LIVE: BRETON – 04/03/2014

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – I remember hearing London-based indie dance outfit Breton a few years ago and being blown away by how many great artists they managed to sound like in one piece of music. With Foals-esque vocals, Tom Vek’s grooves and the weirdness of Late Of The Pier, Breton made an eclectic debut […]
There’s something bizarrely unfathomable about Real Estate, and third album Atlas especially. There’s nothing overwhelmingly striking about their sound, we have a classic jangly guitar dynamic, eschewing any Zeitgeist leap towards electronica. There’s a distinct lack of choruses, at least in the traditional sense of reaching a musical, emotional, vocal pinnacle. Previous album Days‘ carefree languidness […]

Album Review: Real Estate – Atlas

Album Review: Wild Beasts – Present Tense

The beasts are back and the beasts are burdened. Charged with following up the success of their previous three long players – Limbo, Panto, Two Dancers and Smoother – the Leeds based indie-electronic four-piece are back with their latest – Present Tense. Is there a pun to be found in that title… is it ‘present, […]
– ST. PHILIP’S CHURCH, SALFORD – To celebrate their 10th anniversary as a band, everyone’s favourite Leeds-based epic post rockers I Like Trains (they’ve dropped the ridiculously structured iLiKETRAiNS thankfully) are doing a jaunt around the UK playing their debut EP Progress Reform in full. Their Manchester stop (actually in Salford), is the beautiful St Philip’s […]

LIVE: I LIKE TRAINS – 28/02/2014

LIVE: GERARD AND THE WATCHMEN – 26/02/2014

– KRAAK GALLERY, MANCHESTER – Hidden away almost as though it’s meant to be a secret, Kraak Gallery is a strange little venue, but it has a level of charm. The bill for this evening has 5 acts, unfortunately my arrival is delayed and I only catch the last three of these. The first of […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Phew! It’s warm in The Deaf Institute again tonight. What’s the deal with that? I was here last week for a gig and was actually quite pleased when a lad carrying a couple of beers overhead through the crowd accidentally tipped half of one down my back. Never has […]

LIVE: JOHN MURRY – 26/02/2014

LIVE: MIDLAKE: 20/02/2014

– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – “I know I haven’t said much, Manchester’, says Midlake frontman Eric Pulido.  And you know what… he hasn’t. We’re a good few tracks into their set at a respectfully packed Ritz and yes, it would be good to hear more from the hirsute bear-like character, newly crowned Daddy Bear to […]
“To be honest, I didn’t know what I was going to do. So I threw a lot of irons into the fire”. Since the break-up of the Bluetones in 2011, a band with an enviable career span that largely managed to avoid the Britpop roll call of the 90s, front man Mark Morriss has been […]

Album Review: Mark Morriss – A Flash of Darkness

LIVE: JAKE BUGG – 23/02/2014

– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – It seems that Jake Bugg is becoming, if not already, a household name. Everyone appears to know at least a couple of his catchy songs, and rightfully so. It is almost still surprising to know that he is about to reach his 20th birthday, and yet his voice and songwriting […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Entering the room for tonight’s gig at Gorilla I’m struck by how smoky the place is, I think someone has just had an accident with the smoke machine. Thankfully the smoke clears quickly, the room fills up and we get to the time for of Montreal to enter the stage. Five […]

LIVE: OF MONTREAL – 19/02/2014