– Soup, Manchester – Imagine one of those coming of age dramas beloved of streaming services delivering endless content to the kids. You know the ones, featuring an eclectic cast of misfits who over the course of eight episodes manage to steal your heart and really make you care about their trivial day to day […]
Psychedelia at its best is a kaleidoscopic delight that can transport fans to places deep within the imagination. Of course, often it proves little more than an excuse to grow your hair and indulge in interminable heavy guitar riffs or, at the opposite pole, excessive whimsy. Fortunately, while Kikagaku Moyo definitely fit the hirsute tendencies […]
When you hear that the album you’ll be listening to is called ‘Unsoothing Interior,’ it’s safe to say don’t expect an atmosphere akin to a chamomile tea and a sit-down. Vero has very different ideas on their debut project, which has a lot to say about the chaotic nature of their twenties and evokes the […]
– Gorilla, Manchester – I know a grand total of one Mattiel song, yet here am. At Gorilla, watching Mattiel. It’s exactly 15 minutes until the doors open and there’s one, two, three. Three of us in the queue. This initial lack of people makes me nervous but hey, at least I’ll be able to […]
– Yes Basement, Manchester – “Does anyone have any questions or concerns?” Tomberlin, or Sarah Beth Tomberlin, to give her full name, asks us as she re-tunes her guitar for the umpteenth time this evening. A shy Monday night crowd in the Yes basement make some non-committal murmurs; “No? Ok, well I guess I should […]
– Manchester Cathedral – Are Low a noise band now? Based on this astonishing showing tonight, they’re not too far off the label, which has seen them evolve over a wonderful 25-year career from slowcore beauty to fractured, disintegrating noise, with just enough of the aforementioned beauty still around to connect them to their past. […]
Losing your voice would be a terrifying experience for anyone, let alone a singer who had recently released their debut album. This nightmare situation intermittently afflicted Dana Gavanski for a year after ‘Yesterday is Gone’ was released. It was her luscious voice that had first attracted attention, initially striking for its similarities to Cate Le […]
Music can delight for many reasons. Often it is not an entire song but an individual moment, be it the audacity of an instrumental flourish or the ecstasy of a vocal yelp. With Father John Misty, while the pleasure may come from the beauty of the song’s orchestration and the early 1970s singer-songwriter melodies, it […]
Despite it being her sixth album, the buzz around Japanese-American songwriter Mitski has remained swarming. Her recent success on TikTok is understandable, and her music has a whole generation in an emotional chokehold, that she won’t be losing grip of anytime soon, especially with the brilliance of newest album ‘Laurel Hell.’ The synthy opening track […]
– Albert Hall, Manchester – How does a band who haven’t released a record in nearly a decade until very recently, haven’t toured for nearly as long, and no longer have their OG frontman who performed some of their most beloved songs, mount a credible comeback that people will be bothered about? The answer lies […]
LIVE: INDIGO DE SOUZA – 15/05/2022
ALBUM REVIEW – KIKAGAKU MOYO: KUMOYO ISLAND
ALBUM REVIEW: VERO - UNSOOTHING INTERIOR
LIVE: MATTIEL / LE REN – 13/05/2022
LIVE: TOMBERLIN – 02/05/2022
LIVE: LOW – 27/04/2022
MAY 2022
ALBUM REVIEW – DANA GAVANSKI: WHEN IT COMES
ALBUM REVIEW – FATHER JOHN MISTY: CHLOE AND THE NEXT 20TH CENTURY
INTERVIEW: LUIS ROBERTS - NEW WELSH WONDER RELEASES DEBUT ALBUM: A DELICATE FEAST OF FOLK POP WITH HINTS OF TALK TALK AND ELBOW, A WELSH LANGUAGE ALBUM WHICH IS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ALBUMS YOU'LL HEAR ALL YEAR
