Brighten The Corners, Ipswich • Festivals • DIY Magazine

In only its second year, Brighten The Corners has already established itself as a jewel in the city festival calendar. Priding itself on bringing the best new bands from the UK and abroad to vibrate the city’s grassroots venues, an emphasis is placed too on fostering local creative communities. A free outdoor stage at the Cornhill - co-produced by young people from the Tune Up course - showcases exclusively local artists, whose sounds can be heard ringing all throughout the city centre. Enjoying a pint in the sun in the shadow of town hall is the perfect way to ease yourself into the weekend.

Kicking things off on the Friday within the medieval architecture of St. Stephen’s Church (winner of the Toilet of The Year award, the festival proudly boasts in their programme), are Cambridge spell-binders UGLY. Animating the wooden vaults above with their enchanting blend of ecstatic vocal harmonies and spidery folk-rock, the band air a couple of cuts from their debut EP ‘Twice Around The Sun’, but most of the set previews unreleased material, which sounds as richly textured and ornate as the old.

Then, we move from those pastoral charms to the cold shivers of Leeds’ HONESTY. Veiling their stage at The Baths is a projection screen strobing through a host of urban images, overlain by song lyrics like some kind of dystopian karaoke. As the band themselves remain anonymous, their music lives and breathes on their behalf; it’s an exquisite corpse of experimental trip-hop, R&B and electro-rock as broad and winding as the cities that are visualised.

Following them are Crewe emo-punks UNIVERSITY. A bombast of angst and power, the quartet offer a frighteningly moving glimpse into the recesses of oblivion, each member pounding their instrument to within an inch of its robust life. Speaking of the "quartet", the band’s "frontman" simply sits at the front of the stage in a balaclava, swigging from a bottle of Tesco's Zesty White, eating a chicken burger, all while playing Manhunt on the PS2 - really. Requests, therefore, aren't for specific songs, but instead for vintage video games.

A fittingly jubilant headline to the Friday night, within the grandiloquence of the Corn Exchange are Afro-futurists Ibibio Sound Machine. The levels of funk are off the charts as an array of glitter, sunglasses and smiles roll out kick-ass bass lines, horn blasts and triumphant melodies that the dancing masses holler back dutifully.

Onto Saturday and the crowd at The Baths are eagerly expectant for Man/Woman/Chainsaw's set. With scarce recorded output to speak of - and excitement bred through word of mouth alone - their set does a good job of rising to the growing hype: violins soar and guitars wail across a ballsy, exuberant half an hour of unpredictable avant-punk glory. Bringing the vibes into calmer waters, there are queues outside the door for London alt indie-folk darlings Tapir!. Sadly forced to battle through myriad technical issues, St. Stephens nonetheless shimmers with a bucolic majesty as the band recite precious cuts from their debut album, 'The Pilgrim, Their God, and The King of My Decrepit Mountain'.

Swapping onto the main stage last minute after a 'transport breakdown' from Chartreuse are Nottingham's Divorce, whose lilting, twanging brand of heartfelt, country tinged indie-rock feels suitably grand whilst echoing through the Corn Exchange Halls. Their epic ballads, passionate vocals and squalling bottle-neck guitar slides leave the maudlin audience suitably touched and tear-swept.

Barging rudely in their wake, like a stampede of bulls in the land of China shops are punk-rockers Lambrini Girls. A thunderfuck of infernal bass fuzz, fearless crowd invasions, and wall-to-wall punk-rock thrills, the trio unleash an exhilarating, politically charged performance: addressing gay pride, sexual violence, Palestine, the police and the general election, it's an inspiring call to action, and outrageous bloody fun.

A trip to The Smokehouse - a tiny 70 cap venue on the outskirts of the centre - offers one of the festival’s true delights, and it's there where London risers Ebbb provide one of the weekend’s most bewildering and astonishing spectacles. In the most intimate of spaces, and at near-deafening volumes, the trio eclectically merge sweet vocal melodies and glitching electronics, with drums so violent and relentless that they might have Thor’s hammers striking them. Their names adorn many a festival bill this summer, and as the dedicated dancers in the crowd will likely now attest, they are well worth catching if you can.

"Have you been reaching climax with the joy of life? If not, there's still time," come Charlie Steen's risible words of encouragement, in a fitting introduction to the weekend's last hurrah. Somehow their first gig in Ipswich, Shame deliver a career-spanning set, featuring long-time favourites ‘Concrete’ and ‘One Rizla’ to cuts from last year’s 'Food For Worms' LP, plus some hints at album four. With a stage dive or three, and a maniac, front-flipping bass player, it’s an hour of gloriously defiant indie-rock, of which Shame are still undisputed masters.