Manchester Psych Fest
Multiple Venues, Manchester
31 August 2024
Although cynics have frequently questioned its ‘psych credentials’, this year’s Manchester Psych Fest had a particularly diverse array of genres, showing the liminal spaces and overlapping subgenres touched by psychedelia in its many forms. Various bands evidenced the blurred lines between shoegaze and psych-pop, others used the spirit of psych to push the boundaries of genre, and a few ignored the prospect of psychedelic music entirely (to their strength).
2024 also marked ten years of the festival, bringing with it several celebratory additions: among them, artists such as Prima Queen performed secret sets at Bundobust, and music video maestro Innerstrings provided visuals.
Each venue had a wide array of sounds, as well as established acts versus new names. TTSFU, the dream pop project of Tasmin Stephens, opened the day at Gorilla while, later in the day, Geordie Greep (he of black midi fame) blazed through his Latin-influenced new material. The former, despite having only released their debut EP earlier this year, felt like a veteran performer, wading into the crowd for the ultimate dream pop ballad of Studio 54. Busy instrumentation and ethereal, catchy vocal melodies stirred the soul with the opening tracks, yet I Hope You Die was far grungier and impactful on its live version, dictated by full-bodied screams, clattering drums and guitars juddering with feedback.
An even fuller venue greeted Greep’s performance, which began with noisy Latin-funk anchored by elaborate drum fills, added groove from a cello, and rhythms mildly similar to the stop-and-start and staccato of black midi. The tracks diversified infinitely from here, with funk where the words squeezed out of Greep’s cathartic vocals like Scott Walker; a jaunty folk tune led by cellist Felix Stephens; a noisy folk jam with repeated, droning chords; and a yearning jazz instrumental which displayed the refined, more effective brand of guitar-playing Greep has adopted. Likewise, the lyrics, though coated in the fantastical, lurid of a black midi track, felt far more direct and – almost – personal: “welcome to failure” and “I would have disemboweled myself just to hold your hand” represented the two sides of this coin. On a finale, that mightily impressive band were, by far, the ones to stretch the ‘psych’ envelope the most.
Heartworms’ magnetic frontwoman continued the visual extravagance of the band’s opening militaristic choreography. In the set’s sombre moments, lighter instrumentation surrounded Orme’s expressive displays and pixie-like, exorcising vocal performance. Elsewhere, the dampening acoustics of the newly added Projekts Skatepark venue didn’t stop the band’s electronics-backed guitar thrall being thoroughly skull-bashing.
Marika Hackman, fresh from a performance at the Albert Hall, also gave a rapturous acoustic set at Bundobust. The audience were practically hypnotised by the feather-light strumming of Blood and the Big Thief-esque finger-picking of The Yellow Mile.
The heaviest end of the festival’s psych spectrum came with Slift, copious wah-wah guitar meeting burly yet jazzy drumming. Performing in the vast Manchester Met Union, their awesomely loud set reached with Lions, Tigers, And Bears, a rampant brew of psychedelic metal and deft, proggy bass. Here, guitarist and vocalist Jean Fossat leapt briskly from spidery, high-speed lead to energetic muted strumming, and even a noisy amp embrace in the vein of Sonic Youth. A later track showcased the strength of the festival’s visuals, as kaleidoscopic crimson ripples converged with slow, heavy drumming and an alternation between balearic synths and metal/shoegaze guitar screams.
Daiistar were a well-chosen addition for the tight, sweaty, pulsing throng gathered in the Bread Shed. Their melodic Britpop choruses and nonchalance were a gleaming yin to the yang of ferocious rhythm guitar. Elsewhere, they were far edgier than their sickly sweet album versions, summoning a nearly industrial level of feedback and synths for one particularly drawn-out outro.
Plantoid’s highly technical jazz-rock was a totally distinct, captivating variety of psych, as half-muted lead guitar, delirious rhythm and cymbal-tapping drumming coalesced. A healthy amount of brawny rocking out, and the soaring voice of guitarist Chloe Spence, kept them from reaching the overly indulgent realm of math-rock, ensuring the emotive void was always filled. Wander Wonder meandered elegantly through the aforementioned intricacies, while a new track used an increasingly aggressive repetition of droning chords to achieve their heaviest yet.
Tuareg guitar group Mdou Moctar‘s boundless rhythm filled the entirety of the Ritz, their crystalline-toned riffs prompting almost constant whoops at the merest note. The bluesy, rolling licks and unconventional rhythms of tracks like Takoba, interspersed with chant-like backing vocals, meant that some could have stretched far longer than their recorded versions, with no complaints.
Psych jazz duo O. – baritone saxophonist Joe Henwood and drummer Tash Keary – were a visceral live act. Asked for a response which would circle enough energy back into the band’s festival-worn bodies, the audience duly obliged, with screams and literal floor-quaking. Their first track showed their genre-fluid style with a percussive force that soon verged on techno, stuttering sax conversing with Keary’s intricate patterns – audibly heightened by the kit, as bent cymbals left a brilliantly weird, stifled echo. Another grew from 4/4 drumming and a slow, cinematic sax dirge, amping up its burgeoning rhythms to a feverish speed.
Once again, Manchester Psych Fest provided multitudes of experimental music fans with bands both inside and outside their taste, whilst providing growing artists a platform from which to leave with an immeasurable increase in fans.
Find information on Manchester Psych Festival here.
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Photography by James A Mumby.
Words by James Kilkenny. Find more Louder Than War articles from him here.
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