Samhain Ritual: folk artistry and connection at Earth, Hackney

As Hal­loween morphs into an ever-more gar­ish orgy of plas­tic spi­ders, eye­balls and and oth­er assort­ed land­fill, how much more sat­is­fy­ing it is to turn to its more ancient and spir­i­tu­al side. Samhain, the ancient Gael­ic fes­ti­val, marks the end of the Celtic year, it’s a time when ‘the veil between the super­nat­ur­al and the physical…

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Sparks release first song Porcupine from new EP ahead of North American tour

First sin­gle ‘Por­cu­pine’ is released today on Trans­gres­sive and Four-track EP MADDER! will be eleased Octo­ber 3, 2025. ‘Por­cu­pine’ is a song of a guy’s fas­ci­na­tion with a woman who pos­sess­es, shall we say, a prick­ly per­son­al­i­ty, all to a verse with a high­ly infec­tious organ riff that yields to heavy gui­tars in the choruses.…

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Green Man 2025 photo gallery and mini review

We gath­ered once again at Glanusk Park in the beau­ti­ful moun­tains of the Bre­con Bea­cons for Green Man – one of our favourite fes­ti­vals of the year. Here’s a lit­tle roundup of our high­lights. Thurs­day opened with a mini line­up that includ­ed W H Lung, mak­ing their sec­ond appear­ance at Green Man. It was a…

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Kaleidoscope festival 2025 review

The sun blazed down on Kalei­do­scope fes­ti­val 2025 at Alexan­dra Palace, on one of the hottest days of the year. Annu­al one-day event Kalei­do­scope has been designed to offer some­thing for every­one – and as a fam­i­­ly-friend­­ly fes­ti­val, you could say it deliv­ers.  For those vis­it­ing north Lon­don’s “Ally Pal­ly” for the first time, the…

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Snowapple unveil new album Utopia

Always inven­tive, with a unique and expan­sive world view, the inter­na­tion­al, female-led Snowap­ple col­lec­tive has released a new album June 13th titled Utopia, blend­ing music, the­atre and activism. And they will be play­ing at Glas­ton­bury fes­ti­val on 25th June. The Snowap­ple col­lec­tive evades pigeon­hol­ing into par­tic­u­lar genre; instead they embrac­ing and bring togeth­er dif­fer­ent gen­res in…

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100%WET debut album release

The Copen­ha­gen-based duo 100%WET unveiled a euphor­ic sin­gle ear­li­er this year titled Over Me, offer­ing a glimpse into their dis­tinc­tive, genre-blend­ing sound. Their debut album, arriv­ing on May 16th, fea­tures nine tracks that show­case their expan­sive, atmos­pher­ic style, sharp­ened by drum’n’bass rhythms and exper­i­men­tal pop ele­ments. It’s an uncon­ven­tion­al mix, but one that cre­ates a…

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Lael Neale reveals new album Altogether Stranger plus film and tour

Lael Neale uproot­ed her­self from her idyl­lic rur­al life in Vir­ginia and relo­cat­ed to Los Ange­les – and it’s a move she has made more than once, due to lock­down. Such an extreme shift has pro­voked feel­ings of alien­ation and dis­con­nec­tion.  Lael’s new album Alto­geth­er Stranger, her third with Sub Pop, delves into and tries…

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MIEN: MIIEN album review

This week has seen the release of MIIEN, the sec­ond album from MIEN – a col­lab­o­ra­tive project that brings togeth­er a group of musi­cians who might be termed a psych super­group. Rishi Dhir, vocal­ist and song­writer with Mon­tre­al psych band Ele­phant Stone, ven­tures into dark­er ter­ri­to­ry along­side Alex Maas of The Black Angels, whose distinctive,…

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Daylight music: coffee, cakes and one hot chip

Gigs dur­ing the day­time are such a great idea. Instead of the usu­al beers and warm white wine, at an event run by Day­light Music you can enjoy a cup of tea, deli­cious home made cakes, plus quiche and sausage rolls – there’s also a selec­tion of chil­dren’s drinks too. Then spend a cou­ple of…

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The Bowie Show at Golders Green Hippodrome

The Bowie Show last night at the Gold­ers Green Hip­po­drome was a bit of a leap into the unknown – both in terms of the venue and the per­for­mance. How­ev­er cre­ative direc­tor Simon Gwilliam’s vision shone bril­liant­ly, brought to life by his Goon Squad: a young, vibrant cast of musi­cians and dancers with tech­ni­cal skill…

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