A curious thing happened on Brighton Beach in July 2002 as thousands people gathered to see Fat Boy Slim strut his stuff. Among them was Eamon Hamilton, bassist with emerging indie pop band The British Sea Power.

The moment lives long in the memory of Hamilton neither for the sheer scale of the seaside dance music event nor for the fact that a young fan met an untimely demise as a result of some unfortunate goings-on that evening. Rather, Eamon Hamilton readily recounts the symbolism of a night that saw him depart the beach, somewhat prematurely and certainly under-whelmed, for the confines of a little pub on the hill just up the road. There, in the tiny backroom of The Freebutt Hotel, Hamilton joined fewer than sixty people who were blissfully gyrating to the hillbilly rock of ‘80s Matchbox B-line Disaster. “At exactly the same time and in this little pub it felt just like the future; sixty people were going crazy to ‘80s Matchbox whereas on the beach there were 200000 people kind of dancing on the grave of dance music,” Hamilton recounts.

Roll forward, July 2005. A village field somewhere near Oxford. Precocious young blighters muck about and bask in the summer sun. A local vicar serves ice cream and the village’s plump lady publican pumps pints from a makeshift beer hall. Were it not for the slightly swollen numbers and the “mental” rock bands flailing away in the background, it would be typical English fair on any given summer weekend. But, on this occasion it’s Oxford’s Truck Festival and one of the mental bands is The Brakes who are a few days into the release of their debut long player Give Blood. They seem to impress the young ‘uns no-end and signature tunes from the new release like All Night Disco Party, in particular, strike a chord.

Who are The Brakes you ask? Try English ‘supergroup’ comprising Eamon Hamilton (still also of British Sea Power fame), Tom and Alex White from The Electric Soft Parade and Marc Beatty of The Tenderfoot. That’s right, a bona-fide rock supergroup who just happen to be from Brighton. The future is now and corporate dance music in Brighton is in no danger whatsoever of exhumation at the hands of neither Brightonians nor Englanders in general if Mr Hamilton and The Brakes and The Truck Festival respectively are any guide.

The Brakes are but one of an ever-bulging roster of bands that have emerged from the seaside town of Brighton in the years succeeding the Fat Boy Slim extravaganzas. It was, for the likes of Eamon Hamilton and his merries, precisely the ‘Slim’ era that bonded-together local musos who drew inspiration from the 80s Matchbox’s and Jesus and Mary Chains rather than the current musical order. Hamilton recalls, “It was a huge thing, Fat Boy Slim ‘n all. He kind of ruled Brighton and all of Brighton output for years, but at the same time there was loads of bands going on. And because there was no exposure for the bands I think it bonded us all quite tightly. A good twenty or so bands kicking around playing to, well, each other. Those sort of things bond you as a community.”

Small wonder then when The Electric Soft Parade were signed to a major, a number of the other promising locals were inspired to step-up and get themselves sorted as well. “Brighton’s (bands) are really supportive of each other. “No-one’s really copying each other. We just inspire each other I suppose.” No surprises also that the communal nature of the Brighton scene would ultimately spawn collaborations of some note. The Brakes were conceived when some of Brighton’s finest intermingled – usually down at The Freebutt – cranked out a tune or two and eventually laid something down under the new moniker.

Give Blood out on Rough Trade Records is an album that wears its influences and motives on its sleeve. From country to punk to lovely, melodic guitar riffery, the album covers some terrain. There are covers of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Sometimes Always and Nancy Sinatra’s Jackson. And at various times, Give Blood sends forth even more local British with guests from the likes of the Pipettes [think “The Ronettes meets Bikini Kill”], Leila Moss (from The Duke Spirit) and Matt Eaton. The album lasts just a little over half an hour and some songs for only a few seconds The sound is alive, the songs energetic and, you get the feeling, pretty spontaneous. It gives you an impression of a band that doesn’t take itself too seriously. “The free spirit’s kind of captured people a bit” enthuses Hamilton. “People seem to be understanding it and liking it. It’s very much like our live sound where we tweak the bass and rock out a bit more but that’s about all. People are moving to the songs and it’s the best thing in the world to see.”

The organic sound is surely indicative of its recording process. The album was recorded in about five days at Metropolis Studio One under the watchful eye of young-gun Iain Gore. “You listen to bands from the old times and they sound amazing”, says Hamilton, “I think that their recordings have a kind of magic quality about them and we felt that this had a lot to do with tape”. “So when we booked the studio we said to Iain the only thing we really want is to record straight to tape. Luckily he believed in us, that we could do it. We’re really proud of it and at least proved to ourselves that a modern band can do it this way.”

Indeed, Eamon Hamilton was “really happy” with the whole album but reserves special praise for seven second power romp comma, comma, comma full stop. “I think it was pretty good because, I had the lyrics and a bit of the tune but Tom rearranged it and put a couple more cords in it so I think it got like four chords in it in five seconds so quite pleased with that really.”

The press notes talk of Give Blood as the sound of four friends playing music in a room. It’s not far off the mark. Moreover, interviewing Eamon Hamilton is like chatting with a good mate. The album makes you want to be there with them and you kind of feel you are. Speaking of which, maybe we can be. Soon. According to Hamilton, The Brakes are hoping to come out to Australia in December or January, ”...it would be a dream come true really”. “There’s talk of British Sea Power coming out as well so maybe the both of us together. We’ll see what happens.” I’m sure we will. On the back of Give Blood, The Brakes will definitely make a splash over the next few months and their appearance here will be greatly anticipated.