LIVE REVIEW – NIA ARCHIVES: THE WHITE HOTEL – 17/07/2026

Rave culture was never built for daylight. It belongs beneath railway arches, inside abandoned warehouses and in the forgotten shells of Britain’s industrial past, where concrete sweats and basslines rattle rusted steel. At Nia Archives’ DJ set in Manchester, the dancefloor remains a place of escape, expression and relentless bass-driven community. But first, give way […]
Spearmint serves as a great example of the value of fierce independence. All eleven albums from their 1999 debut LP onwards have been released on their own hitBACK label, allowing the band to develop their own distinctive niche in which storytelling is paramount. There is an instantly recognisable quality to their music which is pop-focused […]

ALBUM REVIEW – SPEARMINT: CHASE ME

ALBUM REVIEW – NIA ARCHIVES: EMOTIONAL JUNGLIST

It got to a point where anytime I’d turn on the radio and a song came on that I liked, it was by Bradford-born Nia Archives. A quick listen to 2024’s Silence Is Loud and I realise that radio was right: this is an artist who absolutely needs to be heard. And we’re not the […]
Gracie Abrams has become one of modern pop’s defining voices, celebrated for her intimate songwriting and emotionally honest lyricism. Beginning to write songs at just eight years old, Abrams draws inspiration from artists including Joni Mitchell, Elliott Smith, Bon Iver, Phoebe Bridgers and Taylor Swift, shaping her reflective and diaristic approach to music. Since releasing […]

ALBUM REVIEW – GRACIE ABRAMS: DAUGHTER FROM HELL

ALBUM REVIEW – PROTEST THE HERO: WITHIN

Pop punk and progressive metal should, in theory, never be mixed. Some bands form to change things though, and that is exactly the case with Protest The Hero. This Canadian band has never shone away from pushing musical boundaries, and on Within, their first fully independent release, this could not be more obvious. Most importantly, […]
It’s not often that a name and description catch your eye that you can’t help but delve into and immerse yourself and that exactly what happened once I saw Nao Yoshioka. Japanese born and raised Nao Yoshioka embodies what soul is not being held back by expectations and labels. Traditional and contemporary are blended to […]

ALBUM REVIEW – NAO YOSHIOKA: SELF

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 17 JULY 2026

Yard Act             You’re Gonna Need A Little Music       Weirdly, for a band so associated with incendiary live shows and constant touring, their third LP marks the first time that the quartet have ever made an album together, as a live band in the same room. Tricky                  Different When It’s Silent         Across fourteen tracks, Tricky […]
It is 31 years since the release of ‘Maxinquaye’, Tricky’s debut album. Although it was bunched as part of the trip-hop wave, there was something more elemental, almost brutal about the record that made it distinct. ‘Different When It’s Silent’ is his first solo album in six years, although in the intervening years he has […]

ALBUM REVIEW – TRICKY: DIFFERENT WHEN IT’S SILENT

ALBUM REVIEW – CINDER WELL: A BLOOMING BODY

Like many others, my introduction to Cinder Well came courtesy of the soundtrack and theme tune to this year’s best television series so far, Small Prophets. In common with Mackenzie Crook’s previous gem, Detectorists, which had musical decoration from The Unthanks and Johnny Flynn, the programme continues his signature of using eery, folk-leaning music to […]
Any other day, Manchester Club Academy is a cozy and intimate venue which I have enjoyed many gigs at over time- however, during the insane heatwave that occurred over this weekend, the heat had me feeling more like I was in a hellish chamber rather than its usual charismatic standard. Needless to say, it was […]

LIVE REVIEW – ALEXANDRA SAVIOR + FLORENCE ROSE BROOMFIELD: MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY – 10/07/2026