LIVE: JULIA HOLTER – 06/12/2018

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- Julia Holter is incredible. The LA-based musician is just 33 years of age, and she released her fifth (5th!) astonishing album Aviary to much acclaim last month, a 90 minute magnum opus that dazzles with its range of styles from atonal experimental noise to some of the best pop songs she’s composed so […]
This lot from Cologne have definitely heard a few My Bloody Valentine, Ride, and Cure records in their time, yet Holygram go for an overall shoegaze shimmer on their tunes, giving each one an overall feel of hazy guitar tones. Recorded in Cologne’s Amen Studios, the band’s debut is awash with that early 90’s British […]

ALBUM: HOLYGRAM – MODERN CULTS

ALBUM REVIEW: THE 1975 – A BRIEF ENQUIRY INTO ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS

“You learn a couple of things when you get to my age,” Matty Healy projects in the 1975’s third studio album. Whether or not this was delivered with a bit of cheekiness, the statement is something most people can relate to, especially Healy himself. Following the success of the bands previous album,’ I Like It […]
-YES, MANCHESTER- Axel Willner, AKA The Field, is an absolute dude. He’s probably the coolest person in Manchester at this very moment, despite the high hipster quotient currently in Yes waiting for him to come on and do his ambient, minimal techno thing. You see, Willner is Swedish, which immediately makes him cool, but now […]

LIVE: THE FIELD – 28/11/2018

ALBUM: VESSELS – QUEEN OF GOLDEN DOGS

Anyone up for some harpsichord disco? One of the reasons I started writing about music in the first place was to challenge myself to do something new, to listen to music outside of my usual indie-rock-electro bubble, and albums like Vessel’s ‘Queen Of Golden Dogs’ fit that tag perfectly, as it’s far removed from my […]
There’s a lot going on in the world of Bauhaus these days, celebrating forty years since they first formed, and by way of celebration, they’re releasing this special E.P. of their first ever recording session. If the word Bauhaus conjures up images of goths, incense sticks, and dark moodiness, think again – they may be […]

EP: BAUHAUS – THE BELA SESSIONS EP

LIVE: ISAAC GRACIE – 19/11/2018

-YES, MANCHESTER- YES. YES. YES. I am confused as I enter the new music venue in Manchester. I mean, I’ve been in venues where the local drunk is propping up the bar with a crowd of around 20 people. But walking into a pizzeria bar hybrid is something bizarre… After being ushered up the stairs […]
-ACADEMY, MANCHESTER- When it comes to deciding on a support band, Miles Kane couldn’t have gone for a better choice than Manchester’s own Cabbage – especially in a Mancunian venue in which their energetic, self-proclaimed ‘semi punk’ performance has the crowd on each other’s shoulders and pitting within two songs of their set. Somehow they […]

LIVE: MILES KANE / CABBAGE – 23/11/2018

ALBUM REVIEW: GESTURES – FUNNY GAMES

It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to any new punk music – although to be fair, the last stuff I was listening to probably wouldn’t have been called “punk” by original punks – I like a lot of the Fat Wreck Chords stuff and Rancid, early Green Day & Offspring and others (sacrilege, […]
Killing Cartisano is an ensemble project by Italian vocalist Roberta Cartisano, previously described as “emotional rock”. In a way, that sums it up – but for me, the description has a slightly dismissive, condescending air of “woman’s music” about it. Killing Cartisano is rock music – the best of which always has emotional content. Call […]

ALBUM: KILLING CARTISANO – VOLUME 1