Not content with his roles as a living legend, a figurehead of Manchester's music scene and the creative industries guru in residence for British Libraries, Inspiral Carpets bassist Martyn Walsh has been busy over the past year creating new music. The Afterglow EP is his collaboration with Simon Lyon and his second new release, following on from his ¡La Ruta! project at the end of last year.
The Lovegods were back between 2003 and 2006 one of the most exciting new bands in the country, building a strong dedicated following until it all fell apart when Australian lead singer Deah was refused entry back into the UK and had to move to France. Fifteen years on, they've revealed a video to accompany the release of a lost Peel Session of an unreleased track called Stand, a reminder of what a great band they were and how the UK immigration service robbed them and us of what they might have achieved.
Live music returned at the weekend with Blossoms headlining a 5,000 capacity tent in Sefton Park in Liverpool alongside local heroine Zuzu and Wigan's up-and-coming The Lathums. Our friends Maarit and Harriet from the At Most One Tour Twitter account were among them and give a fan's eye perspective on the most important live show of the year.
James today release Recover, the third single to be taken from their forthcoming album All The Colours Of You, a deeply personal track that seeks to find optimism out of the most horrible of personal experiences - the death of a loved one.
Rosellas celebrated the midnight release of their latest single Common Ground with a live stream set from Manchester's Spirit Studios. Showing a love of their many influences yet merging them into their own unique sound that sounds both modern yet timeless, the eleven-song set demonstrates they're a band to be reckoned with.
Rewind to last year and a packed Golden Lion in Todmorden. An ecstatic audience witnessed Carlisle's The Lucid Dream deliver a one off performance and a stunning set, during which they showcased some of their new album. The album was put on hold due to the pandemic. However the album has certainly been worth the wait.
Stephen Fretwell continues his long-awaited return with the second track Embankment and the announcement of his first album in thirteen years, Busy Guy, which is released in July.
Last Friday Gold Baby released their debut EP Rabbits after a series of nine singles that preceded it. We caught up with Siân, Sara and Scott for a chat about how the band came together, their ways of working, the four tracks from the EP and their hopes to be able to get out on the road once we come out of lockdown.
Alright In The End is the debut single from Wolverhampton singer-songwriter Natasha Nicole. A song that helped her to fight her own anxiety meltdowns and panic attacks is turned into comforting advice for anyone else in the same situation.
“How else do you honour and thank an artist?
But with the art itself.”
That’s a bold statement from David Balfe aka For Those I Love that accompanies the self titled debut album from the Irish wordsmith. It goes without saying Balfe’s proclamation is backed up with this deeply personal record of pure beauty.
Nine singles into their existence, Gold Baby have taken the plunge with their debut EP Rabbits. Across four tracks they demonstrate a knack of combining instant hooks, changes of pace and lyrics that will fascinate, confuse and make you smile often within the same line.
Hailing from Galway the Irish quartet Slyrydes are back with a bang with new single Boy In The Debs Suit, a year after releasing five enthralling singles in the space of the previous twelve months.
Without having released a single in the traditional sense VLURE had already made their presence felt with a live performance video of Desire at the tail end of 2019 and a series of support slots where they threatened to upstage the headliners. 2021 sees them belatedly, for reasons we all know, enter the fray with Shattered Faith - more an unequivocal statement of intent than a debut single.
James return with the title track of their forthcoming studio album All The Colours Of You - a topical view of the world written in times of COVID and the white supremacist final days of the Trump administration.
#WheresFretwell became an internet question that noone could answer for a decade as Stephen Fretwell disappeared completely from the music scene after his 2007 album Man On The Roof and his last tour in December 2011. His movements became the stuff of internet conjecture with rumours of forthcoming new music raising hopes that then became nothing. But now, ten years on, he is back, with an album in the pipeline if the latest rumours are to believed, and a beautiful first track called Oval.
Proletariat's comeback last year came as a bit of a surprise after they bowed out after a series of sold-out Manchester shows you could count on both hands a couple of years ago, burning out before it seemed they'd achieved much of what was expected of them. Having released a trio of singles since they announced they return and unable to return to the gig circuit because of the restrictions, they set up a live stream show from Hyde's Festival Theatre on Friday night.
There's two kinds of reformation - the big cash-in on the legacy and nostalgia culture that seems to be polluting the pool for new artists being able to make their mark and those that aim to conclude unfinished business that come about as a result of old friends getting back together to rekindle the magic of their formative days and the excitement of being in a band. The latter tend to be more rewarding and Bradford's thirty-one years later follow up to their Shouting Quietly debut sits alongside Thousand Yard Stare's Panglossian Momentum as a shining example of a record that's been made for the sake of making it.
Live music. Remember that? The thrill and excitement and adrenaline as the drums kick in, guitars roar and the bassline rumbles seductively and then the vocals come in, delivering words of wisdom, experience, loss, love or any combination of them? Close to a year after the gig scene came to a grinding halt and on the day we finally (hopefully) got a date for it to start again, The Blinders reminded us what we've been missing with a scintillating live show mixing tracks from last year's Fantasies Of A Stay At Home Psychopath and their debut Columbia on a Twitch live stream from Scruff Of The Neck's Manchester offices.
Dulcimer Melody's debut album Dark Alchemy was one of our favourite random finds of 2020, following an effusive championing of the album in Facebook group to find a record we described as "a meticulously constructed set of ten songs, taut with tension, rippled through with dramatic moments and with a voice that soars, drifts and takes the listener off on a journey through its creator's detailed mind maps." With a new single Absent Friend, we got in touch with her to ask a few questions and she recorded her answers for a video interview.
Matter Of Mind's first single of 2021 demonstrates a harder edge and a vitriolic biting response to an ex who's done them wrong as the Stockport band deliver their most ambitious single to date.
Rang Dizzy is the first track to be revealed from Ryley Walker's forthcoming album Course In Fable, his first studio album of original material under his own name alone since 2018's Deafman Glance.
Sometimes the only PR that can sell you an album is the music itself. We were listening to something sent to us in one of the hundred or so emails we get every day when, away from the computer, You Tube threw a song we'd never heard before by a band we'd never heard of at us. And then when you delve more you find and album and a back catalogue.
After Loose Articles announced themselves with their Orchid Lounge EP in 2019 things went a bit quiet from them, but now their new tracks are coming along like buses. Except they don't like Buses as they tell us in their latest two-minute onslaught accompanied with an equally chaotic video.
Mother Machine is the latest single from the newly-formed Lean Logic released by the Ogenesis label. Julia Grantham waxes lyrical about the beauty of this intriguing track.
Rosellas recently released their new single Damaged and played the Music Feeds festival alongside the likes of Liam Gallagher and Blossoms, winning over a whole set of new fans in the process. We caught up with Drew and Euan to chat about their prolific songwriting, remaining true to themselves and standing out from the crowd and their plans for the rest of 2021.
Out Of Reach is the sixth single from Maidstone band The Shop Window, a track that captures the uncertainty of the times we're living in, locked in our homes and wondering what the hell is going on. Set to an addictive and catchy guitar hook that drives the song along and vocals that possess a comforting warmth and understanding to them, Out Of Reach has a genuine timeless feel to it.
The Slow Readers Club have revealed a new video for their track Everything I Own, taken from their recent album 91 Days In Isolation, written remotely during the first lockdown last year. Filmed in the imposing location of an empty Manchester Arena, the video both complements the song perfectly and gives us a reminder of exactly what we are missing out on.
Keeley return with their second single - the double A-side The Glitter And The Glue and You Never Made It That Far - an impressive follow-up to last year's stand-out debut single Last Words. In just two minutes and thirty seconds The Glitter And The Glue is a thrilling headrush of a song, whilst its partner-in-crime You Never Made It That Far shows a more experimental electronic side to a band whose intrigue grows the more you discover about them.
8 Men is Hennessey's first release of 2021 following on from their 01 EP. It's a protest song and a call to arms to redistribute half the world's wealth that resides in the hands of the 8 Men of the title. Merging post-punk spirit with electronic sounds Hennessey emerge sounding unique, fresh and vibrant - music with a message which you still want to dance to.
Recorded in France in 2020 Drunk Tank Pink was ready to be unleashed to an expectant public when everything came to a crashing halt due to a global pandemic that has caused nothing but heartache for a plethora of musicians. This was Shame’s second album and it was meant to showcase their new found maturity and sound. Nurtured in the womb and ready for arrival into an expectant world the delay has been worth the wait.
Spunsugar follow up last October's release of their brilliant Drive-Through Chapel debut album with a new single (You Never) Turn Around. Incorporating a more melodic sound whilst retaining the headrush excitement of the debut, (You Never) Turn Around is the final chapter of a story that started on the album.
Turnstiles are one of the most exciting bands emerging from Ireland at present with five singles under their belt by the end of 2020. They start off 2021 with their debut EP, four new songs that see them stretching the boundaries of their sound whilst retaining the intensity of their early releases. We caught up with Jake, Colm, Cillian and Luke to find out more about them and their approach to their music.
We were given the heads up on Turnstiles in late 2019 by our friends with exceedingly good musical taste across the Irish Sea. Since then we’ve never looked back following the Galway-based five piece as they consistently produced music of the highest calibre against all the odds that 2020 threw at them. January 8th 2021 sees the quintet release their debut EP ‘The Turnstiles EP’ via Blowtorch Records.
Dial back two years and Proletariat were on many people's lists as the next band to break out of Manchester and then, almost overnight, they announced a split and disappeared. Now they're back, with a new line-up, a powerful new single Go Ahead and a new approach to what they do best. We caught up with front man James for a chat about what happened and what's going to be different in 2021 for Proletariat.
And finally we reveal our five favourite albums of 2020, a strange year in pretty much every respect, but one that still managed to deliver some stunning new music to our ever-growing collections of albums.
Today we reveal five more of our favourite albums of 2020, a strange year in pretty much every respect, but one that still managed to deliver some stunning new music to our ever-growing collections of albums.
Today we reveal five more of our favourite albums of 2020, a strange year in pretty much every respect, but one that still managed to deliver some stunning new music to our ever-growing collections of albums.
Today we reveal the first five of our favourite albums of 2020, a strange year in pretty much every respect, but one that still managed to deliver some stunning new music to our ever-growing collections of albums.
The Red Stains return with their second single, live favourite Freezer Jesus, and their first ever video that captures both the wild lyrics of the song and the chaos that seems to follow the band around wherever they go.
Live From The Attic was the first opportunity for people to hear Ist Ist's debut album Architecture played live in its entirety with the addition of a few old favourites and the first airing of a brand-new track from the sessions for their second record. The self-released album hit number three in the independent charts in May against the odds and has consistently won new admirers since. Yet as the evening was to prove, Ist Ist are at their most formidable in the live environment even without an audience present as they deliver an alternate version of the songs from Architecture that will cement its place in the hearts of those whose path it has crossed.
Back in March, Blossoms' biggest UK tour to date to celebrate their number one album Foolish Loving Spaces was cut off in its prime. Nine months on, they performed a live stream from on stage at Brixton Academy with songs taken primarily from that album.
