Music
Johnny James, Managing EditorOur latest music picks begin with a Manchester scene that’s starting to attract national attention. As Crack Magazine noted recently, a disparate group of local artists are blurring the lines between bands, DJs and performance art – and two of the most exciting, SILVERWINGKILLER and Mogan, are sharing a stage at The White Hotel.
MLEKO tap into that same sense of momentum bubbling through the city’s underground. Still early on, with just two singles to their name, they’ve already built a cult following through music that veers between pastoral folk, post-punk and some kind of apocalyptic doom-jazz.
Taking the doom out of that jazz, mjf2026 brings together major international names and some of the most exciting artists emerging from local contemporary jazz scenes.
Two classical shows, meanwhile, strip the formality out of the concert hall. Manchester Collective’s Patterns in Repeat treats contemporary classical music as something bodily, less to be understood than to be felt, while Belle Chen threads electronics through meditative piano music that drifts across imagined landscapes.
Different scenes – underground, band-led, orchestral, improvisatory, experimental – all unfolding at once, and all building something exciting.
