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Manchester

Manchester’s Concrete Club turned the noose of neoliberalism with their indie anthem, ‘Paycheck to Paycheck’

Posted on 13 April 2025
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JdX0eWtArndCaiYIe5HH8gwZo24ItAnX

The most promising indie rock outfit Manchester has had swaggering down Oldham Street in quite some time has returned with Paycheck to Paycheck—a synth-soaked, guitar-jangled post-punk-adjacent anthem that picks up where Morrissey left off. Concrete Club turned the noose of neoliberalism into a no-nonsense working-class vignette, unflinching in its portrayal of the modern malaise of trying to keep your head above water while the elite swan-dive into tax avoidance schemes.

Built around a powerful synth lead and a tighter-than-the-welfare-budget rhythm section, Paycheck to Paycheck offers a rallying opportunity to seek refuge in the bleak comfort of shared scarcity complexes. The infectiously adrenalising reprise of “You’re not fun anymore” perfectly encapsulates the satisfaction that’s been stripped and sanitised from society; walk through any town, and you’ll witness psyches cracked by austerity and stitched up with zero-hour contracts.

The irony? Catch Concrete Club live and you’ll find the fun that’s been excised from everyday life forcibly reinstated through their Editors-esque earworms. Their sound may nod to New Order and The Killers, but this isn’t a tribute act banking on nostalgia. With lyricality that hits like a shot to the heart from a candid, politically aware soul and vocals that pull you into the feverish core of their arrangements, Concrete Club aren’t here to be a footnote. They deserve a headline slot in Manchester’s ongoing music legacy.

Paycheck to Paycheck is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Precious McKenzie – ‘Soft Skin, Screaming’: Alt-Indie Proof Romance Isn’t Dead, It’s Just Nihilistic

Posted on 9 April 2025

Manchester’s Precious McKenzie scratched their 7-year hiatus itch with the release of their single, ‘Soft Skin, Screaming’ on April 7; a precursor to their upcoming EP, which brings with it a promise of more cerebrally Machiavellian lyricality and stylistic ricochets across the alt-indie spectrum.

As an exposition of emotional addiction, hedonic excess and how the intersections between them can lead to the avenue of alienation and desperation to evade apathy, the single opts for realism over resolve, affirming how in the end, we return to dust, and yet, there’s catharsis in the emotive cataclysm which proves that romance isn’t dead, it’s just nihilistic and as dysfunctional as its perpetrators as they chase the impermanence of satisfaction in an era of dystopia.

With a chorus that delivers the visceralism we crave to abstract us from the monotony of unaltered mental states following palpitatingly taut verses of angular guitars fuelling the tension and visualising the anxiety that instils itself in the preludes of indulgence, ‘Soft Skin, Screaming’ is the sharpest blade on the alt-indie execution block in 2025.

Through chameleonic vocals that deliver poetic tender sentimentality, augment into anthemic 00s indie adrenaline, find room to inject sardonic spite and let restraint slip into ether while keeping flawless pitch like an indie crooner on the brink, Soft Skin, Screaming, is a buzzsaw through the mind, body, soul and rhythmic pulses.

Soft Skin, Screaming is now available to stream on all major platforms, including  Spotify and YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Embrace Emotional Suspension with Daniel Liam Glyn’s Downtempo Dream ‘in this moment for days’

Posted on 29 March 2025

‘in this moment for days’, from Daniel Liam Glyn’s latest LP ‘WHEN THE DEVIL DRIVES’, is a slice of indie dream pop reverie that lifts the tones of retro-futurism to a plateau of pure euphonic bliss. Downtempo electronica, trip-hop, and synth-pop coalesce in distinctive flux, offering tranquillity as you’ve never experienced, yet a dreamy palette you’ll compel yourself to acquaint yourself with, time and time again.

Ethereal dream-pop vocals echo tenderness into the release, wrapping delicately around the beauty of preserving perfect moments. The single grasps these ephemeral instants tightly, praying the romance found within small details stays clear from memory’s obscurity. It’s a soundtrack to bliss in every true sense, gentle yet unshakably memorable.

Daniel Liam Glyn, a Manchester-born composer renowned for sinking synaesthesia into his compositions, channels his unique visual perception of colour and sound directly into ‘in this moment for days’. Influenced by the contemporary minimalist styles of composers like Erik Satie and Steve Reich, Glyn transforms abstract mental hues into tangible sonic landscapes. His latest album navigates themes of mental health, hazy recollections, and fleeting serenity, and nowhere is this balance clearer than in this dreamy soundscape—an invitation to pause, reflect, and remain in emotional suspension.

‘in this moment for days’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

A.J Galley – Down the Drain: Manchester Has a New Voice of Melancholy

Posted on 26 January 2025
youtu.be/-XBRsQo6y5g?si=R3xZAoQowM_OjtLU

It seems Manchester’s knack for crafting bittersweet symphonies didn’t end with The Verve. A.J Galley’s standout single, Down the Drain, is a stripped-back tour de force evocative of Radiohead’s songcraft, where melancholy flows through the veins of every acoustic chord and sombre vocal harmony. With emotion taking precedence over theatrics, Galley’s voice swells and softens, allowing the momentum to ebb and flow with natural intensity.

Anyone who has ever loved and lost the battle will find swathes of resonance residing within Down the Drain which finds itself leagues away from cliche. At just 22, Galley demonstrates a maturity in his songwriting that defies his years. The track’s progressive arrangement carefully builds to an artfully agonised crescendo, underscoring his command over dynamic contrasts.

Influenced by the likes of Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, and Chris Cornell, Galley bleeds introspective confessions into raw, unfiltered power, balancing gentle verses with climactic choruses that bristle with intricate depth. With Down the Drain, Galley’s place in the city’s sonic legacy feels more than assured.

Down the Drain is now available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Manchester beatmaker Mankub broke the mould with his unbroken wave of immersion, ‘Fly in the Ointment’

Posted on 24 December 2024
Fly In The Ointment (GOTM062) by Mankub

Manchester-based beatsmith Mankub broke the mould with his bold decision to release ‘Fly in the Ointment’ as a single 30-minute track rather than chopping his mix into separate cuts. It’s an ingenious move to keep the album format alive, providing an unbroken wave of immersion for hip-hop fans craving a continuous flow of classic boom-bap, breakbeat, and lo-fi edges. Every sample and beat is meticulously placed to weave a narrative through echoes of hip-hop’s golden era, letting the vibes steer the momentum of this instrumental LP, which was put out by Gold on The Mixer Records, and is now available on cassette and digital download.

Compiled from fresh material and unreleased beats, it merges skits, loops, and fragments of gritty vocal samples to form a loose concept that resonates with cinematic force. Strings, piano, guitar, and jazz motifs drift alongside hard-hitting drums, illustrating Mankub’s skill for building sound constructions that land somewhere between laid-back downtempo and era-defining breakbeats.

Every progression is a revelation—be it a deep, resonant bassline or a mellow section of lo-fi bliss—the release is all hits and no misses.

Fly in the Ointment was officially released on November 18; stream and purchase the single on Bandcamp now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Thee Spicy Leviathan cut through the ‘Noise’ with their latest alt-rock juggernaut

Posted on 28 October 2024

The latest stoner rock-adjacent single, Noise, from Manchester’s freshly formed outfit, Thee Spicy Leviathan, borrows a few salacious leaves from Deftones’ sonic playbook, scrawling their sonic signature across the pages. Once lured by the seductive rhythmic pulse of the single, subversion sinks in as the euphonic deadpan vocals transition from crooning to screamo snarls, unveiling a vicious sense of duality in the production that mirrors the hypersonic drama reminiscent of Muse. It’s practically the stoner rock equivalent of a horror film jump scare, heightening the immersion in the technically cultivated, tumultuously ingenious track.

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to say that Manchester harbours a new, truly prodigious outfit, but no one can deny the powerhouse is cutting through the nostalgic banality of the scene, blazing a similar trail to Dirty Laces, Deja Vega, and The Virginmarys.

As they gear up for their debut album launch later this year, Thee Spicy Leviathan is poised to ignite the alt-rock genre with their explosive, primal energy.

The official music video for Noise premiered on October 2nd; stream it on YouTube now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lovers in Sepia: The Hearse Paid Homage to Bygone Eras with ‘AS HOPELESS ROMANTICS DO’

Posted on 30 August 2024

After forming in June 2024, The Hearse is gearing up to gain reverence as one of Manchester’s hottest breakthrough new wave indie rock acts. Filtered through a dreamy, sepia-tinged lens of nostalgia, their sophomore release, featuring the single, AS HOPELESS ROMANTICS DO, melodically strips away the decades which stand between the present epoch and the soul of the 60s and 70s.

With guitar chords which sweep through echoes of Joni Mitchell, vocals which capture the quintessence of dreamy diehard romanticism, authentically orchestrated crescendos of euphonic bliss, and hints of western indie folk breezing through the progressions, AS HOPELESS ROMANTICS DO is a route to the past never taken before.

If their sound is this sweet on record, the live experience will be enough to give you an aural sugar rush.

AS HOPELESS ROMANTICS DO will be officially released on August 30th with the B-side single, I’D LOVE TO BE YOUR GIRL. Stream the single on SoundCloud and connect with the Hearse on TikTok and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

David Rey Will Reign Over the Manchester Music Scene with His Grime Hit, Call Me King, ft Abnormal Sleepz

Posted on 9 August 2024

David Rey gave Manchester a place on the grime map with his latest single, Call Me King, featuring Abnormal Sleepz. Think of the Manchester music scene; The Smiths, Oasis and Stone Roses will immediately spring to mind, but if any artist can steal the psyche away from those luminaries, it’s Rey with this raw, cultivated track which pairs his hypnotically smooth flows with dark alt-electronic trip-hop-tinted beats which syncopate to the rhythm of the artist’s creative volition.

David Rey, originally hailing from Bermondsey and now a product of Manchester’s vibrant culture, has crafted his identity around the influences of UK grime legends like Ghetts and the resonant beats of American artists like Nipsey Hussle. His globe-spanning inspirations are evident in his music, which combines poignant introspection with visceral vitality.

Having graced the stages of over 35 venues domestically and abroad, Rey’s commanding presence is well-documented and celebrated, from performances that resonate with authenticity to airplay on platforms like BBC Radio 6 and Capital Xtra. His debut EP, Before I Begin, garnered notable praise for its lyrical depth and rhythmic sophistication, traits that continue to thrive in Call Me King.

The single itself is a study in contrasts: dark yet soulful, it delivers a mind-bending lush backdrop for Rey’s sharp, melodic flows. The track dives deep into the core of human connection and desire, rejecting the commonplace narratives of fleeting pleasures to focus on what truly resonates with the listener. George the Poet couldn’t have versed it better.

Call Me King will hit all major streaming platforms, including SoundCloud, on August 9th.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

IST IST dominated the Manchester post-punk pantheon with their latest single, Repercussions

Posted on 14 June 2024
IST IST

Look at Manchester as a landscape and you’ll be confused by the claim that we do things differently here; the proverb only materialises through the mettle of sonic architects in the same trailblazing vein as IST IST.

Since their debut single, IST IST has been an unreckonable authentic force that has easily earned its place in the post-punk pantheon. With their latest single, Repercussions, taken from their fourth LP, Light a Bigger Fire, they emerge once again as an unextinguishable paragon of eminence.

From the first angular note that leads you into a neon-lit hedonic tour de force, you’re hooked into an exhilarant earworm that delivers scintillation and kinetic rhythmic propulsion by the smorgasbord.

By extrapolating the brooding vocal presence of Sisters of Mercy, the cerebral intensity of Magazine, the coruscating synths of Arcade Fire, and the menacingly pulse-pounding beats of Depeche Mode, and synthesising them into a cocktail that could only be stirred by their own hand, IST IST delivered a broodingly expansive testament to their cultivated fortitude.

Producer Joe Cross (Courteeners, Hurts) ensured that the single, which unravels as an exposition of how insidious thoughts can spill from the psyche into reality, becomes an invitation to liberate yourself from your introspective vexation – if only for the duration of the emancipating hit that surpasses ear candy and becomes an elixir for oppressive reflections.

Stream Repercussions on all major platforms, including Spotify, from June 6th.

Follow the band on Facebook, X, and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dance in the spectral shadows of GETNER’s Irish folk fable of moonshine madness, Poitín

Posted on 13 June 2024

After a killer debut single, which posited GETNER as one of the most promising Mancunian rock n roll acts since Oasis, the four-piece fully embraced their Irish roots with their intoxicating tour de force of a sophomore single, Poitín.

Following an intro that allows you to imagine joining Oscar Wilde in an opium-scented den of iniquity, folk rock rancour insidiously riles up as GETNER as the vocals seductively reverberate through the devilish fable which narrates a tale of an old man in Emerald Isle’s rocky hills brewing moonshine during the prohibition era, inhaling the fumes and succumbing to the eerie spectral manifestations of his inebriated with disillusion mind.

It’s a darkly debauched slice of arcane reverie which doesn’t stop short of portraying a mind-altered protagonist. Poitín ensnares you within the metaphysical atmosphere, enabling you to slip back in time and alter your own mind with the hallucinatory vapour which GETNER efficaciously sonically visualised.

After hearing Poitín, Devil Went Down to Georgia is never going to hit the same ever again.

Poitín was officially released on May 31; stream the single on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast