Review: Deathcats / The Fruit Tones - Thplit Tape (Fuzzkill Records)

Scottish independent label Fuzzkill Records’ recent split single Thplit Tape offers sample tracks from Glasgow band Deathcats as well as Manchester-based The Fruit Tones, the two having just completed a miniature tour together at the end of February. The two tracks by Deathcats, ‘Dreamz’ and ‘Alligator’, demonstrate a clear mastery of forward-moving indie garage sound, with the vocals of James McGarragle meshing well with guitar riffs and symphonies.

The latter three tracks are by The Fruit Tones. ‘Just Feeling Lucky’, ‘Chicken Lollipop’ and ‘Will My Life Live Without Me’ provide an appealing, tropical pop sentiment to the record, contributing to its overall upbeat sound. Both bands rely on their strong sense of instrumental prevalence, but while they appear to have a clear grasp of their genre, there’s nothing terribly revolutionary about either’s sound that seems destined to stand out amidst the ranks of countless others on the indie circuit.

Words: Ruby Hoffman

Competition: Fingathing @ Sound Control

Combining an MPC and turntables with live double bass and unique cartoon visuals, Peter Parker, Sneaky and Chris Drury have built up a strong reputation within the field of leftfield live hip hop under the banner of Fingathing.

They bring their legendary live show to Manchester's Sound Control this Saturday 22 March as part of a spring tour of the UK.

Support comes from local drum and bass band Red Sky Noise and Hoya:Hoya resident Jonny Dub.



We've teamed up with Sound Control to offer Now Then Manchester readers a pair of tickets to the show, so for your chance to see some astoundingly dexterous live hip hop, like and share the image via this link (making sure it's public).

We will notify the winners on the evening of Friday 21 March. Good luck!

NOW THEN. ISSUE 9. A MAGAZINE FOR MANCHESTER.

Our first issue of 2014 will be on the road next week, featuring newly designed pages. Even the back page map has taken on a different complexion, courtesy of local design team, Mogul.

Inside you'll find the words of the people of Manchester on topics as disparate as graffiti, house sharing, food, film, theatre, music, fracking, local history and independent trade, as well as interviews with Polar Bear, Louis Barabbas, Public Domain Review founder Adam Green, and Beth Hoeckel, whose artwork is featured across the magazine. Click the link below for the online version, or wait a little longer to pick up your copy across the city.

Here are our supporters for this issue (in page order). Be independent, buy independent.

MANCHESTER ACADEMY VENUES.
Manchester Academy.

FOOD AND LEISURE.
National Media Museum.
Kagyu Ling Buddhist Centre.
International Anthony Burgess Foundation.

MCR FOOD AND DRINK.
Battery Park Juice Bar.
The Eighth Day Shop & Cafe.
Proof Chorlton.

INDEPENDENT ALE.
Outstanding Beers.
Marble Beers.
The Hope Inn / Fool Hardy Ales.
Abbeydale Brewery.

STUDENT ACCOMMODATION.
Q3 Apartments.

DESIGN AND EVENTS.
Opus Distro.
Mogul.
Manchester Print Fair.

ELECTRONIC MUSIC.
Manchester MIDI School.
Delia Derbyshire Day 2014.

LIVE MUSIC.
Glasswerk Concerts.
Band On The Wall.
Cloudspotting Festival 2014.
Sixxis.

STOCKPORT OLD TOWN.
Stockport Old Town.

Review: We The Dead – Victor (Victoria Warehouse Records)

To paraphrase Iggy Pop, a good song should have ‘a good hook and a couple of good tricks’. I would like to apply that principle here regarding Victor, the latest four-track EP by We The Dead.

Some quite impressive art work wraps up this release which has obviously taken some time and consideration and you would think that there is a similar craft in the music because, well, somebody does.

‘Dule Tree’ kicks in well early on, and stays that way. It’s probably their live set closer. The other songs are okay but they need a couple of new tricks. ‘Thelema’ does its best to try and do that, which might be a way forward. Otherwise, it’s hard to differentiate between the tracks.

By the third track, ‘A Tomb For The Moon’, the guitars are getting obvious and closer ‘Let Me Be’ almost shares the same licks. By that point, those plaintive but slightly obvious keyboards get a bit annoying. I am sure Korg have a few more presets than that.

The only thing missing is what Mr Pop would call a hook. On this showing, We The Dead need that and a spark because, currently, it’s one dimensional.

Words: Dave Jones

Review: Beach Skulls – A Different Kind Of Smooth EP (Cheesus Crust Records)

Surf rock duo Beach Skulls have again brilliantly illustrated their own unique dream pop sound on their latest EP. Unarmed with complicated production or instruments, the songs give us stripped down and honest sounds. Much like their music the boys are laid back and grounded, with their passion going into their songs rather than a constructed image.

A Different Kind of Smooth has an air of surfed up jazz and the two best friends’ laid back approach to life comes through effortlessly within dreamy riffs and lofty vocals. Although individual – ‘U Were Mine’ hitting tones of melancholy while ‘Looking From The Water’ has a lighter touch – the tracks all culminate in the duo’s most chilled and arguably most accessible EP to date. Wistful guitars and soft drums leave you thinking of summer days, making this release one to listen to in order to see us through these cold winter months.

Words: Tilly Sharp

Review: ThisIsDA – Super Arkane (Produced by Mankub)

Super Arkane is the long-awaited debut LP release from aptly named Bristol hip hop artist, ThisisDA. The alter ego of 19-year-old David Aidoo comes from a family of musicians, with his younger brother Just Scribble causing ripples in the UK rap scene. David is no stranger to the game either, being tipped by BBC Introducing in 2012 and supporting grime artist Tinchy Stryder soon after. His unique style encompassed by the onomatopoeic genre of boom-bap has attracted attention across the spectrum with support pledged by Scroobius Pip to Chris Brown.

The album sees a partnership with Mancunian producer Mankub, responsible for the funky soul vibe emanating through the backing tracks. Unlike most vocalists’ albums, ThisisDA chooses to selectively showcase his own voice with the sole exception of ‘Taking Over’, which features Temz. The addition of a softer female voice brings a more melodic downtempo side to the LP, which at times can seem repetitive due to their monotonic nature. But I must say that the combination of dexterously delivered lyrics over the definitive instrumentals of Mankub creates a prominent blend.



Lyrically each track tells an almost autobiographical story of coming of age in the urban ecosphere, without falling into the habitual trap of an unrealistic egotistical hoodlum filled narration. The occasional skit breaks up the album, sampling quotes from movies including American Gangster and Single White Female. This is a brief insight into the spread of David Aidoo’s talents who, aside from his music career, is a published writer, photographer and producer. After completing a BFI Film Academy course, he was named as one of the promising future talents in production.

This free release LP will go a long way to showcase the talents of both ThisisDA and Mankub, tipping both of them as ones to watch in 2014.

Words: Charles Veys

Competition: Win tickets to Band On The Wall

Now Then have teamed up with the revered leftfield venue Band On The Wall to offer the prize of a pair of tickets to one of two upcoming events on their hallowed stage. You can choose between Apollo Brown on Thursday 6 March and Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba on Tuesday 11 March.

The Detroit hip hop beatsmith Apollo Brown makes his Manchester debut on Thursday 6 March with his Ugly Heroes crew. Having worked with the likes of Danny Brown, Guilty Simpson and Ghostface, Apollo Brown is one of the leading lights in a new breed of US hip hop producers. He released Ugly Heroes’ eponymous LP with fellow members Red Pill and Verbal Kent in May 2013 on the Mello Music Group imprint.



Support comes from Union Blak and Manchester's very own Jonny Dub from the Hoya:Hoya family.

Then on Tuesday 11 March, the esteemed Malian Bassekou Kouyate will visit Band On The Wall with his backing band, Ngoni ba. He has been described as a visionary for reinventing the Ngoni, an ancient West African stringed instrument, and popularising its sound with a contemporary audience. After a debut album, Segu Blue, in 2007 via Out Here Records, Kouyate received a pair of awards at the BBC3 Awards for World Music.



His third and most recent album, Jama ko, was recorded during the 2012 coup d’état in Mali, which ushered in a period of uncertainty for the country’s musicians. But, even if performing in their home nation is more precarious, Kouyate and his band continue to perform to large audiences across the globe.

For your chance to win a pair of tickets to either show, just like and share the Facebook photo at the other end of this link, remembering also to leave a comment underneath the original photo stating your preferred show.

For the Apollo Brown show, we’ll draw a winner out of the hat on Wednesday 5 March, so make sure you enter the competition by midnight on Tuesday 4 March if that’s your choice of gig.

Then, for the Bassekou Kouyate show, we’ll draw a winner out of that hat on Monday 10 March, so make sure you enter the competition by midnight on Sunday 9 March.

Good luck!

Hand Over Fist @ The King's Arms, 25.02.2014

Playing the old when you are young can be a risky business. There is always the temptation to ham it up and make a mockery of age, or else play it straight with safe stereotypes that can only open a very small window on the soul. How enjoyable, then, to see Fresh Loaf Productions take that risk and get the payoff with their wonderful staging of Hand Over Fist by Dave Florez. Hand Over Fist is a one-woman show that sees Emily (Helena Davies) tell the tale of an important meeting with a man in a bar. At first everything seems normal, but as the story flows along it suddenly escapes, like water in a river studded with sinkholes. Emily, you see, has dementia, and so nothing is quite as it should be. Infinite significance is butted up against meaningless nothingness, causality vanishes and, in Emily’s own words, ideas and objects are, “Empty...yet atomic.” This mixture of lucidity and lunacy feels very real, and while it is humorous it is also rather sad.

The performance of Helena Davies as Emily was balanced and moving, a credit to both actor and director; sustaining the ups and downs, high flights and sudden stops for over an hour in a one-woman show takes serious endurance. As already alluded to, the portrayal of an elderly person by someone young can be difficult, and so further praise must go to the team for carrying it off. Mellor used music to good effect, softening the harsher edges of Emily's anguish, and the lighting changes made it seem as though the fractals of her personality were shining through her cracked ego.

Losing someone in the fog of mental breakdown, be it through age or illness, is one of the most heartbreaking things that can happen in life. It is hard to deal with, hard to explain...and so to see it depicted on stage with such clarity was rather a contradictory and strange experience. This is the second Fresh Load production I have seen, and while completely different from the first it had some similar qualities. It felt thorough and professional, without feeling safe, and once again the performance felt very real and not quite as raw as your usual fringe fair. My one quibble is that some of the language felt too modern for an elderly lady, even one suffering from dementia. However, even if that is the case it should take nothing from writer Florez, whose script achieved a crazed stitching together of story threads without leaving any unwelcome loose ends. Another strong production from Fresh Loaf, and I am already looking forward to seeing what they do next.

Words: Andrew Anderson

Review: LVLS - Teenager EP (Self-released)

Manchester-based indie five-piece band LVLS (pronounced Loveless) have just released their new EP, Teenager, featuring the three tracks ‘Echoes’, ‘Suzie Shoes’ and ‘Young & Cruel’. The new songs continue in the same vein as those previously released, with the deep, rousing vocals of lead singer Jay Gibb complemented with refreshingly sincere female backing vocals.

‘Echoes’, the first song on Teenager, inventively and effectively combines layers of sound laced with the effortlessly chantable lyric, “There’s no way out of here”. ‘Suzie Shoes’ is the surprise track of this release, standing out due to its a cappella influenced harmonies which carry the track, and proves that LVLS are about more than standard indie rock. This is in fact what sets the band apart – their ability to begin songs such as final track ‘Young & Cruel’ with unexpected harmonies, then launch into energetic anthems that will have even crowds who are unfamiliar with the band easily and enthusiastically joining in.

Words: Ruby Hoffman

The Seagull @ The Lowry, 23.02.2014

If you love Russian literature then you must catch the fantastic Library Theatre production of The Seagull, directed by Chris Honer, a contemporary adaptation by Anya Reiss that appeals to modern audiences but also stays faithful to Anton Chekhov’s original play. If tales of unrequited love and emotional existential angst are your thing, especially ones that aren’t too abstract, then this is for you.

The play explores the creative nature of theatre, writing and acting through characters who are madly passionate about their artistic vocations and efforts; we get real insight into what it means to be a writer and an actor. These artistic types are not happy though, and early on in the play we learn about their discontented auras, as well as their romantic souls and dramatic personalities.

Soon we are introduced to a play within a play put on by Konstantin (Ben Allen) and the object of his unrequited love Nina (Sophie Robinson). Allen plays the conflicted and tortured artist brilliantly, whilst Robinson shines in her role as the naïve, earnest, star-struck aspiring actress. The play within a play is hilariously portrayed as innovative and experimental in contrast to more traditional notions of theatre.

Before we even meet her we learn about Konstantin’s difficult relationship with his mother, as we witness in his rant about her being “a psychological marvel” who is “talented and compassionate to everyone” but him. He dismisses her angrily because he sees her as having high and mighty thoughts about the nature of art, as though she deems herself a “guardian of culture and humanity!” Konstantin especially resents the arrival of his mother’s famous writer boyfriend Trigorin (Graeme Hawley). Trigorin may be no Tolstoy but still he is popular, especially with the wide-eyed and easily impressed Nina, much to Konstantin’s fury.

The designer, Judith Croft, has created a wonderful backdrop of pale water against the island, with signs of a storm brewing. The stage transitions to show indoors and outdoors, as well as the changes over four years, are conducted in smooth perfection thanks to the shrewd direction of Honer.

The play is essentially about middle-class artistic types, who are rather unhappy in themselves, seeking success, love and validation. A wonderful way for Chris Honer to bow out as Artistic Director, the Seagull is a great adaptation of a classic play and well worth watching.

Words: Sadia Habib

Images: Jonathan Keenan