ALBUM REVIEW – SLEAFORD MODS: DIVIDE AND EXIT

A decade since this relentless, no-nonsense self-produced album was released and it still speaks volumes of how times in the UK have NOT changed. The Sleaford Mods’ seventh album, Divide and Exit, has been remastered for its tenth anniversary. This project pulls no punches with their honest opinions on the Royal family, the rich, politics […]
Here are this week’s new releases. Wand                  Vertigo               Anxious rock beats scored to cinematic effect with strings and winds arranged by Evan Backer: viola, cello, violin, contrabass, flute, trumpet, french horn, trombone, tuba, saxophone, and sensory percussion. Crack Cloud                  Red Mile           The sprawling, novelistic structures of their previous albums are condensed, but the […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 26 JULY 2024

ALBUM REVIEW – PERSONAL TRAINER: STILL WILLING

Two albums into their career, it is already apparent that Personal Trainer thrive upon throwing frequent curveballs into the equation. Their debut, 2022’s ‘Big Love Blanket’, contained a multitude of joyous, brief songs that were ideal for their greatest champion, 6Music’s Marc Riley, to slot into any small gap preceding the news headlines. Following this […]
Now Wave have been promoting gigs in our city for over a decade, and have grown from a few small gigs in independent venues, to owning their own venue (Yes) as well as organising the brilliant annual Psych Fest. We caught up with Now Wave’s Gareth Butterworth to find out about the inner workings of […]

INTERVIEW: MANCHESTER’S NOW WAVE PROMOTERS / MANCHESTER PSYCH FEST

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 19 JULY 2024

This week’s releases are generally from lesser-known names but there is plenty worth exploring. The Joy Hotel                 Ceremony       A seven-piece that wrangle influences across alt-country and 60s psych, with six-part vocal harmonies and elements of alt-rock, cramming a world of inspirations into a sound that surges, crescendos and crashes. JB Dunckel      Mobius Morphosis    Air […]
Thrash metal is one of the fastest, most technical and demanding of the metal subgenres to play. For a musician, it can be relentless, and for the listener, it can feel like a Category 7 hurricane has occurred between your ears. A Category 7 is not only the most devastating grade a storm can receive, […]

ALBUM REVIEW – CATEGORY 7: CATEGORY 7

ALBUM REVIEW – KIASMOS: II

II is the second album by the award-winning Kiasmos, a duo that consists of electronic music producer Janus Rasmussen and composer Ólafur Arnalds. Together, the collaboration has made some of the most brilliant, emotively minimal house and techno music of the last decade, sounding similar to the likes of Aphex Twin and deadmau5’s early work. […]
Some type of music or musicians can’t be defined by a single genre as they blend many together such as Talking Heads, Bowie or Black Country New Road. Fonts are the new name to add to the list. Coming from Austin, Texas the quintet consisting of Jack Owens and Logon Wagner on percussion, Roman Parnell […]

ALBUM REVIEW: FONT – STRANGE BURDEN

ALBUM REVIEW: STONE – FEAR LIFE FOR A LIFETIME

Standing on a cliff’s edge, possibility perfumes the air. Pressing play we take the leap of faith into the unknown, plummeting fifty feet into the wild ocean of emotion. No sense of direction, the surface of the world we once knew without this debut is nothing but a distant memory. Now we are forever drowning […]
After writing a review for ‘Afraid of tomorrows,’ the opportunity to speak to Lia Metcalfe and Paul Crilly came about which I could not turn down. Coming up with questions is an easy bout even in unfamiliar territory, like a zoom call. Sitting in the room on zoom, I get in a few minutes early […]

INTERVIEW: THE MYSTERINES