LIVE: AK/DK / ACID CHILD – 12/04/2019

-YES, MANCHESTER- Acid Child With a name as ‘incendiary’ as titled and opening for a headliner dubbed ‘electro punk’, you’d expect some questionable attempt at hardcore along with runic tattoos and enough profanity to warrant an OFCOM intervention… it appears my imagination dreamed big. They have a sound veering around that middle-of-the-road-psych you see with […]

-YES, MANCHESTER- Déjà Vega The 3-piece’s formula could be deciphered as: drumming reminiscent of one of those Palm Desert bands from the early 1990s, no doubt putting the kit’s structural integrity into question as the concussive quality surprisingly rings through a sound system I certainly wouldn’t count as Manchester’s finest. The bass playing, with a […]

LIVE: YAK / MUSH / DEJA VEGA – 09/04/2019

LIVE: THESE NEW PURITANS – 10/04/2019

-YES, MANCHESTER- Can’t lie kids, this is going to be pretty gushing. What unfolds tonight in Yes is by far the best thing I’ve seen so far this year, it’s all the words like ‘astonishing’, ‘scintillating’, ‘fucking unbelievable’, those kind of descriptors. Because TNP are by far and away the best band in the country, […]

-YES, MANCHESTER- Nilüfer Yanya has recently cashed in on a couple of years’ steady hype with her debut album, Miss Universe. Plaudits have rained in from internet corners far and wide, her ascent into the mainstream of the alternative complete. It is fully deserved, too. Miss Universe is a charmingly strange album, one of those that […]

LIVE: NILUFER YANYA – 04/04/2019

YAK? YES!

Artistic evolution and rigorous touring tends to turn even the most disjointed of bands into tight, disciplined formations that can intuitively bounce off one another; it applies here too. With the band lifespan now exceeding more than half a decade, alt-rock trio Yak have put in the hours for the success that they now have […]

-YES (THE BASEMENT), MANCHESTER- I was slightly disparaging about aspects of YES on account of my visit to it on its opening weekend but it’s clear that the rest of Manchester stand in firm disagreement. Walking in to the sound of Joy Division this Saturday night it’s clear that it has managed to sustain the […]

LIVE: HOLIDAY GHOSTS / FRUIT TONES – 23/03/2019

LIVE: IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE / AADAE – 15/03/2019

-YES, MANCHESTER- London’s own afro-funk party known as Ibibio Sound Machine have gained a passionate following from all walks of life, young and old. A likely reasoning is the way they sew West-African dance and funk music with the hyper-animated electro-punk heard over at labels like DFA Records. Tonight, they play at Yes in Manchester […]

-YES, MANCHESTER- Self Esteem is the new solo project of former Slow Club member Rebecca Taylor, a band which I know very little about so that’s all the info you’re getting about them from me. Having never been a fan of said band, I came to Self Esteem on the back of hearing the wonderful […]

LIVE: SELF ESTEEM – 14/03/2019

LIVE: WILLIE J. HEALEY / EGYPTIAN BLUE – 20/02/2019

-YES, MANCHESTER- I’ve comprised a theory that Ellie Rowsell of Wolf Alice and Nick Valensi of The Strokes secretly had four children. They’re stood right in front of me, being blinded by the projector showing images of a trippy nature; disturbing to some viewers but hypnotising to most. They might’ve thrown in some of Ross […]

-YES, MANCHESTER- Gong Gong Gong Probably the first foreign (not that it matters really) music act I have reviewed, this duo of but bass and guitar invoke deliberate repetition in their playing style; unusual I suppose. The vocals, adequate in their delivery as the set progresses, are sung in Cantonese lyrics; while I am fond […]