Five acts to look out for at Sounds From The Other City

Image: Sounds From The Other City

Each year on May Day Bank Holiday, Sounds From The Other City celebrate emerging music and performance by melting together the home grown and international scene with varying independent players in the city's cultural market. 

The marrying of under the radar talent and independent promoters, collectives and club nights,  makes for a special vibe throughout the all day festival. It perfectly paints a picture of what the music scene in Manchester and the surrounding area is all about. 

Scattered across multiple venues of all shapes and sizes in the Salford area, Sounds From The City is awash with bands from across the cultural spectrum. With so many artists to choose from who you may not have discovered yet, we've used our expertise to single out five who we think are worth your time.

La Priest

If you're not yet acquainted with the majestic sound of 'Oino' (below), we can guarantee you've probably unknowingly heard and digged it anyway.

LA Priest is a musical project from musician Sam Dust, revived after eight years since a release on Erol Alkan's Phantasy imprint. With that in mind, we'd strongly suggest taking him in due to the off chance the mystifying moniker will disappear into thin air again. 

Pinkshinyultrablast

It's not often the UK scene is pervaded with bands from Russia but Pinkshinyultrablast are about to change all that. Merging serene guitar lines with drawn out sensual vocals, they carry a blissful shoegaze sound like no other.

After dropping their debut album this year, which you can get a feel for below, they're quite frankly here to stay, so we suggest you get in there early. 

Real Lies 

They first bleeped our radar when Jamie XX dropped 'North Circular' (below) in his Young Turks Boiler Room set. When we finally identified the track, its persistent and evocative vocal masked by misty atmospheric tones reverberated our office for days.

This moment alone gives us enough reason to include them here, but we know that the youthful Londoner trio's electro pop will have plenty more to say for itself on the day. 

D/R/U/G/S

Stitching together the sort of beats that go hand in hand with an Ibiza sunset or hazy after party, part native twosome D/R/U/G/S are sure to thrive in this discerning environment.

Opening up a portal of escapism with their hedonistic brand of down tempo electro, they'll paint the room with cuts such as Love/Lust (above) that perfectly embrace the weekend. 

Jane Weaver 

Opening up a path of synth inspired neofolk, Jane Weaver's music caresses a complexity that's quite hard to put a finger on.

Perfectly embodying the festival with her solely independent music, the bewilderment of her story telling musings flaunts an appeal that  needs to be witnessed first hand.  

If that's got your musical senses tingling, you can grab your Sounds of the Other City tickets here or via the box below. 

Tickets are no longer available for this event