SINGLE: Ratmataz Lorry Excitement – A Year Short On Surprises/Trial & Errors

It’s been a long time coming, but Ratmataz Lorry Excitement (AKA Kev Dosdale) is back from his hiatus. Thankfully it has not been too long that he has had to re-invent himself, like many will attempt and fail. The first component of the double A-side ‘A Year Short On Surprises’ immediately kicks off with some […]
Hackney’s To The Chase are billed as genre blending indie/soul pioneers – a bold boast which they don’t quiet deliver on – but what they do offer is perfectly catchy and wholly inoffensive indie pop . ‘When you believed’ is an exuberant single that zips along nicely and is blessed with an infectiously catchy chorus. […]

SINGLE REVIEW: To The Chase – When You Believed/The Return

SINGLE REVIEW: The Jim Jones Revue – Dishonest John

If you’re expecting an unbiased critique of “Dishonest John”, you’re not going to get it. The Jim Jones Revue is the best good time rock n roll band around right now.  Dishonest John sums up JJR perfectly: 2 minutes of blistering rock ‘n’ roll blues that you’ve just gotta shake your ass to. To really […]
The aptly named Funkystepz gives us two slices of unforgiving UK Funky, and more goodness from Hyperdub. Funkystepz is a collective of five North Londoners creatively named Stimpy, Renay, Scrufizzer, Twitch and DJ, and with a strong following on their Rinse FM show and a string of self released tracks, this forty-ninth Hyperdub offering sees […]

SINGLE REVIEW: Funkystepz – Fuller/Hurricane Riddim

SINGLE REVIEW: The Megaphonic Thrift – Talks Like a Weed King/Fill Your Cup Tokyo

I’m listening to the Megaphonic Thrift’s single one last time as I finish off this review and I won’t be in any particular hurry to listen to it again – but on the other hand, I will definitely catch them if they play at any of the festivals I’m off to this year. There are […]
Does anyone who covers ‘Perfect Day’ actually know it’s about heroin? I sometimes wonder. Getting the BBC to adopt this seminal song could be seen as a bizarrely subversive moment. But considering it was used to express the diversity of BBC coverage, and the song’s complex exploration of romantic expression, drug abuse, suppressed homosexuality and […]

SINGLE REVIEW: The Jolly Boys – Perfect Day

SINGLE REVIEW – Nina Nastasia – You Can Take Your Time

Taken from this year’s Outlaster album, ‘You Can Take Your Time’ sounds so much like a variant on ‘Keep Me Warm’ by Ida Maria that it’s unreal. Essentially the tunes are identical, but it’s the little details that make or break a song. The devil is, as always, in the details. ‘Keep Me Warm’ is essentially […]
Throughout each month I will regularly trawl through the listings on each of the Manchester venues websites to find the great and the good that will be playing so we can pass on this info in our handpicked gig guide. Now believe it or not, we will only include something in the guide if we […]

SINGLE REVIEW: The Chanteuse & The Crippled Claw – Are You One

SINGLE REVIEW: Ensemble – Envie D’Avalanches

Montreal-based Olivier Alary, the man behind Ensemble, is a self-destructive songwriter a la Thom Yorke. It’s not that Ensemble really sound anything like Radiohead, Alary sings in French for a start, it’s just that both he and Yorke pen accessible, beautiful songs and do everything they can to fuck them up, primarily through somewhat schizophrenic […]
To coincide with the expanded edition of High Violet, The National release the album’s best track, ‘Terrible Love’. Though well-respected, The National have always courted boringness like an enemy they keep too close. But with ‘Terrible Love’ that enemy is thrown into a pit and buried alive, because wow, this track is extraordinary. Cleverly, the guitars […]

SINGLE REVIEW: The National – Terrible Love