– ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – Before the Albert Hall was one of Manchester’s best loved music venues it used to be a church, and for Laura Marling’s fourth stop on her Semper Femina tour this evening, you can feel that more than ever. Beneath the imposing stained glass church windows, which are allowing a flickering […]
Laura Marling has announced details of her sixth album, UK live shows with a live band, PLUS – a short run of intimate solo shows for this Spring. Semper Femina is released March 10th 2017 on Laura’s own label More Alarming Records via Kobalt Music Recordings. It was recorded in LA in late 2015, and […]
ALBUMS Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly The album that the modern world has been waiting for. The major records to have captured the public consciousness in recent years have been either self-important ego riots (hello Kanye) or tepid retro-pop (Adele, Taylor Swift). Kendrick is interested in being heard by as many as possible, […]
ALBUMS Blanck Mass: Dumb Flesh Alternately transcendental and crushing, Blanck Mass’ second album takes the abrasive ambience of his debut and marries them to stuttering glitch and punishing beats. Powerful, throbbing sound disorientates, blurring into high contrast synths and ravey stabs, walls of droning noise, exotic rhythms and twitchy samples. It’s aggressive, it’s blissed out, […]
– THE ALBERT HALL, MANCHESTER – Friday night is just beginning in Manchester as I approach the Albert Hall. I pass restaurants that are packed and bars filled to the brim on a pleasantly warm evening. I’m anticipating a similar atmosphere for Laura Marling’s sold out show. I ascend the stairs to the main room; […]
– MANCHESTER CATHEDRAL, MANCHESTER – The video openings to latest (and extraordinary) single ‘Sophia’ and debut EP opener ‘New Romantic’ are identical: Laura Marling, sitting on a chair, singing about her love life with an eloquence and directness that act like a direct channel between you and her. The differences are more interesting than the similarities. […]
Laura Marling’s first album, “Alas I Cannot Swim” was an impossibly brilliant debut. Released just after she turned 18 her lyrics combined a delicate shyness with a world-weary maturity that spoke of things with a level of understanding that few people reach in their lifetime, let alone while they are still in their teens. The […]
– TOWN HALL, MANCHESTER – Rumour has it that Laura Marling was paid just £200 a show for the honour of supporting Daniel Johnston on his current tour, and this does not even take into account that she is paying for her own crew and transport. I can’t help but feel that one day someone […]
GIG GUIDE
Between September 2011 and March 2020 we provided a handpicked gig guide every month without fail. It's painful for us that there are currently no gigs to recommend. We hope gigs will return soon to bring you new recommendations, but if you want to reminisce you can still see nine years worth of old gig guides.
