LIVE: FUN LOVIN’ CRIMINALS – 04/03/2017

– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – Incense smoke sneaks around the room, as though from the very pipes of the Albert Hall organ, maybe blown by some celestial keys man, working the heavenly pedals. Something smells pretty sweet, anyways. Look around and at first it seems somehow sacrilegious: that people would rave, silhouetted in front of […]
-THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – Welcome to Henge. At this gig, you check your measly human earth life at the door. For the uninitiated, this band have come on a longer journey than most to be at the Ruby Lounge tonight – from the State of Mutagia, to be exact. If you’re not 100% clear […]

LIVE: HENGE – 03/03/2017

ALBUM: TALABOMAN – THE NIGHT LAND

‘The Night Land’ is a strange place. Full to the brim with synthesized, robotic and electronic sounds, yet somewhere we make some of our most human connections. It’s a place pair John Talabot and Axel Boman capture effortlessly with their debut Talaboman LP, jam-packed with bleeps, beeps and drum machines but also sounding extremely organic. […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – The Northern Quarter’s Soup Kitchen has developed over recent years into something of a citadel for psych rock bands and fans alike. The scene, which has now been blossoming for longer than most would have thought possible, sees new and unfamiliar bands cropping up from all corners of the world […]

LIVE: JOSEFIN OHRN & THE LIBERATION – 01/03/0217

LIVE: WILD NOTHING / HER’S – 26/02/2017

– DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – To the left of me stands an obese, pissed, ageing, fifty-something man exclaiming “we’ve won the cup”, whilst spilling his drink all over the sobbing teenage girls in front of him. To the right stands a rawboned blond-haired middle class student, draped in a baggy coral shirt and an inside-out […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – I am excited to be standing with those lucky enough to land tickets for what is another sold out show on Teleman’s UK tour as they walk onto the Gorilla stage.  They have garnered quite the following from their two well received and critically acclaimed albums over the past few years and […]

LIVE: TELEMAN – 26/02/2017

LIVE: TONSTARTSSBANDHT / ELLIOT VINCENT JONES – 25/02/2017

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – With prominent connections to the DIY, fun-loving and on occasion wilfully slapdash musical niche carved out by the likes of Homeshake, Walter TV and, of course, Mac DeMarco, Tonstartssbandht – as their name might suggest – are a band that carry with them a certain expectation to satisfy a craving […]
– DIVE NQ, MANCHESTER – Being a music fan in Manchester is the gift that keeps on giving. Quite apart from the treasure trove of gig venues that we have the fortune to frequent on a regular basis, every now and then a new place will pop into your schedule. The newest addition to my […]

LIVE: FALSE ADVERSTISING – 23/O2/2017

LIVE: THE HANDSOME FAMILY / COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS – 22/02/2017

– RNCM, MANCHESTER – Last week, this picture popped up on my Facebook feed. In short, it recycles an old and often repeated claim about what the very highest level of musical taste is – that is, to like “everything except rap and country”. I’m going to have to leave that extremely dodgy sweeping generalisation […]
– SOUND CONTROL, MANCHESTER – The distressed voice of Daniel Johnston suffocates the room in thoughts of an eternal, inescapable funeral. Calls to forever close, and the silence invites a dangerous animal to the stage of Manchester’s Sound Control. Restless and feverish, the platform is paced to the soundtrack of melodic incline, before cathartic contraction […]

LIVE: TOUCHE AMORE – 18/02/2017