In the week that COVID-19 restrictions have lifted and Manchester’s clubs and venues are beginning to buzz again, a flood of new music has arrived just in time!
With everything from indie-pop to jazz and soul, we’ve got a varied selection of tracks to share with you during the first edition of our brand-new weekly top 5 releases list.
So, in no particular order, find The Manc Audio’s pick of the bunch below – with a preview of our New Manchester Music playlist at the bottom.
Ceeow – Fadeaway
In this crazy world, hip-hop artist Ceeow manages to maintain a calm and collected mantra, producing music that encourages mindfulness and positive energy.
His latest track ‘FADEAWAY’ is an indication of how his mind works.
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It’s uplifting, melting together hip-hop, jazz and chillwave under soft spoken lyrics that instantly put you in a better mood.
And we could all do with a bit of that right now, right?
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LayFullstop – Receipts
LayFullstop is back with her first release of the year.
LayFullstop released her first track of 2021 this week, too.
‘Receipts’ layers her signature soulful vocals over jazz-style beats that are so easy to connect with and that’s what we love about Lay’s music. This one’s taken from her upcoming 12-track mixtape ‘STiR’ so there’s plenty more to come soon.
It follows the success of her Cherries EP and stunning Colors show of 2019. And fresh off the back of her Manchester International Festival performance, she’s ready to show us what she’s been working on.
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Green Wire – Looking Back
Indie-rock pop fusion newcomers Green Wire have dropped their debut single ‘Looking Back’ this week.
The track is intended to capture the pain and disappointment that creatives and the music industry have faced this past year-and-a-half and we’re pretty sure they’ve nailed it.
After first meeting at the Manchester BIMM institute, the lads decided to pool their musical skills and influences to form something new. And in early 2021, Green Wire was their new direction. They’re only just getting started, but could be ones to watch this year.
Foxglove – Birthday
Quirky band Foxglove have dropped another single this week.
Euphoric indie-pop four-piece Foxglove are back with new stuff.
‘Birthday’ is another example of how the band like to play around with ambient guitars and experiment with a spacey sound. The track is super lively and tells a story about growing up and learning life’s many lessons.
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Fronted by lead vocalist Abi White, the band are fun and full of energy – the perfect tonic to life right now.
Catch them at Open Beat’s showcase at Off The Square on 30 October alongside Kosomauts and Kestrel Palace. Tickets available here.
The Mouse Outfit – Limelight
‘Limelight’ is the new one from OneDa, Superlative and the rest of The Mouse Outfit crew.
The collective are known for their eclectic approach to making music, by teaming up with countless producers and musicians over the years to create something completely fresh each time.
This latest one sees a collab with five rappers from across the UK, including Liverpool rapper Koj whose accent comes through strong amidst his effortless flow.
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Have a listen to all the releases on our New Manchester Music Spotify playlist below.
Featured image: Ceeow – credit @sseannewtonn/IG
Music
Posters around Manchester city centre spark serious rumours Charli XCX is set to headline Parklife 2025
Danny Jones
Some pretty big, green posters are popping up around town and, not to get ahead of ourselves, but it looks like they’re hinting at Charli XCX headlining Parklife 2025…
Feel free to lose your bratting minds.
A number of tall, let’s call it ‘apple’ green posters have been sighted in various places across Manchester city centre this Friday, 22 November and the last time we saw this slightly low-resolution, plain black Arial font and colour combo we got a reworked version of Charli XCX’s brat album.
Listen, all we can tell you is that this is almost exactly the same marketing and the letters on the poster simply read, “PL25”. Come on… you do the math(s).
Spotting at least two of the posters for ourselves around both Newton and Thomas Street in and around the Northern Quarter, plenty of people have been double-taking at the simple but bold and undeniably eye-catching portrait posters.
Trust us, we weren’t the only ones stopping to take a picture and frantically send them to half of our phonebook either.
Charli herself hasn’t given us any other clues on social media thus far – to be fair, this one feels fairly obvious to us – but it’s well worth keeping your eyes peeled on her stories as she did plenty of teasing before dropping Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat.
Still can’t get over that actually being the title, by the way.
It’s also worth noting that Parklife themselves recently confirmed that festival fans can expect the 2025 lineup very soon. Check out that colour…
Oh, who are we kidding? That’s not apple green it’s straight-up BRAT green, b*tch. We’re fully getting carried away and you’ll just have to deal with it.
Even if it somehow turns out she’s not headlining it’s certainly looking like she’s going to be there and it wouldn’t be the first time.
Better yet, fans of the pop sensation won’t have to wait too long to see her right here in Greater Manchester because Charli is bringing her already smash-hit tour to Co-op Live next Wednesday, 27 November and in case you couldn’t tell by all the shouting in capitals, we’re very excited.
Roll on ‘PL25’. Other than Charli XCX, who else would you like to see Parklife next summer?
Bez and Shaun Ryder are starring in a new gangster movie – nope, not kidding
Danny Jones
No, you didn’t misread the headline and you’re not on acid: Manchester music legends Bez and Shaun Ryder are set to feature in a brand-new gangster film.
Yes, the ones from the Happy Mondays – why are you having such trouble processing this?
Seriously though, we did a little double-take ourselves when we came across this news, but the familiar Manc faces look to be among the ensemble of a brand-new gangster movie by Irish writer, actor, producer and filmmaker, Ciaron Davies.
And this is just a little leak or rumour that may have been blown out of proportion: you can take it from the horse’s mouth as Happy Mondays frontman, Ryder, recently shared the news on social media.
As you can see, the new film is called Geezers and is billed as a “British crime caper” written and directed by Davies, featuring Shaun as hard-man Robbie and Bez as ‘Monk’. If you saw Ryder shaking off that snake biting his hand like it was nothing then you already know he’s hard as nails.
Although it’s not strictly listed as a comedy per se, ‘caper’ would suggest plenty of humour and light-heartedness, so we’re thinking more like The Gentleman, Italian Job, or maybe even Four Lions, rather than a serious crime thriller.
Now, while we’ve seen both of the Salfordians on screen before not only in the likes of music videos, interviews, panel shows and even as two of the funniest guests to ever go on Celebrity Gogglebox, this latest venture will serve as their respective acting debuts.
According to the IMDb page, the synopsis of the film is as follows: “Crime caper about a stolen bag of money. Caught in the crossfire are ‘The Geezers’ a bunch of wannabe criminals who have bitten off more than they can chew. With 24 hours to grab the cash, London may just go up in smoke tonight.”
Shame it’s not set on the mean streets of Manchester, or better yet Salford, but you’ve still very much caught our interest.
You can see the first promotional poster for the film down below.
As for Davies, he has been involved with a number of small-budget TV film projects, as well as appearing in shorts and even video games, so it’s fair to say that getting 62-year-old Ryder and his ever-energetic hype man, 60, involved is quite the coup for his movie-making career.
Although the film has no release date just yet, we know that filming locations having included parts of Warrington and Pinewood Studios, will be produced by Loose Gripp Films and distributed by publishers High Fliers.
Given the high-octane nature of Geezers and its genre, the feature will involve lots of action, stunts, violence and even martial arts – though how much kung-fu these two will have learned for the project remains to be seen…
All we know is that the film is supposedly “coming soon” and if you don’t want to see Bez and Shaun Ryder doing their best impression of a Guy Ritchie gangster movie then you’re lying to yourself. Praying for a Rowetta cameo to put the cherry on top.
Hannah Starkie -
23rd July 2021 
