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Music Reviews / Previews

Festival Review – Wireless 2011

by Si Sharp

Hyde Park’s a funny old place, what with it seeming to have two festivals sharing the same field. And as we walked in, there was a Radio 1 style pop-event going on. Ke$ha was on stage. She is profoundly irritating. Do we really need to justify this with serious journalistic observation? Well, according to her [...]

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Decoded: Cher Lloyd’s ‘Swagger Jagger’ Forces Pop Down Your Ear

by Mof Gimmers

Cher Lloyd can’t do a thing right. We suspect it isn’t actually anything to do with her, rather, the machinery that surrounds her. Every single move made by the financiers seems to be one clanging mistake after another. And so, painted into a corner with a neon sign flashing over her head saying ‘Unlikeable’, Cher [...]

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Festival Review: Download 2011 Sunday

by Si Sharp

Is there any more fun to be drawn from rap/rock? Judging by Hyro Da Hero, the answer is “Fun, yes. Essential music, perhaps not.” This is the straighter end of alt/noise rock (think a less experimental At the Drive-In) with rapping over the top rather that the normal approach of recreating hip-hop’s bounce and swing [...]

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Festival Review: Download 2011 Saturday

by Si Sharp

Why are metal bands of such a high quality when playing live? We’ve lost count of the mind-numbing quantity of indie bands we’ve seen over the years that sounded passable on record but dreary once they sheepishly shuffle onto a stage. Benji Webb knows how to work a crowd and Skindred are an amazing vehicle [...]

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Festival Review: Download 2011 Friday

by Si Sharp

“Oh, goody, a festival review! I was there! I can’t wait to see whether this review entirely shares my opinions, or whether it has its own mind. Tell us what you think?” Thanks for asking! There’s an inclusivity to heavy metal that makes spending time with fans of it a total joy. They don’t sneer [...]

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Album Review: Arborea ‘Red Planet’

by Mof Gimmers

Folk music has been taking a bit of a kicking of late with bands and artists claiming folkiness by virtue of the fact they bought themselves an acoustic guitar and couldn’t find someone to drum for them. And so, the circle jerk of self-confessional, mewing horsepiss continues as acts open their hearts to the listener [...]

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Festival Review- Friends of Mine (Saturday), Cheshire

by Si Sharp

Isn’t it weird that this is the first time in recent history that someone’s put on a medium sized festival with camping in the Manchester area? Finally someone is trying to fill the hole left by D-Percussion, the free city centre event where the music was great, but the venue crammed to discomfort. Friends of [...]

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HecklerPlay: Sufjan Stevens Live at Manchester Apollo

by Si Sharp

Pretentiousness is something into which you have to throw yourself. Give into entirely. Not pretentiousness as in the arch cynical theatrics of someone who has simply studied how the eccentric behave, but true commitment to an ostentatious display of self-belief. And at Sufjan Stevens’ gig, we were treated to a soundtrack to the apocalypse, songs [...]

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Hecklerplay- Bring Me the Horizon Live in Manchester

by Si Sharp

During the summer if the heat gets too much, rather that buy a fan, consider inviting much-lauded Australian noise-merchants Parkway Drive over to play a quick set. We’ve never been cooled down by the breeze coming from speakers twenty metres away every time the bass drum is kicked. Their career-spanning set got a reaction worthy [...]

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Festival Preview: Friends of Mine 2011, Manchester

by Si Sharp

As part of our continuing festival coverage, we’re bringing our recommendations of where to go, and our reviews of how it was. This weekend we’ll be going to the brand spanking new Friends of Mine Festival in Manchester. Well, just outside Manchester actually if you want to be picky. Some of the heads of the [...]

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