Preview: Columns Festival @ Manchester Cathedral

Manchester Cathedral will host, for the second year, Columns Festival on Saturday 2 May. The one-day event makes use of the cavernous Cathedral setting and showcases a shortlist of strong leftfield emerging electronic artists. Last year’s line-up included Future Islands and East India Youth, both of whom promptly became far more established artists in their own right. This year is headlined by the Canadian duo of Purity Ring and Braids alongside Ghostpoet, Born Gold, Shivum Sharma, Clarence Clarity and Cash + David. It looks set to showcase another range of performers, many of whom are performing newly released music.

Topping the bill is Purity Ring, showcasing their second and more accessible album, Another Eternity. Arriving from an extensive European tour, the Manchester stop will be another in a long line with tour support and kindred spirit Born Gold. Both artists are deeply rooted in the electro-pop formula and are strongly interconnected performers.

The festival will also mark the first weekend after the release of Braids’ third album, Deep In the Iris. One of the most progressive Canadian artists of the decade, the group’s collective work has gained comparisons with Animal Collective, Björk and Burial. With further shifts in direction on their new album they have delved into drum and bass as well as house. Early single ‘Miniskirt’ also suggests a new clarity to their sound that has often relied on a dense and obscure maximalist approach.

Ghostpoet likewise released his third album, Shedding Skin, back in March, conveying a similar upfront confidence that was missing from his previous work. His performance, like many on the bill, will prove his progression as an artist, from Mercury nomination to now.

Three relatively undiscovered artists complete the bill. Shivum Sharma fuses gospel atmospherics with soft, minimalist textures. Clarence Clarity is taking glitch-pop to an extreme, sounding like a cross-between Kindness and Hudson Mohawke, but with added camp. Finally Cash + David, featuring Bombay Bicycle Club backing singer Liz Lawrence, are an electro-pop duo surely taking note of the headliners. All three will feature first at Columns before venturing to play a number of the summer’s most anticipated festivals.

Columns is set to be an occasion for hearing established electronic talents alongside new blood relishing the chance to perform in one of the city’s most ornate venues.

Words: Thomas Dixon

Information and tickets can be found on the Columns website, here.

Preview: Autumn Live Shows

Leaves are turning from green to a plethora of brightness and autumn is tightening its chilly grip. But before we drift into summer nostalgia, its worth reminding ourselves that this time of year is also synonymous with touring, and with Manchester being part of many major tours there’s no shortage of gigs coming our way in the coming weeks.

For starters, the Holy Trinity of Trof venues are offering a vast range of acts to please any discerning ear, from Mercury Award nominee Kate Tempest (Deaf Institute, 9 November) and the euphorically eclectic Adult Jazz (Deaf Institute, 12 November) to one of Liverpool’s finest new acts Circa Waves (Gorilla, 7 November) and the rising superstar St Vincent (Albert Hall, 22 October).

Manchester Cathedral has certainly come a long way as an alternative music venue. As well as an impressive list of gigs, on 1 November it is hosting the all-day festival, Columns. Its diverse and painfully cool line-up includes artists such electronic sound architect East India Youth (another 2014 Mercury nominee coming to Manchester) and this year’s US breakthrough ‘perfect pop’ act Future Islands.

While we're on the topic of those Mercurys, the shortlisted local tip is GoGo Penguin, an intricate jazz trio who've conveniently booked a show at Soup Kitchen on 21 October to celebrate.

Another notable festival event is Carefully Planned, which will take in various venues around the Northern Quarter over the weekend of 18-19 October, bringing us a wide range of new music with a line-up designed to please everyone from indie folk aficionados to hardcore fans. Now in its fourth year, Carefully Planned is making a bit of a name for itself, which is hardly surprising given its tactic of booking some of the best new bands from all corners of the UK (Hail! The Planes, Post War Glamour Girls) and established cult names (That Fucking Tank, Thought Forms).

Louder Than Words is another grassroots weekend event worthy of a serious mention. Dedicated to words about music, this new festival involves writing workshops as well as Q&As with the likes of Viv Albertine and John Bramwell, panel debates on subjects such as Goth subculture and the 'Golden Age' of music journalism, plus signings and performances.

Finally, keep an eye on Islington Mill's goings on as it’s now back in operation and its event listings once again prove it to be a key creative hub in the Manchester area. The awesome 2 Bears (Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and Raf Daddy) are set to play there on 29 October, followed by a big Halloween event promising ghost tours, film screenings and live music.

Words: Anastasia Connor

Review: Magnetic Fields / Manchester Cathedral & Thee Silver Mt. Zion / Academy 3

A weekend of gigs, a weekend of music. Let's do this chronologically and start with the Magnetic Fields, whose extended set at Manchester Cathedral on Friday night included highlights from throughout their near 20 year career.

This was a pitch-perfect evening rendered all the more glorious (and, at times ironic: "I want to be a dominatrix / which isn't like me, but I can dream / learn S, and M, / and all those gay tricks / and men will pay me to / make them scream" - The Nun's Litany) by the austere yet intensely atmospheric interior of the cathedral. Consider also, that Magnetic Fields, and particularly Stephin Merritt, revel in sexual ambiguity and only the blackest humour, and the incongruity between venue and artist becomes all the more pleasing.

Singing over his band's paired-down yet beautiful musical backdrop of acoustic guitar, cello, mandola, basic percussion and occassional piano, Merrit's incredibly deep voice resonated and bombinated whilst the man himself retained his trademark cool, laconic delivery, his artful words depositing little droppings of humour and insight throughout the audience, causing occassional chuckles, uproarious laughter and quiet whispers of appreciation.

The band themselves were entirely faultless for the duration of the performance; my only minor gripe is reserved for the sound, which was perhaps a little on the quiet side. This may be a result of Merritt's well-documented hearing condition, or perhaps the sound-engineers decided to rely more on the cathedral's natural acoustics than electronic amplification, however as people began to move around the band began to look more like a sideshow than a main event.


Thee Silver Mt. Zion

Someone, someone like me, with little knowledge of Thee Silver Mt. Zion's recorded output since their debut He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms… would be forgiven for thinking that, as a live prospect, there was a strong possibility that Efrim Menuck's Godspeed side project (and now main project, or so it would seem) would be a meditative, restrained affair - perhaps even a little dull.


That someone would be sorely mistaken: Silver Mt. Zion began their set by blasting through parts one and two of 'I Built Myself a Metal Bird I Fed My Metal Bird the Wings of Other Metal Birds', an incredible punk tune that kicks off with a bristling, distorted violin riff and sustains an exhilirating pace, climaxing with Efrim screaming "Dance Motherfucker!" - not what I was expecting.

Elsewhere we were treated to dark squalls of distortion and deep dual violin riffs, all topped off by Menuck's odd singing voice, which falls somewhere between mockney punk and half-cracked indie whining, but just about stays the right side of 'god, that's annoying'.

Menuck's on-stage persona (or perhaps it's really him?) was equally pleasing, and surprising, as he flitted wildly between the kind of apocalyptic anti-capitalist rants last heard in the background of a Godspeed album and the assertion that the band carried Bono around in a box, letting him out only to piss and shit. Heckling was invited, positively encouraged as it says on the band's website, and the Manchester crowd didn't hold back - a personal favourite of mine was when, after another 15 minute opus ground to a halt, some bright spark shouted "Is the next one gonna be a short one?"

Well, it was funny at the time anyway.

Words: James Roome
Images: Magnetic Fields image courtesy of alterna2 on Flickr / Silver Mt. Zion Image courtesy of: joshtrix on Flickr