Elizabeth Rushton speaks to Sundara Karma frontman Oscar Lulu about the band’s new music, escapism, and glitter

Run-of-the-mill guitar bands are the order of the day at this year’s Dot to Dot, but minor indie gems and slap-bass soul provide some much-needed respite

Bloc Party could be poised for a comeback despite band chemistry being questionable

A brief glimpse at Reading 2016’s headline offerings

Manchester has it all… Even a beach!

More fun live than on record, showing a flair for the dramatic. Get a better producer, Rebekah Shaw tells Half Moon Run.

Part of our Festival Preview season, we present pop-punk takeover Slam Dunk North

The future sounds of electronic music simmer amongst the trophies of Germany’s industrial past

Electronic music can seem like a bit of a boy’s club, but there have always been women involved. The tide is surely turning

Hannah Brierley tells us of her crowd-surfing antics after psychedelic rock band, Wolfmother, graced Manchester Academy on the 9th of April with an energetic live performance that didn’t disappoint

Joe Casson on this year’s well-rounded arts festival, which offers everything from balkan folk to cabaret, and finally gives a reason to get excited about Suffolk.

30 years into their career, Pet Shop Boys remain one of the most influential pop groups of all time and Super holds up a mirror to today’s pop scene to show it

Cassette tape sales are the highest in decades. But what is drawing people back to the much-maligned medium?

Kendrick Lamar’s surprise release consolidates the scat-like techniques we loved on TPAB, and then some

On his third album as Wild Nothing, Jack Tatum is “terrified of being any one thing”. Therein lies the problem

Kanye West’s much-anticipated and flawed seventh album The Life of Pablo will delight and piss off in equal measure. But it wouldn’t be a Kanye West album if it didn’t piss off somebody

Fun, feisty and downright funky. Student band NUDE are making ripples in Manchester’s Northern Quarter

It took four years for the return of Michael Lovett’s sci-fi synthpop project NZCA Lines. He discusses JG Ballard, singing with a cold and music in 2086 with Jacob Bernard-Banton

One of Manchester’s most-loved bands from the 90’s revisit and reminisce of their time at Manchester University

The South London boys didn’t disappoint and proved they are worthy of the hype surrounding them