Huddersfield’s intimate Parish venue is full to bursting for tonight’s arrival of cult Manchester trio A Certain Ratio and, considering the proximity of the famed West Yorkshire mill town to the former home of Factory records, it’s quite a surprise when frontman Jez Kerr confesses to the audience that this is the band’s first ever gig in Huddersfield after more than 40 years playing live.
Considering the lashings of hyperbolae surrounding the Manchester music scene over the years, A Certain Ratio, one of the city’s finest musical contingent, have managed to avoid excessive limelight despite being namechecked in “24 Hour Party People”.
Humberside heroes LIFE caused quite a stir with 2017 debut Popular Music, among other things breaking into Radio 1's Albums of the Year list where they rubbed shoulders with the likes of Jay-Z and Wolf Alice.
Bodega have upped the ante on new mini-album Shiny New Model, and if you know anything at all about the New York five-piece it's kind of a big deal that the band – whose multi-talented members play the roles of, amongst other things, art director and conductor – are hitting a proper recording studio for the first time.
If you’re going to choose Friday 13th as the release date for your new record, at least go the
whole hog and take the trouble to include a free hockey mask with each item sold. Actually,
judging by the bewildering array of formats in which you can secure your copy of ‘Metronomy Forever’, including a triple LP in orange and green vinyl, echoing the Hanna-Barbera cover
artwork courtesy of French artist Anna Zeum, they might have gotten away with it if it hadn’t
been for those meddling kids.
Hawk Eyes come with talons out on their fourth record Advice, a welcome return from an informal hiatus which saw the Leeds band fall off the radar following 2015's acclaimed LP Everything Is Fine.
It's an interesting time to be Frank Turner – his stock has never been higher, but neither has it ever been under such scrutiny. New album No Man's Land, in a fanfare of publicity which quickly turned to ever-souring debate, seeks to shine a spotlight on prominent women from history whose stories, in Turner's own words, "should have been told already".
Like a rabbit in the headlights you’re caught – whether it's dread, fascination or a deeper resonance, The Murder Capital have you with incendiary debut When I Have Fears. Bitter, twisted, exultant and gloomy in equal measure, the record could be 2019's Unknown Pleasures – not a comparison made lightly but one this writer is prepared to stick to.
Trash Kit are back on the scene with new album Horizon, and it is so utterly disarming, so evocative and genuine that its rounded guitar tones and soul-shifting rhythms float through the air to you on a soft summer breeze.
West coast stoner quartet GOON’s debut release on Partisan records mixes shoe gaze, garage and blues, with woozy 60s hippiedom, leaving you guessing their next move at every turn.
In or around 2500 BC ancient Egyptian artists settled on blue, rare and expensive blue, as the only colour befitting their gods. Casting the common blacks, browns and reds aside, they struck out in search of a lasting, beautiful blue – and stumbled on what we now know as Egyptian blue, a rich pigment still vivid several centuries down the line.
One minute I’m at a music festival, the next I’m in a parallel universe watching an overbearing comedian clad in dungarees is singing about the dangers of texting unsolicited pictures of your bits, like I’m watching some kids’ PSHE educational show in the near future yet laughing so much I nearly bought a round. This is thanks to supremely gifted musical comedian Vikki Stone, a hilarious act at this year’s Long Division festival, the increased comedy featured proof the organisers are not content with standing still.
As bands go they don’t get much more (self-)destructive than Jane’s Addiction, and as Jane’s Addiction band members go they don’t get much more (self-)destructive than vocalist Perry Farrell - and that’s saying something, given the existence of Dave Navarro. But that was then and this is now, and, at the age of 60, a cleaned-up Farrell is dropping his first solo album for 18 years, Kind Heaven, and for better or for worse there’s nothing destructive about it.
Currently starting a warm-up UK mini-tour ahead of this autumn’s main event, Sheffield’s favourite workaholic troubadour is back with album number eight. If you also include the handful of film scores, a mini album and a couple of live releases, not forgetting a ton of guest appearances, we’re talking a pretty prolific return for someone about to enter their third decade as a solo artist.
‘Further’ also sees Hawley looking to spread his wings a little, his first long player named without any connections to his beloved Steel City. Clearly at ease within his 52 year-old self, his creative flames showing no sign of dimming, a continued knack for penning beautifully formed tunes appealing to both punter and pundit alike, sure to continue with yet another sumptuous collection of lush, expansive yet concise songs that disarm and thrill in equal measure.
‘Further’ oozes painstakingly honed, pure song writing craft from every pore throughout its 40 minutes, not a second wasted, be it on straight ahead up-tempo rockers including feedback tinged opener, ‘Off My Mind’, somewhat of a throwback to Hawley’s Longpigs period. The wistful voluminous country of ‘Midnight Train’ and title track ‘Further’ complete with deft touches of string and pedal guitar envelop and soothe whereas the psych pop of ‘Alone’ makes the listener contemplate their insignificance, merely a speck of dust in the vast vacuum cleaner bag of our universe.
Photo: Chris Saunders
Notwithstanding, it’s the tender moments on ‘Further’ that prove the highlights, profound sonnets such as the shimmering ‘My Little Treasures’, kind of a tribute to his late father and over a decade in the making. The equally seductive ‘Not Lonely’ touches on self-imposed solitude, whilst the benign waltz of ‘Emilina Says’, an ode of sorts to Miss Pankhurst, is a touch redolent of the Chris Bell classic ‘You and Your Sister’.
Closer ‘Doors’ touches on the mind altering properties of recreational pharmaceuticals and likewise, ‘Further’ certainly leaves you on a high and wanting more of this all killer no filler material that stands every chance of garnering Hawley a third Mercury nomination.
Casting a glance across UK festival line-ups these days can be somewhat dispiriting; increasingly fatigued rosters desperately in need of injections of vibrant new talent not coming through in anything like the numbers these days. One of the few swimmers against this tide is Live @ Leeds, an event still managing to serve up an eclectic smorgasbord of up-and-coming local talent, complemented by an alluring array of more established acts from home and abroad, catering for all tastes, drawing a slew of music lovers from across the region.
Last year's first visit to Long Division proved hugely enjoyable, not simply due to the surprisingly alluring roster of performers but also thanks to the opportunity of witnessing quality live music inside Wakefield’s magnificent cathedral, a majestic setting for some of Long Division 2018’s leading lights including The Membranes and Billy Bragg.
First James Joyce now, some 100 years later, Fontaines D.C. – whatever else Dublin is, it’s an artistic inspiration to its residents, and on that band’s remarkable debut Dogrel the grit and romance of the Irish capital flood from the speakers like the River Liffey.
Formed from the incestuous ashes of a bunch of 1990s Home Counties music scenes, tonight’s somewhat smaller than expected Brudenell gathering is unsurprisingly predominantly male, middle aged, with a cornucopia of band t-shirts on display for good measure.
After years of hard graft on the toilet circuit, angular London punks Crows have finally dropped their debut album, and it instantly throws the seasoned support act (Crows have appeared on bills beneath the likes of Wolf Alice, Slaves and METZ) into the spotlight, sucked into the magnetic orbit of the unstoppable IDLES.
My last Live@Leeds festival back in 2017 was arguably its finest ever incarnation; Superman still holding up the ravaged tectonic plates beneath Jumbo Records following Idles incendiary set in the basement Key Club directly below, Good Charlotte’s fabulously catchy Pictish pop filling the Faversham with many a lungful of pine-fresh Caledonian air, not forgetting Moonlandingz tearing Brudenell a new one at the end of an unforgettable day’s gigging.
Tour support band, LIINES come from Manchester and play no nonsense, two-and-a-bit-minute post punk songs with a brutal honesty both in their making and delivery. Leila's infectious, drum patterns invite Tamsin's rickenbaker to rumble nicely in the foreground, letting singer/guitarist Zoe dip in and out at will.
The only county in England I’ve still yet to visit is the rural idyll of Norfolk, home of local duo Broads. The initial similarities end there though, as on first listen to the fifth album by James Ferguson and Mark Jennings, one’s general perception of the home of a certain turkey farmer seems a far cry from the post-industrial dystopian sound greeting the listener at the start of ‘Glass Top’, the apocalyptic opening salvo on ‘A Small Box Over a Global Goal’.
There is a moment towards the end of spellbinding lead single ‘Island’ where a synth-drenched crescendo drops to a bare bones vocal and every hair stands up on the back of your neck – this isn’t a rare occurrence on Outro, the second album from Montreal harpist Emilie Kahn, but it also acts as a perfect illustration of exactly what this record represents.
If you had to pick one band that truly reflected Brexit Britain it would very likely be Sleaford Mods, few of their peers managing to encapsulate and bottle the bleakness of this last decade like Fearn and Williamson have managed, as we enter its final year.
Casting one’s mind back to Grunge’s peak period, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney spring to mind. Chatting with those part of the scene from its earliest stages provides very different answers; protagonists keen to separate themselves from the rest of the American hardcore scene due to greater inclusivity, Seattle’s less tribal nature drawing more disparate musicians together creating perhaps a more varied melting pot of sounds.
New York politically charged acid rock four piece Sunwatchers like to rope in many friends whenever they hit the studio, ‘Illegal Moves’ proving no exception. Fusing psychedelic rock, funk and experimental jazz complete with an art school twist, the band’s second effort is released on independent ‘Trouble in Mind’ Records, a label whose roster is sufficiently varied to include both Ultimate Painting and Del Shannon.
A full 40 years after launching a cultural coup d’etat from the cold concrete streets of Coventry, the Specials - one of only a handful of British bands who can be truly classed as revolutionary - are back with new music.
Album anniversary tours are all the rage these days, everyone seems to be at it regardless of popularity and genre, with post-punk post-rockers ‘Trail of Dead’ no exception to the rule.
Headrow House might have room to spare, but tonight's gathered Dilly Dally fans make plenty of noise to welcome the Toronto four-piece back to Leeds. And it's a return that's been against the odds as the band struggled with the rigours of touring life and personal issues post 2015's debut album release 'Sore'.
