LIVE: JESSY LANZA – 26/10/2016

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Like many I suspect, my first introduction to Jessy Lanza was via her guest appearance on Caribou’s Our Love album track ‘Second Chance’. Her cooly detached vocal fitted in perfectly with Caribou’s slinky dance music, and I was smitten. Now, with two might fine solo albums under her belt, I’m […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – On a night when thousands line the streets of Manchester to welcome home Olympic and Paralympian heroes, a small group of diehards converge on The Deaf Institute to celebrate the achievements of alt-American rockers Richmond Fontaine who, after almost 22 years, have decided to call it a day. The […]

LIVE: RICHMOND FONTAINE – 17/10/2016

LIVE: DAUGHTER – 24/10/2016

– THE ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – “I’m trying to get out // Find a subtle way out // Not just cross myself out // Not just disappear” Elena Tonra professes to us, midway through set opener ‘New Ways’. A mixed message from their latest cut Not to Disappear, which was released last year to critical acclaim and […]
– THE ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – We may have failed to land a probe on Mars this week, but despite the project coming crashing down to Earth, Manchester’s love of science is still in orbit. So much so that the city’s tenth annual Science Festival is being opened this year by the recently much-celebrated Public […]

LIVE: PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING – 20/10/2016

LIVE: BEACH BABY – 19/10/2016

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – The Deaf Institute is bustling with a fresher-flavoured friskiness tonight, albeit only at about two thirds capacity. London-based quartet Beach Baby are coming towards the end of the UK leg of their tour supporting their debut album, No Mind No Money, which came out in September. There is nothing […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – ‘Music isn’t normal’ quipped Norwegian songwriter, Jenny Hval just hours ahead of her performance in Manchester’s Soup Kitchen. This poignant statement is certainly true in the case of Hval, yet by her standards, Blood Bitch, her most recent record, is possibly her most ‘normal’ record yet. Despite its themes of […]

LIVE: JENNY HVAL – 18/10/2016

LIVE: ANGEL OLSEN – 14/10/2016

– CLUB ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – A chorus of ambience welcomes Angel Olsen’s silver-suited, bolo-tied band of 1963 fantasy to Manchester’s darkened Club Academy, only to have them sink into the background as the velvet-adorned hellcat takes to the stage and turns to azurite as she steps into the spotlight and the open-mouth-kiss evening. S-1 in-hand, […]
– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – It may be the faint stirrings of Christmas commercialism or the sour aftermath of Brexit Britain but there seems no better time to welcome back our favourite Scottish curmudgeons Arab Strap.  The band have returned to celebrate their 20th anniversary with a handful of special live shows on the back […]

LIVE: ARAB STRAP – 14/10/2016

LIVE: ULRIKA SPACEK – 13/10/2016

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – When the history books have been written and the BBC4 documentaries made about the world of alternative music in 2016, there will need to be entire sections dedicated to the ubiquity of psych rock. A movement that revolves around reinterpreting the music of the original wave of hallucinogenic, distorted underground […]
– ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – My back is up against the wall, adjacent to the bouncer, at a Friday night showcase of Spring King. I’d guess the modal age here is a good five years younger than myself as I cast my eyes towards opener Get Inuit. The crowd is tightly bunched towards the front, […]

LIVE: SPRING KING / GET INUIT – 14/10/2016