London Zine of Music, Arts and Miscellaneous Happenings. Monthly updates & seasonal physicals.
/ˈpɪnˌdrɒp/
1) adjective describing the silence produced when a performance leaves the audience speechless (ie: one could hear a pin drop)
2) verb to indicate the location of a particular happening
07
___Asa Smiles @ Mascara Bar £5 SEXMAGIC - There’s something beautiful in being able to hear every building layer in the minimalist indietronica of songwriter Asa Smiles – no wonder she was called up to support ear for their last London show. Check out supports Pierre Calvini’s noisy indie-rock and the brilliantly inventive art pop of bellybuttonlint. tickets
___Prolapse @ 100 Club £17 Upset The Rhythm - Formed in ‘92 with the aim of ‘being the most depressing band ever’, Leicester post-punk group Prolapse made a name for themselves with their duelling vocalists Linda Steelyard and Glaswegian Mick Derrick, pugnacious triple guitars, pummelling rhythms and ringing overtones. With their first record in 26 years, they’ve still got it. tickets
___Dr Alimantado @ Fox And Firkin £17.03 - The Best Dressed Chicken in Town returns to the UK for the first time in over two decades. Here to prescribe a dose of classic deejay and roots reggae (with a healthy shot of toasting on the side), seeing the man lauded by punks and Lee Perry alike for under £20 is a no-brainer. Just make sure you’re sharp-suited for the occasion. tickets
08
___“The Music of Arthur Russell” @ Theatreship £13.63 - As you’ll soon see, August is a month of tribute nights. Kicking things off is the first of two unconnected odes to avant-pop architect Arthur Russell, this one helmed by August Cooke and Myer U. Clark whose respective Hinduistani-influenced cello and indie folk were both hugely influenced by Russell’s disco subversion. The other is steered in a jazzier direction by Speakers Corner Quartet at EartH on the 18th, but this one gets the edge by being hosted on a boat. tickets
10
___Pindrop Presents: TBA @ Windmill Brixton £6
12
___Daisy Rickman plays Nick Drake's Guitar @ EartH Theatre £18 / 23 Broadside Hacks - One glance at her YouTube channel proves Cornish psychedelic folkster Daisy Rickman is no stranger to interpreting Nick Drake. Going a step further at EartH this month, she’ll be wielding two of the guitars Drake himself used at bookends of his truncated career: the ‘64 Estruch that demoed many of the songs that became his debut; and the ‘72 Martin featured on his final recording sessions. Turtleneck-clad introspection will most definitely spike around this time. tickets
___Sharp Pins @ ICA £24.21 - One inevitability is each era’s rediscovery and reinterpretation of ‘60s jangling garage pop, building upon each class that came before it. Whilst undeniably leading Gen Z’s charge, The Lemon Twigs often leave their own generation apathetic to their sunshiney pastiche. On the other hand, Chicago’s Kai Slater, songwriter of Sharp Pins, has captured a refocused nostalgia, not only with his mod cut and wide-neckline tees but with an obsession with DIY culture, whether recording lo-fi pop hits on his 4-track tape machines, designing his own art with crayons and roughly chopped card, and running his own zine Hallogallo. tickets
14
___Champion Trees @ George Tavern £10 Falling Moon - Champion Trees are a six-piece South African band that embrace expansive compositions through layered storytelling, with their latest album, A Duck's Water Off My Back, making for an all-encompassing set. Their tour support, London’s Kaspar Hauser, solidify themselves as an alt-folk band's best friend, with a mellow and naive sound contrasting their expert writing tickets
___Newbuild @ Shacklewell Arms FREE Bad Vibrations - Newbuild have been playing around the public houses of South London for a good couple of years, pumping doomy guitar sounds, sweet synth lines and an unrelentingly furious rhythm section. This is your chance to be swept up into an atmosphere of dread and pure excitement, all for the low price of absolutely nothing. tickets
16
___An Homage to Elliott Smith @ George Tavern £8 / 18 Phase Magazine - Members of Mary in the Junkyard, The Orchestra (For Now), August and more convene at the George to perform music from across the indie folk luminary’s heartrending catalogue. Put together by Phase Magazine, all profits from the event will be donated to Mind in aid of mental health support. With a secret guest still yet to be announced, bringing tissues will be a must. tickets
17
___Export Import @ Lower Third £5 - Soho's Lower Third hosts Canning Town’s finest performance-art-cum-experimental-rockers latest ‘Life Passage Ceremony’. Previous iterations of the group have taken the form of Christmas elves and ‘50s ballad revivalists – what guise will they assume this time? tickets
___Friko @ MOTH Club £21 Bad Vibrations - Chicago indie rockers with a clear focus on good-old-fashioned songwriting. Frontman Niko Kapetan strums a beaten up acoustic while the band carefully constructs an atmosphere of anticipation around him, before erupting into inevitable crescendos of post-grunge glory. tickets
19
___Greg Freeman @ MOTH Club £18.13 Bird On The Wire - Against the iconic glitter of MOTH Club’s stage, Greg Freeman brings a presence to confide in. His vocals, raw and sewn with intensity, illuminate the honesty of his lyricism. A musician approaching the acoustic stylings of a country rock legend with a modern sound, missing the chance to see his musings would be a fate worse than death tickets
___Ana Frango Elétrico @ Jazz Cafe £28.38 Eat Your Own Ears - It’s summer and don’t we just know it. If the sun doesn’t bother to rise, then Ana Frango Electrico’s music has no problem taking on the job itself. With music that slowly intensifies, reaching a giddying climax behind explosive vocals, the modern Brazilian jazz artist has a way with composition. Hosted by the Jazz Cafe, the fusion between traditional and contemporary genres the band embraces thrives in a like-minded space. tickets
___Shearling (In The Round) @ George Tavern £22 JOY - One of the most visceral shows around, Shearling have whipped the live circuit into a frenzy of blood and feedback after rising from the ashes of Sprain. Frontman Alexander Gregory Kent’s disarming stage presence will likely feast on this gig’s 360 degrees of spectatorship, which will also give UK fans another chance at hearing embryonic versions of their long-teased ‘sister record’. tickets
20
___Linda Smith @ The Lexington £15.89 Upset The Rhythm - The warbling cassettes of home-recording pioneer Linda Smith survived 40 years of obscurity before her heartwrenchingly melancholic jangle pop was rediscovered and revered. A song isn’t just for Christmas; it’s for life, and it’s clear the Baltimore native tapped into something eternal. Check out support from Stuart Moxham, songwriter of cult ‘80s post-punk trio Young Marble Giants. tickets
21
___Horsegirl @ Islington Assembly Hall £27.78 Bird On The Wire - With the start of August, festival season commences and along with it arrives a flow of bands venturing around the continent. Horsegirl, hailing from Chicago, stop off in London, to the welcoming arms of the Islington Assembly Hall. A twangy 3-piece band, Horsegirl play on that vintage sound, reminiscent of a time Dolly Mixture ruled the indie world. Their latest album Phonetics On and On was produced by powerhouse Cate Le Bon, allowing for a new level of experimentation that shows the band at its prime. tickets
25
___Elvira Del Rocio @ George Tavern FREE - Almost lost in echoes of quavering guitars and rumbling atmosphere, the high, husky whispers of Valencian songwriter and visual artist Elvira Del Rocio paint trance-inducing melodies with short phrases that suddenly reach through the reverb and grab you. Well-curated support comes from the atmospheric alt-rock outfit Cuckoo Spit, who don’t repeat the mistakes of the wider “shoegaze” glut: with swirling textures so poignantly restrained and droning chords that spell something far more unique. tickets
26
___fantasy of a broken heart @ Shacklewell Arms £14.18 FORM - Expect joyful art pop when the Shack hosts this American duo, adorned with weird sampler sounds and sweet, scratchy guitar parts. Vocals are traded between band members with a nonchalance that is endlessly satisfying, with everything coming together to give the live band a flavour which is fun above all else. Very slightly reminiscent of elevator music in the best way possible. tickets
28
___Kiran Leonard @ Ivy House £13.39 - On a brief pitstop before they each end the festival season at Dorset’s End Of The Road, three brilliant acts congregate at Nunhead’s finest establishment. Headlining is potentially Pindrop’s most nattered-about artist, Kiran Leonard, who paints awe-inspiring songs with brilliantly uncomfortable harmonies, whether fully orchestrated with a band or played on a single, knocked-around Stratocaster (this time with his band!). Be sure to see Jennifer Walton, whose debut record Daughters conjures moments where the sky seems to crack open, and experimental electronic duo Another Country $$$$. tickets
31
___Earl Sweatshirt & MIKE @ Kentish Town Forum £44.64 Metropolis - Two of abstract hip-hop’s biggest names convene for a co-headline tour, riding the wave of two respectively stellar hypnagogic rap LPs last year, plus their recent collab album Pompeii. During a secret album launch show at Soho’s Below Stone Nest earlier this year, the partnership added a more playful and open side to their typical obliqueness, so expect a similarly communally dejected experience here. Ambient plugg luminary HARRISON – of Pompeii’s producers Surf Gang – supports. tickets
by JR
Beginning as an extension of academic research into the consequences of austerity for London’s youth culture, Pindrop has always had a foundational belief in the importance of the live musical experience. These venues and events, which are seemingly frivolous to those policymakers with an eye on the bigger picture, can provide us with the means of articulating feelings and ideas which can’t elegantly be put into words. Having a physical space to experience artistic community is crucial, allowing for those perfect moments where all the convoluted machinations of logic and reason fall away and what remains is a glimpse of some raw and inexplicable facet of the human condition. Usually these experiences are positive and ecstatic (see reviews on My Bloody Valentine and LCD Soundsystem). Indeed, so much of Pindrop is about uplifting the very best of what London has to offer–but this gig most assuredly was not that. Instead, what it presented was a kind of disjointed confusion which even now is difficult to untangle.
Centrist Dad is a cover band for the politically inclined: two members you might recognise are drummer Ed Balls of Ed Balls Day fame (and former Labour Secretary of State) and frontman Robert Peston from ITV (and supposedly The Rest Is Money). There is no original material, but the back catalogue of covers is surprisingly contemporary. Blur and Madonna provide the requisite nods to the past for older members of the crowd, but Chappell Roan’s ‘Pink Pony Club’ and Charli xcx’s ‘I Love It’ also feature on the set list. Peston is a surprisingly compelling frontman, sauntering around the stage clad in a long flowing white top that can only be described as “Islington mum-core.” It’s a genuinely important lesson in committing to the bit—a middle-aged man singing about going to a drag bar would fall flat with anything less than full commitment.
What made the gig weird wasn’t so much the covers (they were serviceable) or the atmosphere (a sort of group karaoke thing) but the audience and context of the whole thing. If much of Pindrop is implicitly about the way the personal is political, the disjunction here is the way the political is oddly personal. On the one hand, it really just was a normal cover gig, with the drummer’s wife filming his band playing silly pop songs. On the other hand, the drummer’s wife was Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary (as of the time of the gig), holding the kind of structural power very few will ever approach. It is strange to realise that the large structural forces which impact us so concretely themselves arise from an odd and tangled network of personal relationships which at once obscure and clarify what power really even is.
by Guest Writer LS
There is scarcely room to breathe in James Moss' living room. The Venue M.O.T booker, multi-band omni-instrumentalist, and prolific house show organiser’s Bermondsey warehouse is packed wall to wall with no less than 100 South London scene devotees. More still hang from the stairway, stand on countertops, and linger in the alley as The Wheel 2!, Moss' own supergroup, launch into 'A Sportscar Jumping Between Two Skyscrapers'. The crowd moves like a crashing ocean, one great sweaty mass of flesh sweltering in the summer night air, one moment grooving to a funky bassline and the next convulsing in frenzied waves to a deafening barrage of crashing guitars, searing synths, and relentlessly pummelling drums.
Over the past year, Moss has acquired a well-deserved reputation for putting on South London's biggest and best DIY shows and Haus Fest, co-organised with up-and-coming guerilla promoters The Shovel and a small army of helpers to raise money for Medical Aid for Palestinians and Al-Qaws, is perhaps his magnum opus. Spread across three days and six stages, the eclectic mix features some of the scene's biggest names – My Pussy Tastes Like Microplastics, Platonica Erotica, Rampressure, The Last Whole Earth Catalogue, Kissing Gate, Doom Club, jawharp, gegenpress, Dream Slugs, Frank Lloyd Wleft, Domestic Partners, SilverWingKiller, Omertà, BUFFEE – the list goes on and on. Newer or lesser-known groups and artists such as Gem Stark, Rhizocorp, Lttl Mort, Mabel Clarke, Joe Plastic, Silvernerve, Jaffro, and Mink Stole are also given a place to shine, and here especially the variety and breadth of Moss and co.'s curation is on full display. Crowds gather to sit solemnly on exposed concrete soaking in haunting poetic lyricism accompanied by serene folk guitars, lose themselves in atmospheric noise-collage drones, and dance to experimental techno under a railway bridge tactically frequented by an ice cream van.
Each day the crowds ebb and flow, flocking from stage to stage to catch personal favourites and soon-to-be obsessions. The days stretch into the early morning and the momentum keeps ramping up, each night closing with an explosion of energy and force - Friday with the frantic glitch-grime of Pindrop favourite BLACK FONDU, Saturday with the sardonic synth pop of Windmill veteran Pink Eye Club, and Sunday with paper hats' furious post-hardcore outbursts, finishing up just in time for the generator to be powered off, moments before the police arrive to shut everything down.
The London scene has been plagued by the shadow of its brief mainstream success for some years; the term 'Windmill scene' leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of many due to the association with an idealised era of tepid Radio 6-assimilable 'post-post-punk' (see Pindrop Issue 1's "Towards A New Theory of Crankwave" for an elaborate critique). What Haus Fest demonstrates is that the scene has not only shed its institutionally-legitimated skin but exceeded its former art-rock limits and undergraduate hobbyist culture, channelling the ecstatic energy of the avant-garde underground into a display of community strength, creativity, and independence under the banner of solidarity with the oppressed and a free Palestine. Haus Fest represents not what the scene could yet be, but what it already is and threatens to become only more so: staunchly DIY yet with a professional work ethic, proudly experimental without reliance on cliché and pastiche, and unapologetically political without self-congratulatory performativeness.
It could be that no moment in the gradual gestation of London's contemporary experimental scene has been as significant and unifying as this, nor are we likely to see it exceeded in the near future. The only remaining question, one overheard being asked by virtually all attendees across each day, is: same time next year?
GKA
___I Want To Feel It In My Heart by Henry Coke (UK, 2026)
___Walkie Talkie by Palm (US, 2017)
___Never Gonna Be a Boxer by Knats (UK, 2026)
MLT
___Vampires Will Never Hurt You by My Chemical Romance (US, 2002)
___No Kids, No Money by Bobby Conn (US, 1997)
___England Dan by Big World (UK, 2026)
SE
___The Drama You've Been Craving by Sleater-Kinney (US, 1997)
___Getting Old by Pneu (France, 2025)
___Good Enough by Softdrink Millionaire (Ireland, 2026)
JR
___N.E.X by iKeda (UK, 2024)
___CREEP U by Black Dresses (Canada, 2020)
___Stupid Bitches by Grace Ives (US, 2026)
Pindrop is BW, EM, GKA, JR, MLT, NF, OS, SE, TM
Contact us at @pindropzine (instagram) and pindropzine@gmail.com (email)