ALBUM REVIEW: KARINE POLWART – SCOTTISH SONGBOOK

What do you think of when you think about covers?  For me, it’s the following: bad (but enthusiastic) karaoke, buskers (and the cover is almost exclusively Wonderwall) and Michael Bublé crooning away 24 hours a day seven days a week during the Christmas period. I’m not saying I don’t like them – more that when […]
-JODRELL BANK OBSERVATORY, CHESHIRE- Thursday Arriving at the festival late Thursday afternoon, we are just in time for Emma Gene Thackery. After finding a space in the busy camping ground to pitch, we make our first journey through the festival grounds. The festival is full, ready for the Halle Orchestra who are just as much […]

LIVE: BLUEDOT FESTIVAL 2019

LIVE: SHONEN KNIFE / SLAP RASH – 23/07/2019

-NIGHT AND DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER- Slap Rash You’d think having two wheels on a car would be a disadvantage in terms of road-worthy technicality; likely it would but since I’m using it as an analogy for this half-quartet, exception is granted. The labour constraints compel the duo to juggle their rhythm-but-also-lead instrumental roles with a […]
-THE RITZ, MANCHESTER- With a title as pompous as displayed above, flattering claims about the performers and MIF’s growing international esteem enticed me enough to think I could actually withstand 6 hours of standing (I did). Largely ignoring the initial DJ set by the event curator, I start to take notice when the first live […]

LIVE: QUEENS OF THE ELECTRONIC UNDERGROUND – 20/07/2019

ALBUM REVIEW: NEW ORDER – SO IT GOES

It was one, if not the, best New Order gig I’ve ever been to – the band, and a backdrop resembling a climbing frame of squares, each one containing a synth player, in the old Granada Studios where their friend and label co owner Tony Wilson worked and where the band themselves had played as […]
-HOME, MANCHESTER- Tonight, a film director is curating a concert in a theatre. It must be Manchester International Festival time! This year’s programme sees the great David Lynch putting on a series of three gigs as part of his takeover of HOME. Yesterday, Anna Calvi topped the bill, while tomorrow Oliver Coates is headlining, but […]

LIVE: THESE NEW PURITANS – 13/07/2019

LIVE: BLOC PARTY – 05/07/2019

-CASTLEFIELD BOWL, MANCHESTER- It’s Friday in Manchester, two boys arrive from Liverpool canned up via a perilous train journey through Widnes and Warrington, it’s time to party. The venue… Castlefield Bowl. The entertainment… Silent Alarm… But backwards! Finding out through musical wizard Dan Saleh that the London four piece would be performing their seminal debut […]
West Yorkshire is home to many winding valleys, roving hills and pretty market towns; a place where one might find a peaceful life. It has an unspoken force that invites a certain demographic of people, who gravitate to this serene part of the country. One such town, Hebden Bridge, is a testament to this energy. […]

REVIEW: LOGAN & MANLEY ‘ORPHEUS VIBRATIONS EP’

LIVE: TINFOILS / SPRINGFIELD ELEMENTARY / GIANT BOYS / FURROWED BROW – 29/06/2019

-FUEL CAFE, MANCHESTER- Furrowed Brow A live debut serves as the opening for this overbearingly heated evening; their approach of using a bipedal drummer, much like how I would envision a stationary marching band, is a noted distinction from your run of the mill sit-and-hit methodology. The synthesiser’s mimicry of archaic instruments (flute, accordion), the […]
It sounds as if Hello Cosmos have thrown everything into this debut EP. By that, I mean it’s an amusement park of sounds and genres, first couple of tracks in rock territory along the lines of Rage Against The Machine, The Cribs, or The Fall with the next few tracks more electro, along the lines […]

EP REVIEW: HELLO COSMOS – RUN FOR PRESIDENT