Part post-punk grit, part gothic spectacle, Dog Race are a strange and compelling presence in the UK’s alt underground.

This September, Manchester plays host to the 50th anniversary of Japan Week – the first time the festival’s landed on UK soil. Why Manchester? You’ll find the answer in Bloom.

Two of electronic music’s most distinctive voices join forces for an extended back-to-back at The White Hotel – a rare opportunity to hear them stretch out across a full night.

Celebrating the release of their debut album, The New Eves bring their raw, ritualistic folk to Leeds’ Hype Park Bookclub.

This September, Blackburn’s Confessional Festival turns 10, celebrating with two days of live music set beneath the stained glass and vaulted stonework of Holy Trinity Church.

Featuring members of Landless and Lankum, Poor Creature reimagine centuries-old folk songs with dreamlike textures, earthy harmonies, and a subtle, timeless pull.

This autumn, the RNCM launches its second Inspirational Artists series, spotlighting a huge range of touring musicians and ensembles, each bringing something unique to the stage.

One of the most urgent voices in alt-punk, SPRINTS are heading to Liverpool for an intimate in-store show and signing ahead of the release of their second album.

Irish post-punk firebrands M(h)aol return to Liverpool this September, bringing their raw, rhythm-driven new album Something Soft to Future Yard.

Modern Nature bring their shape-shifting blend of bucolic folk, free jazz and psych-tinged post-rock to Rough Trade Liverpool this October, in support of their forthcoming album The Heat Warps.

Overmono return to The Warehouse Project this October with Pure Devotion – a self-curated night of high emotion, heavy sonics, and a no-messing line-up from the sharpest edges of global club culture.

Part prayer, part protest, part dancefloor séance – Lyra Pramuk brings her otherworldly live show to The White Hotel.

Smart, eccentric, and gleefully out of step with trends – Bristol quartet Sans Froid bring their tangled, piano-led art-rock to Leeds.

With sardonic wit, towering hooks and distortion dialled high, Blondshell lands at New Century this September, armed with new songs and unfinished business.

Manchester Psych Fest is back with 70+ live acts, turning the city into a playground for the ones who like it loud, loose and a little off-centre.

Emerging from a four-year crucible of creative tension and personal reckoning, Brooklyn shoegazers DIIV return to Leeds for the first time in nearly a decade.

The Hallé’s new season blends classical heavyweights, boundary-pushing premieres, and genre-straddling names like Jonny Greenwood and Anna Meredith – plus a whole festival dedicated to John Adams.

Hulme’s Green Island Festival returns this summer, bringing a three-part series of events to Hulme Garden Centre and the iconic NIAMOS.