SINGLE: Orphan Boy – Pop Song

What exactly is an A&R and what exactly do they do? Apparently, A&R stands for Artists and Repertoire, and is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label. Sounds like a pretty cool job […]
I’ve been intrigued by this West Yorkshire based bunch of sonic expressionists for some time now. To the uninitiated, The Window Right play instrumental music. Some might call that Post Rock or Krautrock; some might call it Ambient or Shoegaze. Whatever it is, The Window Right are bloody good at it. Having recently performed live […]

LIVE: THE WINDOW RIGHT – 02/07/2010

SINGLE: Oriol – Coconut Coast

Keeping them coming thick and fast, Planet Mu shoots out the next bright star into the sky, Oriol. Real name Oriol Singhji, this latest addition to the planet Mu team originated from Barcelona and now resides between London and Cambridge. This EP sees his debut on the late, propped up firmly by reworks of Faulty […]
– THE NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – 11.30pm is pretty damn late for a band to start their set on a Monday night, especially coming off the back of Glastonbury and England’s dreaded World Cup debacle. The Night & Day’s policy of 4 bands on a night is certainly value for money and opening […]

LIVE: The Morning Benders – 28/06/2010

SINGLE: CROCODILES – SLEEP FOREVER

Leave your wetsuit at home, but do remember your Ray-Bans. Hailing from San Diego, Crocodiles are explorers of the darker side of Californian life. In the moody ‘Sleep Forever’, Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell layer reverberating vocals over jagged synth to fashion a piece of retro-while-contemporary noise-pop. Elsewhere in their catalogue nods to post-punk abound, […]
– NIGHT & DAY CAFE, MANCHESTER – It’s not easy growing up in the world The Cold One Hundred’s dark pop alludes to, with its tedium and disenchantment, but for source material, it doesn’t sell them short. The hanging gloom of the Night & Day stage is a perfect setting for the live rendition of […]

LIVE: THE COLD ONE HUNDRED – 25/06/2010

LIVE: CHERRY GHOST – 21/06/2010

– ST. PHILIP’S CHURCH, SALFORD – As we shuffle into St. Phillip’s Church in Salford there’s a feeling that we’re the cool kids in the know: This is a warm up gig for the band’s upcoming tour as support for The Coral. On come our heroes, entering without pretension and after a quick “y’alright?” they […]
Missing the obvious I was going to write, “Harper Simon is a fine musician who sounds a lot like Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel”, when I read the press release and sure enough: he is Paul Simon’s son. Like father like son. I know children want to plough their own furrows, usually in the opposite […]

SINGLE: Harper Simon – Wishes and Stars

SINGLE: Ólöf Arnalds – Innundir Skinni

I know that the current abiding image of Iceland is that of a country with no national bank, and an unpronounceable volcano intent on ruining our travel plans (I was in the US at the time and sadly it didn’t strand me there). But ever since a younger manifestation of myself became obsessed with “Agaetis […]
– PLATT FIELDS, MANCHESTER – There’s something intractably lucky about any festival on Platt Fields. Despite the weather’s reputation for pissing on Mancunians day in day out year in year out – though it didn’t save a friend of a friend getting literally pissed on during Fake Blood’s set – every time there’s a festival […]

LIVE: PARKLIFE 2010 – 12/06/2010