LIVE: THE WEDDING PRESENT – THE RITZ, MANCHESTER 10/10/2025

The Wedding Present are one of those bands who have soundtracked a vast part of my life, from dancing at indie discos as a teen to well pretty much doing the same around the kitchen at a recent 50th birthday do. It’s safe to say the huge crowd assembled in The Ritz tonight probably identify […]
Laura Veirs       Laura Veirs And The Choir Who Couldn’t Say (Live In Angoulême)    The recording documents Veirs’ May 2025 performance of 14 of her songs – as well as one by case/lang/veirs (Veirs’ 2016 collaborative album with k.d. lang and Neko Case) – alongside a French school choir composed of 32 students (30 girls and […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 10 OCTOBER 2025

ALBUM REVIEW – LONG FLING: LONG FLING

It takes considerable chutzpah to preview your first, and it is claimed only, album with what proves to be the record’s most awkward and wiry song. That is what Long Fling do with ‘Flung’ which starts with ten seconds of ominous hum that could herald the arrival of aliens on a sci-fi movie soundtrack before […]
The third solo album from Jenn Wasner, recording under the name Flock of Dimes, is an unflinching account of addiction, co-dependency, trauma and finding peace in the face of other’s suffering. In Wasner’s own words, “As it turns out, this record is not someone else’s story–it is mine, the story of my life. A life […]

ALBUM REVIEW – FLOCK OF DIMES: THE LIFE YOU SAVE

ALBUM REVIEW- GUITAR: WE’RE HEADED TO THE LAKE

Guitar’s We’re Headed To The Lake is a scruffy album. Coming from me that’s a compliment, by the way. As a slacker rock band in the vein of Pavement etc. this kind of scruffiness is kind of the point. But Guitar does pull enough from the various corners of the genre umbrella to not be […]
The biggest constant throughout over half a century of Sparks has been their willingness to try something new. In the case of ‘MADDER!’, it is one of their least revolutionary acts, merely their first ever EP, and acts as a companion piece to ‘MAD!’ which achieved their highest ever UK album chart position. What is […]

EP REVIEW – SPARKS: MADDER!

EP REVIEW – HOLYBONES: I GOT A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP

When I was 16/17, I got really into writing poetry. That was largely because I was consuming a lot of bands that did spoken word set to music and the stuff I was writing massively ripped off the likes of Listener or whoever else I had on rotation at the time. I cringe to think […]
Širom   In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper       Slovenian avant-folk trio. Navigating almost two dozen instruments (some of which they’ve handcrafted), and hypnotic compositions that often exceed ten minutes in length, they court patient, deep-dive listeners via intricately woven atmospheres, rhythms and sonics. Idlewild              Idlewild              Across the ten songs of ‘Idlewild’ they welcome each […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 3 OCTOBER 2025

ALBUM REVIEW – THE ANTLERS: BLIGHT

A glance at a record’s list of songtitles often offers an indication of its type of music. The Antlers’ ‘Blight’ is deceptive in that respect. In addition to the title track, there are songs called ‘Carnage’, ‘Calamity’ and ‘A Great Flood’ which suggests that they could be accompanied by some brutal, pummelling Napalm Death type […]
It’s a mundane Monday, and the humdrum normality of everyday life is reaching out for some form of escapism. Seeking music as the solution, I, along with just over 2000 other people will congregate within the walls of Manchester Academy, where Rebecca Lucy Taylor (better known as Self Esteem) will perform for the third (sold-out) […]

LIVE REVIEW – SELF ESTEEM: MANCHESTER ACADEMY – 29/09/2025