After announcing their huge tour off the back of the release of their insatiably charming 6th album Song From The Wedding Cake, which includes nights at massive venues such as Co-op Live and the iconi...

@           Autosmile         The band expands the scope of their vision, weaving prog, hyper, and a myriad of experimental influences into indelible harmonies, honouring a long line of freaked-out tr...

Beyond The Music is much more than simply a music festival, from the 6-9 October Media City welcomed key industry figures, artists, music executives and music lovers to talk about what the future of m...

Comedy records or music by comedians are rarely a laughing matter. The singles charts of my childhood are littered with atrocities like Benny Hill’s Ernie (The Fast Milkman in the West). Even when a m...

When a voice can hit the highest of notes, it is transformative. Rather than being earthbound and inhibited, there is a sudden sense of release, a soaring sensation akin to being able to fly away from...

Genesis. The first thing that would come to most people’s minds when you say that is crazy onstage costumes, songs that span light years, and most importantly, 5 men that were in their 20s when they s...

A big reason why music is the drug of choice for so many is the way it can simultaneously mix contradictory emotions. It makes for an intoxicating overload. Flora Hibberd’s new album, ‘Mammoth’, lives...

It’s a long post-work trip across the Pennines on a Friday and I arrive just in time to see the blood-drenched Red Method leaving the stage; I’m assured I missed out. Up next are Swedish veterans The ...

Over the past few months, The Sly have garnered a considerable following for a band with one song released. Combine that with the huge artwork on the Vinyl Revival shutters in town, and their stacked ...

Despite such a huge surge in Irish music as of late, Basht. have managed to stand out in such a populated crowd as a mainstay in Irish expression. Maybe it’s the sense of frustration running underneat...

ALA.NI and Adrian Younge       Proud of Me      The album pairs ALA.NI’s gorgeous, understated vocals with Younge’s vintage-inspired soul arrangements, blending cinematic orchestration, psychedelia an...

“I wonder if you’d even feel it.” To live the human life and experience is to live with attachment. For some, all the attachment they need comes off their loved ones, family, close friends and that sp...

One of the wittiest, sharpest, coolest records of the 90s just got a reissue, and now is a better time than ever to revisit—or discover—it. Elastica’s eponymous debut album hit shelves in early 1995, ...

It would be easy to look at the cover to the Death Valley Girls’ latest album and get a mistaken impression. A Sgt. Pepper style multi-coloured collage featuring the band centred around a cast of anim...

The third edition of Beyond The Music takes place at its new home, MediaCity Salford, from 6th to 9th October 2026. The event is both a new music showcase festival and industry conference. After launc...

The prize for most productive recording artists is hotting up. There are long standing contenders such as Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices and John Dwyer with his various OSEES iterations. They rare...

“I bet they heard that all over Manchester” said the bloke stood behind me to his mate, after a mass sing along of ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ performed by Johnny Marr and his band at Castl...

Cinder Well      Small Prophets OST    Soundtrack to one of this year’s best TV shows. Mackenzie Crook says, “Amelia’s music has been the soundtrack to my life for the past five years and I have no do...

A decade after their debut, Blossoms are already releasing their sixth album, Songs From The Wedding Cake. Following the success of 2024’s Gary and bringing them on their first arena tour of the UK, S...

Kodaline are an Irish alternative rock band from Dublin, made up of Steve Garrigan, Mark Prendergast, Jason Boland and Vinnie May. First emerging as 21 Demands before becoming Kodaline in 2011, the ba...

‘Put A Smile On For Me’ is destined to make a dent in this current indie/alternative movement. London-rooted band Keo have fed the fans what they have yearned for, an eleven-track album of Keo wearing...

Palace’s fifth studio album, Ox, is a record preoccupied with the strange temporal dislocation of fatherhood; the experience of standing simultaneously at the beginning of someone else’s life and at t...

Celebrating their thirtieth anniversary, Baba Zula continue to seek out new approaches to music making that is marked by a refreshing unwillingness to repeat themselves. Describing themselves as sound...

As the title would suggest, the latest offering from bedroom-pop mage SOFY offers a charming playbook on not just how to perform magic, but how to continuously source and bottle it with delicious musi...

Broken Social Scene are less of a band and more of a family. That is simply one of the best ways to describe their dynamic. Over thirty years ago founding members Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning met in...

The back bar and merch area of St Michael’s affords a good overview of the room: This former church, now bathed in lush – even sacrilegious – red light still has the raised stage, the alter. And it fo...

Lazar from the Hungarian group, Dirty Slippers, discusses their plans, recording at Abbey Road Studios and their work creating the addiction and mental health support organisation, Suliturné. First of...

Son Lux              Out Into              They have built a singular catalogue that blurs experimental composition, electronic music, hip-hop production techniques, and art-pop ambition. But while pr...

Between working with some of the biggest artists in the world such as Drake and Dr. Dre as well as building his own impressive discography, Kiefer has built a sound that feels entirely his own. As pia...

There are many things you expect when going to an Evanescence concert, the striking and powerful voice of Amy Lee, who sounds every bit as commanding as fans have come to know over the last twenty yea...

Biita (pronounced Bee-tah) means “unique” in the Farsi language. The name was gifted by her aunt to Lisa Houdei who has chosen to record her debut album under this moniker to feel closer to her Persia...

The music of Dur-Dur Band captures the energy and optimism of 1980s Mogadishu. They were the prime exponents of a sound which blended Somali melodies with disco, funk, jazz, soul and reggae. As Dur-Du...

It feels like bias will spill everywhere and lines overlapping writing about The Cheap Thrills and being a Scouser but, the music without a doubt backs it up and the impact in the Liverpool music scen...

Gigs are commonly places of communion, sweat, uncomfortable proximity to strangers, ringing ears and spilt beer. However, with Maya Ongaku’s most recent album Nothing Space Music representing their at...

Various               Nigeria 80         ‘Nigeria 70’ was one of the ultimate compilations, shining a light on a vibrant music scene. It still sounds fresh today. This new release moves forward, divin...

For Rodrigo y Gabriela, home is not necessarily a physical place, more a sense of having purpose and inner peace instead of seeking external approval. The seventh album from the Grammy award winning (...

Enemies of spellcheck, Stoke-on-Trent’s Formal Sppeedwear, parade a dazzling debut decked out with a lorryload of ideas. It is easy to recognise influences (Devo, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Fashion-era B...

Arab Strap         Half-Told Tales               Their ninth album comes almost thirty years to the day since their first single was released. The most prevailing theme across the record is time. “The...

For some, three years is a long wait, but for others, a release every three years is more realistic. This is a tradition that Theory Of A Deadman have had for the majority of their career, and with ea...

After an incredible August filled with amazing weather and perfect for live music, it all had to come to an end didn’t it. Summer is gone for another year and we are back to regular rain and grey skie...

The music of Dylan Young, who performs under the moniker Way Dynamic, had only really passed me by prior to this show. To my shame, I didn’t think to check out his latest record, last year’s ‘Massive ...

Since he burst onto the UK music scene in 2019 with his first single, Weekend in Paradise, Jamie Webster has turned the busy streets of Liverpool, football terraces, and everyday human struggles into ...

An encore is an extra performance given at the end of a concert or show, or a call by the audience for the performers to return. After a career spanning almost five decades, Pulp make their debut at t...

“Flying like you’re limitless, headed for oblivion” Cosmic Americana. Ever heard of it? I would bet a fiver you haven’t. And for the record that isn’t a serious bet, I can’t possibly wager 5 quid to e...

ANYX    Starline              Anchoress front-person’s solo debut. She takes a sculptural approach to her songs, starting with her voice and words as internal navigation from which she works outwards....

The inevitable question arising from reading this title is, “who are the human assholes?” There are plenty of candidates. Is it anyone specific, the entire human race or Willem Smit, the band’s frontm...

Mastodon have never been particularly interested in staying within the boundaries of heavy metal. Formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1999, the Grammy-winning band built their reputation through a restless...

There is an appealingly ramshackle quality to ‘American Pyramid’ that brings to mind Personal Trainer and early Pavement. It marks a whole new approach for Graham Hunt. His previous five albums have b...

Well, it’s safe to say the Mondays are back, and I don’t mean the depressing kind that makes you reluctant to get out of bed because the weekend is over. No, this is the genuine article, Happy Mondays...