Black Midi

LIVE: BLACK MIDI – 13/11/2022

– New Century Hall, Manchester – Turns out black midi are still one of the funnest live bands around then, which is great news. It’s almost a year to the day since I last saw them perform their thrilling show at the Ritz, prior to the release of their fantastic album Hellfire from earlier this […]
– Albert Hall, Manchester – Since her breakthrough debut album in 2015, Courtney Barnett has won the hearts of a diverse fan base. From parents with their 20-something kids to rowdy friend groups and the LGBTQI+ community, tonight’s crowd represents how strongly her music appeals to our experiences, rather than our backgrounds alone. With her […]
Courtney Barnett

LIVE: COURTNEY BARNETT – 11/11/2022

ALBUM REVIEW – CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS: REDCAR LES ADORABLES ETOILES

It has been a tumultuous time for Héloïse Letissier since the release of 2018’s ‘Chris’. April 2019 brought the sudden death of his mother while Christine and the Queens were performing at the Coachella festival. In addition to handling the grief of that momentous personal loss has come the subsequent liberation of announcing that he […]
– The Ritz, Manchester – ‘Near, far, wherever you are…’, emotional words belted out by a packed crowd as Julia Jacklin takes to the stage at the Ritz, Celine Dion’s immortal Titanic theme blaring unexpectedly from the PA. It’s a fitting opening to what becomes a quietly epic Sunday night out at the Ritz in […]
Julia Jacklin

LIVE: JULIA JACKLIN – 6/11/2022

LIVE – BOB DYLAN: 2/11/22

You never quite know what to expect from a Bob Dylan gig, guitar, piano, both, which of the old tunes will make a comeback into the set? As we take our seats awaiting the arrival on stage of a bona fide musical legend, the upright piano placed facing the audience centre stage is a bit […]
Any review of Personal Trainer ought to address the Stephen Malkmus-shaped elephant in the room. In his previous band, Canshaker Pi, Willem Smit, the group’s conductor and cheerleader, recorded with Malkmus and there is a distinct air of Pavement’s swallowed a thesaurus and must select the most phonetically pleasing words approach to Smit’s lyrics. ‘Big […]

ALBUM REVIEW – PERSONAL TRAINER: BIG LOVE BLANKET

Special Interest

LIVE: SPECIAL INTEREST– 5/11/2022

– The White Hotel, Manchester – New Orleans industrial disco punks Special Interest specialise in the intense, pushing their sound, political lyrics, and performances to the extreme in the grand tradition of punk bands. Singer Alli Logout leads the ensemble, their frequently angry, incendiary callout lyrics dealing in really showing you how shit the world […]
The London jazz scene has been incredibly vibrant in recent years with thrilling albums by the likes of Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia and Sons of Kemet. Ezra Collective can now take a prime place in that list with their second album, ‘Where I’m Meant To Be’. A glance at the titles gives a coherent sense […]

ALBUM REVIEW – EZRA COLLECTIVE: WHERE I’M MEANT TO BE

Westerman

LIVE: WESTERMAN – 25/10/2022

– Yes, Manchester – Will Westerman’s only album of his short career so far Your Hero Is Not Dead, came out at that oddest of moments, June 2020. Cast your mind way back to that time two and a half years ago, and you’ll probably have memories of cautiously, but giddily, emerging from your home […]
It is impossible to overstate the importance of cassettes to music fanatics growing up in the 1980s. For Ajay Saggar, that included recording John Peel sessions onto cassette, taping gigs onto his Walkman and putting together mixtapes. Later, his first band, the Dandelion Adventure recorded demos tapes that were sent to record labels, venues and […]

ALBUM REVIEW – BHAJAN BHOY: SHANTI SHANTI SHANTI