LIVE: CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS – 04/11/2016

– APOLLO, MANCHESTER – Time passes slowly when waiting in a queue for drinks at the Apollo’s Circle Bar with your favourite musical discovery of the year due to be on stage in five minutes. I’m starting to wonder whether everyone in line ahead of me is ordering extravagant cocktails. As I’m about to abort […]
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER – Marbled acid-fade projection paints the tin-foil armoured synth tower looming monolithic over Manchester’s Gorilla. ‘American Girl’ is playing, and ultra-fuchsia beams cross themselves in waves of vapour – fighting for air with the mixtape that is most-likely titled ‘1977-1992’. This is clearly an environment that’s been groomed by bearded galaxy-eater Ripley […]

LIVE: WOODEN SHJIPS – 29/10/2016

LIVE: OH PEP – 01/11/2016

– GULLIVER’S, MANCHESTER – My first thoughts about this evening are that there is some impressive lipstick on display – probably from the same stick by the looks of things. Melbourne’s Oh Pep! are Olivia Hally and Pepita Emmerichs – so that’s ‘O’ and ‘Pep’ – backed tonight by a male drummer and bass player, […]
– MANCHESTER ARENA, MANCHESTER – Now this isn’t the type of gig you usually see reviewed on these pages, and it’s not really the type of thing I spend my Sunday nights at. But when the opportunity to see two of the all time RnB titans together on the same night came up, I jumped […]

LIVE: MAXWELL – 30/10/2016

LIVE: AMBER ARCADES – 30/10/2016

– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – “We don’t really celebrate Halloween in the Netherlands, but tonight we’ve come as people dressed in glitter,” states Utrecht’s Annelotte De Graaf  aka Amber Arcades, clearly misunderstanding the dress code. Glitter though is a good representation of the dream pop made by Amber Arcades, which, while feather light, manages to […]
After five years, Nicolas Jaar has finally put out a new album under the metaphorical name Sirens. When I saw the cover, I already had a really good feeling about it. It’s a scratch-and-win cover that reveals one of his father’s works, who is also an artist – depicting a fancy and upscale America from […]

ALBUM REVIEW: NICOLAS JAAR – SIRENS

LIVE: SLOW CLUB – 28/10/2016

– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – The dulcet tones of the Bard of Salford, John Cooper Clarke, drift over Band on the Wall’s PA as we wait for the arrival of Slow Club. They stride onto stage and start, appropriately enough, with ‘Come On Poet’, the brooding centrepiece of this year’s album One Day […]
– SOUP KITCHEN, MANCHESTER – Like many I suspect, my first introduction to Jessy Lanza was via her guest appearance on Caribou’s Our Love album track ‘Second Chance’. Her cooly detached vocal fitted in perfectly with Caribou’s slinky dance music, and I was smitten. Now, with two might fine solo albums under her belt, I’m […]

LIVE: JESSY LANZA – 26/10/2016

LIVE: RICHMOND FONTAINE – 17/10/2016

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – On a night when thousands line the streets of Manchester to welcome home Olympic and Paralympian heroes, a small group of diehards converge on The Deaf Institute to celebrate the achievements of alt-American rockers Richmond Fontaine who, after almost 22 years, have decided to call it a day. The […]
– THE ACADEMY, MANCHESTER – “I’m trying to get out // Find a subtle way out // Not just cross myself out // Not just disappear” Elena Tonra professes to us, midway through set opener ‘New Ways’. A mixed message from their latest cut Not to Disappear, which was released last year to critical acclaim and […]

LIVE: DAUGHTER – 24/10/2016