Yes indeed, as we posted yesterday, the weekend saw this year’s Great Escape festival take over the seaside town of Brighton on England’s south coast for the U.K.’s answer to SXSW. Brighton is an arty, left-leaning place, where Londoners flock at the merest hint of sunshine. Predictably, it was chilly all weekend, with gusting winds and crashing waves, but there was a fine spread of talent on offer—including NYC acts Vivian Girls, Leona Naess (who sang us two of her lovely songs, here) and Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. We thought Robinson’s loud, sweaty set was ace: Check out “Buriedfed” below. And after the jump, TONY’s Great Escape highlights.

A pub on the end of Brighton pier hosted a showcase of four bands from India, who have just made an album with superproducer John Leckie (the dude behind Radiohead’s The Bends, the Stone Roses album, George Harrison, Pink Floyd and so on). The album, Soundpad, came about as part of an initiative from the British Council (boring name, amazing U.K. arts organization), wherein Leckie traveled to India and held open auditions; the bands he picked each got a couple of days in the studio to record songs for the album. I was lucky enough to watch the bands record with Leckie in a Mumbai studio last fall for a feature, here. Suffice to say, the bands rocked. Mumbai trio Medusa aired its deliciously woozy electro beats, and Bangalore band Swarathma (now signed to Virgin) even managed to get 60 or so random drinkers in the pub singing along to Hindi lyrics; “It just translates as ‘peace and love,’” grinned the bassist afterward.

Vivian Girls played to a packed crowd, a fair number of whom were wearing Jesus and Mary Chain/My Bloody Valentine T-shirts. For a no-frills trio, the girls make a mighty loud, thick noise, which sounds great on the initial blast, even if it does drag a little after a while.

Brit folksters Noah and the Whale were founding members of the London scene that spawned Laura Marling and Mumford and Sons—and the Great Escape found the band in full Dylan-goes-electric mode, the once-perky outfit launching into gnarly songs about a broken relationship, delivered fully plugged in. It was kind of great, but a little strange when at the end, Noah & Co. launched into last year’s jolly summertime hit, “Five Years Time.” At this point, downcast singer Charlie Fink had the pained expression of someone forced to read their own ransom note, the rest of the band chanting about “Sun, sun, sun!” and “Love, love, love!”

The last word goes to Japan. A showcase of four Japanese bands pretty much raised the roof at the normally staid conference center—Tokyo group Natccu meshes the shouty thrills of Riot Grrrl with something far more febrile. If that’s your thing, check ‘em out here.