Ahead of her coming EP, out next week, we catch up with London’s most glamourous talent. Photo: Meadow Florence | Words: Lloyd Bolton Sonically devoted to the sounds and style of the discotheque, and visually able to channel not only the charm and sensuality of that music but also its inherent fun, Vanity Fairy is an irresistible live performer. As a fan recently commented, “Vanity Fairy should be prescribed on the NHS.” No one easily forgets a Vanity Fairy live show, which is routinely unpredictable, but always bound to include some excellently Dadaistic dance moves and improvised haphazard c ..read more

Released on Strong Island Records, ‘The Blonde in Every Film’ is the product of a tasteful eye for detail and poetry. Photo: Freddie Willatt | Words: Lloyd Bolton Shimmering into view, Brighton songwriter Woody Green is back with new single ‘The Blonde in Every Film.’ With a rolling rock fabric, the song exudes a kind of warm timelessness, a winding cello contribution from Nina Winder-Lind guiding it like the thread of a memory. As Green sing-speaks the title, he is evocative not only of the gentle petulance of the Velvet Underground’s earlier efforts but also of the confident mystique of high ..read more

The festival collates a shining array of artists from around the globe for a day of choc-a-block music, swaying from hard-core rap to bucolic fantasy. Photo: uh by Sinead Ferguson | Words: Lois Thomas Fair Play was my introduction to Manchester and what a warm welcome it provided. After a day swanning underneath a sturdily blue sky and wearing sunglasses out of necessity rather than suave, the bottom line from more native scenesters appeared to be, “It’s not usually like this”. How right they were. Whilst the rain did eventually return, the atmosphere around the Northern Quarter was not dimmed ..read more

An electrifying indie-pop rocket, Pushpin’s new single is a refreshing palette cleanser of lesser-heard influences. Photo: Lily Doige | Words: Elvis Thirlwell New music from Pushpin has been a long time coming. In the intervening years since 2022’s debut EP Picnic – the south-east London Quartet have been playing gigs basically every week, slowly but surely amassing their cult following and selling out London headline shows. Unconcerned with prevailing trends or fashions, Pushpin’s oeuvre offers a palette-cleansing cocktail of lesser spotted influence: think Vampire Weekend, Fiona Apple, Hawai ..read more

After a six year journey marked by growth, the Leeds outfit’s debut ‘This Could Be Texas’ arrives at last, a sharp and stirring assortment of their most outstanding work to date. Photo: Denmarc Creary | Words: Hazel Blacher “I want this album to feel like you’ve gone to space and it turns out it’s almost identical to Doncaster.”, explains Lily Fontaine, lead singer and frontperson of burgeoning Leeds four-piece English Teacher. ‘This Could Be Texas’, the highly anticipated record in question, certainly holds up to these otherworldly ambitions, and is the latest in a string of high-profile Isla ..read more

Out on Smoking Room, it captures the strangling angst that underpins the mundane. Photo: Carina Simões | Words: Brad Sked Having signed to Californian label Smoking Room (home to releases from Island of Love, Hotline TNT); Maripool – the moniker of Lisbon-born, London-based one person indie-dream pop machine that is Natacha Simões, has returned with another brilliant shimmering ballad ‘not today.’ A melancholic lo-fi indie meets dreampop marvel, Maripool’s ‘not today’ retains the delightful DIY signature sounds that she is best known for. There’s a beautifully sor ..read more

The Manchester multi-venue festival returns this Saturday with a rich and diverse lineup. Words: Lois Thomas This Saturday, Fair Play Festival returns to the city of Manchester, spilling its eclectic line up of artists into the eager arms of a carefully selected list of iconic venues. The clue is in the name; the beating heart of Fair Play’s curation is inclusivity and diversity of sound. The all-dayer will be a shining reminder of the vast array of talent and experimentation which contemporary music around the globe has to offer. After two years of sell-out success, the festival is growing wi ..read more

‘Now Leaving West Feldwood’ expands Bleach’s capacity for vivid world-building, succinctly expressing the unfulfilled dreams and desires of her fictional universal suburbia. Photo: Eleni Papachristodoulou | Words: Lloyd Bolton ‘Now Leaving West Feldwood,’ the second EP from London-via-Southend songwriter Ellie Bleach, sustains her reputation for perceptive and captivating songwriting and a combination of contemporary eclecticism and pop classicism. Like her debut, ‘No Elegant Way to Sell Out,’ it is character-driven, but on this collection the songs are more intimately connected by a loose fra ..read more

The Cornish artist’s performance of her latest album ‘Howl’ was a finely-tuned thing of beauty, masterfully incorporating experiment and space. Photo: Freddie J Watts | Words: Otis Hayes Beneath the glistening gold ceiling of Moth Club, Daisy Rickman performed her latest album ‘Howl’ in full to a crowd of wide-eyed folk enthusiasts on 26th March. Support came from The New Eves, and the quartet charged their way through an energetic set of pounding drums, eerie cello, violin, rhythmic bass, piercing harmonicas and silky flute. Each member taking a turn at an equally striking vocal delivery, a r ..read more

Released on Divine Schism, the ‘In the Pocket of Big Sad’ sprawls with terrific and ambitious power. Photo: MIchael Trigg | Words: Lloyd Bolton Manchester band Mumbles are an infectious force, uniting the euphoria of organised musical chaos with open-hearted emotion. Math riffs spool forth from a duelling combination of guitar and bass clarinet while drums rattle along savagely. Live, they make the argument for being one of the most fun bands in the country, in spite of the earnest sentiment and sadness that underlies the music. This Friday, they release their explosive and affirming new albu ..read more