Elephant Stone at The Shacklewell Arms 2023

This was an evening fans had been antic­i­pat­ing for a few years – the return of Mon­tre­al psy­che­delia-lean­ing band Ele­phant Stone to UK shores. This, their only show here, took place at char­ac­ter­ful music venue The Shack­lewell Arms, mean­ing fans coun­try wide had no option but to trav­el to the Lon­don venue, a fact that…

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Bluedot 2023 review

When you’re on the way to Blue­dot, that first glimpse of the Lovell tele­scope is always a ‘wow’, moment. There it stands, on the Cheshire plain, com­muning with the plan­ets and deep space. Our con­duit to the stars and beyond. No won­der that Blue­dot, the fes­ti­val that has grown up around this beau­ti­ful struc­ture has…

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Bearded Theory 2023 review

Well it’s all change for Beard­ed The­o­ry fes­ti­val this year. The three ami­gos who brought it to life have final­ly hung up their beards and sold on the favourite Mid­lands fest. And this is its first prop­er year under the new ban­ner of DHP Fam­i­ly. No doubt the new team know they have a very…

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The Finsbury: Percy Rico, Luxury Goods, Natsuma

The Fins­bury pub and music venue has been qui­et­ly get­ting on with host­ing music prac­ti­cal­ly every night for many years and it’s sur­pris­ing how many local(ish) peo­ple just don’t know about its exis­tence. I became a con­vert after The Bed­room Hour played there and that was back in 2014. Apart from the music there’s a…

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Death and Vanilla and Looking Glass Alice: review

It’s been ages since I went to The Shack­lewell Arms for a gig, and it was a reminder not to over­look this venue: wel­com­ing vibe, good space for bands and amaz­ing Lebanese Street Food cooked to order by Jel­ly­fish Organ­ic (soon to move to Hack­ney Wick).  Both the bands play­ing tonight, sup­port Look­ing Glass Alice followed…

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Bluedot 2023 Late Night electronic lineup announcement

Blue­dot fes­ti­val announce a spe­cial late-night pro­gramme cul­mi­nat­ing on Sun­day when Max Coop­er and MESH are to pre­miere a unique A/V sound­scape, with accom­pa­ny­ing bespoke pro­jec­tions on the 50-metre Lovell tele­scope. Groove Arma­da were just one of the head­lin­ers last year using the tele­scope to beam awe-inspir­ing pro­jec­tions over the site (pho­to above). Here’s the plan,…

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White Tea from a Vending Machine: new single by David A Jaycock

This is an enig­mat­ic work from the Cor­nish synth mas­ter, from HOLD. STAR. RETURN, his up and com­ing album. White Tea from a Vend­ing Machine is the sec­ond sin­gle; it opens with a woozy gen­tle­ness that envelops you and sinks you into a com­fort­ing space with its sim­ple retro-synth sound and lay­ered soft vocals.  White…

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Sara Wolff reveals first EP track “Don’t Feed The Birds”

Liv­er­pool-based avant-garde artist Sara Wolff caught our atten­tion in 2021 on the release of her debut sin­gle Bad Thoughts Com­pi­la­tion, reviewed here. Sara has been busy since then, pro­duc­ing oth­er artists, ses­sion musi­cian, embark­ing upon a solo tour of uncon­ven­tion­al spaces whilst armed with her trusty 4‑track cas­sette machine and the mor­ph­ing visu­als of multidisciplinary…

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Albums of the year 2022

Look­ing over our choic­es for albums of the year, sev­er­al fea­ture dreams, frac­tured mem­o­ries in an ambi­ent set­ting… artists search­ing for clues from the past to help them make sense of the present. Per­haps it’s a post Covid thing, as we escaped our con­fines and moved war­i­ly, or rushed glad­ly, out into open spaces again,…

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Trevor Beales – newly found folk artist of Hebden Bridge

Heb­den Bridge is known for its cre­ative and inde­pen­dent spir­it, and music is a vibrant and impor­tant part of that. There’s the annu­al Folk Roots Fes­ti­val; thriv­ing grass­roots venue The Trades Club, and any num­ber of pubs across the area that host live music. More recent­ly the town has become known for pro­duc­ing a wave…

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