LIVE: MGMT – 17/12/2018

-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- Back from late 2000s mega success, MGMT provide tonight the Albert Hall mandem a chance to relive honking hot summers of 08-09, FIFA soundtracks and Made In Chelsea “coming next” segments. Braving the Northern chill, I venture to Manchester full of excitement. Although back in the day I didn’t immediately latch on […]
I have known these guys since the day I moved to Manchester, living in Rusholme, Big Hands became my local. I was even at one point supposed to audition to be their drummer, as Big Hands owner Scott suggested! I got to know Pedro (bassist) and all the staff in Big Hands fairly well, and […]

SINGLE: LOUIE LOUIE – PLAY HOUSE

LIVE: AIDAN MOFFAT & RM HUBBERT – 14/12/2018

-SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER- As far as well respected Scottish artists go, you can’t get more loved than Aidan Moffat and RM Hubbert, so the news of the two collaborating together for an album brought joy to the ears of many. And as it happens, the album did the same thing. Released through Rock Action Records […]
There’s always bands who like to turn the fuzztone up, step on the phase pedal and blast off into hyperspace, and there’s so many bands around doing the shoegazy dream pop thing, it’s often hard to find the decent stuff. So, thank your lava lamps for Steeple Remove, a band from Rouen in France, who […]

ALBUM: STEEPLE REMOVE – VONAL AXIS

LIVE: ORLANDO WEEKS – 12/12/2018

-ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER- When indie-rock mavericks The Maccabees played their final shows last summer, I did wonder if we’d hear from any of them again. But it was only a matter of months before frontman Orlando Weeks announced a project he’d been working on for quite some time, The Gritterman. Starting life from a song, […]
-NIGHT PEOPLE, MANCHESTER- More often than not, when a band attempts to surgically graft differing influences together, the difficulty in pulling it off can present a scenario of grave inconsistency. Typically, the final product emerges as a badly rearranged skeletal entity, the kind of which would be best left in some remote, poorly lit cave […]

LIVE: PURPLE HEART PARADE / BLANKETMAN – 08/12/2018

LIVE: JULIA HOLTER – 06/12/2018

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Julia Holter is incredible. The LA-based musician is just 33 years of age, and she released her fifth (5th!) astonishing album Aviary to much acclaim last month, a 90 minute magnum opus that dazzles with its range of styles from atonal experimental noise to some of the best pop songs she’s composed so […]
This lot from Cologne have definitely heard a few My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Cure records in their time, yet Holygram go for an overall shoegaze shimmer on their tunes, giving each one an overall feel of hazy guitar tones. Recorded in Cologne’s Amen Studios, the band’s debut is awash with that early 90’s British […]

ALBUM: HOLYGRAM – MODERN CULTS

ALBUM REVIEW: THE 1975 – A BRIEF ENQUIRY INTO ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS

“You learn a couple of things when you get to my age,” Matty Healy projects in the 1975’s third studio album. Whether or not this was delivered with a bit of cheekiness, the statement is something most people can relate to, especially Healy himself. Following the success of the bands previous album,’ I Like It […]
-YES, MANCHESTER- Axel Willner, AKA The Field, is an absolute dude. He’s probably the coolest person in Manchester at this very moment, despite the high hipster quotient currently in Yes waiting for him to come on and do his ambient, minimal techno thing. You see, Willner is Swedish, which immediately makes him cool, but now […]

LIVE: THE FIELD – 28/11/2018