LIVE: MMOTHS – 07/03/2013

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Almost exactly a year ago I saw electronic musician Mmoths (Jack Colleran) play in the small, dark, hidden backstreet venue that is the Kraak Gallery. The progress that he’s made over the past 12 months now affords him a climb onto the next rung of Manchester’s trendy venue ladder. In […]
– THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER – The blue icicle lights of the Castle Hotel cast a gaze over indie-pop rockets Concrete Knives, a French band who are currently romanced on stage in a group hug before they begin their first ever gig in Manchester. We are all pushed closely together in the crowd, our elbows […]

LIVE: CONCRETE KNIVES – 08/03/2013

LIVE: SAN CISCO – 04/03/2013

– NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – I asked a friend to accompany me to San Cisco, and he thought I was asking him out to a fancy restaurant. But San Cisco is actually a BAND (you might have guessed… this is Silent Radio after all) with a name that also apparently in no way […]
– THE APOLLO, MANCHESTER – For the majority of the noughties, Sigur Ros transcended being Iceland’s most successful export to characterising everything that was best about the country. The band did that rare, seemingly impossibly feat of not only recalling Iceland’s wild, rugged and beautiful landscapes, but of providing a direct musical portal to the […]

Live: Sigur Ros – 04/03/2013

LIVE: MAPS AND ATLASES – 03/03/2013

– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – Sunday. The day of rest. And with it being the first Sunday of the month, there’s a hazy, hungover vibe around the centre of Manchester as people realise how much of this month’s pay cheque they’ve already spent. So, there is a somewhat sigh of relief as the small […]
Anybody that fell for 2010’s ‘Own Side Now’, the first full-length from Nashville singer-songwriter Caitlin Rose, will be aware that sheer force of personality was the key ingredient that separated her from the countless other country-tinged starlets vying for your attention. And it wasn’t confined to her live shows – the ten tracks on that […]

Album Review: Caitlin Rose – The Stand-In

LIVE: FOALS / THE INVISIBLE – 02/03/2013

– ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER – I think it’s always exciting when a band that you’ve been following since their beginnings, released new material and go out on tour to support it. Particularly when a band challenge themselves with each record and know how to kick it live. It’s also even better when said band take […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – Caitlin Rose first began to grab our attention a few years back when she arrived on the scene with her debut album Own Side Now, which heralded her gorgeous ‘country-velvet honeyed’ vocals backed by an intelligent country-soul sound.  Now on her follow up The Stand-In completed with ramped up […]

LIVE: CAITLIN ROSE – 01/03/2013

LIVE: ELIZA AND THE BEAR – 28/02/2013

– THE CASTLE HOTEL, MANCHESTER – As someone who has spent the winter months living on a diet of dubstep and dark electronic beats, this evening definitely offers me a change in tempo. We’re at an evening at The Castle Hotel (ace pub, great wine) entitled Thank Folk For That.  The evening’s genre needs no […]
Joe Banfi’s Nomads is the second EP to come after 2012’s Iron EP and it is evidence of how far he has come since then. Banfi is a relatively new artist, but this is in no way clear – the production (Ian Grimble of Communion) and feel of this EP is outstanding. “Please don’t let […]

EP Review: Joe Banfi – Nomads