From psych rock howled out over a United-Chelsea game to a goth samba band in the street, two intrepid explorers enjoy the inherently bonkers offerings at Salford's ninth annual DIY...
No Island's simplistic approach to aggressive music is at odds with the heavily textured nature of our headliners, but these local noisemakers aren't fazed; vocalist Chris McGlynn throws himself around...
A question is circulating through the crowd – where is the drum kit? Unfortunately, the answer is probably 'Sacramento.' Zach Hill's barefoot, psychotically-intense drumming was a huge element of what made the...
Ten minutes before tonight’s headline set is scheduled to start, a projected clock commences a countdown. With fifteen seconds left, Low take their positions; the moment the digits hit zero, the Minnesotan...
For whatever reason, it seems to take Matthew E White a couple of songs to find his feet tonight. Opener Will You Love Me waltzes past with negligible impact, while a close-following...
Serafina Steer's third and latest album, the Jarvis Cocker-produced The Moths Are Real, confirmed the young harpist as an artist of vision and depth. Measured and stately, but gnarly with...
Do you remember your fifth birthday? No, me neither, but I presume it was dire; someone will have thrown a tantrum and it was most probably a wholly regrettable experience...
For starters tonight, Turbowolf serve up a psychedelic punk rock stew laced with chugging, down-tuned riffs, screechy, discordant soloing and rumbling synth-pulses. Like our headliners, they defy genre classifications, aggressively pounding their...
When Edwyn Collins walks onstage, the lights are still up and background music continues to play quietly through the PA. Yet his supporting cane casts a distinct silhouette, and even...
Seminal is an overused word, but it can be fairly applied to both Pere Ubu and the earlier work of Variety Lights’ David Baker: as the original frontman on Mercury Rev’s...
You'd be forgiven for not realising that this is only Shield Patterns' second show: Claire Brentnall's porcelain songs arrive seemingly complete and finalised within their own framework, their ethereal keyboard...
With a predilection for knotty, staccato rhythms and minimal melodies, Daughter strive to avoid standard indie tropes – and recent debut If You Leave swerved genre expectations. Skittering arpeggios, chamber...
Despite the entire evening being beset with technical problems – vocals drift in and out, disappearing behind squalls of guitar feedback, and the overall mix is one-dimensional, a slab of sound...
By his own estimation, Steve Mason is operating at about 80% strength tonight due to a lousy start-of-tour cold. But, he adds, “that’s still enough to level most people to...
For much of their current tour, British Sea Power have been opening gigs with a bonus set of ‘mellow’ fan-favourites. Unfortunately, Oran Mor’s tight curfew prevents such an arrangement tonight...
You’d be hard-pushed to find a soul yet to extoll the virtues of Hookworms’ debut album Pearl Mystic. You’d also be hard-pushed to find a way into their headline Manchester...
Opening proceedings, Leaf Wrist plays a hypnotic performance of experimental electronics, running the gamut from dusted, dub-influenced loops to something approaching techno, but constructed from sampled and treated birdsong. Never...
After a DJ set from Mirrors and a live set from Edward Organ, covering bases from garage and house to electro, Stuart Howard aka Lapalux takes the stage in the intimate basement environs of Broadcast....
Japandroids still have a rising profile, but they're underdogs compared to tonight's stadium-fit headliners. Regardless, the Vancouver-based guitar and drums duo are determined to put on a blazing, distortion-fuelled performance –...
Following its debut in 2012, Salford Sonic Fusion Festival returns for a four day celebration of cutting-edge experimental composition and leading contemporary music ensembles. Based around the two-site campus of...
