LIVE: SHEER MAG / TV CRIME – 23/07/2017

-DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER- What’s going on here, then? It’s not even 8pm and the merch table is 4 deep with t-shirts and records flying from one side of the counter to the other at a sweatshop pace; this isn’t normal. Then again, neither are Sheer Mag. A quintet formed in upstate New York (in Purchase, […]
Combining the words ‘fog’ and ‘lake’ paint that of a tranquil scene – muddied with spirits and demons that quest and cloud. It’s hard to imagine Aaron Powell, Canadian downer-pop veteran, releasing music under a guise that conjures any other image, as Fog Lake is just that: peace-of-mind sitting dormant under a ceiling of head-fuck […]

ALBUM: FOG LAKE – DRAGONCHASER

SINGLE: THE WAR ON DRUGS – STRANGEST THING

Sleepless, flame-out anxiety ivies the narrative of Adam Ganduciel – front-man of Philadelphia-hailing sonic-sculptors The War on Drugs. The obsessive architect has openly touched on how a sudden personal downfall – flanked by isolation and paranoia, inspired elemental crusher ‘Lost in the Dream’, but has also alluded to how he’s still figuring out what happened […]
-PAVILION THEATRE, MANCHESTER- Stepping from a bright Manchester afternoon into a blacked-out tent in the middle of Albert Square, I am soon joining the gathered crowd in applauding the on-stage arrival of the two young Norfolk musicians in Let’s Eat Grandma. The claps give way to complete silence as Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth take […]

LIVE: LET’S EAT GRANDMA – 16/07/2017

SINGLE: TURNOVER – SUPER NATURAL

Austin Getz, vocalist and guitarist of Virginia Beach darlings Turnover, demystifies ‘Super Natural’, the first cut from the band’s third studio album ‘Good Nature’, by describing a meditative, yet colossal love as influencing the weightless cut. Getz paints scenes that speak to the indescribable qualities that can be found in the meeting of memory and […]
The angular, Leeds-based plague that is Forever Cult set broken horses free on the wire-wrapped ‘Codeine’ – surfing the fine line between melody and cacophony. Singer Kieran Clarke barks through fuzz and blurs the razor-sharp edges of the unpredictable 2-minutes of hyper-death – cutting any kind of complacency in half and hanging it from the […]

SINGLE: FOREVER CULT – CODEINE

SINGLE: HONEYMOONS – TRYING

Bournemouth-based heart-breakers Honeymoons extend their hands to the warmth of the sun just as much as they shield their eyes from the blinding rays – embracing love’s anchorage as much as they question it. Moving with the careful patience of post-dawn waves, the coastal trio have been drip-feeding doses of uplifting heartache that skirt a […]
Sweeping sheets of sonic blue swallow the chaser – painting a picture of devotion that’s guarded within Cigarettes After Sex’s world of ‘her’, but where Greg Gonzalez has previously found himself celebrating the euphoria of romance, ‘Each Time You Fall in Love’ sees the front-man leaving thumb-printed glass behind as he wanders down a palm-flanked […]

SINGLE: CIGARETTES AFTER SEX – EACH TIME YOU FALL IN LOVE

LIVE: THE HAXAN CLOAK – 07/07/2017

-GORILLA, MANCHESTER- The Haxan Cloak, or Bobby Krlic to his friends, is performing as part of the Mary Ann Hobbs curated Dark Matter strand of the Manchester International Festival, “eight immersive shows from pioneering national, international and Manchester-based musicians…with a light show that will transform Gorilla and the Ritz, creating new universes for each artist”, according […]
-CASTLEFIELD BOWL, MANCHESTER- Castlefield Bowl is a phenomenal venue, regardless of who is playing there. It is not used for concerts very often but every year Sounds of the City takes full advantage of the outdoor performance space that is surrounded by the buildings of Deansgate and Castlefield in the city centre. It turns the […]
James

LIVE: JAMES / THE SLOW READERS CLUB – 07/07/2017