INTERVIEW: DONALD JOHNSON (A CERTAIN RATIO)

One ratio is certain. ACR are 40 years old. And to celebrate, the band – via their latest record label Mute – have released ACR:BOX – an absolutely engorged collection of 50-odd B-sides, alternative takes, remixes and new recordings, overseen by ACR’s Martin Moscrop at Abbey Road studios. For real completists, there is also a […]
-YES (THE BASEMENT), MANCHESTER- When I first saw punk band WITCH FEVER in March, they made such an impression on me that I really didn’t want to miss out on their headline show at Yes (The Basement). In between then and now, they have toured with Lady Bird and GURU, but tonight is their first […]

LIVE: WITCH FEVER / FERAL FAMILY / BLEACH BODY – 18/05/2019

LIVE: JAKOB OGAWA – 11/05/2019

-YES, MANCHESTER- Nothing beats a chill Saturday evening gig after a busy week, and I’m positive that’s what I’m going to get as I head to the basement of Manchester’s newest ‘cool kidz’ venue, Yes, on Saturday to see Norwegian indie-pop stalwart Jakob Ogawa. I’m lucky enough to catch Stockport natives Valve while they’re finishing […]
-YES, MANCHESTER- C33’s A rather up-tempo opener provides the spectators with a redux to classic punk, energetic yet rather simplistic, perhaps a little too much so. The noise they emit certainly earns them notice, but their inability to actually innovate beyond a string of Ramones-inspired tantrums does little to warm me to them. The drums […]

LIVE: DRAHLA / SNAKE EATERS / C33’S – 07/05/2019

LIVE: CABBAGE – 25/04/2019

-YES, MANCHESTER- After listening to Cabbage over the past couple of years or so, I knew there was something I was personally missing. Certain music press were raving about them being the band we needed, pushing a political mess into people’s faces. For myself, just hearing their recordings, I wasn’t completely on board the “Cabbage […]
-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 […]

LIVE: AK/DK / ACID CHILD – 12/04/2019

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

-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 […]
-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, […]

LIVE: THESE NEW PURITANS – 10/04/2019

LIVE: NILUFER YANYA – 04/04/2019

-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 […]
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 […]

YAK? YES!