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
___CONCRÈTE-CORE: Noise Bands x Noise Artists @ Venue MOT £6.5 - Not for the fainthearted…a night of noise at the South Bermondsey venue that hits like a Millwall brick to the dome. 3 young noise bands: the unplaceable and inimitable Jawharp, The Boxmen (who are ¼ C Turtle!), and DR££M $LUDGE, and 4 noise artists, including the infamous James Shearman’s harsh project Gutter Carrion. tickets
___yeule @ Kentish Town Forum £28.47 Parallel Lines - Singaporean art-pop star yeule blends luscious, subtly glitching chord textures with pitch-shifted melodies that instantly get caught on your heartstrings and play in your head for the rest of the day. A melancholic yet anthemic rave. tickets
03
___Japanese Breakfast @ Brixton Academy £44.87 Bird on the Wire - Their Royal Highness Jbrekki returns to London bigger than ever! The Philly band, and brainchild of Michelle Zauner, graces Brixton Academy, serenading us with songs from their new album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women). It’s their first truly studio project, given all previous records had been recorded in improvised settings.. tickets
___BCUC @ Village Underground £29.87 Woodburner & Magnetic Live - Mesmerising afro-funk odysseys from Soweto, South Africa, where for songs sometimes twenty minutes long, BCUC (or Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness) become a conduit for pure energy, spirituality, and political revolution. Their incredible live shows have already won awards, connecting to crowds with contagious rhythms and amazing storytelling. tickets
04
___The Fall of America: Frank Lloyd Wleft @ Paper Dress Vintage £7.5 - The yearly fling of London’s very own rooting-tooting cowboy cultural theorist Frank Lloyd Wleft, with his progressive post-country and rattling poetry that takes as much from post-Trump internet culture as the Beat Generation canon. Danny Boyle would be proud, for the Fall of America is shot on iPhone. Brilliant support comes from Wildwood Daddy, Kansas City Playboys (from Camberwell), and Nunhead’s finest Elvis tribute, Nunhead Elvis. Come, convene, and celebrate getting one day closer to the USA’s inevitable demise. tickets
___RIZTS @ George Tavern £7 Knee Jerk - Another raucous one from one of our favourite promoters Knee Jerk! Headlining is a muscular mix of hardcore, math-rock and dub from the Cornish band RIZTS. Support comes from the ear-shattering garage freakout of Rampressure and the cooool electro-duo of Lifeloose (including one of the singers from Export Import). DJ sets into the morning are from Yuki and the Lost Wisdom record label. tickets
05
___Crimewave @ Old Blue Last FREE Big Richard Records - A night of proficient and creative electro-punk. Headlining is the whiplashing and syrupy shoegaze of Crimewave, whose bass-heavy broken beats wub as shimmering guitar textures and vocals reverberate and momentarily cut away to frantic Amen breaks. Support comes from Urchin (formally known as megalashhh) and their euphoric synth-driven post punk and Doom Club’s hazy dancefloor fillers. rsvp
06
___Wish One Night @ George Tavern £7.5 The Crypt Studio - What a night! A lineup packed with artists that have each recorded in the North London The Crypt studio: ex-black midi’s Cameron Picton’s one-off project ‘Wish One Night’ (fingers crossed for a rendition of Lecture 25), ex-Bingo Fury’s Jack Ogborne’s ‘The Cindys’, repurposing lines and motifs from his crooning jazz-punk debut into slackery jangle pop, ex-Tapir’s Evelyn Gray spellbinding songwriting, and more!! Serious sell-out warning. tickets
08
___The Dallas Cowboys @ Windmill Brixton £10 kneee:drop - Skinny tees, silicone wristbands, bitcrushed synths…when are we getting back on Myspace? The inaptly named NYC duo, comprised of childhood friends Aidan Gilbert & Evan Lytle, smoke weed, watch cartoons and stew an addictive concoction of 2010’s skittish electro-pop, adorned with autotuned or screamo vocals. Make sure to check out 300SkullsAndCounting and Pindrop faves Shoplifting 1080p! tickets
___Frankfurt Helmet @ Paper Dress Vintage £8 - Watch as the Hackney Central vintage shop / late-night live venue miraculously transforms into a non-stop dance floor for the Chinese IDM outfit Frankfurt Helmet, fueled by glitchy and ambient beats. London acid audio-visual group Polyop and Web’s frantic blend of jazz, zolo punk and metal are not to be missed either. tickets
09
___Sparta @ Windmill Brixton £24.57 Effigy - As the runaway train that was the seminal late 90’s post-hardcore band ‘At The Drive-In’, accelerated faster and faster off of a metaphorical cliff, guitarist Jim Ward emerged from the wreckage with Sparta, which amplified emotions and introduced keyboards to the mix. Gut-wrenching melodies and crunching chords intertwine. With one night already sold out, this is the only one left, so be quick! tickets
11
___I love my wife night @ George Tavern £10 - Presented by Louis Blooey, we have an absolute clarter of night on our hands, with smoky triphop from Pearl2, gorgeous songwriting from Dove Ellis (who’s supporting Geese on their US tour...wow!), the rapturous beauty of studio20’s envelope-pushing indie, and the glitchy, emotional and expansive art-pop of audiovisual artist and producer Niall Ashley. tickets
14
___Soar, Throat! #1 @ George Tavern FREE - The first in a series of nights highlighting instrumental bands and improvisation, the George opens its doors to the swelling and propulsive shoegaze textures of Long Distance Runner, the erratic prog of Saint Mega (who we’ve been waiting to see again after they played a Pindrop night in November!), and the woozy post-punk of Civil Partnership. rsvp
19
___Cortisa Star @ XOYO £21.84 FORM - The 19-year-old Baltimore-based rapper found herself famous overnight with her 2024 track ‘FUN’, a wild infusion of aggressive trap, bonkers hyperpop, and boisterous lyrics ran through gritty distortion. Her no-fucks-given attitude against slut-shamers, transphobes, and haters cemented Cortisa Star as one for the girls. tickets
21
___Pindrop Presents: TBC @ Windmill Brixton £6 - We're working on it! Keep the date open.
26
___East London Block Party @ Various Venues £14 - The annual Shoreditch day festival is bigger than ever: split across four venues, East London Block Party has a monster lineup including the likes of sax-squarkers Y, slackers Joyeria, Cai Burns of pencil’s Blood Wizard, Stoke-Crewe garage-rockers Christian Music, pounding electro-punks Doom Club, witty americana from Frank Lloyd Wleft, uh (that’s an electronic duo, not a hesitation), and fabulous synthpop from Vanity Fairy! That’s already a mouthful, and there’s even more to get your teeth into. tickets
___Os Mutantes @ Jazz Cafe £37.25 - The influential late ‘60s Brazilian psychedelic rock and Tropicália innovators hit up Camden Town for an evening of hot grooves, sweet harmonies, and soft Portuguese. With a progressive edge and fuzzed-out solos, Os Mutantes show how consistent brilliance and advancing styles have kept them in the mouths and collections of vinyl-junkies. tickets
31
___Stratford Rise @ Windmill Brixton £10 JOY - The long-awaited first visit to London from Belfast noise-rock posse Stratford Rise, after the release of their eponymous debut EP. Their direct vocals sit somewhere between Les Claypool and Geordie Greep, but their tracks are unlike anything heard before. Although the post-Gilla Band landscape is often one propelled by dancefloor rhythms and instrumentals that are as much guitar pedal as guitar, Stratford Rise remains incredibly rhythmic and technical, using harmonic dissonance as much as wild effects to savagely obliterate anything that stands in its way. tickets
___Chris Cohen @ Ivy House £18.13 Upset the Rhythm - Gentle and precious psychedelic songwriting from the sunny coast of Southern California that never ever seems to hit a bum note. After playing guitar for Deerhoof in the 2000s, Cohen directed his attention to sweet solo songwriting, with warming harmonies and delicate echoing arpeggios of bright guitar. One listen to ‘Heart Beat’ off of his 2012 debut record and even the cynics shall weep! His new record, Paint a Room, is as brilliant as ever; anything his voice touches turns to gold. tickets
___The Alchemist @ KOKO £38.27 Columbo - One of, if not the most revered producers in rap history, The Alchemist has been intrinsic to the success of legendary groups such as Mobb Deep and Cypress Hill, and has worked collaboratively with artists like Freddie Gibbs, Kendrick Lamar, Danny Brown and Erykah Badah to name just a few. From 7-11pm, be ready for a non-stop mix of genre-defining hip-hop. tickets
For even more crucial dates that couldn't fit on the list...
Add July's Recommendations to your calendar: Click Here
by JR
From The Dare to Pink Pantheress and everything in between, indie sleaze is having a bit of a moment. And yet, when it comes to nostalgia, nobody does it better than the original: LCD Soundsystem. It makes sense, then, that they return to London with a whopping two-week residency at the Brixton Academy following last year’s headlining slot at All Points East. Being the opening night of the stint, audiences are especially eager to see what exactly James Murphy and his group will be bringing to the stage.
They walk on stage to Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys, a nod to the late Brian Wilson’s passing, and the entire crowd cheer with anticipation for the night ahead. Beginning with “You Wanted a Hit,” the rest of the crowd settle into the hot venue with their comparatively cooler pints of lager. There’s something daring or prophetic about it, as if the band already knows the night is going to be a massive hit. The concert is divided into two halves, and the first is a smooth sailing through the hits. “I Can Change” is a particular highlight, with the crowd fully investing itself in Murphy’s storytelling. There’s an interpolation of “The Model” by Kraftwerk which further points to Murphy’s attachment to the dance music of yore. After a rousing performance of “Home”, the band leave the stage and let the audience chatter excitedly amongst themselves during an intermission.
The post-intermission set begins with “North American Scum”, a song whose lyrics surely hit harder in Europe than anywhere else in the world. ‘We are North Americans / And for those of you who still think we're from England / We're not, no!’ some smirking, smarty-pantses in the crowd sing along. The short intermission has revitalised the crowd, and everyone is more than ready for round two. By the time the band get to “Dance Yrself Clean” the energy of the crowd is at a peak, and when the beat drops, the entire audience goes berserk and descends into one massive mosh. Dads and daughters pogoing to their heart’s content. There is a sense of pure euphoria with the performance, as if the perfect night out might provide a solution to at least some of life’s problems. “New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down” is another hit in spite of the more downtempo rhythm and lyrical content–proof of the compelling melancholy that James Murphy is able to elicit.
What LCD Soundsystem always capture best is a melancholy for a past which can never be experienced again. The balance of poignant lyrics with dance beats allows Murphy to be more emotionally vulnerable than would otherwise be possible (or tolerable) given the topics he discusses. The epitome of this emotional vulnerability is set closer “All My Friends”, which the crowd practically scream back at Murphy. Besides the obvious jokes, there’s a reason the crowd are all older millennials—to have something to miss with that intensity, you have to experience your fair share of years. Indeed, LCD Soundsystem is a rare instance of music ageing better and better over time, as much due to any particular sonic element as it is to its preoccupation with missing that which was once there. Something is haunting about a venue full of people on a Thursday night shouting ‘Where are your friends tonight?’ as if it’s almost a ritual to resurrect a past which will never return. And perhaps, with the gig being a timely coalescence of an indie-sleaze mania still hanging on to the trend-cycle and the reunion of the style’s greatest progenitors, this might be the biggest moment there will ever be again. And god, it was great.
SE
___Surf’s Up by The Beach Boys (US, 1971)
___I Live by Jason Faulkner (US, 1996)
___The Monologue of the Century by Jerome’s Dream (US, 2000)
MB
___Forever Close My Eyes by dälek (US, 2002)
___Beth’s Farm by Jerskin Fendrix (UK, 2025)
___Single by Skepta (UK, 2007)
EM
___Kingfisher by Joanna Newsom (US, 2010)
___Typical Girls by The Slits (UK, 1979)
___Suite No.2 for Small Orchestra: III. Polka by Igor Stravinsky performed by Columbia Symphony Orchestra (Russia, 1964)
JR
___Summer Babe live at Brixton Academy by Pavement (US, 2002)
___All I Want by LCD Soundsystem (US, 2010)
___Yes! I Am a Long Way From Home by Mogwai (UK, 1997)