"It's the Marmite effect," says Phil Ryan, "You'll either love them or hate them."

The co-owner of The Brunswick is describing Led Bib, the latest in a line of acclaimed experimental jazz musicians to play the venue.

Led by New Jersey-born drummer/ composer Mark Holub, the East London five-piece take their eccentric name from the protective garment used by dentists when X-raying patients.

Melding a Clash-esque punk sensibility with noodly saxophone and bursts of frenzied sound, they have been described variously as "death-jazz" and "jazz-rock."

Holub says this is a lazy attempt to label them."I see it more as a continuation of jazz, and jazz being exposed to other influences, as it's always been," he says, "It's just perhaps not what you think of as jazz, with big band and so on. "I think people who are into rock are more interested in us than what they would perceive as a normal jazz group, but we appeal to jazz people too."

In 2005, they won the Peter Whittingham Jazz Award, while earlier this year, The Observer placed them at number 16 in its list of 25 Acts You Must See This Summer, ahead of bands such as the Arctic Monkeys and White Stripes.

"It's been good," Holub says of their successes. "We can get some better gigs then we got before and it's really nice.

"We just hope people like it and it reaches them in some way."

Their booking at The Brunswick follows performances by Mercury-winners Polar Bear, who, like Led Bib, are signed to the Babel record label, and singer/songwriter Gwyneth Herbert, whose album, Between Me and the Wardrobe, was produced by Polar Bear's Seb Rochford.

Both acts proved something of a coup for The Brunswick, which only launched its Tomorrow Is The Question jazz nights earlier this year.

Ryan says: "There's an experimental jazz club in London called The Vortex and an agent approached us wondering if there was an opening down here for a similar thing.

"Brighton Jazz Club books big acts but is not so interested in this sort of thing and we thought there was a gap we could fill.

"The night is basically for any jazz musicians who are experimental or avant garde. It attracts quite a different crowd to the usual jazz audience and the gigs are normally packed."

Ryan and business partner Jim Osler bought the former sports pub, which dates from the Thirties, last summer and have since relaunched it as a music and arts venue, with a bar, private conference rooms and 150-capacity gig space.

In addition to jazz nights, the pair put on local bands, open mic nights and are soon to launch a talent show compered by Hove-based comic Mark Little.

While Osler has a background in the pub trade, Ryan used to work in finance and says it has been something of a learning curve.

"We're enthusiasts really. I'm a musician and we're both into lots of different kinds of music but we've built this up from scratch, learning as we go.

"We thought this place needed a reason for people to come here and that reason is music. We're into that in a big way."

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