MOON PANDA (St Albans The Horn, 27/10/21)

"Luscious blissed-out grooves" and "faintly obscure Hertfordshire towns" aren't normally things you'd associate with each other, but this Danish/Californian outfit challenged these expectations beautifully despite the rather, ahem, "limited" audience numbers...

FUZZY LIGHTS (London Folklore, 26/10/21)

A very pleasant evening of folk-prog-post-rock jams at a lovely little gig space in Hoxton

SINNOI & DONGYANG GOZUPA (London Coronet Theatre, 22/10/21)

The London K-Music Festival is my favourite low-key highlight of the annual gig calendar, and Sinnoi’s innovative and distinctive blend of Western rhythm (double bass and electronics) and Korean melodics (Pansori-style vocals and geomungo), and Dongyang Gozupa’s dark, yanggeum-centered rock instrumentals both proved magnificent.

SPRINTS (London Waiting Room, 21/10/21)

“I'VE GOT A POLICY OF UNDERSTANDING / AN ECONOMY THAT'S UNDERWHELMING / AND I CAN'T SHAKE THE SENSE/ I'M STUCK IN PRETENCE / AND JUST WISHING MY LIFE AWAY.” A short but blisteringly sweet London debut from my favourite new Irish pop-punk band. Fun Wet Leg cover at the end too!

CLIMATE CHANGE JAM (London EartH, 17/10/21)

Porridge Radio covering Wolf Parade. Steam Down's magnetic hip-hop vitality. Black Country New Road and pals "Cafe-Oto-ing" the audience with an improv set which culminated with an enthusiastic if discordant whole-venue singalong of 'Hey Jude'. Even if we’re in the midst of environmental collapse, at least the soundtrack’s decent.

GABRIELS (London Social, 12/10/21)

One of those incredibly rare gigs where I felt like I was in the presence of a future legend. Soul of the highest calibre from an artist who won't be playing 150-capacity venues for much longer...

AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR (London Queen Elizabeth Hall, 10/10/21)

An epic 50-minute post-rock symphony from the Northern Irish quartet, brought to life with strings and visuals that veered between "eye-popping" and "a bit...Cool3DWorld"

MERMAID CHUNKY (London Paper Dress Vintage, 08/10/21)

Not sure quite what I witnessed here, but I definitely enjoyed the hell out of it. Also: this was truly a banner week for headwear at gigs.

AK DAN GWANG CHIL (London Kings Place, 06/10/21)

Humour, exuberance and (in their memorable words) "banging" modern twists on traditional Korean folk- ADG7 were a joyous choice to open this year's London K-Music Festival.

PETER BRODERICK (London Jazz Cafe, 27/09/21)

Two engagingly quirky sets tonight, one from a multi-instrumentalist organic farmer formerl of Efterklang, the other from a Welsh clarinet/piano duo primarily performing Krautrock covers. Good times were had.

KINGS OF CONVENIENCE (London Royal Festival Hall, 26/09/21)

Up in the cheap seats for the whimsical Norwegian folk duo, but this idyllic Sunday matinee set charmed the proverbial off me.

SQUID (London Printworks, 23/09/21)

This didn't really do it for me sadly, and not just because of the residual evil you naturally experience whilst standing in a former Daily Mail printing press. They’re talented lads for sure, but given that there’s so many bands that sound like them these days, you kinda wish their live show wasn’t so..beige.

MARTHA WAINWRIGHT (London Union Chapel, 20/09/21)

Bloody motherf***in' awesome.

POM POKO (Brighton Chalk, 16/09/21)

A pure sugar-rush of a show from the hyper-kinetic Norwegians. Ragnhild Fangel Jamtveit alone probably produces more energy than Sellafield.

BLACK COUNTRY NEW ROAD (London Electric Ballroom, 14/09/21)

Yes, this was the 3rd time I saw them in 12 days. Yes, they played "Snowglobes". Yes, I did end up in the venue-spanning moshpit for "Opus" despite buggering up my back the last time I did so. No, I regret nothing.

PORTALS FESTIVAL (London Dome, 11/09/21-12/09/21)

Day 1: Big Lad being loud and awesome and AK/DK being even louder and awesomer. Day 2: Human Pyramids (think the Penguin Cafe Orchestra indoctrinated into a math-rock cult), AXES (whose sheer joy at playing gigs again could power the National Grid) and the fierce punk of CLT DRP. Even though I can’t quite handle a whole weekend of math- and post-rock, just a few select acts make Portals worth the asking price.

BLACK COUNTRY NEW ROAD (London Lexington, 07/09/21)

My favourite band of recent years played my favourite venue and it was just as spectacular as I could have hoped (even with the random MGMT cover). My gig of 2021 so far, without a doubt.

MANCHESTER PSYCH FEST (Manchester Gorilla/YES, 04/09/21)

Was almost tempted to sack Manchester Psych Fest off as half the bands I wanted to see had dropped out, but you know what- it was bloody brilliant. The Los Bitchos/Crack Cloud double-whammy at YES was a big sweaty mess of awesomeness, Bo Ningen were at their face-melting best, Kikagaku Moyo were superb if a bit rowdy for my delicate self, Mandrake Handshake and The Lounge Society both impressed as acts new to me, and Peaness and Loose Articles added welcome shots of indie-pop and feminist punk to balance out the day. Manc-nificent!

WIDE AWAKE FESTIVAL (London Brockwell Park, 03/09/21)

A fine new addition to the capital's festival scene, featuring almost too many great acts for a single-day event. Highlights: Regressive Left providing some justification for the existence of Luton, Los Bitchos' electrifying fusion of psych and Cumbia, A Certain Ratio delivering the grooves, the silly yet totally banging joyousness of Lynks, and Black Country New Road causing anarchy with a spirited “Opus”.

STEREOLAB (Bedford Esquires, 01/09/21)

Ooh la la! Voici Laetitia et la bande, apportant un peu de French Disko dans le Bedford très peu gaulois. Mon dieu!

RAW POWER FESTIVAL (London Tufnell Park Dome, 28/08/21-29/08/21)

Featuring intergalactic chamber-prog cults, laser-augmented electronica, skronky noise-rock reprobates, experimental noise with the odd lightsabre battle, avant-garde bass/percussion collabs, post-punk duos, low-fi Japanese psych-folk, dystopian 80's soundscapes, anarchist black metal and an improv dub trio featuring members of Vanishing Twin. Another normal year of Raw Power, I guess.

ROSEHIP TEAHOUSE (London Paper Dress Vintage, 25/08/21)

The charming Welsh five-piece have been described in the music press as "bedroom pop" but I'm too old to Google what that means. Nice tunes though!

THE UMLAUTS (London Old Blue Last, 25/08/21)

Achtung! Achtung! The Ümlauts sind eine sehr gute band! Das ist alles!

NADINE SHAH (London 100 Club, 24/08/21)

"I don't want me name across your chests- I don't want to be implicated in your crimes!" No t-shirts from Nadine then, but at least we 'bunch of bastards' were treated to a blinder of a set from one of the UK's most charismatic and bullshit-intolerant performers. Not bad for five English pounds!

CATRIN FITCH & SECKOU KEITA (London Royal Albert Hall, 23/08/21)

Harps plus kora = bloody Nora! A sublime performance from the greatest Welsh/Senegalese music duo of all time.

MOSES SUMNEY (London Royal Albert Hall, 21/08/21)

Breathtaking, beguiling and at times spine-shiveringly epic, Jules Buckley and the BBC Symphonic elevated Moses’ soulful artpop to a whole new level.

SUPERGRASS (London Crystal Palace Bowl, 20/08/21)

I'm not young, don't run green, Guess my teeth are kinda clean? Not seen friends, or the sights, BUT I'M ALRIIIIIIIIIIGHT

THE COMET IS COMING(London Crystal Palace Bowl, 15/08/21)

An earth-sundering set of scintillating cosmic skronk that made me truly realise quite what we've missed out on these last 18 months. Praise be to The Comet!

GANG OF YOUTHS (London Lafayette, 12/08/21)

The rambunctious Aussies are a bit too earnest for my tastes, but you can’t deny they’re great fun to watch.

THE STAVES (Watford Cassiobury Park, 08/08/21)

A thoroughly charming homecoming show for the indie-folk siblings, with cameos from Marcus Hamblett and the frontman from local legends Mohair. More Watfordian than a fist-fight outside Destiny.

VISIONS FESTIVAL (London Oval Space/Pickle Factory, 07/08/21)

Was sceptical that this stripped-down version of the annual East London all-dayer would even go ahead, let alone be actively memorable, but mea culpa- I was more wrong than an X-rated Michael Gove DVD. Particular kudos to Famous, Martha Skye Murphy and Yard Act, who were all fantastic in very different ways.

KATY J PEARSON (London Signature Brew, 03/08/21)

Lush indie-pop anthemry at a Walthamstow brewery. Got sick half-way through which wasn’t ideal, but the music still hit the mark.

SARPA SALPA (Ramsgate Music Hall, 30/07/21)

Solid, danceable alt-pop. Not really my sort of thing, but an acceptable way to spend a summer’s evening in Kent.

EMMA-JEAN THACKRAY (London Colour Factory, 28/07/21)

My first non-seated show since March 2020, and my lord, it was fun to throw some low-grade shapes for the first time in forever. Jazz fusion par excellence from a bandleader who lives up to her personal motto- “move the body, move the mind, move the soul.”

PENGUIN CAFE & Douglas Dare (London Grand Junction, 02/07/21)

It's quite remarkable given the circumstances that Erased Tapes magicked such a delightful show into being, but Penguin Cafe and Douglas Dare truly knocked it out of the (Westbourne) Park. A great big warm hug of a gig.

ELECTRIC JALABA (London Grand Junction, 01/07/21)

Moroccan gnawa grooves fused with desert rock and Western psych...with an unexpected cameo from the mighty Shabaka Hutchings. A solid new discovery.

BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD (London Islington Assembly Hall, 28/06/21)

After an almost 18 month enforced estrangement from my favourite British band of the last half-decade, it's clear they hadn’t spent that time sitting around playing Dragon Quest XI unlike *some* people. There wasn't much time for the old - they didn't even play Sunglasses - but when the new sparkles with such promise (BASKETBALL SHOES!), that trade-off seemed more than adequate.

FOLLY GROUP (London Lexington, 25/06/21)

A band that commit fervently to that holiest of commands - "MOAR COWBELL!" I approve.

THE SCORPIOS (London Grand Junction, 24/06/21)

Turns out watching a 11-piece Sudanese afro-funk band backed with musicians from Ghana, the UK, Poland and Japan in a recently-refurbished West London Victorian church is a pretty excellent way to spend an evening.

ANNA MEREDITH & JOHNNY GREENWOOD (London Barbican, 19/06/21)

An uncharacteristically high-brow evening featuring Scotland's foremost mad musical scientist, the guitarist from some obscure 90's band and a sighting of a certain long-bearded Bad Seed...

GRIMM GRIMM (London Islington Assembly Hall, 13/06/21)

A civilised evening of charming experimental pop from Koichi Yamanoha and Helen Ganya Brown (AKA Dog In The Snow).

FAMOUS (London 100 Club, 30/05/21)

Just as scintillating as last time, even though the set was exactly the same.

DRUG STORE ROMEOS (London Oslo, 25/05/21)

A lusciously dream-poppy way to wrap eight gigs in eight days. Very Stereolab/Broadcast-esque.

AGA UJMA (London Shacklewell Arms, 24/05/21)

A Polish-born, London-based Indonesian instrumentalist with the voice of Björk and giant fluffy shoulder things for good measure. A talent to keep an eye on!

SHIRLEY COLLINS (London Barbican, 23/05/21)

Not only was it an honour to witness the 85-year folk legend in action, but it was also the first time (I think) I've seen Morris dancing at a gig before. Didn’t quite convert me into a trad-folk stan, but I no longer throw up at the sight of a lute.

SARATHY KORWAR (London Kings Place, 22/05/21)

A thrilling, politically-charged fusion of jazz, Indian classical styles, poetry and a dash of noise from one of the most vital artists of our times.

GOAT GIRL (London Dome, 22/05/21)

A rather sedate mid-afternoon set from the hotly-tipped South London 4-piece. So much so, I actually fell asleep.

LONDON BULGARIAN CHOIR (London Kings Place, 20/05/21)

A delightful glimpse into "the darkness" - and humour - "of the Slavic soul" courtesy of Dessislava Stefanova and her effervescent comrades. I first discovered them via their collaborations with British Sea Power and Doves, but in all honesty they're even better doing their own thing.

DELE SOSIMI AFROBEAT ORCHESTRA (London Jazz Cafe, 19/05/21)

Fela and Tony may have left us, but at least we've got Dele to keep the Afrobeat flame alive. "You gotta griiiiiind those behiiiiinds on those chairs of yours!" Highly entertaining.

FAMOUS (London Brixton Windmill, 18/05/21)

It may have been the five months of giglessness talking, but Famous, playing to an audience of roughly 40 people, completely blew me away. It’s not often you see a band channel 'Rubies'-era Destroyer and Girl Band in one 30-minute set, but they successfully fused a gazillion disparate musical influences without sounding incoherent.