LIVE: BLACK ANGELS – 10/10/2010

– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – I like rumours; they make good rock ‘n’ roll stories. I don’t care whether there’s any truth in them if they add to the mythology of a band. I heard one about Black Angels the other day. It goes like this, after getting a slating for their new album […]
Marking the return of honey-toned singer Skye Edwards, who left in 2003 following those pesky ‘musical differences’ that eat at every band at some point, ‘Blood Like Lemonade’ is the title track from Morcheeba’s seventh album.   It’s also the name of a cocktail apparently, the ingredients of which are listed on the back of the […]

SINGLE REVIEW: Morcheeba – Blood Like Lemonade

SINGLE REVIEW: LV Ft. OKMALUMKOOLKAT – Boomslang

The forty fourth release on Hyperdub sees South Africa & South London come together as LV hooks up with South African Kwaito artist Smiso Zwane (aka Okmalumkoolkat). Fusing their own unique styles, the pair’s meeting makes for a highly infectious set of sounds. ‘Boomslang’ kicks out a UK funky beat fired up by Kool Kat’s […]
– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – Mice Parade made Manchester magical, kicking up a mystical musical storm in the heads of the hundred or so who attended, shifting between chaos and clarity to conjure up ethereal spirits which brightened Tuesday city darkness and drove us halfway to the madness we crave. Brainchild and anagrammatical namesake […]

LIVE: MICE PARADE – 08/10/2010

LIVE: DELAYS – 08/10/2010

– ACADEMY 3, MANCHESTER – In a city that sets its watch by the academic season and where fads come and go with the next uni term, it’s hard for all but the most stalwart bands to hold a place in Manchester’s psyche. That’s why, to some extent, it’s quite a feat that Delays, whose […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – For those of you who don’t already know, Junip is the new / old band of Jose Gonzalez. Originally formed in 2000 with Tobias Winterkorn (Moog and Keys) and Elias Araya (Drums), however, Junip’s plans for world domination got firmly put on the backburner when Gonzalez’s solo career took […]

LIVE: JUNIP – 07/10/2010

LIVE: SUBLIME WITH ROME – 07/10/2010

– ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER – Do the over-25′s save up all their energy to release in controlled bursts? Although this is an old crowd, they are keen – half of them are wearing the t-shirts they bought in 1997 – and everyone is going crazy: screaming, pogoing, skanking and chucking pints. I bump in to […]
– ACADEMY 1, MANCHESTER – Who shot streams of sparkle and strangeness through the Tuesday night sky? Who bastardised performance art with camp disco flamboyance, only to nurture this bastard child and let it grow into a fabulous monster? Of Montreal did, oh yes, and nanas would cry out in terror or thrill at the […]

LIVE: OF MONTREAL – 05/10/2010

LIVE: CROCODILES – 04/10/2010

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – San Diego residents, Crocodiles, visit the Deaf Institute in support of their second album ‘Sleep Forever’ which was released over here on September 10th. They’re a band who clearly wear their influences on their collective sleeves. Jesus and Mary Chain, Spacemen 3 and Echo and The Bunnymen are all […]
I’ve seen Denis Jones live thrice – once was with a full band, and it was the least effective of the three. The other shows gained a lot from the fact that Denis does everything himself (mostly with a loop pedal) – and it’s genuinely fascinating to watch him do it. I’m worried that this […]

ALBUM: Denis Jones – Red + Yellow =