Album Review: Django Django – Django Django

Django Django’s sound is difficult to define. To say that they have a sound is probably all that needs to be said, but I have been asked to write a review so I have to struggle to find words that define them. I doubt they are interested in reducing their music to a few soundbites, […]
– THE DEAF INSTITUTE, MANCHESTER – When a press release came through a few months ago saying that Casiokids were to play a handful of live dates in the UK, I was to say the least, rather giddy. But giddyness was short lived, as I glanced down the list of towns and cities to be visited […]

LIVE: CASIOKIDS – 20/01/2012

Rough Trade Shops – Electronic 11

The London-based label has unleashed it’s annual hardware upgrade of all things electronic and this year features everything from Nicolas Jaar to Rustie to the already legendary collab between Flying Lotus and Thom Yorke, but also the likes of Solar Bears, Ayshay, Modeselektor and Hercules & LoveAffair. For specifics you can find the track listing […]
– BAND ON THE WALL, MANCHESTER – Ok so the idea is simple: choose an artist who samples other people’s records to make their own music. Let’s use Mr Scruff as an example. Perfect. Then find a band who performs his back catalogue but subtract the samplers and play every note live. So it’s songs […]

LIVE: INTRODUCING TAKE ON MR. SCRUFF – 14/01/2012

Live: DJ Derek – 23/12/2011

– ISLINGTON MILL, SALFORD – Friday 23rd December: the night before the night before Christmas. The party season is well and truly under way, but it’s not really Christmas yet. There’s no sitting around, feeling bored and consuming more food in one day than you have done all week. This is the fun bit of Christmas, […]
It’s a neat conceit. In a cramped marketplace of ever diminishing record store shelves; in a world where established artists continually look to re-interpret their back catalogue, to breathe life into old songs, it can be hard to divine an original approach. Some artists strip their songs down to their naked nuts and bolts, some […]

Album Review: Elvis Costello & The Imposters – The Return Of The Spectacular Spinning Songbook

LIVE: FOALS – 31/12/2011

– THE WAREHOUSE PROJECT, MANCHESTER – I enter the Warehouse Project’s Store Street venue a little late, and on my own and so have to somehow find my friends- this is no easy task in the refurbished car park, which looks as much like a done up archaeological dig as it does a music venue. […]
– THE RITZ, MANCHESTER – I like gigs at the Ritz in Manchester. They’re more like events, the ones you should have been at. They are the ones your mates talk about in the pub while you look glumly into your beer. It must be something to do with the history of the place. It’s […]

LIVE: NEW MODEL ARMY – 15/12/2011

LIVE : SLOW CLUB – 15/12/2011

– ST. PHILIP’S CHURCH, SALFORD – Lovely as this ecclesiastical venue is, my view is partially blocked by a sizeable eagle carving near the chancel, so what follows is filtered via a large, wooden bird of prey. I’m assuming it’s an eagle anyway – if you happen to know, don’t write in. Unperturbed by raptor-based […]
Antoine de Caunes, presenter of 90s comedy titillater Eurotrash, famously once said: “Only one French person per generation makes it in England”. Serge Gainsbourg was that Frenchman of his generation, and like Antoine de Caunes he is today most famous for his sexually-charged material – who could forget ‘Je T’aime’? Unlike the Eurotrash man, Serge […]

Album Review: Serge Gainsbourg – Histoire De Melody Nelson (2CD+DVD Deluxe Edition)