If you ever needed definitive proof that no city breeds dark indie like Manchester, delve into the atmosphere in Fox Evades’ latest single, Strange Forever.
With a beguiling vocal style reminiscent of Jo Bevan from Desperate Journalist paired with the instrumentals that will remind you why you fell for post-punk and new wave in the first place, Strange Forever is an indulgent hit of tonal nostalgia.
When it comes to the substance in this viscerally evocative confession, Fox Evades well and truly stands in a league of their own. There comes a time in every outlier’s life when we acknowledge that we will never grow into normalcy; Strange Forever captures those cutting feelings while unifying the similarly minded with the lyrical affirmation that it’s a choice to be alone.
Strange Forever will officially release on February 25th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.
Manchester-based alt-indie pop singer-songwriter Minerva Daisy delivered macabre poetry in her latest horror pop single, Something Strange.
After a baroque pop intro, the track starts to pick up momentum after the powerful and queer indie pop songstress delivers the striking lyric “there’s a lump in your throat, I hope it swallows you up” and sets the tone for the fiery release that will allow you to imagine what Kate Nash would have sounded like if she found the inclination to become a murder folk artist. Even though there’s plenty of dark imagery in the high-octane hit, that doesn’t strip the luminary light from this infectious hell hath no fury like a woman scorned release. Any fans of Amanda Palmer, Amigo the Devil, and the Creepshow will find that Something Strange is just as obsession-worthy.
If anyone has what it takes to shake the monotony out of the Manchester music scene, our money is on Minerva Daisy.
Something Strange will officially release on February 16th, 2022. Check it out for yourselves on SoundCloud.
If Rob Zombie dreamt up a band to feature in his horror flicks, I am pretty sure there would be a fair amount of hypothetical reminiscence to the mischievously intellectual Manchester-based outfit, The Battery Farm, who are set to release their second boundary-breaking EP Dirty Den’s March of Suffering.
The addictively dynamic release permits you to feel pretty much every emotion on the human spectrum. Given that slipping out of ennui enough to get excited by new music isn’t exactly an easy feat when our worldviews become even bleaker with every log onto social media and flick onto the news, that speaks volumes.
Beyond the sheer sonic innovation, the genius in The Battery Farm lies in their ability to appeal to the melancholically inclined with their satirically liberating tracks that make having an IQ higher than a loaf of bread fleetingly worth it.
Their exposition on the dankness of the human condition in Dirty Den’s March of Suffering cuts just as close to the bone as The Manic Street Preachers’ The Holy Bible. The parallels with the Manics don’t end there either; notably, they carry the same scathingly sharp lyrical wit as Edwards.
After an ominously distorted Westworld-style honkytonk prelude that disquietly teases the carnage that follows, the EP volleys you into the tumultuous ride with When the Whip Goes Crack which pulls pure veracious poetry out of squalor and indignity. If you thought Ken Loach’s films were hard-hitting, prepare for the bruises imparted by this juggernaut of an alt-rock release that lends from everything from post-hardcore to grunge.
I’ve Never Been to Gorton proves that The Battery Farm can do light-hearted just as well as they can lay down inflamed perception-shifting introspection. Behind the bouncy vocals is an exhibition of the modestly virtuosic talent of guitarist, Dominic Corry. While you get cheap kicks of hearing about the landscapes that you have lamented about being around, you are left mesmerised by the guitar licks that stylistically sit between Marr and Glen Branca.
The Battery Farm may have been lazily lumped into the generic punk category for their previous releases, but they come out all experimental guns blazing with Drowning in Black. The darkly psychedelic release is easily one of the most authentically experimental soundscapes conceived in Manchester in the last two decades.
Roy Keane isn’t Real is a bruiser of a scuzzed-up attack on the stupidity and conspiracy theories that have been sending everyone under recently. If any single proves their commitment to delving deep into their Machiavellian imagination, it’s this punk-rooted track grounded in their working-class charisma.
The concluding single, We’re at the Top, ends the EP on an ethereal, jarringly stunning note. It fittingly becomes the swan song of the EP that encompasses life, death and everything between with infinitely more cerebral finesse than Good Charlotte mustered in The Chronicles of Life and Death. With a similar sonic palette to Jerry & the Peacemakers and vocal reminiscence to Mike Patton’s crooning on Mr Bungle’s California album, it arrests you into reflection while conceptually imparting the disarming assurance that our mortal coil is ephemeral. Ingeniously, We’re at the Top tempts you away from spending your days fixated on the ugliness in the world with the same ‘we’re all going to die so fucking be nice’ gravitas as In Heaven by Pixies.
In their own words, here is the concept behind the Dirty Den’s March of Suffering:
“This EP is an attempt by us to celebrate the humanity behind the moment of death. It’s a celebration of the foibles and fallibility of people, a speculation on the silly and mundane things we may get caught up in in death as we do in life – trips to Gorton never made, conspiracy theories chased forever, all kinds of irrelevant nonsense. It’s an acknowledgement too of the blitzkrieg of fear that must be the moment of death, regardless of how it comes, and the ultimate loneliness that is the destiny of all of us. Regardless of circumstance, death is the most innately lonely thing of all and as such it is innately terrifying. The EP is also a futile attempt to understand how something so gigantic can be so unknowable. None of us know what it is like to die, and just as your humble working boiz are doing here, we can all only speculate.”
The EP is due for release on October 15th, 2021; it will be available to stream and purchase on all major platforms. Physical copies are available for via their website.
Tickets for the EP launch at Gulliver’s in Manchester on October 16th are available here.
Alt RnB artist Gybz has released his viscerally raw single, Sad Boy Hours, which reflects on our tendency to seek superficial pleasure when we are at our lowest points.
The striking lyrical honesty paired with the suitably harsh electronica textures in the dark RnB track pulls you in deeper to the single that floors you with lines such as “Don’t take it so personal, I want it to be heartless”.
After so many artists have romanticised exactly what Gybz strips the glamour from in Sad Boy Hours, calling the Manchester-based artist revolutionary is far from hyperbolic.
Sad Boy Hours was released on July 29th; it is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.
Manchester-based alt-indie electropop artist and producer Rorys Aspect has released his arresting EP, Lifesaver, featuring the standout synth-pop track, Social Anxiety, which comes with spacey 80s vibes and the most candid lyricism you will hear this year.
With shoegazey guitars and just as much reverb on the vocals, the raw nature of the lyricism loses some of its sting in the choral trippy tones that are prolific in tracks from Manchester’s greats such as the Stone Roses, the Chameleons and the Charlatans.
The self-produced track is unequivocal proof that Manchester has another revolutionary in its midst. As a fellow Mancunian, it is all too refreshing to hear an indie artist not falling into the process of assimilation.
You can check out Rorys Aspect’s latest EP by heading over to Spotify.
