‘Writing Out A List Of All The Names Of God’ sees the band combine the heavy, punchy, distorted guitar and drum sound of IDLES with a vocal delivery reminiscent of that of Yard Act by singer Freddy Vinehill-Cliffe, albeit slightly more aggressive. The Jungle-inspired drumming along with the tortured commentary encapsulates the unique and exciting sound of the band well. The single was recorded in Beckview Studios in Scarborough with producer Rob Slater. According to a press release the lyrics of the track were in part inspired “by a desperate and hopeless desire to retain the memories you hold closest to you in your declining years.”

The Leeds group will be starting a new era as they have signed with Big Scary Monsters. This follows the release of their Debut album ‘Thoughtless Cruelty’ in 2022 among a number of EPs, the post-punk outfit will be hoping to go on the big things under their new label.

They have sold out a number of headline dates across the UK over the last couple of years and are set to take the stage at this year’s ArcTanGent festival in Bristol later this month. You can buy tickets for the festival here.

Speaking on their new track Vinehill-Cliffe said: “I think the recorded version might actually be the first time we successfully played the whole thing through.”

He continued: “It’s a diss track, in response to another diss track – noise rock as a genre needs more diss tracks, I feel (see The Jesus Lizard – Mouth Breather). It’s also loosely based on something I saw pinned up in my grandpa’s study one of the final times I visited before he moved to a nursing home, he had handwritten a list of different names used to refer to God, I guess because he had become so forgetful and this was something he specifically didn’t want to forget.”

The full list of Thank’s live shows for 2024 is below:

07/08 – ArcTanGent Festival – Bristol, UK
16/10 – New Cross Inn – London, UK
17/10 – Les Vieux de la Vieille – Reims, FR
18/10 – Waldmeister – Solingen, DE
19/10 – Magasin 4 – Brussels, BE
04/11 – Yes – Manchester, UK (w/Cherubs)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fontaines D.C. (@fontainesband)

This huge outdoor show will follow the group’s 2024 headline tour which will take place in November and December and is set to be their biggest tour to date. They will be putting on two shows at London’s Alexandra Palace, three dates in Manchester and two shows in Dublin as they return to a home crowd on the 6th and 7th of December.  

They are also set to perform on the main stage at Reading and Leeds Festival 2024 later this month following the release of their upcoming album ‘Romance’, which is set to be released on the 23rd of August. Earlier in the year, the group headlined the Park stage at Glastonbury, an acclaimed performance. Singer Grian Chatten also joined Kneecap for their performance at Worthy Farm. 

The full list of Fontaines D.C.’s upcoming Headline UK and Ireland dates are below: 

NOVEMBER 2024
20 – The Halls, Wolverhampton
22 – Alexandra Palace, London
23 – Alexandra Palace, London
24 – Utilita Arena, Cardiff
26 – Pavilions, Plymouth
27 – Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham
29 – Aviva Studios, Manchester
30 – Aviva Studios, Manchester 

DECEMBER 2024
01 – Aviva Studios, Manchester
03 – First Direct Arena, Leeds
04 – OVO Hydro, Glasgow
06 – 3Arena, Dublin
07 – 3Arena, Dublin 

JULY 2025
05 – Finsbury Park, London 

Fontaines D. C are releasing their fourth studio album, which will be titled ‘Romance’, on the 23rd of August via XL Recordings. They have so far previewed the upcoming project with two singles, ‘Starbuster’ which sees Chatten switching from his usual singing to almost rapping, and ‘Favourite’ which sees the band reminisce about their childhood. 

‘Romance’ will be the follow up to their highly acclaimed 2022 album ‘Skinty Fia’ which reached number 1 in the UK and Irish album charts as well as seeing the band win a number of awards including ‘International Group of the Year’ at the BRIT Awards in 2023. 

Talking about the title of the album bassist Conor Deegan says ““We’ve always had this sense of idealism and romance. Each album gets further away from observing that through the lens of Ireland, as directly as Dogrel. The second album (A Hero’s Death) is about that detachment, and the third (Skinty Fia) is about Irishness dislocated in the diaspora. Now we look to where and what else there is to be romantic about.” 

Singer, Grian Chatten said about the album: “We say things on this record we’ve wanted to say for a long time. I never feel like it’s over, but it’s nice to feel lighter.” 

‘Emita Ox’ will be the follow-up to the band’s self-titled second album which was released last year to acclaim. According to a press release the upcoming LP sees them push “harder into heavy distortion and psychedelic dreamscapes”. The band co-produced the album themselves along with Alex Farrar who has worked with the likes of MJ Lenderman and Indigo De Souza. The production of the album demonstrates how the band’s tastes and influences have changed over the years, now being influenced by more progressive and experimental bands such as Swans and Black Midi. The group’s bassist, Mikaela Oppenheimer, said that “This album encompasses a lot of our inspirations. It also shows what we’re like as a trio, collectively.” 

The forthcoming project was recorded earlier this year in Asherville, North Carolina, with the band playing all the instruments heard on the record. The album sees the band’s contributions to the songwriting and production bleed into each other as well as being a showcase of their individual strengths as musicians. Drummer, Stella Wave said: “We map out all the sections beforehand, we like to write intricate parts that complement each other”.

She continued talking about how the songs on the album represent tough times for the band: “This album represents a period of time that’s very meaningful to us. The songs are related to things that we all know about, even if it’s not out on the table for everyone else. The songwriting and recording process was a very heavy time that I will never forget.” 

‘Three’ references the title of the album as it tells the fairy tale of a girl named Emita and her pet Ox. Singer, Helena Straight, said: “‘Three’ was written after I’d been in a creative rut that lasted a couple months. I wasn’t focused on getting any message across. My intention was just to write a full song, whether I ended up liking it or not.”  

The full track list and artwork for ‘Emita Ox’ is below: 

1. Float
   2. 0%
   3. Three
   4. Down My Life
   5. Knowing You
   6. Heavy Sleeper
   7. Footstep Misstep
   8. Courtesy
   9. Hiyeahi
   10. Bubble
   11. Everything We Do 

As well as releasing their new album later this year, the group are set to play a run of shows in the UK. They’ll be making their Debut in the UK, playing a set at the End Of The Road Festival later this month as well as playing Manchester Psych Fest and Edinburgh Psych Fest. They will then play two headline shows in London at The Windmill Brixton and The Shackwell Arms respectively. They will then take to the stage on a run of dates as support for American Football. You can buy the remaining tickets for their UK shows here.

Hello Mary’s full list of 2024 UK dates are below: 

Aug 30 – End of the Road Festival – Dorset, UK
Aug 31 – Manchester Psych Fest – Manchester, UK
Sept 1 – Edinburgh Psych Fest – Edinburgh, UK
Sept. 4 – The Shacklewell Arms – London, UK 
Sept 5 – Brixton Windmill – London, UK 
Sept 11 – Rock City – Nottingham, UK
Sept 12 – Barrowland Ballroom – Glasgow, UK
Sept 13 – Bristol SWX – Bristol, UK 
Sept 14 – Roundhouse – London, UK 

Our new album Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me is out October 18th!

Sick Of The Blues is out today with a live video from our performance at Le Centre Pompidou in April 2024

EU/UK/US tour on sale Friday

So ready to share this with you! ☁️ pic.twitter.com/MfDfek5BZZ

— Porridge Radio (@porridgeradio) July 30, 2024

According to a press release the new project was inspired by burnout, the music industry, heartbreak, and band leader Dana Margolin’s increasing immersion in her craft as a songwriter and artist. A short-lived relationship for Margolin and subsequent heartbreak inspired the album which is seen in the single ‘Sick of the Blues’. She spoke about how this inspired the project: “A lot of this album is about a more frenetic and desperate kind of love. It is about completely losing my sense of self in one relationship, and the deep residue of insecurity and pain that lingered and clouded a new relationship.”

She continued talking about the new single: “‘Sick Of The Blues’ is about being heartbroken and taking back some joy, remembering that you’re the source of your own happiness, not someone else, even when you’re hurt and left with a hole in your heart. After being messed around enough, you just want to take back control. I just wanted to let it go, stop letting it consume me. I wanted simplicity, to have fun and remember everything good that could possibly happen. To love wholly, to not take anything too seriously. To have fun with my friends, to remove the tunnel vision and fall in love with my life again.”

‘Clouds In The Sky Will Always Be There For Me’ was produced by Dom monks, who has also worked with the likes of Big Thief and Laura Marling, and it was recorded in Frome at the beginning of this year. The band was invited to debut their new material following the recording sessions at a performance at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Margolin spoke about how the upcoming album felt like a breakthrough for the band: “It feels like the first time we’ve made something. It captured something about our friendship as a band and the way that we have learnt to play together. It’s taught me so much. Following your gut to the nth point, trusting your friends and their loyalty, trusting yourself to be able to fight with people properly and still come back together.”

The full tracklist for their new album is below:

1. ‘Anybody’
2. ‘Hole In The Ground’
3. ‘Lavender Raspberries’
4. ‘God Of Everything Else’
5. ‘Sleeptalker’
6. ‘You Will Come Home’
7. ‘Wednesday’
8. ‘In A Dream’
9. ‘I Get Lost’
10. ‘Pieces Of Heaven’
11. ‘Sick Of The Blues’

As well as announcing the new album, Porridge radio have shared dates for a world tour where they will be playing a run of dates in the UK during November. Tickets go on sale tomorrow (August 2nd) at 10am and fans can buy tickets here.

The full list of dates is below:

November 2024

18 – Nottingham, UK, Rescue Rooms
19 – Bristol, UK, Marble Factory
20 – Leeds, UK, Irish Centre
22 – Glasgow, UK, Òran Mór
23 – Newcastle, UK, Newcastle University SU
25 – Manchester, UK, Gorilla
26 – London, UK, Electric Brixton
29 – Margate, UK, Lido
30 – Brighton, UK, Chalk

According to Dork the producer’s new project marks a departure from the usual pop-oriented sound and a move towards something darker and more club oriented. According to Rolling Stone when discussing the new album in a statement Mura Masa said: “Curve 1 is ultimately a manifestation of an attitude I’ve been cultivating in my personal life; ignore everything. All the content, all of the attention economy, all of it. In doing that, the really meaningful and vital parts of what’s around you make themselves known and unignorable, demanding your energy.”

‘Curve 1′ is set to be Mura Masa’s first release as an independent artist via his own record label and he said that he “wanted it to be as free and anti-narrative as possible. Impressionistic.” He continued saying that “Music as entertainment has in many cases, to me, become very advertorial and excessively sentimental in terms of creating narrative around albums and artists. I wanted to strip this away as much as possible to leave room for the music to create its own meaning in the lives of people who form connections with it.”

It’s hard for me not to explain away the intricacies and ideas contained within these records after having theorised and tolled and executed them over the course of nearly three years, but I think it’s far more fitting of the album’s intent to say simply: listen to it in the dark.”

Curve 1 arrives August 23rd. ‘FLY’ is out now. Listen: https://t.co/tYPTQYVLTj pic.twitter.com/Nk6WKeiS2H

— xander (@mura_masa_) July 29, 2024

Leading up to this announcement of a new album Crossan has released a number of new singles including ‘Still’ back in March which saw British pop hero Griff provide vocals. He’s also released ‘We Are Making Out’ which saw him collaborate with yeule and he shared singles ‘rise/gimme’, ‘Drugs’, and ‘Whenever I Want’.

He also helped co-write and produce a number of songs for other artists in recent years as well as his own music. Including producing global hit ‘Boy’s a Liar pt.2′ by Ice Spice and Pink Pantheress as well as co-writing the latter’s single ‘Turn It Up’. He’s also recently opened a creative hub in Peckham, London called The Pond which is officially supposed to launch next year.

Elsewhere Mura Masa is set to be playing a DJ set at Field Day 2024 in Victoria Park, London next month. Justice and Pink Pantheress will be headlining this year’s event.

DJ and producer Patrick Topping’s TRICK label, Nia Archives’ UP YA ARCHIVES and the Hacienda are all set to take over the Depot Mayfield throughout this season. This year’s run of Warehouse Project events will officially commence on the 14th of September with the Repercussion event which will see a 12-hour long party with a live set from Jungle on the bill as well as the likes of Honey Dijon and Bonobo expected to feature at the opening Warehouse Project rave. The season will end with the usual New Year’s Eve party on the 31st of December, the lineup for which is yet to be announced.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by The Warehouse Project (@whp_mcr)

One of the confirmed takeovers for this season is Patrick Topping’s TRICK record label part which will be taking place on the 11th of October with Prospa, Boys Noize and Paul Woodford set to take to the decks. Eats Everything and Skream will also be performing a back-to-back. Fresh off the back of her Mercury Prize nomination Jungle singer, producer and DJ Nia Archives will be coming to Depot Mayfield with her second edition of UP YA Archives on the 1st of November in a huge night of bass music. Nia headlines the night with jungle and DnB royalty Goldie doing a back-to-back with Special Request. Garage and breakbeat DJs Interplanetary Criminal and Bakey will also be taking the stage together. Nia Archives is bringing lots of talent to Manchester with the likes of Girls Don’t Sync and Y U QT also set to perform. As well as this we will see a jungle fuelled back-to-back-to-back between Tim Reaper, Sully and Dwarde.

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

A post shared by The Warehouse Project (@whp_mcr)

On November the 8th Gorgon City and Dom Dolla will be at Depot Mayfield, and they bring Eliza Rose, Jaguar, Denis Sulta, SG Lewis, Flight Facilities and many more to perform in Manchester.

There will also be a Hacienda party on the 7th of December to celebrate Manchester’s club culture heritage. Kent duo Orbital, DJ Paulette, David Morales, Kerri Chandler, Armand Van Helden and more will be taking to the decks for the Legendary takeover.

As well as these, other confirmed line-ups include The Welcome to the Warehouse event on the 28th of September and Disclosure will be headlining the Manchester venue on the 28th of October.

Drum and Bass fans will be excited to hear that there will be a Worried About Henry event on the 23rd of November with an array of DnB legends set to perform including Andy C, Hybrid Minds, Bru-C, Mozey, K Motionz, Dimension and many more. More DnB will arrive in October as Hedex is set to headline Depot Mayfield.

Head over to Warehouse Project’s website to see the full calendar for the 2024 season and where you can also buy tickets.

The festival should see its usual array of storytelling, circus acts, actors and arts at this year’s festival with its incredible set design and production. Boomtown has won many awards including UK Festival Awards “Best Festival Production” in both 2022 and 2023, as well as “Transport Impact Innovators” in 2023. Boomtown was also picked as Major Events Summit’s “Best Non-Sporting Event” in 2023. It was also named by BBC Radio 1 as “Best Dance Festival UK & Europe” in 2023.

Boomtown is known for its quirky and extravagant production and stage design with there being eight distinct city districts with 12 main stages as well as over 50 hidden venues along with thousands of live performers and actors.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Boomtown (@boomtownfairofficial)

Reggae royalty Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley is set to take the stage at Grand Central this year as well as 90s hip-hop legends The Pharcyde. 2023 Mercury Prize winners Ezra Collective will also be bringing some jazz to this year’s edition of the festival. Swedish punk outfit Viagra boys are also playing Grand Central as well as internet sensation Marc Rebillet.

Kent duo Soft Play are set make an appearance on the Saturday (August 10) fresh of the back of the release of their newest album ‘Heavy Jelly’ which is their highest charting album yet reaching number 3 on the UK Album Charts. London based neo-soul singer Greentea peng is also going to play a set on Grand Central.

Punk-rap duo Bob Vylan are set to play as they are sure to bring the political themes to the festival as they partner up with Bristol producer Grove to perform on Grand Central. As well as this post-punk duo Sleaford Mods will be playing, showing the diversity of the festival and that it is not just all Drum and Bass.

Moving onto the Origin stage we are going to see Flava D, D&B trio Kings of The Rollers with Inja and P Money play the legendary stage on the Friday. 4AM Kru are sure to bring the energy on Saturday along with Simula and Sota expected to play some memorable Drum and Bass sets. On The last day we will see the icons that are Jungle Cakes take the stage with Ed Solo, Deekline, Benny Page, and Serial Killaz performing a back-to-back. Bou and Pendulum are also billed to perform on Origin.

Among the 100s of other performances across the various stages we will also see the likes of Hak Baker, grime legend D Double E, and Ross From Friends under the moniker Bubble Love. The Wrong Side of The Tracks stage will have Sully, Neff-T, Oppidan, Silva Bumpa, Aries and many more. TikTok sensation Fish56Octogan is also expected to make an appearance at Boomtown at Spectrum 360 as well as Samurai Breaks and Bish.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by B△STILLE (@bastilledan)

The new project is led by Bastille frontman, Dan Smith, and is described as a collection of songs that tell a story and intertwine the lives and wide worlds of startling women and men. It tells the story of various characters including poets, artists, scientists and characters from religion. The album is said to be fed by new collaborations, dazzling arrangements and a spirit of musical spirit that is hoping to open minds. Listen to Smith talking about the album below.

The album will be released in four parts leading up to the full release of ‘&’ in October. The first part of the project is out now and includes four tracks that introduce the record. The first track is ‘Intros and Narrators’ which sees Smith play fingerpicked guitar and “sets out the mission and tone” for the album. The next track, ‘Eve and Paradise Lost’, explores themes of blame and shame that women are made to feel “from the dawn of time.” ‘Seasons & Narcissus is described as “a curious, twisted love song between someone and their own reflection.” And the last track of part one, ‘Emily & Her Penthouse In The Sky’, is about the life of 19th-century poet Emily Dickinson and how her life has been framed.

The album is supposed to uncover the stories of people who have been misunderstood in myth, culture, and society, telling the stories of individuals who have been neglected by mainstream society. There is also a song that is inspired by Smith’s family, exploring the idea of how music is passed on through generations by showing how Smith is connected to his father’s poetry and his mother’s singing.

‘&’ (Ampersand) is described as “a collection of songs about looking out at the world, disappearing into other lives rather than into ourselves, and about the humanity that can crackle and shimmer as a consequence.”#

Fans can pre-order the group’s upcoming project from their official store. You can order the album in Vinyl and CD including different coloured vinyls as well as vinyl copies with hand printed ‘&’ collector’s artwork. There are also CD and Vinyl copies available which come with a signed art card.

The full track list and artwork for ‘&’ (Ampersand) is below:

Intros & Narrators
Eve & Paradise Lost
Emily & Her Penthouse In The Sky
Blue Sky & The Painter
Leonard & Marianne
Marie & Polonium
Red Wine & Wilde
Seasons & Narcissus
Drawbridge & The Baroness
The Soprano & Her Midnight Wonderings
Essie & Paul
Mademoiselle & The Nunnery Blaze
Zheng Yi Sao & Questions For Her
Telegraph Road 1977 & 2024

Other artists to feature on the list for the prestigious award are Scottish electronic DJ and Producer Barry Can’t Swim, Jungle artist Nia Archives, Portishead’s Beth Gibbons, Corinne Bailey Rae, and grime artist Ghetts. The remaining nominees are Berwyn, Cat Burns, CMAT, Corto.alto, and English Teacher.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mercury Prize (@mercuryprize)

The full list of Albums nominated for this year’s Mercury Prize are:

Barry Can’t Swim – When Will We Land?

Berwyn – Who Am I

Beth Gibbons – Lives Outgrown

Cat Burns – Early Twenties

Charli XCX – Brat

CMAT – Crazymad, For Me

Corinne Bailey Rae – Black Rainbows

Corto.alto – Bad With Names

English Teacher – This Could Be Texas

Ghetts – On Purpose, With Purpose

Nia Archives – Silence Is Loud

The Last Dinner Party – Prelude To Ecstasy

The mercury Prize is undoubtedly a great opportunity for up-and-coming artists. So, it therefore makes sense that the list of nominees this year has been dominated by debuts with 8 of the 12 albums nominated being debuts which is double what it was last year.

One of the debut albums on the list being The Last Dinner Party’s ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’ and this is the biggest selling album so far on the list, however, Charli XCX’ ‘Brat’ has momentum at the moment and is likely to overtake ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’ this week.

Among the eight debut albums that made the list this year is Beth Gibbon’s ‘Lives Outgrown. Although Gibbons has released numerous albums as a member of Portishead this record is her debut as a solo artist. According to Music Week Gibbons said: “Really great surprise to be part of the 12 Mercury albums of the year, something I never expected. Big thanks to all who have supported the album, it means so much.”

Nominees Charli XCX, Corinne Bailey Rae and Ghetts have all been nominated for the Mercury Prize before but none of them have won the award.

The list of nominees, as well as the winner, has been chosen by an independent Judging panel and has been taken from a wide range of genres. Albums released by British and Irish artists between July 15, 2023, and July 12, 2024, were eligible for the award.

Earlier in the week it was revealed that the traditional award ceremony with live performances has been dropped this year. More details of what this entails are set to be revealed closer to when the winner is announced but Dr Jo Twist OBE, CEO of the BPI, home to the Mercury Prize, said: “For the 2024 Mercury Prize we will work imaginatively with the BBC to deliver a premium programme of music content and digital engagement that will, as ever, benefit all 12 artists in reaching a wider audience, providing an important platform for their evolving career and musical journey.”

Mayall’s family announced his passing via Facebook yesterday (July 23) writing: “It is with heavy hearts that we bear the news that John Mayall passed away peacefully in his California home yesterday, July 22, 2024, surrounded by loving family. Health issues that forced John to end his epic touring career have finally led to peace for one of this world’s greatest road warriors. John Mayall gave us ninety years of tireless efforts to educate, inspire and entertain.”

John Mayall was a singer, songwriter and multi- instrumentalist and is often referred to as ‘The Godfather of British Blues’. He formed the group John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers in 1963 which helped him transform the British blues rock secene.

Throughout the 1960s The Bluesbreakers saw a number of British rock superstars have stints in the group before they reached stardom. This included Eric Clapton, Peter Green who formed Fleetwood Mac, Mick Taylor who later joined The Rolling Stones, Mick Fleetwood, and Jack Bruce, who became the singer and bassist for Cream.

Mayall was born in Macclesfield in 1933 and before becoming a renowned musician he partook in 3 years of National Service for the army where he toured Korea, before studying at the Manchester College of art.

Mayall moved to London in 1963 to form the Bluesbreakers where he recruited John Mcvie for for the earliest lineup of the group which featured on the band’s debut single ‘Crawling Up a Hill’. After leaving The Yardbirds Eric Clapton joined the band in 1965 after they released their first album. Clapton breifly left the band when he was replaced by Peter Green. Clapton then returned to the band and Green was dismissed by Mayall. With Clapton they recorded the 1966 album ‘Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton’ which reached the top ten in the UK album charts.

Clapton then left the band again to form Cream with Jack Bruce who was also briefly a member of the Bluesbreakers. Mayall persuaded Peter Green to re-join the band and they then recorded the album A Hard Road. After Peter Green left the band to form Fleetwood Mac he was replaced by 18-year-old Mick Taylor.

During the 1970s Mayall stopped releasing music with The Bluesbreakers and moved to America. Here he moved away from blues to experiment with jazz, funk and rock. He collaborated with the likes of Paul Butterfield, Patti Smith, and members of Canned Heat.

In 2005, Mayall was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire).  He was also  due to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at the ceremony in Cleveland, USA in October this year.

Mayall’s career spanned over 60 years and saw him release over 30 studio albums as a member of The Bluesbreakers and as a solo artist, with his last album being 2022’s ‘The Sun Is Shining Down’.

(1/3) In Memoriam: 2024 Inductee John Mayall was the godfather of British blues. As a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and bandleader, Mayall displayed a talent for mentoring gifted young musicians, many of whom he recruited for his groundbreaking band the Bluesbreakers. pic.twitter.com/6qXhj6LVk7

— Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (@rockhall) July 23, 2024