Sounds From The Other City: Our Picks

Will Stevenson
Apr 26, 2018
3 min read

Sounds From The Other City is just ten days away! So NOWT's music editor, Will, has given a rundown of ten bands not to be missed at Salford's biggest day out on May 6th.

Alxndr London

Alxndr London has the deft touch of an early Sampha, his soft voice simmering over carefully illustrated beats with intricate precision – but the beats themselves, much like fellow electronic singer ANHONI, contribute to the end-of-the-world ambience.

Virginia Wing/XAM DUO

Combining jazz instrumentation, ambient atmospherics and delicate dreampop guitarwork, Manchester based Virginia Wing teamed up with eletronic pioneers XAM DUO for a split EP, Tomorrow's Gift. The two acts will be performing side by side at Sounds and promise a fantastic live show.

MUN SING

MUN SING fuse steely sounding noises, off kilter rhythms into a genuinely danceable version of The Haxan Cloak’s signature doom-laden electronic music sound. Taking the sounds of dark ambient and industrial and remixing them into pounding electronica is a genius move.

Ethna

Ethna take influence from a host of places – shoegaze, post black metal, IDM, and fuse them into a wonderfully coherent, brutally aggressive yet beautifully soothing mixture. The instrumental band manage to create a sense of foreboding equal to Deafheaven – and beauty equal to Slowdive.

Happy Meals

Happy Meals are a bedroom pop indie band caught between Frankie Cosmos and something more experimental; there are drawn out sections of slightly off-kilter keyboard patterns that resemble music found in Megadrive games.

Chrystal

Chrystal’s “2 Real” sounds like Charlie XCX at her PC Music best with a better grasp of flows, jazzy inspiration and a swaggering, unfaltering honesty. A real star in the making, in the same way IAMDDB was at last years Sounds event.

Lychee

Lychee are a group of local Manchester talent, including Free Wize Men’s Blind Mic and the phenomenal Layfulstop. The group blends jazzy, soulful productions, emotional singing and cut-throat raps to great effect. With Lychee, you never quite know what is coming next, but you know it’ll be worth listening to.

Lorenzo Senni

Lorenzo Senni is an in-demand Italian DJ, who has been featured in various dance music publications including FACT mag. Signed to Warp Records, he has been making waves by deconstructing 90s rave culture – and his live shows are as much instillation as they are gig. One not to miss.

Suzi Wu

One of the most hotly tipped acts on this years Sounds From The Other City lineup, Suzi is a 19 year old, confessional singer songwriter. Armed with a selection of sounds ranging acoustic to boom-bap, Suzi tells tales of a confused youth that seem deeper than false sentimentality; the singers debut EP, Teenage Witch, drifts between earthiness and ethereality often, all whilst remaining very much in post-Brexit Britain.

Sleazy F and Dripset

Dripset – and their leader Sleazy F – have only played a couple of shows since forming a few months ago and dropping their first Vol 1 mixtape, so this headline slot at the Tru Luv stage is set to be something of a rowdy celebration from the biggest crew in Manchester right now. For a scene that is on the up, Sleazy and co sit at the very head of the table – and if his solo show at last years sounds is anything to go by, the gang is going to kill this slot.