ALBUM: ALT-J – RELAXER

RELAXER follows the Mercury Prize winning debut, An Awesome Wave and 2014’s #1 album This is All Yours. 2017 brings the notoriously tricky third album. Not that it has much to live up to… In my own experience, alt-J are incredibly good at dividing opinion. People either love or hate their quirky, awkward sound. I’ve […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – A dark, incense filled basement crowded with goth types dressed in black doesn’t exactly scream pop music – this is a Molly Nilsson show though. Tonight she plays to a modest Soup Kitchen crowd, although her fan base is growing; she says the last time she played in Manchester it […]

LIVE: MOLLY NILSSON / APOSTILLE – 02/06/2017

LIVE: JULIEN BAKER / LAUREN DENITIZIO – 06/06/2017

– DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – The Deaf Institute is one of my favourite venues, it has a great setup and I have arrived early to finally get the chance at taking a proper seat on the comfy rear bleachers. It is definitely worth it as from the back of the room I can see everything: […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Under dimmed glows, a murmured haziness fills our surroundings. Four figures creep into the light and quietly get acquainted with their instruments. No-one applauds; no-one seems to notice. Much like their introduction tonight Oxford four-piece Low Island started gently in 2016, bending people’s ears with debut single ‘Anywhere’ on which […]

LIVE: LOW ISLAND – 06/06/2017

ALBUM: CIGARETTES AFTER SEX – CIGARETTES AFTER SEX

A crap name need not necessarily hold a band back. Coldplay are doing OK, U2 have shifted quite a few units. Still, unless you are completely without prejudice, you can be put off. I once skipped an early Manchester appearance by Vampire Weekend because I did not like their name – a truly regrettable decision. […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Kicking off her set with new, and at this point unheard, album tacks ‘Good Intentions’ and ‘Eastbound Train’, Marika Hackman’s sounding noisier than you might expect. Once proclaimed as a folk heroine, it seems she’s dusted off a distortion pedal and run with it to the finish line – […]

LIVE: MARIKA HACKMAN – 31/05/2017

LIVE: PRIESTS – 23/05/2017

– Gullivers, Manchester – Before tonight’s show my friend texted me asking “is Manchester safe?” It took me aback. Going to watch live music is something nobody should ever have to worry about, but that’s the situation our city was thrown into after the tragic events of last night. On the way through the streets […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – Monday evening after another warm day, and the room in Manchester’s Deaf Institute is getting warmer by the minute, it is also, packed. Everybody here is ready to enjoy another night of great music, and great talent, and share together the collective joy, from a shared musical experience. It’s […]

LIVE: LUKE SITAL-SINGH – 22/05/2017

LIVE: MAXIMO PARK – 19/05/2017

– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – “This is a song about waiting for something to happen in your town,” Paul Smith announces to the hot, heaving crowd before the opening bars of ‘Graffiti’ build and smash over an electrified crowd. After also selling out the Albert Hall in 2015 with their A Certain Trigger tenth anniversary tour, […]
– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – It’s a beaming Friday night and I’m goose-stepping through the Northern Quarter’s recent proliferation of makeshift outdoor drinking spaces, giddy as a kipper for the launch party of Jane Weaver’s outstanding new LP, Modern Kosmology. Adding to the excitement is a recent personal revelation that Band on the […]

LIVE: JANE WEAVER – 19/05/2017