The band have announced two upcoming shows, the first of which is slated for the Shacklewell Arms in Hackney on August 29. The five-piece last performed live in November 2022 in Paris, but an Instagram story posted by the band declared: “The Horrors are beginning again. The Horrors are never-ending.” And the band has explained that the East London venue was not simply chosen by accident to play host to the band’s long-awaited return.

“It’s 19 years since we played our first show as the Horrors, almost to the day. It was august 8th 2005 when we performed at the Spread Eagle in Old Street, at a night Tom and I put on called “Cramped”. We played for barely 15 minutes to about 30 of our friends,” singer Faris Badwan wrote on the band’s Instagram page.

“Now it’s 2024 and the Horrors are somehow still going. We return to the Shacklewell – the studio we built was next door and we had it all through Skying/Luminous so we’ve spent a lot of time there,” he continued.

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The second show is set for the following day, August 30, at the Brighton Psych Festival. Tickets for both shows can be found here.

Emerging from Southend-on-Sea in 2005, The Horrors have carved a niche in the UK music scene with their eclectic blend of gothic rock, post-punk revival, and shoegaze. The band, consisting of Faris Badwan (vocals), Joshua Hayward (guitar), Tom Furse (keyboards), Rhys Webb (bass), and Joe Spurgeon (drums), quickly became known for their dark, brooding sound and striking visual style.

Their debut album, Strange House (2007), was a raw, garage rock explosion that caught the attention of critics and fans alike. Tracks like “Sheena Is a Parasite” and “Count in Fives” showcased their frenetic energy and penchant for macabre themes. The album’s success saw them gracing the cover of NME and performing at major festivals, solidifying their place in the indie rock pantheon.

However, it was their sophomore effort, Primary Colours (2009), that truly marked a turning point. Produced by Geoff Barrow, the album saw The Horrors embracing a more expansive, psychedelic sound. Singles like “Sea Within a Sea” and “Who Can Say” demonstrated an experimental streak and earned the band a Mercury Prize nomination. Subsequent releases Skying (2011) and Luminous (2014) further explored lush, atmospheric soundscapes, while V (2017) introduced a more polished, synth-driven approach.

The band have not yet announced any further plan to play live beyond a show in Manchester on August 31, and have not indicated that any new music is forthcoming to follow their 2021 release Against the Blade.

The band from Kettering will begin the tour in Leeds on the 7^th September, before playing in Manchester, Nottingham, London, Bristol, and Brighton. They’ll also be playing gigs in France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland this autumn concluding in Nürnberg on the 6^th October.

Temples will also be playing several festivals this summer including Musilac in France and Summer Well Festival in Romania. For tickets and more information see here. Last July, Temples supported Pearl Jam for their second day headlining the BST Hyde Park festival.

The band took to social media to share their excitement writing, “EUROPE our EXOTICO tour is now LIVE! we can’t wait to see you all in September & October”.

Exotico, Temples’ fourth studio album, was released on the 14^th April via ATO. The 16-track LP was produced by Sean Ono Lennon and mixed by Dave Fridmann who has previously worked with many other psych acts including Beach House, Mercury Rev, The Flaming Lips, and MGMT. Full of funky, bass-heavy, synthy summery tunes, Exotico mixes “Acid House meets Arabic Dancefloor!” as bass guitarist Thomas Walmsley adequately put it to It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine.

Listen to the lead single from the album “Gamma Rays” below:

Exotico took three years to be released and was a product of the pandemic. “Writing began in 2020, around when the world stopped moving,” Walmsley said. “We’d just had a tour cut short due to the pandemic and I guess as a musician you try to alter focus and throw yourself into writing, for better or for worse, we wrapped up recording in 2022. It’s definitely longer than we’d hoped to take, but I think the process ended up making the best record.” 

Temples formed just over a decade ago as a home studio project. Lead singer James Bagshaw and Walmsley were originally in rival bands in their hometown but eventually teamed up to play in the band The Moons. The demos the duo uploaded to YouTube caught the attention of Heavenly Recordings founder Jeff Barrett who released the band’s debut single “Shelter Song” in 2012. Watch the video for “Shelter Song” below:

Their debut album, Sun Structures, reached number 7 in the UK in 2014 and their follow up three years, Volcano, later peaked at the 23rd spot.

Since then, the band has undergone a few revisions with the current lineup consisting of Bagshaw and Walmsley as well as Adam Thomas Smith on rhythm guitar and keyboards, and Rens Ottink on drums.

See below for Temples’ upcoming Europe and UK dates:

08/07/23 – Musilac – Aix-les-bains
14/07 – Festival Chauffer dans la Noirceur – Montmartin-sur-mer
11/08 – Summer Well Festival – Buftea
07/09 – Brudenell Social Club – Leeds
09/09 – Band on the Wall – Manchester
10/09 – Rescue Rooms – Nottingham
11/09 – Koko – London
13/09 – The Fleece – Bristol
14/09 – Patterns – Brighton
16/09 – Le 106 – Rouen
17/09 – Chabada – Angers
18/09 – La Cigale – Paris
19/09 – Le Botanique – Bruxelles
20/09 – Le Grand Mix – Tourcoing
24/09 – Gebäude 9 – Cologne
26/09 – THT/Paradiso Noord – Amsterdam
28/09 – SO36 – Berlin
29/09 – Ampere – Munich
01/10 – Les Docks – Lausanne
02/10 – Plaza Club and Bar – Zürich
03/10 – La Belle Electrique – Grenoble
04/10 – La Cooperative de Mai – Clermont-ferrand
05/10 – Artefact La Laiterie – Strasbourg
06/10 – Nürnberg Pop – Nürnberg

Miles Parks McCollum, aka Lil Boat, aka Lil Yachty, will travel through the US starting the first leg of the tour in Washington in late September and ending in Detroit in early November. He will jet off to Europe starting with Oslo in late November concluding the tour in mid-December in Vienna.

Yachty will be visiting Manchester, London, Glasgow, and Birmingham during the second leg of his tour. On the 30th November he will visit the O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester. The following evening he will play the UK’s capital at the OVO Wembley Arena. Yachty will visit Scotland on the 3rd December performing at the O2 Academy in Glasgow. His final UK date will be in Birmingham’s O2 Academy on the 4th December.

The charismatic rapper shared the tour poster to his Instagram with the caption “Tickets are now on pre-sale at fieldtriptour.com finally. The link is in my bio.. gooooooooooo, it’s been a long time”.

General sale for tickets begins on Friday the 12^th May at 12 PM BST. Tickets are now available on pre-sale. To purchase and for more information see here.

The newly psychedelically inspired artist will also be popping up at a couple of festivals this summer in the UK and Europe including Ruissalo in Turku and Wireless in London.

On Let’s Start Here, released in January, Yachty abandoned the mumble rap trap persona he was notorious for in favour of a more mature kaleidoscopic soundscape of R&B and neo-soul with echoey guitar riffs and autotuned vocals. His experimentations paid off and the record has fast become a fan favourite and achieved Yachty the highest critical praise in his career.

Watch the video for “sAy sOMETHINg” below:

Yachty dipped his toes into neo-psychedelia with help from a bunch of industry heavyweights such as slacker rock extraordinaire Alex G, beloved indie rocker Mac Demarco, the electropop duo Magdalena Bay, MGMT’s Ben Goldwasser, and Chairlift’s Patrick Wimberley who all played a part in bringing Let’s Start Here together.

“This album is so special and dear to me. I think I created it just because I really wanted to be taken seriously as an artist,” Yachty told the crowd gathered at the album release party in New Jersey. “Not just some SoundCloud rapper. Not just some mumble rapper. Not just some guy who made one hit. I wanted to be taken serious because music is everything to me. I respect all walks of music, not just rap and hip hop. Everything.” Watch more of his speech below:

Lil Yachty on his new album ‘Let’s Start Here’ at his listening event tonight

“I wanted to be taken seriously as an artist… not just some SoundCloud rapper, not some mumble rapper…”pic.twitter.com/4xHg7ihOKS

— Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) January 27, 2023

For all Lil Yachty’s upcoming European and UK dates see below:

07/07/23 – Ruisrock – Turku
07/08 – Wireless – London
22/11 – Sentrum Scene – Oslo
24/11 – Fryhuset – Stockholm
25/11 – KB Hallen – Copenhagen
27/11 – Columbiahalle – Berlin
28/11 – Palladium – Cologne
30/11 – O2 Victoria Warehouse – Manchester
01/12 – OVO Wembley Arena – London
03/12 – O2 Academy – Glasgow
04/12 – O2 Academy – Birmingham
06/12 – Salle Pleyel – Paris
08/12 – Poppodium013 – Tilburg
10/12 – Ancienne Belgique – Brussels
12/12 – Razzmatazz – Barcelona
14/12 – Fabrique – Milan
16/12 – Komplex 457 – Zurich
17/12 – Gasometer – Vienna

The tour, supporting Liv.e’s latest album Girl in the Half Pearl, will include five UK dates in Leeds, Liverpool, Dublin, Manchester, and London. The artist will travel to Europe in June before heading to Australia and finishing in Japan. Liv.e is also performing at Øyafestivalen and Lowlands Festival this August. For tickets and more information see here.

hay now us tour finished for now this spring/summa lookin thiq!! europe, australia & japan! pic.twitter.com/3A02Ap8h42

— Liv.e (@oliveosun) April 4, 2023

The Dallas-born Los Angeles-based singer started the first leg of her tour in March playing dates across North America including a few sold-out shows. She’ll also be performing on the Stephen Colbert Late Show this Friday the 7^th April.

25-year-old Olivia Dean, also known as Liv.e, didn’t originally plan on a musical career having grown up in a family of musicians. Her dad played Blues and was embedded in the Gospel scene and her brother is a drummer. However, after finishing a degree in architecture and object design at the School of the Institute of Chicago Art she decided on a career switch. Her debut EP F.R.A.N.K. dropped in 2017 and the following year her EP Hoopdreams won her fans in Erykah Badu and Earl Sweatshirt. After touring with Earl on his Fire It Up Tour in 2019 and featuring on his EP Feet of Clay her popularity only grew. In 2020, she released her debut album Couldn’t Wait to Tell You to critical acclaim.

The singer’s sophomore album Girl in the Half Pearl was released on 10^th February. It’s a mosaic of genres meshing neo-soul, alt R&B, and hypnagogic pop sometimes with jungle beats and at others with a touch of psychedelia. It’s no surprise that it has been praised by Pitchfork, Loud and Quiet, and Vulture magazine.

Liv.e’s struggles with heartbreak are evident in Girl in the Half Pearl. The singer told Pitchfork: “I didn’t have anybody to talk talk to, so I wrote this album. I had to get this shit out of me. That’s why I’m so glad the album is out, because I feel like an open wound that’s hitting the wind. It feels nasty, but it feels kinda like, “Ahhhh”.

Watch the video for the album’s lead single “Ghost” here:

See below for Liv.e’s UK and Europe tour dates:

21/05/23 – Headrow House – Leeds
22/05 – 24 Kitchen Street – Liverpool
24/05 – Workmans Club – Dublin
25/05 – Yes – Manchester
26/05– ICA – London
31/05 – Le Hasard Ludique – Paris
10/08– Øyafestivalen – Oslo
18/08 – Lowlands Festival – Biddinghuizen

Bez took to his Instagram to announce the release to fans, the post also supplied a snippet of the psychedelic video and track featuring the dancer and percussionist’s debut vocal performance.

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The new release is the first track in which includes a traditional vocal appearance from Bez and also features vocals from Firouzeh. Previously known for his maraca playing and famed interactive stage antics, it is exciting news for fans old and new to hear Bez take centre stage. The press release for the new track has provided the following description, “hypnotic homage to the glory days of acid house“.

The track seems to serve as a dedication to the Second Summer of Love, the cultural phenomenon which took the United Kingdom by storm within the late 1980s, most predominately the summer of 1988. The cultural wave saw the rise in popularity of acid house, electronic dance music and the rave scene, fuelled by certain drug influences such as MDMA, the psychedelic and hedonistic scene was particularly taken upon by the nation’s youth. With these factors mixed together, this new musical philosophy embodied itself within the ideologies of freedom, pleasure and indulgence.

It is this sense of freedom in which ‘Flying Bus’ sets out to embody and along with a nostalgic wish for the past, Bez, DJ Doorly and Firouzeh are determined to take the listener back to their youth, full of fun and parties. Bez’s vocal line tells the story of the iconic Glastonbury stage Flying Bus, which is said to be the most rambunctious and often the last to close with parties going on until the early morning and the inspiration behind the song’s title

The accompanying music video also keeps within these cultural themes, the video sees Bez play a colourful bus conductor with DJ Doorly as the magical Bus’s driver. Again, staying within the theme of the 1980’s cultural and music scene, a passenger seemingly dragged down by the burdens of corporate life is taken to the legendary nightclub and music venue, The Hacienda. The Hacienda became a vital part of the dance and rave scene within the 1980s, situated in Manchester, the club became an important role within the career of Happy Mondays and many other bands involved within the genre. The new release’s music video sees Bez and DJ Doorly work with fellow Manchester artists and animators, Friend Party Studios.

The description affixed to the new release’s promo and its music video gives the video’s storyboard and the emotions it aims to conveys: “An office worker’s day gets off to a bad start after being stung by a psychedelic bee, but things get even more trippy when the Flying Bus pulls up. Bus conductor Bez and bus driver Doorly take our hapless hero on an adventure like no other, as he discovers a world of trippy visuals and pure party excess, ending up on the dancefloor of the iconic Manchester club The Haçienda. There’s only one thing to do: free your mind and take a one-way ticket on the Flying Bus!”

The Bolton born cultural personality has provided the following statement concerning his recent collaboration, reinforcing the song’s musical and lyrical themes. “It was a brilliant work trip to Ibiza to collaborate with Doorly at his studio that created this tune, My Flying Bus stage at Glastonbury is really special to me and a great hangout for the hardcore party people. I’ve been missing it so much and this track conjures up that Flying Bus magic. The song is about that freedom you feel when you’re gathered with like-minded people. This is the first vocal track I’ve ever brought out and I’m nervous and excited at the same time. I hope people will get ‘on the bus’ and enjoy it, get lost in a moment in time, that’s the whole vibe!”

DJ Doorly has also spoken about the experience working with Bez and what fans can expect next from the duo. “Writing a track together with the legend Bez was a hell of a lot of fun, not sure if you’ve met him but he’s a bit of a character, We really bonded over our shared love for the transatlantic Acid House movement from the late 80s/early 90s. Our aim was to bring a slice of that magic coming out of Chicago and Manchester around that time, with a celebration of Bez’s bonkers Flying Bus party at Glastonbury. It all came together and it’s a real pleasure to have Bez on my Reptile Dysfunction label, you can expect more from us both this year.”

As well as the promise for even more material, Bez and DJ Doorly have been confirmed to embark on a tour jammed full of dates this Summer. Fans can now also catch Bez on YouTube, since the lockdown this year the performer has started a new career path as a fitness advisor. His courses and workshops can be found as online fitness videos on the channel Spoke TV, entitled ‘Get Buzzin’ With Bez‘.

Click here to purchase and stream the track.

Beyond Retro is a clothes shop unlike those on the high street. It couldn’t be any different to them in fact, instead preferring to look back to the styles of yesteryear. It takes the best of fashion from the 20th century and puts them all into one relatively small shop, meaning whichever way you look your eyes will light up. There’s a whole corner dedicated to denim jackets, bomber jackets seen from the 80s onwards, knitwear from the 50s and 60s, the list is endless. Beyond Retro don’t look to the future for future fashion ideas, when they know there is still so much hidden treasure to be found. Which can also be said for the day’s headline act, Caviare Days. Effortlessly cool and suave, within seconds of listening to the Swedish group you will immediately feel a throwback to music gone by. A combination of 60s rock with psychedelic dashes thrown in and you have a recipe for good music, which is exactly what is made by the quintet.

Consisting of sister vocalists Lina and Maja Westin, Boris Grubesic on guitar, Marcus Arborelius on keyboards and Timmy Grimm Fredriksson on drums, together they recreate the kind of music that they were bought up listening to, as well as some modern twists depending on the music they are listening to at the time of writing. “We all spent a lot of time listening to the records our parents had when we were younger, and that has kind of shaped our writing style”, claims Lina. “But we all listen to different styles now and bring that into our writing, so we get the best of everything I guess”.

“We don’t like giving our music a specific kind of genre as we just put together everything we listen to into our music”, Maja states. “We just hope that people listen to our stuff and like what they hear, which makes gigs like these so good for us, as people can just come along and check us out and hopefully follow us from then on. As money plays such a big role in the music industry these days we just play where we can and see where it takes us”. Judging by the line up of people wanting to talk to the group after the day’s performance, which includes upcoming single Who Deprived You Of Your Smile, it worked very well for them.

Who can blame them as well. It might not be the kind of machine made, manufactured pop tripe that infests the public’s ears on a daily basis, but that is part of the glory of it. It is incredibly easy to tell just by watching them on stage that they feel free when they are up there, from Maja’s constant jiggling to the exquisite solo’s strummed to perfection from Boris, they feel at home on stage. And if that’s the way they like it, that’s the way they should keep it.

Check out the video for You’ll Qualify below to get an idea of what Caviare Days are like, then go and get their self titled album. It won’t be something you’ll regret.

It’s been a busy year for the Gothenburg troupe. It was only in April that they released their eponymous second album, quite the feat considering it was only their second release in their fifteen year career. Even stranger seeing as they released their debut album just three years ago. In fairness to them though, nobody could have predicted frontman Jose Gonzalez’s escalation into superstardom all those years ago, when having released just one E.P, Straight Lines, in the year 2000, Junip was put on hold as Gonzalez travelled the world, serenading thousands with his indie folk tales. But following the release of Junip’s debut album Fields in 2010, the childhood friends are now going full steam ahead with the band, conducting tour after tour, which is good news for everyone really.

The premise for the Walking Lightly video is simple. It merely features the group playing deep within the wilderness, with only nature and friends and family surrounding them. It fits the track beautifully, with simplicity the key as the music takes the lead. In many ways, it’s how music should be done, as it proves difficult to find a fault throughout the six minutes. It’s no surprise that Gonzalez croons “Walking lightly, alone”, as he looks set to live the dream all over again. They might have recently parted company with long time drummer Elias Araya, but Gonzalez and bassist Tobias Winterkorn will not be walking lightly, alone anywhere. There will be fans following them as they embark upon a musical journey, one which will take them all over the world.

You can check out the video for Walking Lightly below, to get an idea of what to expect should you (rightly) choose to see them on their UK tour, commencing this week. Tour dates are below.

Saturday 14th – Ramsbottom Festival, Manchester

Sunday 15th – No Mean City Festival, 02 ABC Academy, Glasgow

Monday 16th – Brudenells Social Club, Leeds

Tuesday 17th – The Fleece, Bristol

Wednesday 18th – Shepherds Bush Empire, London