REVIEW: Sounds From The Other City (The bands!)

Thousands of revellers descend upon Salford's Chapel Street in bilstering 28 degree heat for the jewel in the crown of the city's music scene, the incredible Sounds From The Other City all dayer. The festival takes over every concievable venue in site, and features plenty of exciting art performances, out-door shows and even a dog show!

The festival begins in earnest half three, with a gorgeous set from Entha at the Kings Arms pub. A one-man ambient, drone, glitch and guitar show full of improvisation and beauty. there is nothing in the way of stage show, just an incredibly talented musician baring his soul through some stunningly beautiful music. Entha straddles the space between physical and surreal, the meld of hefty electronics and dazzling guitar playing working in tandem to create a truly awe-inspiring set.

Lychee took to an almost empty OneFiveEight tent at Bexley square and quickly filled it up. Their unique mixture of jazz instrumentation, UK hip hop and soul makes for a live show that is unapologetically fun. Without team-member Layfulstop their sound is slightly hampered, but enigmatic frontman/rapper Blind Mic does a spectacular job at leading the band through a set that includes tracks from his two other projects (Free Wize Men & his solo Blind Mic releases) along with a couple of covers of the iconic beatmaker J Dilla. The Dilla covers rework instrumentation in a respectful and loving way. Big things on the way for this group.

A metal band playing full force in an NHS clinic is something you can only really see at Sounds From The Other City. That the metal band in question would be Manchester’s very own Pijn, who spectacularly blend death-metal heaviness with folksy songwriting and live double bass playing, makes this an unmissable set. As one of a handful of metal bands on the Sounds bill, Pijin play to a packed-out room for the entirety of their set. There’s little in the way of crowd interaction, the band instead allowing their mostly instrumental tunes to speak for them.

Suzi Wu is a star in the making. The young singer-songwriter play tunes in the mould of King Krule, Julien Baker and Soccer Mommy, with the added swagger of youth. Fila trainers on, the singer struts around the stage, walking into the crowd and proclaiming “this isn’t actually a barrier, it’s just a made-up line.” She plays tracks from her breakthrough EP, Teenage Witch, as well a smattering of loosies.

Come 9pm, the sun is still shining on a smiling Salford.

Back in the Kings Arms, noise/techno artist Aja is about to bring everyone hurdling to earth and smash them into a joyful ascendency. The set goes from stomach-churning distorted bass, ear piercing Pharmakon-esque screams and slams into transcendently beautiful synth melodies.

Behind the artist, a screen flashes with uninterpretable mages, whilst she herself is covered in make-up that looks more like war paint and wearing a neon-green and pink costume that would be ridiculous in any other context. But here, on Aja’s planet, everything works unquestionably as she sees fit.

Sleazy F Baby has been out on tour with Ocean Wisdom, and the continous performing has left his live show in an even stronger position than it has ever been. Whether he’s performing solo tracks like “All Blahk Tracksuit” or “Built to Drip” cuts with other members of the Dripset crew, Manchester’s king of the rap scene is unstoppable. When the DJ wheels “All Blahk..” for a final, over-his-time-slot encore, the crowd jumps and shouts back at Sleazy with joyful abandon.

Finally, Lorenzo Senni takes to the stage at Hot Bed Press to pump his powerful electro through some of the mightiest speakers in the land. The sound system is immersive and impressive. A fierce combination of pummelling bass and wriggling, tight melody, Senni is all about the rhythm.

Read Part Two of our Sounds review, all about the art on show here.

Photography by ROBIN PARKER

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