Orbital - Victoria Warehouse, Manchester (4/5/24)

You can see the lights from the trademark pair of headtorches bobbing up and down as the opening beats and blips of 'The Moebius' starts. With throbbing bass and squelching bleeps, it sounds huge. The racing, bodyrocking rave of 'Speedfreak' is exhilarating, and the little Josh Wink style wigout is ace. There are a few technical issues which halts the start of 'Oolaa'. 'Steel Cube Idolatry' and 'High Rise' are both pounding, with chiming electronics. 'Torpedo Town' is pretty housey, which is a nice variation. The chilling electronica of 'Chime' is glorious. It's hard to come up with individual descriptions for each track when all you want to do is dance, and that's exactly what I do for the duration of their set. The uplifting choral electronica of 'Belfast' is superb.

As they are performing both the 'Green' and 'Brown' albums in their entirety tonight, there is a short break before they return for 'The Brown Album'.

'Planet Of The Shapes' is hypnotic and trippy, and the geometric visuals are excellent. The celtic flavoured rave of 'Luna 3-1' is excellent whilst 'Luna 3-2' hits HARD. Unlike the first set, there are barely any gaps between the tracks so each song is just mixed into the next. The effect is intense as a mass of bodies just lock into various continuous grooves for over an hour. The images are more apocalyptic too. Everything about 'The Brown Album' is more focused and intense. 'Halcyon On And On' is a real party starter, not that the place needs it.

Even after over two and a half hours of music, we still get a few tracks as an encore including a version of The Spice Girls' 'Wannabe' and their collaboration with Sleaford Mods, 'Dirty Rat'. The penultimate track, the classic 'Satan', still absolutely crushes. Phenomenal.

Orbital *****

Haunt The Woods - Gullivers, Manchester (3/5/24)

Haunt The Woods' singer, Jonathan Stafford, opens with a short solo set of acoustic songs. The material is in the style of Radiohead or early Coldplay. He has a great Thom Yorke style voice, fragile and delicate in parts yet powerful when he opens up. The songs are mainly works in progress but still sound really good.

The band open with the overblown prog pomp of 'Fever Dream', with its dramatic mix of Muse, Queen and Radiohead. Jonathan has a terrific falsetto and the high notes even have a touch of Justin hawkins about them. It's a terrific start. 'Gold' is fantastic, sounding like 'In Rainbows' era Radiohead. There's much more energy and passion than the studio recordings. The incredible 'Save Me' is Radiohead at their most damaged before morphing into a Queensryche style power ballad. Jonathan's voice at the climax hits Geoff Tate levels and is spine tingling. 'Equilibrium' is quite romantic, like Coldplay's 'Shiver' as performed by Radiohead. 'Elephant' boasts an incredible chorus. New song 'Ashes' is unbelievable, a more stripped back affair with a Laurel Canyon CSNY vibe, and the four part harmonies are amazing. 'Ubiquity' sounds huge despite its delicate nature. 'Overflow' is staggering, so emotional it almost makes me weep. It is probably the best song Radiohead never wrote. Guitarist Phoenix Elleschild plays a number of fantastic solos, particularly on 'The Line Pt. II'. The Muse-like 'Now Is Our Time' is one of the more powerful and dynamic songs in the set. 'Amethyst' features yet more guitar pyrotechnics and a super chorus. The quality never drops throughout and I'm left wondering why Haunt The Woods aren't massive because they are absolutely first rate.

Haunt The Woods *****

Melts & Rude Films - YES Basement, Manchester (26/4/24)

Rude Films open with a moody cinematic guitar line which builds in intensity whilst the drums dictate the stop/start dynamics. It has a post-rock feel not dissimilar to Mono. Their other songs are a bit more conventional. like a post-rock/alt rock  mix with dreamy vocals. It is pretty powerful and hypnotic. One song starts off gentler and the vocals give it a Radiohead quality, which then builds to a heavy climax. 'Serenity' pairs tribal rhythms with a more gothic edge (particularly the vocals). Closing number 'Black Snow' is driving post-rock played at a blistering pace. Good stuff.

Melts open with 'Altered'. Its insistent psych rock is not unlike Deja Vega musically whilst the vocals have a They Might Be Giants feel and the singer has a presence similar to David Byrne. 'Figment' sees the electronics take a more prominent role and the overall effect is like Giorgio Moroder being blasted into orbit, aimed directly at the sun. So fucking good. 'Outlier' takes retro futuristic electronics like Kraftwerk  or early OMD and stretches it through several dimensions. A couple of tracks sound like The Inspiral Carpets if they'd gone down the swirling psychedelia route. In their less intense moments, such as 'Spectral',  they also remind me of Misty's Big Adventure. These are rare moments of relief because most of it is a full on trip. 'Maelstrom' fuses the electronics, psych pop and full on psych rock into a stomping carnival and is glorious. Closing track 'WLDNG' has a thumping beat and is almost trance like. Mind-melting.

Melts *****

Rude Films ****

Bell Witch & Knoll - Rebellion, Manchester (13/4/24)

Knoll are a pummeling mixture of grindcore and noise. The stuck pig vocals give it a Wormrot or Agathocles vibe but there's also waves and waves of noise which gives it a dynamism and power reminiscent of Liturgy. There is an odd stage set up, as their assortment of desks and lamps takes up half the stage which effectively cuts off half the venue as a vantage point. When the horns are paired with the noise, it adds a Sunn0))) feel. This is music to make you feel uncomfortable in the same way that Whitehouse does, and as such there's probably only so much of this that I can take. The singer has an intensity about him, stalking the stage like he has a complete disdain for everyone, which reminds me of how Stalingrad were live.

The familiar organ intro to last year's 'The Clandestine Gate' opens and I'm amazed to discover that it's not a backing track but is actually being played by the drummer's feet. This introduction sets the tone for what promises to be a spiritual Bell Witch performance. Watching from in front of the drumkit gives me a different experience, as I can't see the accompanying film but I can see what the drummer is doing and every tom hit thunders through me. The crawling pace is slow and funereal but it is captivating. This crushes, particularly when that stupendously heavy bass guitar tone kicks in. This is cavernous doom from beyond and the reverb drenched vocals add a quasi-religious feel. It's slooooooooow and every element is given room to breathe, and the movements seem to ebb and flow. The music travels in, around and through you. It's punishing yet soothing at the same time. Some of the quieter, more delicate parts are filled with chatter from some parts of the crowd, but it is never enough to take you out of the experience. Some of the passages are genuinely moving, even though you're being slowly suffocated by the smothering nature of the sound. The same organ part from the beginning leads out as an outro, bookending the whole spellbinding performance.

Bell Witch ****

Knoll ***

Myrkur & Jonathan Hultén - Academy 2, Manchester (9/4/24)

Jonathan Hultén's set starts off with an organ backing track and his effect laden vocals. It's spiritual and captivating, mainly because his voice is stunning. When he picks up his guitar, it takes a slightly different turn. The guitar sound is quite rootsy but his vocals lend it a folk prog feel, not a million miles away from Steven Wilson's solo material. For something so stripped back, he is still pretty theatrical in his presentation. His vocals are made to sound like multiple voices, and it often sounds like he's performing in an ancient church as the material has a hymnal quality. It is certainly worthy of worship. However, as is often the case with music so delicate, not all the crowd are so respectful and there is a steady stream of chatter from some of the audience. I find it mesmeric though. Overall, a soothing, relaxing way to spend 35 minutes.

I wasn't sure how Myrkur would work live but the first notes are very loud and reverberate through my body, which relieves me. Even during the intro, Amalie's vocals cut through the noise, adding an ethereal touch. There is an almost Sunn0)))-like introduction before a hefty 'Like Humans' kicks in. The heavy verse gives way to a majestic pop chorus before reaching a blackened blasting climax. Her voice is incredibly haunting during the clean parts but is still capable of anguished screams. 'Mothlike' is 80s goth meets Bjork's 'Play Dead' before it gets heavier midway through. The atmospheric 'My Blood Is Gold' has a haunting Eurovision ballad feel, although my wife thinks it sounds more like Lana Del Rey. It's pretty powerful nonetheless. 'Spine' manages to be both pop and black metal at the same time, with a catchy ethereal chorus allied with a heavy beat and guitars. It sounds like Kate Bush fronting Alcest.  The more straight forward black metal material, like 'Valkyriernes Sang', is great. No matter how heavy it gets, from blasting black metal to lumbering doom, Amalie's voice always makes it accessible. She could probably turn her hand to something even more commercial if she wanted, like symphonic metal for example, but I'm glad she hasn't. Jonathan Hultén joins onstage for the fantastic traditional folk song 'House Carpenter'. The second half of the set is much folkier than the first half. The backing vocalist is very good too, and the call and response of the two singers at the beginning of the final song of the regular set is fantastic.

Myrkur ****

Jonathan Hultén ****

Thundercat - Victoria Warehouse, Manchester (28/3/24)

I had a ticket to see Thundercat a couple of years ago but I caught Covid a couple of days earlier so I couldn't go. So when this show was announced, I bought a ticket straight away. However, my favourite live act, Sunn0))), subsequently announced a gig elsewhere in the city so I had a decision to make. Do I get a ticket for Sunn0))) instead or do I stick with Thundercat? I made the decision to stick with Thundercat but even now, I'm plagued with the idea that I could be missing out.

The giant cat's eyes light up at the back of the stage and the air is filled with the stench of weed as a lengthy orchestral overture serves as an introduction to Thundercat. His dexterous bass playing is obvious from the start and his falsetto vocals are otherworldly (think Phillip Bailey meets Michael McDonald) but as is the case with many virtuosos, it can come across as self indulgent. The musicianship is impressive (particularly the drummer) and when they lock into a groove they create glorious futuristic space funk. At other times, it doesn't engage and just sounds like noodling just for the sake of it. The cyborg jazz drum 'n' bass of 'How Sway' is pretty cool. When the band get soulful like on 'Overseas', they sound like a modern Earth, Wind & Fire. The 'meow meow' singalong of 'A Fan's Mail (Tron Song Suite II)' is cute. A new track is smooth 80s soul and sounds stellar. The sweeping, orchestral 'A Message For Austin' is grand, sounding like an orchestra playing on as the Space Titanic is sucked into a black hole. However, too much smooth soul and instrumental noodling seems to suck the life out of the crowd. A Stevie Wonder-esque number picks things up a bit. Culturally, many of the references (Dragonball Z, Spongebob Squarepants, anime and Jake Paul) go completely over my head. The stuttering drum and bass of 'Tokyo' is excellent but overall, the whole show becomes a bit of an endurance test in the end. On reflection, I probably didn't make the right choice tonight. Ultimately, a handful of powerful notes trumps thousands of flashy ones.

Thundercat ***