Manchester Psych Fest returns on August 31st to bring the most exciting new alternative, outsider, experimental and nuanced artists to the forefront in a full-day multi-venue extravaganza that will take over the city. With headliners including Baxter Dury, BC Camplight and Altın Gün, the day is sure to be a behemoth.
Final tickets at £60+ fees are selling fast via manchesterpsychfest.com.
However, the true beauty in city festivals like this are discovering the next wave of emerging talent as well as enjoying some cult favourites in the smaller venues throughout the day. So...here's our rundown of the five acts you MUST SEE at Psych Fest 2024.
Fat Dog
Perhaps the most exciting new act in the UK right now, Fat Dog are the name on the lips of tastemakers across the country. Their unique brand of warped, electronic, Punk-fuelled psychedelia is electrifying. Tracks like 'Running' and 'King of the Slugs' have an insatiable energy that not just encourages, but demands, that you get on your feet and dance in the most grimey, disjointed fashion possible. They have a growling intensity, fierce funky rhythm and raucous melody that you just can't escape.
Photo credit: Pooneh Ghana
However, they are not just a one trick pony. 'All The Same' creates a more hypnotic, groove-based sound that completely ensnares you in a sonic trap, leaving you want to listen again as soon as the final note has finished. Then, their most recent single 'I Am The King' showcased their more spaced-out Electronica talents, leaning into slightly 'Born Slippy' territory with the otherworldly synths and floating vocal lines.
This Pysch Fest set will arrive just before their debut album, the perfect time to see them before their popularity sky rockets.
Lime Garden
Armed with a pleasantly arrogant vocal delivery, dark dance rhythms and big fat Docs Lime Garden are here to stamp down hard on your ear drums. Without doubt one the UK's most exciting new guitar bands, the four-piece have developed a blend that darts across all the latest musical trends. Their new album 'One More Thing' demonstrates this with a blend of bedroom pop ballads, funky Indie Dance tunes and moments of gritty angst-fuelled expression.
An album highlight is 'Love Song', a dancey, Brit-Pop-inspired track that begins with a quirky sequence of beats coupled with catchy strumming on a classically clean, electric guitar. Immediately, Blur come to mind, especially the intro to 'Girls and Boys'. Then, a refreshing and more contemporary sound takes over and you are left with a thoughtful tapestry of different styles.
The song explores a sonic and thematic contrast between the apprehensive tone of the track. The vocals are fuzzy and relatively quiet in the mix but the lyrics ring out loud and clear: “I walk, I bleed, I want to take you everywhere with me". Overall, Love Song is an exploration of various genres and is a fun and playfully melodramatic track to dance to.
Wine Lips
Canadian-born Psych/Garage Rockers Wine Lips are back with their new record Super Mega Ultra, a non-stop onslaught of high-energy riffs and raucous energy that has confirmed their status as mosh pit mind melters.
Tracks like 'High On Your Own Supply' and 'Six Pack' capture the mind-altering feelings of their inebriated namesakes hitting you with frantic rhythms and acid-trip guitar lines that make your head spin.
Meanwhile, songs like 'Cash Man' dig deeper into a swirling sonic whirlind with layers upon layers of Psychedelic guitars and swelling atmospherics that you can easily get lost in. The vocals are passionate and powerful throughout every track, acting as a sharp anchor for you to latch onto among the madness.
They are such fun to listen to on record so we can't even imagine how much fun they will be like in person.
SLAP RASH
If you’re not sure if you’ve seen SLAP RASH live on your local circuit yet then you definitely haven’t because theirs is a performance that you don’t forget.
The brother-sister duo are one of the most visceral live acts across the North-West right now and their music aims to capture all the thrashing energy and harsh, Punk intensity of their live shows in recorded form.
Their debut EP ‘Catherine Special’ is an in-your-face, grimey expression of social unrest and self-analytical outbursts. Everything about their music is full-on, making a gigantic noise between just two people as they combine their dark, gravely bass lines and smashing drum sounds to create a cacophony of noise.
The vocals too are harsh and in-your-face on every track as Amelia spits out her discontent, demanding you take notice. A furious sonic sandstorm that is not for the faint-hearted!
Divorce
The lucid Alternative Folk musings of Divorce have captured the hearts of many this year. Their music uses a rich tapestry of warm instrumental layers, building up a web of quirky Folk-tinged rhythms. However, the male/female vocal blend lies at the heart of their attraction. The soft yet powerful vocals of Tiger Cohen-Towell soar, attacking the bigger lines with vigour and caressing the gentle lines with a beautiful vulnerability while the voice of Felix Mackenzie-Barrow has a more earthy quality that provides the cosy edge to their music.
Their 2023 EP 'Heady Metal' is a fantastic summation of their talents, offering the more cinematic productions of 'Birds' and 'Scratch Your Metal' and the Art-Folk twists of 'Sex & The Millennium Bridge' which provides the same quirky lyricism of acts like Wet Leg and English Teacher. However, the highlight of the EP comes in the form of 'Right On Time' as it showcases all their best elements, diverting between the wholesome Folk harmonies that have an enriching quality and the angstier Grunge tones that give Divorce that extra punch. Originally a collaboration between multiple Nottingham artists, Do Nothing and Megatrain, we hope that Divorce is now a fully fledged project that will continue to grow in 2024.
Hotwax
"Spitting out all of my doubt, spitting out all of my doubt" are words that have been ringing around our minds this year! These are words from the angsty stomper from HotWax, 'High Tea', a track that you just can't ignore. In fact, the whole of their 'Invite Me, Kindly' EP slaps you round the face and makes you listen up to their fiery brand of Rock.
There's moments of Femme-Punk ferocity, sections that ring of modern Alternative newcomers like English Teacher and a Post-Punk / Art-Rock inventiveness that brings a vibrancy to their rhythms. The growling guitar and bass lines also have a wonderfully funky element that emphasises the swagger of their aggressive vocal attacks. We can't wait to follow the trajectory of these guys as we can guarantee it is only up and up.
Goat Girl
Explorative Alternative outfit Goat Girl have just released their third record 'Below The Waste' and it is perhaps their most complex and intriguing release yet.
The new album sees them journey through their most widespread collection of sonic styles and emotive atmospheres to date, seamlessly weaving between angsty expressionism and tranquil contemplations. Tracks like 'ride around' offer gritty textures that give a dense, grimey texture while songs such as 'words fell out' focus in on their wonderful vocal blends, building hypnotic melodies and lucid, electronic soundscapes.
Ahead of their performance, we sat down for some quickfire Q&A's to get a sense of how Goat Girl feel about the new album release.
Q. What have been the key events over the last three years that impacted your approach to this new record?
A. "Becoming a three piece, lockdown and various personal struggles!".
Q. What would you say are the main lyrical themes running through the record?
A. "Community, friendship and imagining a better future".
Q. How does this album differ sonically from your previous two?
A. "It's more extreme - when it's heavy it's heavy, when it's soft and vulnerable it's not afraid to be exposed. we had the luxury of time with this album so we could really zoom in on the minute details of each song and pare back when needed or add loads of noise if that's what we wanted. it's also co-produced by us with the amazing john 'spud' murphy!".
Q. What track from the album are you most excited for fans to hear live?
A. "Wasting!".
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