LIVE: TANGERINECAT / SLOW KNIFE / FACTORY ACTS / TIN MOLE – 07/09/2019

-GULLIVERS, MANCHESTER- Tin Mole Experimental is a label difficult to define, but it appears Deco have rummaged the attic for a few of the more warped figurines you’d be wise to inspect before touching. Dominated by menacing bass lines, Tin Mole succumb to the irresistibility of synthesisers as they purge onward, almost as though a […]
-THE PEER HAT, MANCHESTER- Furrowed Brow With additional personnel and two months of gigging since their live debut, Furrowed Brow has (much to my predication) significantly gained in confidence and cohesion, akin to a unit of conscripts surviving the very skirmishes that would make or break their service. Having a more technically proficient guitarist (albeit […]

LIVE: GLOVE / CHINA MOON / FURROWED BROW – 06/09/2019

LIVE: SASAMI – 04/09/2019

-YES (THE BASEMENT), MANCHESTER- Sweet relief. The basement in Manchester’s finest establishment Yes is a safe haven tonight, a place to take refuge from the bonkers weather that has plagued this city on this early autumn day (and plagued the England cricket team all day across the city at Old Trafford), and a place to […]
-VARIOUS VENUES, MANCHESTER- As the title shows, the event primarily caters towards a genre half a century in age, although that didn’t stop the promoters from cherry picking enough non-psych bands to give off the impression it was a name only title. I mean understandably you need a healthy balance of differing styles and realistically […]

LIVE: MANCHESTER PSYCH FEST 2019

LIVE: THE BETHS – 31/08/2019

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Gorilla is sold out for The Beths tonight. We arrive a little later than most and the crowd is already one pensive mass of energy and anticipation. Managing to find a corner at the top of the stairs, we have a clear view of the whole scene, the stage and audience. Jackpot. It […]
It’s very rare that I start listening to something and immediately fall in love with it but that is exactly what happens when I get hold of Parsnip’s debut album ‘When the Tree Bears Fruit’ and hear the delightful opening track ‘Are You Taking Me For a Ride’. In the nicest possible way, it’s utterly […]

ALBUM REVIEW: PARSNIP – WHEN THE TREE BEARS FRUIT

LIVE: WHITE FENCE / ESYA / THE STARLIGHT MAGIC HOUR – 17/08/2019

-THE WHITE HOTEL, SALFORD- The idea of amassing a selection of bands a few clicks off normal appears to pay off as the White Hotel’s ‘performance room’ slowly starts to fill to capacity in time for the headliner/non-set closer White Fence. I had the suspicion that carting out a load of bands on a half […]
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- I am currently excited about two American heavy rock bands who, before this month, haven’t released a single word in over a decade. But while Tool have just brought out their first new material since 2007, Chicago three-piece Russian Circles have gone on from the departure of their original bass player in that […]

LIVE: RUSSIAN CIRCLES – 13/08/2019

ALBUM REVIEW: THE MURDER CAPITAL – WHEN I HAVE FEARS

As anyone who knows me will testify, I can waffle on about my love for Sonic Youth all day long, so any band that has elements of the much missed soaring guitar sounds and otherworldly eeriness about them, is always going to grab my ears, however I wasn’t expecting this… Sometimes bands come along and […]
Watching Sleater Kinney at the Albert Hall in 2015 on their first tour since reforming, was a reminder of how much of a gap in my musical world there had been in the intervening years since they split. I was lucky enough to see them numerous times over the years, and even managed to grab […]

ALBUM REVIEW: SLEATER KINNEY – THE CENTER WON’T HOLD