ALBUM REVIEW – MARGARET GLASPY: I AM BOTH

“In any industry, success is measured by climbing as high as you possibly can, but these days I think of music as something more like a public service. You show up in city after city and you bring the...

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ALBUM REVIEW – ARIANA GRANDE: PETAL

Ariana Grande steps back into the music scene once again with her eighth studio album, Petal. The listener is softly guided into this new era through the gentle melodic opening of the first track, ‘ki...

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GIG GUIDE – AUGUST 2026

As Summer begins to draw to a close, there is only one way to make the most of it, live music! And this August there are some incredible gigs happening in and around Manchester to make sure you do jus...

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ALBUM REVIEW – DEEP PURPLE: SPLAT!

The psychedelic, prog and classic rock legends Deep Purple have returned. And boy, have they come back heavy. The rock legends are best known for their hard rock edge, especially on classics like ‘Smo...

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ALBUM REVIEW – LUCIA & THE BEST BOYS: PICKING PETALS

There are few bands in Britain’s alternative scene that embrace reinvention quite like Lucia & The Best Boys. Since first emerging from Glasgow, the quartet have steadily blurred the lines between ind...

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ALBUM ROUND WEEK ENDING 31 JULY 2026

Shearwater      The New World              A headlong, globe-spanning journey through joy, confusion, defiance, reverence, and tenderness, with Meiburg’s voice as a graceful yet elusive guide. Sir Ric...

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ALBUM REVIEW – MAYA ONGAKU: NOTHING SPACE MUSIC

There are numerous records in my collection that include the command “Play Loud” on their sleeve. It does not appear far-fetched to imagine Maya Ongaku’s latest conveying the suggestion that it should...

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ALBUM REVIEW – DURUTTI COLUMN: RENASCENT

The word renascent means to become active or popular again, to be reborn. Therefore, it works flawlessly as the title of The Durutti Column’s first album in 16 years, to be released this month. From t...

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ALBUM REVIEW – LOATHE: A STRANGER TO YOU

Few bands occupy the space between metal, shoegaze and ambient music as convincingly as Loathe. On A Stranger To You, the Liverpool outfit pushes those boundaries further, crafting an album where crus...

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LIVE REVIEW – NIA ARCHIVES: THE WHITE HOTEL – 17/07/2026

Rave culture was never built for daylight. It belongs beneath railway arches, inside abandoned warehouses and in the forgotten shells of Britain’s industrial past, where concrete sweats and basslines ...

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ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 24 JULY 2026

Robyn Hitchcock          The Confuser   As ever, Hitchcock proudly carries the flame for a particular brand of traditional singer-songcraft, a deeply personal penchant sparked by his Summer of Love ad...

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ALBUM REVIEW – BLUE STATES: WHERE THE FADES MEET

Eagerly scanning the Silent Radio mailbox, ever searching for exciting new releases does create a transient, goldfish-like relationship with music. In March 2022, I favourably reviewed ‘World Contact ...

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ALBUM REVIEW – SPEARMINT: CHASE ME

Spearmint serves as a great example of the value of fierce independence. All eleven albums from their 1999 debut LP onwards have been released on their own hitBACK label, allowing the band to develop ...

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ALBUM REVIEW – NIA ARCHIVES: EMOTIONAL JUNGLIST

It got to a point where anytime I’d turn on the radio and a song came on that I liked, it was by Bradford-born Nia Archives. A quick listen to 2024’s Silence Is Loud and I realise that radio was right...

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ALBUM REVIEW – GRACIE ABRAMS: DAUGHTER FROM HELL

Gracie Abrams has become one of modern pop’s defining voices, celebrated for her intimate songwriting and emotionally honest lyricism. Beginning to write songs at just eight years old, Abrams draws in...

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ALBUM REVIEW – PROTEST THE HERO: WITHIN

Pop punk and progressive metal should, in theory, never be mixed. Some bands form to change things though, and that is exactly the case with Protest The Hero. This Canadian band has never shone away f...

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ALBUM REVIEW – NAO YOSHIOKA: SELF

It’s not often that a name and description catch your eye that you can’t help but delve into and immerse yourself and that exactly what happened once I saw Nao Yoshioka. Japanese born and raised Nao Y...

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ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 17 JULY 2026

Yard Act             You’re Gonna Need A Little Music       Weirdly, for a band so associated with incendiary live shows and constant touring, their third LP marks the first time that the quartet have...

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ALBUM REVIEW – TRICKY: DIFFERENT WHEN IT’S SILENT

It is 31 years since the release of ‘Maxinquaye’, Tricky’s debut album. Although it was bunched as part of the trip-hop wave, there was something more elemental, almost brutal about the record that ma...

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LIVE REVIEW – ALEXANDRA SAVIOR + FLORENCE ROSE BROOMFIELD: MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY – 10/07/2026

Any other day, Manchester Club Academy is a cozy and intimate venue which I have enjoyed many gigs at over time- however, during the insane heatwave that occurred over this weekend, the heat had me fe...

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ALBUM REVIEW – CINDER WELL: A BLOOMING BODY

Like many others, my introduction to Cinder Well came courtesy of the soundtrack and theme tune to this year’s best television series so far, Small Prophets. In common with Mackenzie Crook’s previous ...

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ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 10 JULY 2026

Tengger              Sky        Blurring the lines between psychedelic, New Age, and drone, guided as much by intuition and ritual as by composition. Fabienne Delsol            Indigo Red        Artis...

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ALBUM REVIEW – BABY SMITH: LATELY, LOVE IS DEAD

It sounds like something out of a romantic novel. Ray Sonder and Saxon Gable were brought up in sleepy Australian beach towns to parents who were hippies and rockers. Spoon fed Nirvana and The Beatles...

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INTERVIEW – DEARY

deary have become one of the most talked about names in shoegaze’s recent resurgence, following the release of their debut record ‘Birding’ I had the chance to sit down with the band ahead of a sold-o...

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GIG GUIDE – JULY 2026

After the intense heatwave of June, Manchester had some unreal scenes, with the World Cup being in full swing, and some amazing gigs hosted across the city, it is a perfect time to get out there and e...

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ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 3 JULY 2026

The Heavenly Bodes    Green Hills       Recorded on reel-to-reel in a friend’s living room between trips to the beach, it features a collection of lo-fi garage-psych numbers that vary in feel – someti...

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ALBUM REVIEW – MORTIIS: GHOSTS OF EUROPA

Music is and always will be subjective. That is why it is so unique and we all adore it. Sometimes, despite this subjectivity, there will be an artist who comes along and revolutionises the craft of s...

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ALBUM ROUNDUP WEEK ENDING 26 JUNE 2026

Downtown Boys            Public Luxury   Punk and indie roots mix with Latin traditions, drum machines blend with acoustic drums, saxophones both support and interject between riffs, and layers of syn...

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ALBUM REVIEW – IAN PROWSE: NO NAMES

As Elvis Costello observed in 1981’s ‘Big Sister’s Clothes’, “passion went out of fashion.” It is a complaint that has been commonly raised since but, judging by ‘No Names’, no one has told Ian Prowse...

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LIVE REVIEW – SKULLCRUSHER + JO FROM SCHOOL: YES PINK ROOM – 18/06/2026

It’s always a quietly wonderful moment when, in or outside of the venue, you pass the artist you’re there to see play. It happened back in April at The White Hotel, when Cameron Picton of My New Band ...

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