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
01
___The New Eves [LIVE & SIGNING] @ Rough Trade East £12.5 / 14 / 31 - Returning with their resplendent blend of droning folk-inflected indie, the New Eves grace Shoreditch in order to play songs from their debut album “The New Eve Is Rising” out on Transgressive Records. Tickets come with either a Rough Trade exclusive CD or LP! tickets
02
___Legendary Folk Instrument Series: Jackson C Frank @ Theatreship £11 / 19.8 Broadside Hacks - The beginning of a new series by the geniuses at Broadside Hacks: a tribute to one of the great cult British folk songwriters, Jackson C. Frank, using the very 1948 Martin D-28 acoustic he wielded on his 1966 eponymous record, the only one he ever released. Melancholy permeated all his work, and with eloquently fingerpicked guitar, it's no wonder artists like Nick Drake, Paul Simon, and Bert Jansch have all covered his songs. With the tribute being led by some of London’s folk forerunners, Sam Grassie, Spitzer Space Telescope, Antonio Grifoni and more, the night is in good hands. tickets
03
___Hinds @ MOTH Club £29.26 Communion One - Spanish lo-fi rockers Hinds grace the MOTH club stage with their girl-group-inflected take on slacker rock. Check out support from the Isle of Wight’s irony-drenched punk duo The Pill. tickets
___Another Country $$$$ @ The Social £7.28 FORM - For FORM’s 24th residency at the Soho basement, they welcome Manchester’s experimental audio-visual duo Another Country $$$$, who, with live bass and drums, combine visceral synths and glitchy instrumentation with catchy rave hooks to make a unique concoction. Check out the openers: London’s holybones, who use atmospheric breakbeat as a canvas for their spoken word, and one of Pindrop’s favs, FLOCO, whose experimental violin-driven electronica is as emotional as expansive. tickets
07-08
___ Lo Sagrado, by Inés Cardo [ART] @ Latin American House FREE - Inés is an incredible artist and speaker- her artist talk is not something to miss. Her sculptural work will be featured, merging the experiences of diasporas and ancestors through a ritualistic artwork. Come for the artist take at 6:30 on Thursday!
07
___Mogwai / Lankum / The Twilight Sad / caroline / The Yummy Fur @ Crystal Palace Bowl £44.33 / 55.55 Parallel Lines - Not one to be missed, with legendary post-rockers Mogwai sharing the bill with Irish folksters Lankum. The bill is stacked, with Pindrop favourites caroline also gracing the stage. Expect a day of texture, atmosphere, and some of the most interesting developments in experimental rock as of late. tickets
08
___Tummyache @ George Tavern £6.50 - Rooted in the DIY scenes of both the US and UK, Alternative Rock-smiths Tummyache celebrate the release of their introspective 3rd album, 'Fake New', out the same day. Catch them before they make their way to the US to support legendary emo/post-hardcore band La Dispute’s tour. tickets
09
___wing! @ Shacklewell Arms FREE Label Mates x Memorials of Distinction - As part of the Label Mates Festival series that’s spanning August, the London label Memorials of Distinction are bringing their finest talents to the Shack: rising London trip-hop wing!, the crushing slowcore of Glasshouse Red Spider Mite, Oakland’s mildred, and the vulnerable songwriting of Glass Eel (clearly MOD only sign esoteric animal-themed bands!). RSVP
___Bogdan Raczynski @ Cafe Oto £15/20/22 - The Polish-American IDM pioneer Bogdan Raczynski, who pushed breakbeat to possibly its craziest point, makes a rare UK appearance at Oto. Warping drums into skittish microrhythms, impossible to dance or even count along to, his “Drill ‘n’ Bass” style and distinct, playful harp-like melodies set him apart from his contemporaries. Although he’s cooled down the tempo for his newer output when compared to his infamous records, ‘Samurai Math Beats’ and ‘Rave Til You Cry’, his 2024 album ‘You’re Only Young Once But You Can Be Stupid Forever’ is still packed with catchy intricacies. tickets
13
___mildred @ Windmill Brixton £6 - Imported from Oakland California, Mildred promise a night of unforgettable alt-country. Be sure to come early for Painted Bird, the poetry-inflected solo project of Opus Kink’s Angus Rogers. tickets
16
___Legendary Folk Instrument Series: Robbie Basho @ Theatreship £19.8 Broadside Hacks - Another Broadside Hack’s special tribute: this time dedicated to the wandering compositions of American primitivist Robbie Basho, using his actual infamous 12-string to replicate the swimming improvisations that would often span eclectic inspirations from classical music, raga, and blues for often more than 10 minutes at a time. tickets
17
___Pindrop Presents: "Balance of Trade" @ MOTH Club FREE Label Mates x Pindrop Zine - We’re super excited to team up with LNZRT’s Label Mates festival to put on our first gig north of the river, and we decided that there was no better way to utilise the beautiful Hackney Central venue than a night of non-stop experimental sonic warfare! Our secret headliners, “Balance of Trade”, are a wild collective with so many tricks up their sleeve, one is never quite sure what kind of gig you’ll get with them. From New York City, we have the Contortions-esque post-punk trio Trash TV, some of Liverpool’s finest brutal prog from Domestic Partners and London’s own brazen emoviolence troop Jawharp. We’ll have our newest zine issue on sale, so come say hi! RSVP
21
___The Monochrome Set – Work In Progress Show @ Windmill Brixton £9.18 - Probably the last band you’d expect to see play the Windmill: the ‘80s post-punk outfit that used jangling surf inspiration as backing for monomymous frontman Bid’s tongue-in-cheek lyrics, inspiring acts like The Smiths to pick up the formula. Although originally breaking up in 1985, they’ve had numerous iterations and have never slowed down their output; this show will be debuting new material from their upcoming 2026 album. Expect many a mum and dad in the pit strutting their stuff. tickets
23
___RALLY Festival 2025 @ Southwark Park £56.65 / 67.45 Bird on the Wire - The yearly South London festival that prides itself on platforming genre-defying artists has its most exciting lineup to date, with notable appearances from Danish progressive electronic songwriter Astrid Sonne, #swag electro-pop duo Bassvictim (who we thought were breaking up), a live Floating Points set, ex-black midi’s Geordie Greep, experimental rapper MIKE, one of Porridge Radio’s last few gigs, a celebration of Arthur Russell by London’s Speakers Corner Quartet, and Japanese jazz-electronica legend Takuya Nakamura. tickets
___La Sécurité @ MOTH Club FREE Label Mates x Bella Union - A brilliant opportunity to catch the Montreal dance-punk posse La Sécurité while they’re in town, and for free, can you let it up? Set up by the Bella Union label, a tastemaking powerhouse started by Cocteau Twins’s Simon Raymonde in 1997, the night brings non-stop catchy grooves that’ll have you pogo-ing to your heart’s content. Make sure you get there in time for Plantoid, Brighton’s psychedelic jazz fusion quartet, who blend seamlessly the effortless vocals of frontwoman Chloe Spence and concise proggish odysseys. tickets
___Jan Jelenik @ Cafe Oto £15 / 20 / 22 - The German electronic artist behind probably the most famous exploration into glitchy microhouse, 2001’s Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, is back at Oto for an evening of ambient, stuttering goodness. His tracks set subtle melodies, barely reminiscent, behind dense, unrepeating textures of found sound and intense drone collages. tickets
26
___Rabbit SS26 Catwalk & Accompaniment @ George Tavern £11.5 - Rabbit, Bristol’s whimsical womenswear fashion brand, introduce their newest collection for an exclusive runway show at the George. Come for their take on historic silhouettes, splicing fabrics and experimenting with printing directly onto their garments, and stay for a wonderful lineup, including a Mary in the Junkyard solo set, a redux set by Opus Kink, Evelyn Gray of ex-Tapir!, and Rosie Alena. tickets
27
___Christian Music @ Windmill Brixton £6 - The Stoke-Crewe frenetic garage-psych quartet Christian Music celebrate the release of their 7” release “Riding A Sea Serpent To Banbury Cross” #oldschool with a stacked lineup of high-energy bands. Make sure to catch all the supports, with fast past noise from Stoke’s Hytrin, London hyper-rockers Newbuild (who we put on just last month), and the brand-new punkish output of Angus. tickets
29
___Lost Wisdom Fest Day 1 @ Ivy House Nunhead £13.5 - Everything you could ever want, curated by London label Lost Wisdom: the cathartic emo-tinged indie of Hitmen, the Lisbon-born London-based twee bedroom-pop of Maripool, the spaced-out slowcore slacker of Silica, and the lo-fi chamber folk of anrimeal. tickets
30
___Lost Wisdom Fest Day 2 @ Ivy House Nunhead £13.5 - Everything you could ever want (pt.2): secret headliners “Dancing Skeleton”, melancholic punk from Middleman, splanking Irish noise-rock from Beat Up Face, noisy dark-wave from Yuki, ‘60s-inspired freakadelica from Jimmy and the Boonies, and high tempo garage-rock from Oral Habit. tickets
by JR
It’s a Wednesday night, and Lala Books in Camberwell is filled to the brim with people. The store is usually calm and inviting, but today is the last show in a series of summer music events, and south London’s gig-goers have turned up in force. Audience members tumble out into the street, looking through the open shop window to be able to catch the gig, and the book shop manager thanks the crowd for supporting both the shop and the musicians. With the shop filled to the brim, each musician has to clamber through the narrow aisle to reach their seat at the front of the shop. The three musicians – Cameron Picton, Rosie Alena, and Sarah Meth – are no strangers to collaboration, having played numerous gigs with each other before. However, the structure of this gig is looser and more informal. It’s not clearly delineated when each artist is playing their set; rather, they each come and go as is seen fit for the setlist. The result is a more dynamic set of duets and solo moments than would otherwise be possible in a traditionally structured gig.
The three decide to begin each half of the two-part show as a trio, witheach musician bringing their own interesting flavour to the harmony, producing something truly captivating. Cameron Picton covers the lower end, with Sarah Meth in the mid range and Rosie Alena hitting some impressively high notes. The set naturally opens with one of the most charming Neil Young covers out there, one imbued with a certain melancholic sweetness which plays well to the bookshop crowd.
Even when playing alone, each musician provides their own flair to the unplugged and acoustic style of the gig. Sarah Meth plays her song “Sister You Said!” which features in Lena Dunham’s new show Too Much, one which wryly states “I was like a sister, you said / But it seems wrong to me to give your sister head.” The audience laughs out loud at this clever but jarring piece of wordplay, evidence of Sarah Meth’s lyrical abilities. Another track features the use of a Bluetooth speaker, used to produce a droning series of beats which form the background of her acoustic musings.
Rosie Alena’s set thematically seems to circle around seeing an old lover in all the wrong places. Her song “Billboards” captures the feeling of seeing an ex, but only in the form of rumours and digital reflections. “Everyman” takes these projections and puts them onto other men, in effect transforming her former lover into an “everyman.” The melancholy of these songs is supported by Rosie Alena’s vocal abilities, which are even more evident in the reverbless world of coffee shop guitar. Her voice saunters up to impossible high notes without any digital assistance, further enhancing her emotional connection with the audience. Cameron Picton plays her backing music, and their relaxed on-stage chemistry and clear friendship only add to the ambience of the set; Picton briefly false-starts into the wrong song halfway through the set, and the resulting laughter is infectious.
Cameron Picton plays material which will be mostly familiar to those who follow his solo career; however, by dueting with Rosie Alena and Sarah Meth, the material somehow acquires a new and interesting second life. When sung alone, a line like “don’t cry, you deserve this” feels singularly cutting; with a harmonising trio, it almost feels folkloric, like something the Three Fates would sing while measuring out and cutting the thread of your life. Picton’s style is well suited to the coffee shop/unplugged vibe, with the Spanish guitar influence nicely coming to the fore and his songs clearly continuing to develop into something which fans hope is album-shaped.
After the set, the bookshop owner comes up to plug each individual artist’s merch. There’s a sense of post-gig calm in the shop, one which feels almost antithetical to the usual beer-stained floors and wired-up feeling after a “plugged in” gig. Then again, what each artist on the lineup is offering is something with a slightly different appeal to the typical rock fare of the London circuit. This difference is charming and encouraging, if for no other reason than for the way it augments and amplifies what would otherwise be a boring Wednesday night.
by SE
Following a procession of dyed hair and styled second-hand clothes, the walk from Surrey Quays station to South Bermondsey’s Venue MOT makes a diversion around the spooky alleys of the Millwall stadium periphery. Finally, the crowd is funnelled into a growing hubbub on the industrial estate. Excitement builds, for tonight is the first gig of the band Ants in the Pants, yet…wait…they look an awful lot like Mary in the Junkyard?! A few days ago, London’s favourite angry weepy chaos rock trio announced the not-so-secret set, featuring songs old and new to raise money for their debut album and an American tour. For a band that broke through the underground London music scene, it's always refreshing to see their side-quests pop up in smaller venues – as humble and charming as ever, it’s impossible not to love them. Back in May, the group performed an acoustic set of new tracks at Theatreship with Sarah Meth, but tonight promises even fresher material with all the embellishments. Lined by the entrance are a set of thongs, customised with ants and band insignia prints in singer/guitarist/artist Clari Freeman-Taylor’s signature style, which go down a treat (no boxer-brief representation unfortunately).
However, before the main event comes West Ireland-by-way-of-Manchester’s Dove Ellis, a young songwriter who, with only a short EP out on Bandcamp, is supporting New York’s Geese for their new album’s US tour. Stories can be told in his chords alone, fingerpicking heart-strings on a white Telecaster adorned with film negatives. Supported by soprano saxophone and intricate drumming, his band take turns on keyboards. Just as a poignant crescendo hits its peak, the sax player switches to the bass. Above the haunting beauty of Ellis’s songwriting rises and falls his million-dollar voice: a tight tenor that leaps up into a solid falsetto, warbling and then pulling back into tense notes which vibrate against the propulsive energy of the band. For a generation who have never seen Jeff Buckley, this is likely the closest you can get. A final song warrants an open-tuned acoustic guitar, and bluesy chords and twinkling synths outline a restrained chorus of ‘To the sandals’. Meekly, Dove Ellis thanks the audience, who are finally able to pick up their jaws from the floor. There would be no surprise if stardom were in close sight for him.
As the tin can that is Venue MOT reaches unbelievable temperatures and the audience grows increasingly dense around Mary in the Junkyard’s impromptu in-the-round setup, the band members have to slip through the sticky crowd to resume their places. Freeman-Taylor adjusts her ‘Captain Clari’ sailor hat and asks, “Can you point the spotlight away from me? I look really sweaty!” Stacks of amps and an arsenal of instruments sit sandwiched between them, and with parts of a papier-mache skeleton hanging in the wings, there’s almost no room to move. The intimate set-up perfectly encapsulates the close bond between the band members, who smile, make inside jokes and go on lengthy storytelling tangents – it feels like 200 people are sitting in on a rehearsal. The first drum fill into that distinctive interplay of viola and overdriven guitar underneath Freeman-Taylor’s breathy voice lights up the crowd as they temporarily forget their discomfort and sway in time and mouth along lyrics. After opening with a new mellower number, they jump straight into their most recent single, ‘Drains’. When the guitar pauses for sections of stripped-back instrumentation, the subtle feedback of a guitar amp at chest height hums in tune.
A standout new track diverges from the emotive chords that mark Mary in the Junkyard’s repertoire: the guitar takes a twiddling, angular melody while the vocals ground the song. Picking up a cello, Freeman-Taylor transforms the band into a chamber group, and with a Kurt Weill-style cabaret waltz, she introduces ‘The Old Tongue’: a song about the Thames that compares it to a woman “as dirty as they come” who has watched the history of the city unfold. With its theatrical cadence, Saya Barbaglia’s viola jumps and flitters with twee volition in the measured pauses between Freeman-Taylor’s delicate and melodramatic lines. Another chamber song shifts pace with a folkloric tale of a thief in a market while viola and cello move in counterpoint. Drummer David Addison plays a simple tribal theme on the toms and clicks his sticks in response to the lyrics’ antagonist knocking on a door. A recurring vocal run that returns at the end of each verse is instantly addictive, especially with Barbaglia joining in with smooth harmonies. ‘Welcome Break’, dedicated to the best piss of Freeman-Taylor’s life, sees the debut of "Big Steppa", Barbaglia’s Moog Taurus synthesiser she plays with her feet. Playing cascading lines on the bass guitar at the same time, the low synth rattles the walls. The new songs promise exciting things for the new album, as the band never settle for safety and always keeps their listeners on their toes. And with no better way to end the Tuesday night, Mary in the Junkyard finish with an almighty rendition of their debut single, ‘Tuesday’, to rapturous applause.
MT
___Botch-A-Me (Ba-Ba-Baciami Piccina) by Rosemary Clooney (US, 1952)
___Bananas and Blow by Ween (US, 2000)
___Into the Groovey by Sonic Youth (US, 1988)
P
___Someday Baby by R.L. Burnside (US, 2004)
___Le jardin by La Femme (France, 2021)
___忐忑 by Gong Linna (China, 2010)
GKA
___Army Wives by foot foot (UK, 2024)
___This Desirable Plot by Mitsubishi Suicide (UK, 2023)
___im not sleeping by BLACK FONDU (UK, 2025)
SE
___That Summer Feeling by Jonathan Richman (US, 1992)
___Eternal Pharmacy by The Cindys (UK, 2025)
___Air Force by Worldpeace DMT (UK, 2025)
Pindrop is JR, SE, GKA, EM, MB, MT, PM, & P
Contact us at @pindropzine (instagram) and pindropzine@gmail.com (email)