LIVE: FRANK’S FANTASTIC FAREWELL – 08/07/2010

– CASTLEFIELD, MANCHESTER – “How do you get 5p off your mum? Go to the shop, buy a tin of beans and change the 23p on the label to 28p. Bingo!” – Damon Gough quotes Frank Sidebottom. Considering I’m at Frank Sidebottom’s Fantastic Farewell – the last goodbye to alter ego of Timperley’s most famous […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – My knowledge of Holy Ghost, before I went to see them, could best be described as ‘cursory’ but those with their ears to the ground at club nights in Manchester such as Homoelectric and Now Wave, have been singing the praises of Holy Ghost for a while, so it […]

LIVE: HOLY GHOST – 08/07/2010

SINGLE: Amadou & Mariam – Africa

Taken from the excellent album Welcome To Mali, released over 18 months ago, it’s hard not to be cynical about the timing of this release. I appreciate that Amadou & Mariam played Africa at the 2010 World Cup opening ceremony, but it seems the song’s release so long after the album’s release is something of […]
What exactly is an A&R and what exactly do they do? Apparently, A&R stands for Artists and Repertoire, and is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label. Sounds like a pretty cool job […]

SINGLE: Orphan Boy – Pop Song

LIVE: THE WINDOW RIGHT – 02/07/2010

I’ve been intrigued by this West Yorkshire based bunch of sonic expressionists for some time now. To the uninitiated, The Window Right play instrumental music. Some might call that Post Rock or Krautrock; some might call it Ambient or Shoegaze. Whatever it is, The Window Right are bloody good at it. Having recently performed live […]
Keeping them coming thick and fast, Planet Mu shoots out the next bright star into the sky, Oriol. Real name Oriol Singhji, this latest addition to the planet Mu team originated from Barcelona and now resides between London and Cambridge. This EP sees his debut on the late, propped up firmly by reworks of Faulty […]

SINGLE: Oriol – Coconut Coast

LIVE: The Morning Benders – 28/06/2010

– THE NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – 11.30pm is pretty damn late for a band to start their set on a Monday night, especially coming off the back of Glastonbury and England’s dreaded World Cup debacle. The Night & Day’s policy of 4 bands on a night is certainly value for money and opening […]
Leave your wetsuit at home, but do remember your Ray-Bans. Hailing from San Diego, Crocodiles are explorers of the darker side of Californian life. In the moody ‘Sleep Forever’, Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell layer reverberating vocals over jagged synth to fashion a piece of retro-while-contemporary noise-pop. Elsewhere in their catalogue nods to post-punk abound, […]

SINGLE: CROCODILES – SLEEP FOREVER

LIVE: THE COLD ONE HUNDRED – 25/06/2010

– NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – It’s not easy growing up in the world The Cold One Hundred’s dark pop alludes to, with its tedium and disenchantment, but for source material, it doesn’t sell them short. The hanging gloom of the Night & Day stage is a perfect setting for the live rendition of […]
– ST. PHILIP’S CHURCH, SALFORD – As we shuffle into St. Phillip’s Church in Salford there’s a feeling that we’re the cool kids in the know: This is a warm up gig for the band’s upcoming tour as support for The Coral. On come our heroes, entering without pretension and after a quick “y’alright?” they […]

LIVE: CHERRY GHOST – 21/06/2010