Album Review: The Strypes – Snapshot

The debut album from The Strypes, Snapshot, is a fast paced nod to the 60s rhythm and blues era. The preceding EP, Young, Gifted and Blue, came out in 2012 causing quite a stir. The timing of this record couldn’t be better, with the rise of stars such as Jake Bugg, the reemergence of The […]
Lanterns On The Lake is a five-piece band hailing from Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Consisting of Hazel Wilde, Paul Gregory, Ol Ketteringham, Sarah Kemp and Andrew Scrogham, they have had a successful debut album and are now signed to Bella Union. They have performed at numerous music festivals, including Glastonbury, SXSW and Bestival and even toured with Explosions […]

Album Review: Lanterns on the Lake – Until The Colours Run

LIVE: JETPLANE LANDING / DOCTRINES – 04/09/2013

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Nine years. It’s been nine whole years since Jetplane Landing were last in town, nine whole years since they last toured at all, in fact. Time flies, times change, but with their ‘Don’t Try’ comeback album, Derry’s finest are proving to still be as vital as they ever were. Twelve […]
Reviewed by: Nat Lyon. Johnno Casson is Snippet.   And Snippet is a DIY project band that creates lush sounding productions in a mythical garden shed somewhere in Colchester.  In that magic garden shed, Casson builds and shreds a number of different personalities.  He also writes and self-records arrangements that match the complexity of the characters […]

ALBUM REVIEW: SNIPPET – DIY

Album Review: Money – The Shadow of Heaven

Money, The Shadow of Heaven, wealth and religion, the twin asteroids of humanity’s destruction, grand topics for an equally grand album. When you listen to this debut from the Manchester 4-piece it certainly seems that they are looking to encompass the city, the earth and stars and everything inbetween. Money mainman, Jamie Lee, expands in […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – As I enter the musical cave that is The Ruby Lounge I can say that I haven’t seen it this busy in a long time. The atmosphere is great, people queuing for the bar, waiting for the band to start and the loud noise of chatter. Once Kult Country […]

LIVE: CROCODILES / KULT COUNTRY – 28/08/2013

LIVE: WIDOWSPEAK – 27/08/2013

– NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – There’s an American feel about this venue, and so Widowspeak should feel right at home. The support band come from Wigan but sound very Country indeed. The stage is set. It’s dark in here and I’m not wearing my glasses… but I can hear drumming and can’t see […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – The bunker beneath one of Manchester’s finest bars, Soup Kitchen, is the perfect place for Blondes and their brand of ecstatic, build, build and then build some more repetitive house (I think it’s mostly house, with about a million genres of dance music that all merge into each other, who […]

LIVE: BLONDES – 24/08/2013

Album Review: Drenge – Drenge

When asked to think of Derbyshire, you may conjure up images of coal mines, the luxurious home of Jane Austen’s swoon-inducing Mr. Darcy and now angsty, two-man blues/rock duos who make The Black Keys sound dangerously close to irrelevant, plodding dad-rock. Indeed, Derbyshire’s latest export, Drenge – formed by the aptly named brothers Eion and […]
Out Cold is a side project of Simon Aldred, the frontman of Cherry Ghost. Aldred’s work with the Bolton band, such as on minor hits ‘Mathematics’ and ‘4am’, has an organic sound with a widescreen feel, and Aldred’s warm, northern vocals might easily be capable of bringing comfort to any homesick Lancastrian. With Out Cold, […]

Album Review: Out Cold – Invasion of Love