Album Review: Levelz – LVL 11

Representing themselves as a collective supergroup consisting of Chunky, Jonny Dub, Black Josh, Truthos Mufasa, Sparkz, Fox, T-Man, Chimpo and Skittles, LEVELZ started working together a little over two years ago. The Manchester squad has done some crazy things, such as touring London in a stretch Hummer while delivering melons and mixtapes around the city, a […]
 – THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – It’s been a long time coming, but Mancunian Sam Shepherd’s debut album Elaenia was certainly worth the wait. After releasing a string of outstanding DJ friendly EP’s and singles, since 2009, we’re finally able to immerse ourselves in a long player that ebbs and flows from danceable bloops and bleeps, to […]

LIVE: FLOATING POINTS – 12/02/2016

LIVE: TAME IMPALA / JAGWAR MA – 11/02/2016

– MANCHESTER ARENA, MANCHESTER – It has been four years since I had a chance to see Tame Impala play a gig in Manchester. Holidays, plus, I had missed them by about 3 months when moving here, and have been waiting ever since. Tame Impala, whether you know them, like them or not, have been at […]
– THE ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – In a year where the great and the good are checking out at an alarming rate, it is important that we appreciate those still walking amongst us.  John Grant is such an individual. Thankfully that appears to be the case, if the praise for his latest album and string […]

LIVE: JOHN GRANT – 08/02/2016

LIVE: SUEDE – 09/02/2016

 – THE ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – Thunder rolls over Manchester’s Albert Hall from behind a sky sized silver-screen. The whirring thrashes and builds until the sounds of post-millennial paranoia are greeted with silence. The floor-to-ceiling sheet is finally filled with oceanic endlessness, and from behind the separation an incredible otherness cuts through the waves in […]
Plastic Animals have been slaving over Pictures From The Blackout, their debut album, for two years now. It all starts very promisingly, ‘Ghosts’ is ‘Knives Out’-style Radiohead, all urgency and fuzzy chords and heading off down a woozy rabbit hole halfway through before blossoming into a noisy crescendo. It’s followed by a whisper of feedback […]

ALBUM REVIEW: PLASTIC ANIMALS – PICTURES FROM THE BLACKOUT

ALBUM REVIEW: BLOC PARTY – HYMNS

Remember last year when Bloc Party lost some of its original members, Gordon Moakes and Matt Tong? Well, according to lead singer Kele Okereke you can blame that on ‘someone doing cocaine and someone not being into it’.  But it doesn’t seem as though the 4- piece band are losing out with the new, yet […]
 – GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER – Swedish Death Candy for me stole the show. I’m sorry Yak, but their psychedelic musings were a lot more stimulating tonight than your visceral 2 minute “songs”. And Rory Wynne, I like that Heart Of Stone song you played at the end and your comment about how “amazing” we were as […]

LIVE: YAK / SWEDISH DEATH CANDY – 03/02/2016

LIVE: DANIEL KNOX – 25/01/2016

– THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER – ‘This is a song about germs,’ breathes Daniel Knox. A few beads of sweat drip down his forehead as he introduces ‘Don’t Touch Me’. This starkly titled song taken from his self-titled latest album, he tells us beforehand, is about his germophobic tendencies narrated with a slight sense of […]
 – ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – Great and wild Phil Campbell has this voice, so manly, so pleasantly throaty, that one could be watching his performance for countless hours. Even if he’s just singing a prosaic “Yeah-yeaaah-Naah-Na-ah-ah!”, in a hypnotic loop. Manchester’s Academy 2 is packed with fans of all range, from kids to those who […]

LIVE: THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT – 24/01/2016