400-1500 on the 3rd Sunday of every month on Noods Radio,  a DIY radio station in Bristol.

To celebrate our fellow DIY community, we’ve asked Billie to come down from Bristol to bring the party for a final dance in the Kite Bar!

Coming back for a THIRD year, is the sensational and incomparable Penya. This time, we join forces under On the Corner, a Bristol-based independent label.

You might recognise their track Iyesa from our 2018 festival video.

Penya’s percussive wanderings in Cuba, Turkey, Morocco, Tanzania and India have garnered a tribal, alternative dance floor take on Afro-Latin rhythms, which was described on BBC 6 Music DJ Tom Robinson’s ‘Fresh On the Net’ site as a sound that “has been spun by an Afro-Jazz DJ at the end of a three day bender”.

Many of Penyas’ songs touch on ancient Afro-Cuban melodies sung by the band’s multi-instrumentalist / vocalist Lilli Elina, whilst other tracks are wide open electronic groove scapes that draw on percussion don Jim Le Ms experiences as a ceremonial Bata drummer. Viva Msimang’s dubbed-out trombone improvisations, percussion and backing vocal contributions complete the Penya soundscape.

Penyas’ releases have been hailed by Gilles Peterson, Tom Ravenscroft, (BBC 6 music), Bonobo, Photay, Jordan Rakei, Worldwide FM, BBC Radio 3 Late Junction, Boiler Room, Khalab, and NTS.

Plumm is a London-based vocalist, instrumentalist and producer. Her dark, jazzy vocals are a distinctive feature of her unique sound, which is both gritty and evocative.

With her newly released EP entitled The Shed, Plumm’s influence from strong female jazz greats of the past, is married with an eclecticism in production and inspiration. The outcome is an eccentric sound, which is accentuated by the Plumm band when they perform live – bringing a whole new beautiful and ethereal dimension. 

Plumm trained in Jazz at the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy along with a degree in Ethnomusicology at SOAS, specialising in North Indian Classical music.

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PYJAEN was born when a barista misspelled the name of band member Dylan Jones on a coffee cup at Brainchild Festival in 2017. From that moment, PYJAEN became an alter ego, giving rise to a new form of limitless expression explored through jazz performance, animation and graphic art.

More than a quintet, PYJAEN is the unified expression of the emotions, journeys and influences that comprise its diverse members. Described by Jazz Wise Review as having “a groove propelled with dynamism and formidable technique”, PYJAEN seamlessly melds funk, afro-beat and contemporary sounds with nods to hip-hop and disco, whilst acknowledging the traditional era of 1920s jazz and dance music.

London based trombonist and composer Rosie Turton is one of the up and coming voices on the UK jazz scene. Expressing herself through a variety of different musical outlets, from composing and playing with septet Nerija (Domino Recording Co), Sun Ra space influenced Where Pathways Meet to recording with Jitwam and Hollie Cook.

After exploring the eclectic music scenes of London and New York to the Himalayas of India, Rosie’s ‘5ives’ release with Jazz Re:Freshed showcases her individual and unique voice as a performer, composer and producer.

SAUL is a collaborative project between Vels Trio’s keys wizard Jack Stephenson-Oliver and YAM Records producer & DJ Footshooter. Blending intergalactic synths + floating keys with lean, broken rhythms and dub FX, SAUL have a first taste of their music dropping later this year featuring some very exciting collaborations.

Sawa-Manga is the creative child of beat wizard D’Vo and vocalist/poet And Is Phi, joined by a string section comprised of Maria Osuchowska on Harp, Mark Mollison on Electric Guitar, and Saskia Horton on Electric Violin. It is an exploration of musical landscapes, deep sea diving into liminal places for storytelling. It is sway, funk, blue flame. It is an ethereal electronic driven exploration rooted in a fusion of hip hop, r&b, soul and jazz.

We are very excited to announce a new act coming into the Brainchild fold: Sharky! We discovered her via a video of her singing in the bath, and haven’t been able to stop singing since.

Unlike anything we’ve ever heard before, Sharky’s voice acts almost like its own instrument as her vocals slide from one syllable and word to the next, creating a silky and smooth melodic line.

Her vulnerability is disarming, but when paired with the accomplished jazz, funk & soul​ ​influenced musical backdrop the result is overwhelmingly powerful, and you’ve got no choice but to surrender yourself to your new ear-worm.

We’ve been playing her EP He Burned Down the City back to back, and couldn’t recommend more that you do too – let it grow on ya & get ready to fall head over heels.

The Spa Day boys have been at the helm of some of East London’s finest parties over the last few years and never fail to deliver. No matter matter the time no matter the place they will be sure to have you wiggling!

Catch em in first thing in the morning opening up the Brainstage, and for your last dance of the day, taking over the silent disco!

Steam Down is an artist collective, weekly event and music community based in Deptford, South-East London.

Founded by Ahnanse in May 2017, Steam Down is comprised of Alex Rita, Brother Portrait, Sawa Manga, Theon Cross, Nadeem, Benjamin Appiah, Dominic Canning and Nache. Their weekly sessions are a magical explosion of Afrofuturism, grime and future soul, fused together with the spontaneity of jazz.

Previously having had guest appearances from the likes of Kamasi Washington, Sampa The Great, Nubya Garcia and Sons of Kemet, these exuberant congregations are an immersive musical experience for audiences, where healing vibes and compulsive dancing are just as important as the music.

Touching Bass return to the Kite Bar with head honcho, Errol, this time joined by fellow soulstranaut, Sammseed. Last year’s nighttime session (which saw Errol going back to back with Alex Rita) was full of buoyant, genre-hopping goodness, so expect the same this time round.

For the unacquainted, Touching Bass is the South London-based movement who hold down a biweekly NTS Radio slot, an innovative discussion/live music series called Speaking In Sound and a regular monthly dance among other creative endeavours. Music to make you think and feel.

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Based in South London, Woom weave music of sparse, melancholic beauty from a refreshing set up of rare restraint. Just four voices and some carefully deployed guitar are all that’s needed to create a fluid and uplifting sound, full of expertly constructed vocal harmony and musical togetherness.

Their first ever gig was at Brainchild 2017, and now we can’t imagine the festival without them.

Woom are a four-piece choir, with a repertoire of covers which each gives the original a run for its money; from Frank Ocean to Patsy Cline and everything in-between.

‘Their vocal harmonies, artisanal in their construction, are fluid, spiralling things, and their knack for an effective melodic left-turn is stunning.’ Loud & Quiet

Draped in a funk nostalgia, Berlin five-piece Young Yosef preview their debut LP.

Harking back to the iconic all-night parties in the Studio 54 golden age, the group are injecting a healthy dose of glitter and spandex into the Berlin scene.

Whilst, growing up in South East Israel, the group bonded over a joint love for all things creative, spending their formative years experimenting with bedroom recordings, visual art and acting; creating the basis for what is now Young Yosef. Their tight-knit bond was formed whilst touring together with dozens of bands and living under the same roof, and has resulted in a charismatic and witty project that exudes spirit and enjoyment. Besides the fun and the infectious funky lines, Young Yosef‘ can also be viewed as an attempt to redefine masculinity.

Consisting of: E.B Kush (vocals), Daklis (bass), Meanass 08 (guitar), G-goy(keyboards) and Steve Yamin (drums), Young Yosef is inspired by soul J-Pop and 70s disco and their debut album is the perfect introduction to their fun personas.

Check out their funky track Bruce Lee to get a flavour of what’s to come!