INTERVIEW: WRECKLESS ERIC – LEGENDARY SONGWRITER RETURNS TO MANCHESTER PLAYING GULLIVERS 2ND NOVEMBER 2023

Wreckless Eric has been one of the UK’s best songwriters for over forty years, with his wry, witty observations on everyday life, matched with a melodic charm, which has seen him storming the charts in the late 70s, and releasing nineteen albums over the last few decades. His latest release, the brilliantly nostalgic ‘Leisureland’ sees […]
For my first visit to The White Hotel in Salford, it is fitting that both acts I witnessed are themselves Manchester bands – though not at all in the Madchester sense of the phrase. Not that there’s anything wrong with a bit of 90s nostalgia, mind you, but the descriptor comes nowhere close to encapsulating […]

LIVE REVIEW – MANDY, INDIANA & SLAP RASH – THE WHITE HOTEL SALFORD 27/10/23

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 27 OCTOBER 2023

With an extra hour available this weekend, there is more time for catching up on this week’s releases. Mint Field           Aprender a Sur Excellent Mexico City band creating an enticing blend of avant dream pop and shoegaze with some touches of trip hop that explore the nostalgia and melancholy of daily life with complex rhythms, […]
Leo Robinson’s ‘The Temple’ has been garnering understandable comparisons to Richard Dawson. While Dawson is an almost unique presence in the music scene, there are elements to Robinson’s work that justify the link. They both take elements of folk music, especially the mythology, and turn it into a whole that merges the past with contemporary […]

ALBUM REVIEW – LEO ROBINSON: THE TEMPLE

INTERVIEW: AUTOGRAMM – MEET THE NEW WAVE, POWER POP BAND INSPIRED BY PUNK AS WELL AS 80’S SYNTH SOUNDS. FEATURING MEMBERS OF DESTROYER, AND BLACK MOUNTAIN

Scattered across Vancouver, Seattle, and Chicago, Autogramm are purveyors of a new wave electronica sound which manages to meld the best bits of 80s power pop with a harder punked up edge. They may have drawn inspiration from the likes of Gary Numan, The Cars, Bowie and Prince yet Autogramm’s third album ‘Music That Humans […]
A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night’ is packed with songs that instantly grab the attention and never let go. Often it will be via memorable, if not downright odd, opening lines as exemplified by the record’s first track, ‘Montagnard People’ which begins with Katie von Schleicher singing “when you’re mourning the past, you’ll […]

ALBUM REVIEW – KATIE VON SCHLEICHER: A LITTLE TOUCH OF SCHLEICHER IN THE NIGHT

LIVE REVIEW: SQUID – NEW CENTURY HALL 18/10/23

Is there anything more delightful than a singing drummer (or is it a drummer who sings? One to debate)? There’s something magnificent about them, sitting there behind their kit, boshing away whilst also finding the wherewithal to bash out a tune too. How do they do it? How are they not completely breathless all the […]
Our roundup of another busy week of new releases including several outstanding albums. Pip Blom              Bobbie With her third album, the ever-impressive Blom moves in a synth-led direction inspired by Micachu and the Shapes. The album includes duets with Alex Kapranos and Personal Trainer’s Willem Smit that work especially well. Emma Anderson              Pearlies Co-founder of […]

ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 20 OCTOBER 2023

PREVIEWS:GIG HIGHLIGHTS FOR THIS WEEK – SQUID, UNDERTONES, THE BREATH AND MORE

18  Paris, Texas – Yes Pink Room This LA duo bring their hop hop influenced rock sounds to Yes hot on the heels of recent debut album ‘Mid Air’. A fusion of bouncing beats, angsty guitars, and flowing melodic rhymes have seen them tipped as one of the most exciting new musical prospects around. Squid […]
Nadine Shan has made a welcome return with her first new music since 2020’s ‘Kitchen Sink’. ‘Topless Mother’ is the initial track to be released from her forthcoming album, ‘Filthy Underneath’, which will be out on 23 February 2024 via EMI North. Shah describes the song as being “about a counsellor I worked with that […]

NEWS: NADINE SHAH ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM