"One can imagine driving along the motorway on an August afternoon when everyone has their windows down and this song is drifting out of every car stereo while fingers are drumming along on steering wheels."
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Interview: Orphan Boy
As Orphan Boy release their third album, 'Coastal Tones', frontman Rob Cross tells us how the band threw off their influences, shares some footage from an unhinged show in Chorley and riffs on everything from the state of the nation to the state of the national game
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Live review: Happyness at Boston Music Room, London 13/5/15
Everything about the band was endearingly lo-fi, even down to the way they introduced themselves to the audience – "Me, him and him are called Happyness" – and their audience banter was yet more proof that Happyness are just three silly dudes who'd be a right laugh to hit the pub with.
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Photos: Wyldest + Saltwater Sun @ The Dalston Vic 06/05/2015 - Parallel Lines Presents
Lost In The Manor were at The Victoria in east London on Weds 6 May to witness the phase-driven baggy rock of Saltwater Sun and Wyldest's winsome indie sparkle. We took some exclusive shots and all...
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Live review: Dead Ceremony at Electrowerkz, London, 6/5/15
Dead Ceremony managed to create a three-dimensional sound with a depth that filled the room, the singer lost in the music, seeming to forget he was being watched.
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Listen/Review: Alberteen – A French Connection
Alberteen have arrived at an opportune time to provide perspective and celebrate the south east’s “landscape, history and cultural heritage” on their second album ‘Miss World’. Indeed, preview single ‘A French Connection’ is actually inspired by these counties’ links to Europe, taking in the channel tunnel, an alternative Miss World contest, a Parisian love affair and even Derek Jarman along its merry way.
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Watch/Review: Slum Sociable – Anyway
‘Anyway’ is lent an easy momentum by its assuredly understated rhythm track, and currency by the digitalist timbre of its vast bass drop. Otherwise, it is spacious and symphonic chillout, layered with charming reverbed harp, clipped piano and the faraway soulful lament of the lead vocal.
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Live review: Shiners and Bad Sounds at The Macbeth, London, 29/4/15
Shiners came out seeming determined to top Bad Sounds, strumming furiously and pulling shapes, fingers never leaving the fretboard throughout their Eighties- and Nineties-influenced ska-flavoured rock.
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Listen/Review: Fight Like Apes – Pretty Keen On Centrefolds
Fantastically upbeat and dance-in-your-bedroom fun, this single highlights a lighter, poppier side to the band. Expect the self-titled new album, out on 18 May, to be a party-inducing splatter of cartoony-punk, eclectic electronics and some sweet pop vibes.
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Live review: Trampolene at Koko 25/4/15
To anyone unfamiliar with the Swansea-formed, North London-based Trampolene, they could appear to be another mid-noughties indie revival heard-it-all-before bore, three guys with shaggy haircuts wielding guitars in skinny jeans, but as soon as frontman Jack Jones opens his mouth, it is obvious that ‘Pigeon Detectives part two’, they are not.
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Listen/Review: Demob Happy – Young & Numb/Fizz
Their arsenal of tunes is as enviable as anybody’s at the moment, with a longevity that is unquestionable. Their debut LP is the most anticipated for a long time and I can’t wait for the impact it will make.
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Listen/Review: Slug – Greasy Mind
Photos/Listen - Moon @ The Finsbury 10th April + EP Stream
Check these exclusive shots from the recent show at The Finsbury by the impressive Moon, who went into interstellar overdrive during a set that managed to encompass elements of Floyd, The Mars Volta, Hawkwind and Rage Against The Machine. The band's new self-titled EP has just been launched, tune in and take off below...
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Watch/Review: Mbongwana Star – Malukayi (feat Konono No1)
This may be the first time Lost in the Manor has prospected for fresh sounds in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but if Mbongwana Star’s opening salvo, ‘Malukayi (feat Konono No 1)’, is a marker then it won’t be the last. As fresh a segment of audio as is likely to be unearthed, this six-minute single is essentially a progressive charge of irresistible dancehall Afro-funk, yet it has a surreal, claustrophobic air imbued by a growling bassline that, for all its giant heft, just seems to hang there, as well as an other-worldly metallic melody courtesy of Konono No 1, perhaps played out on salvaged steel.
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Watch/Review: Jacco Gardner – Find Yourself
Exploratory producer and multi-instrumentalist Jacco Gardner throws the psychedelic smorgasbord at this melodic release that, for all its oil-projector embellishments, never forgets it is a pop song.
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Listen/Review: Winter – The Biggest Truth
Unlike some of their folk contemporaries, Winter don't hook you with jangling banjos (who doesn't love banjos?) or generic lyrics about Lion Men (or something) on 'The Biggest Truth'. Instead, they pull you in with sincere lyrics about past mistakes, supported by Noah & the Whale-esque acoustics and the ranging vocal tones of Simon and Garfunkel – the duality of which creates a heartfelt and folky tune.
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