LIVE: THE GORIES / THE HIPSHAKES – 29/07/2015

– THE RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER – The Hipshakes are like those kids you see hanging around the hallway in High School at the beginning of a John Hughes movie. They don’t figure in the main plot, but they’re far more interesting. They ain’t nerds and they aren’t jocks, they are the music obsessive vinyl collectors […]
ATO Records’ press release states that this album is “Nashville Psych-Rock for fans of Pond, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, T Rex, The Doors”. I would argue that they’re not really too much like any of those bands at all, but still, they’re right, if you like those bands you’ll probably like Fly Golden Eagle. They’re brash, bold, and […]

ALBUM REVIEW: FLY GOLDEN EAGLE – QUARTZ BIJOU

EP Review: The Lilac Time – Prussian Blue

In my review of its parent album, No Sad Songs, I referred to ‘Prussian Blue’ as a “blissful summer lullaby”. A single release in July is therefore not wholly wrong. However, whether it is the kind of song to grab the attention of distracted radio listeners is another matter. The bouncier ‘Babylon Revisited’ would arguably have […]
Can an album sound retro, contemporary and futuristic at the same time? Y Dydd Olaf certainly succeeds in doing so. This is a beautiful album of contrasts from start to finish, and is one that demands close attention. As a non-Welsh (or Cornish) speaker (the featured languages for Y Dydd Olaf), it would be easy […]

ALBUM REVIEW: GWENNO – Y DYDD OLAF

LIVE: KAWEHI – 28/07/2015

– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – “Holy shit, I’m in Manchester!” exclaims Kawehi as she takes to the stage in front of an initially quiet crowd at The Deaf Institute. The tiny American, who hails from Hawaii but is now based in Kansas, already seems quite comfortable addressing the room and gets a rowdy cheer […]
– THE EAGLE INN, MANCHESTER – C Duncan’s career has been transformed in the past few weeks. He released his debut album Architect and has had his lead single ‘Garden’ played a number of times on BBC6Music – and it’s probably playing now. This increased exposure, explains why there are just six tickets left on […]

LIVE: C DUNCAN – 22/07/2015

ALBUM REVIEW: OMAR SOULEYMAN – BAHDENI NAMI

Omar Souleyman’s own promoters have labelled Bahdeni Nami as his “second proper studio effort”, but this does little to convey the man’s career. Performing since 1994, Souleyman has made over 500 recordings, the majority of which were released as cassettes of his performances at wedding ceremonies in his native Syria, the resale of which has […]
– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – The Sonics wrote, arguably, four of the greatest 60’s garage punk songs ever, Cinderella, Psycho, Strichnine and The Witch.  They wrote and covered a bunch of other fantastic songs during their short recording career in the mid-sixties and the influence of those songs and that band cannot be overstated.  The […]

LIVE: THE SONICS – 24/07/2015

BOOK: MATTHEW COLLIN ‘POP GRENADE’

FROM PUBLIC ENEMY TO PUSSY RIOT: DISPATCHES FROM MUSICAL FRONTLINES Check the shelves and you’ll find all sorts of books that contain ‘Dispatches’ from some place of other.  Christ, even I’ve written one.  My particular Dispatches were ‘From The Wrong Side’ but of course I, in turn, picked up that meme from some now forgotten […]
“Wonderful Cunts. That is all.” That’s ideally what I’d like to have published however, due to the restrictions of word count and “professionalism” more of an explanation as to why I love this band is required. But hey it’s Sleaford fucking Mods so I couldn’t give a fuck! Key Markets sees the boys from Nottingham, Jason […]

Album Review: Sleaford Mods – Key Markets