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 (08, 15, & 22)
___The Rebel Residency @ Windmill Brixton £7 - As part of the band Country Teasers, London legend Ben Wallers made his mark on the new millennium as the group’s provocateur/prophet songwriter and frontman. Since then, his solo work as The Rebel comprises sporadic releases, odd electronics, and as weird lyrical content as ever, garnering a cult following (a term not to be used lightly). A yearly tradition, Wallers embarks upon a 4-night residency at the Windmill – don’t be surprised if you are surrounded by screaming Rebel-heads. tickets
03
___Blessed and blushing @ Avalon Cafe £9 UNIVERSALANGUAGE - “Recommended” with a pinch of salt and a clear warning: Parisian “artist” Lambert Duchesne states clearly that he uses generative AI to compose his fuzzy, yet uncomfortably moving vapour-pop. Unlike Burial, whose carefully chopped vocal samples gave new meaning to its source material, the lyrics of Blessed and blushing are garbled, a compilation of a million stolen voices. If it premiered as a gallery performance in 2014, it may have been deemed an ingenious use of the emerging technology; however, our contemporary culture may not be so forgiving. Is this a moment to challenge one’s musical epistemologies, or gather a bucket of rotten fruit? tickets
___Sarah Meth @ Rough Trade East £11 Rough Trade Recommends - An evening of Rough Trade’s take on the best new alternative music the capital has to offer. Heading up the night is Sarah Meth, whose stripped-back folk music feels personal and timeless. Joining them are Roscoe Roscoe with their take on post-rock that's often drenched in reverb and LOLA, whose music is littered with chiming and enchanting guitars. tickets
04
___Ana Roxanne (in-the-round) @ ICA £25.91 - A transfixing songwriter, Ana Roxanne’s beautiful voice gently shimmers with vibrato as she outlines the chord changes of husky synth pads, organs or sustained, ambient pianos. tickets
___Maruja @ EartH £29.31 Bulletproof Festival - A new festival spanning multiple days and venues. The headliners, Manchester’s Maruja, have made a name for themselves as one of the most electrifying live acts as of late. Blistering Saxophones and lyricism deeply focused on injustice and transcendence, Maruja lies in a unique place between rage and sensitivity. tickets
07
___Falling Moon #50 @ Ivy House £4 / 8 - Keep your eye out for the two Welsh gems that inhabit this lineup: Pembrokeshire’s Louis O’Hara (and his Burley Chassis), who plays sincere and restrained acoustic ballads backed by moments of clarinet, flute, and banjo, and Pys Melyn’s haunting and soft psych-pop that proudly writes their lyrics in the nation’s Cymraeg. tickets
08
___Pindrop Presents: Folk In-The-Round @ Venue MOT £4 / 6 / 7 - We’ve teamed up with the lovely Venue MOT to bring you a night of beautiful tunes from some of our favourite London-based acts IN THE ROUND! Emily Izen Row is headlining the night with her ethereal folk accompanied by a full band. Ropeburn take on post folk with chiming open-tuned guitars, trumpet and banjo in hand. Defender are giving you art-pop at its best. Last but certainly not least Fionnuala Mary Bradbury a brilliant singer songwriter with stellar songs that’ll make you weep. tickets
09
___Pindrop Presents: A Top Surgery Fundraiser @ Windmill Brixton £6 / 8 - We’re raising funds for our good friend and Windmill sound engineer Loki’s top surgery! Come down for a great lineup and an even better cause. Our headliners, gegenpress, are one of the best noise rock bands to do it right now. paper hats will be providing post-hardcore for the masses. The Glowworms are bringing you a gorgeous stripped-back set, which promises slide guitar (hopefully). On opening duties, we have Lost Lyra, a dreamgaze delight and a favourite of ours. tickets
10
___mry single release @ Venue MOT £8 - There's something truly beautifully soul crushing about mry’s music. With slow, brooding guitar lines and soft vocals, they often feel like they teeter between beauty and chaos. In celebration of their new single, they head down to Deptford to play in the round. Definitely make sure you see support from the brilliant Hank! tickets
10-11
___Ruins Residency @ Cafe OTO £22 / 40 Baba Yaga's Hut - Avant-prog legends – Japan duo Ruins were the band that were Lightning Bolt before Lightning Bolt were Lightning Bolt. Centring around the drumming and singing of Tatsuya Yoshida, who was so captivated by the French band Magma’s made-up Kobaïan language that he continued the tradition, alongside a revolving roster of bass players. Bonkers. tickets
11
___Pushbike @ The Waiting Room £11.33 Spinning Sister - Embarking on their first headline tour alongside Leeds’ howling rockers Elwell, Exeter’s Pushbike combine the driving melodiousness of power-pop with the gripping harmonies of the American indie-rock tradition. With additional support from ex-C Turtle’s ‘Godzooki’, this is set to be smashing. tickets
___RIP Magic & The Healing Power of Horses @ Club Cheek £12.76 Perfectly Imperfect x Section 1 x FORM - While we have previously exalted RIP Magic for their intriguing electro-pop, we have yet to complement opening Cambridge duo The Healing Power of Horses…until now. While a slap on the wrist is required for birthing yet another ‘Horse’ band (though at least they have the best riff on it so far), their recent single ‘i wait, i sink’ makes it all okay. So laid back, its tempo keeps you drooling in the intermittent rumbling bass. Intricate, chorus-drenched guitars and woozy echoes snap shut and then burst with magnificent sound design and such a killer hook. tickets
16
___Shady Nasty @ MOTH Club £17 - Whilst they may have come to many people’s attention with Fred Again’s interpolation of their song “Hardstyle”, Shady Nasty have been making music for the best part of a decade. Characterised by vocal delivery that's reminiscent of early Mike Skinner and underpinned by punk-infused guitars, Shady Nasty are quintessentially Australian and wholly singular. tickets
___Skullcrusher @ Rich Mix £28.25 - The musical project of New York-based Helen Ballentine comes to the capital. There’s an equal amount of density and space in Skullcrusher's instrumentation that allows it to feel as hopeful as it does crushing. Characterised by her often hushed vocal delivery, Ballentine outlines stories of existentialism, questioning and love. tickets
18
___Larimae @ The Waiting Room £11.43 Eat Your Own Ears - Scratching that perfect itch of spectral synths, off-kilter stuttering drums, and restrained grimey basslines, British electronic duo Larimae invoke the sparkly, Y2K optimism of Imogen Heap instrumentals with the moody and ambient glitching of future garage. Their new double single FF Confidential / Danced With The Angels gets seriously funky and slingshots between galaxies of electro micro-genres, but with atmosphere always remaining central. tickets
19
___"The Greatest Hits" @ Windmill Brixton £6 Grand Electric x Sticky Floors - Fellow zine makers, London’s Sticky Floors and Manchester’s Grand Electric have put their minds together to make an evening of bands from across the two great cities. From experimentalists MPTL Microplastics, post-hardcore outfit Wehmut, to the shoegaze-inflicted post-punk of Grrace and dark folklorish Sodden Pelt, this should be a good’un. tickets
21
___febuary @ New Cross Inn £16.5 Real Life - Formed in 2023, Las Vegas screamo group febuary (no r!) have already played Coachella, setting a massive precedent for the genre’s recent resurgence. Their twinkling guitars contrast with the raw, screeching vocals of front-woman Rila Ogawa, who has the scene-hairdo to go with it. With an intensive support list, including London acts I’m Sorry Emil and Sevy Verna, this is not to be missed. Get on that waitlist! tickets
24
___Algernon Cadwallader @ Oslo Hackney £29.18 Outbreak - The GOATs of the fourth-wave ‘emo revival’, Algernon Cadwallader’s music sure goes down easier than their name. Reuniting in 2022 after an 11-year hiatus, we see the return of their signature anthemic melodies, propelled by hoarse vocals and underlined by glistening, twiddly guitars. Their new material is exceptional, yet be prepared for the colossal wall of screams as the crowd catches the start of their standards. tickets
26
___Tummyache "Feeding Tube" Single Release Party @ Sebright Arms £5 Scream/Shout - With winding, hypnotic guitar lines and snappy drums, Tummyache have been dotting across the pond for several years now. Raw and enigmatic, there's something that feels truly organic about the outfit's music. Joining them is Phillipe Nash with their angst-filled folk. tickets
29
___Truck Violence @ Windmill Brixton £8 FORM - With one night already sold out, Montréal’s noise-rock stalwarts Truck Violence contrast hairy, discordant riffs against the splangs of folkish banjo. As new signees to cult label The Flenser, with a sophomore record out on the 26th, they are a force to be reckoned with. tickets
by MLT
It's the wildest sensation, seeing the person who’s taped up to your bedroom wall in front of your eyes… singing to you, swaying at you… sweating on you. Our eyes meet as my messily tied bun… sorry. This evening we found ourselves standing outside watching the backs of post-punk legends Iceage performing through Camden pub the Elephant's Head’s front window. Why outside? Well. With an immediately sold-out night at the George the next day, a last-minute announcement from So Young Magazine detailed a free chance for the rest of us to snap at the heels of the Danish dreamboats. And with the timely release of their newest record, For Love of Grace & the Hereafter, that day, the pub is definitely over its 60-person capacity. Crowded in the cordoned-off smoking area, on the pavement, surrounded by restless queuing, the smart ones had already claimed their spots when the doors opened. With the only remaining views inside obstructed by a monolith of black t-shirt-clad backs and bobbing shag cuts, occupying the outside was the only alternative to packing it in and going home.
Screams of yeah’s and ahh’s and meow’s travel as the uttering twangs and plucks echo out of the speakers. Iceage starts with the record’s jangling opener, ‘Ember’, demonstrating their evolution. Iceage’s sound has morphed a blithe mélange of slacker Britpunk, jumping straight into ‘The Weak’, a propulsive rock’n’roll Ramones-like song which bleeds outside. A perimeter has formed around the venue of curious tourists, children, and Friday night clubbers crowded alongside fans trying to catch a glimpse of the band up close, to watch frontman Elias Rønnenfelt traipsing around the stage, soloing a squealing recorder. It was a blessing in disguise to be divided by the window. The inside audience would not have been able to handle the crazed erotomania of those caged up outside. Elias gracefully strutted up and down the bar countertop during ‘Lifetime’, managing to steer around cables surrounded by pints, then threw himself into the trusted arms of the fans. From our view, which felt like we were outside an American morning news show studio, hoping that maybe one of us would somehow be invited into the sea that would guide him safely back to the stage.
After coolly thanking the turnout, fans started shouting out names of old songs at them, to which they responded with a swift shift into their younger, broodier attitude as the noisy drive of ‘Ecstasy’ and ‘Painkiller’ rip through the Elephants Head's Victorian walls. They rounded off their reprise with ‘Lord's Favourite One’ and ‘You’re Nothing’, which sent everyone into a frenzy, ending on a particular nostalgic shout-along. They ended by all leaving through the front door, walking right past us (eek!!!), and as the crowd dissipated, those loitering around looked around at each other red-faced in awe, to confirm that we had succumbed to the spell Iceage casts upon most who watch them live.
by SE
North London is in disarray: Arsenal have just been narrowly defeated in the Champions League final, and marking the last day of an eternal heatwave, anger, dissonant to the expectant drunken buzz, bubbles through the cracks in the pavement and spills out into Tottenham Court Road. Scarcely dodging the erratic choreography of wailing fire trucks and police vans, the disorderly avoid painting the town a third shade of red. Yet, slipping into the Soho backstreets, the clammy air cools and regains its optimism. Nestled on Little Portland Street, Pindrop pals Cantilever, a brilliant music blog, celebrate the launch of their new curated streaming service with a gig. Opening the night are Shaking Hand, a brilliant rising Manchester trio of guitar, bass and drums, whose 2026 debut self-titled album was one of the first records to appear on Cantilever’s exclusive monthly selections.
Scurrying onto the stage, the band set up and stand meekly; nods and ‘yeps’ are exchanged, and they immediately burst into their first number. It is instantly remarkable what they achieve as a three-piece. While some bands can fall back on the comfort of a 2nd (or even 3rd!) guitarist, Shaking Hand must calculate the fragile balance between space and chaos and understand the alchemy of what creates them. Individually, the guitar and bass outline catchy motifs with bubbling grooves, never shying from dissonant clashes. The magic truly appears in their combination: never content with simple major chords, the interchange between George Hunter and Ellis Hodgkiss always finds new, unexpected context for one another. Ellis’ bass playing has you looking around the room for a phantom guitarist, playing high up on the neck and grabbing dense cluster chords that would have puritans shaking their heads. Extending Peter Hook's infamous ‘lead strumming’ technique, he grabs a capo, shifting the bass's range. Catching the room’s resonant frequency, you reach to reject a phone call that isn’t there, tricked by the vibrations passing through your body. Propelled by the intricate pocket of brother and drummer Freddie Hunter, each heavy shicane is cornered securely, whether juggling time-signatures or completely changing the pace. Clearly some sibling telepathy is going on here. With a backbone of funky Madchester DNA, Freddie’s work is adorned with simultaneous shaker-ing and subtle clicks on the drums’ rims.
They aren’t the talkative type – “PSG”, George bluntly states after a song – Shaking Hand let their music do that for them. Always keeping you on your toes, a single song can dart from geniusly dense sludge to slow-core delicacy or a jangling power-pop chorus that would make even the Roses green with jealousy. Their maturity, nuance, and tightness leave your jaw on the floor: every guitar part’s endless embellishments, a momentary drum fill, a single chord delayed in unison. Their vocals are no elastoplast either. While the instrumentals are in clear focus, George’s leading voice spells a 3rd melody for you to wrap your head around, and the group’s 3-way harmonies, indicative of their namesake, the song Shaking Hand by Women, underline their poppier moments. Yet, 5 minutes in, just when you thought their ideas must be running dry and other bands would be happy to call it, Shaking Hand pivot and turn up the heat. Wild clashing post-hardcore rhythms and avant-garde noises take centre stage. Whether it be the ringing of otherworldly, ricocheting guitar harmonics or distorted pick-scrapes that sit sonically between a mangled tape loop and a window-wiper. Shaking Hand already sound like a band fully formed, not one that is only just getting started. Uncovering a goldmine of progressive tunes from a tradition that feels firmly Mancunian, it’s exciting to see where they’ll go next.
SE
___In For a... Pound! by Shaking Hand (UK, 2025)
___Your Magic Is Working by of Montreal (US, 2004)
___Headlock by Imogen Heap (UK, 2005)
GKA
___Caramel by Piglet (US, 2005)
___Twelve Mile Train Tracks by First Day Back (US, 2025)
___cannibal world by Nothing (US, 2026)
MLT
___Look Good in Leather by Cody Chesnutt (US, 2003)
___How Come You're Such A Hit With The Boys, Jane? by Dolly Mixture (UK, 1983)
___Nata Di Marzo by Pizzicato Five (Japan, 1995)
JK
___2Tru by CCFX (US, 2017)
___Hammond Song by The Roches (US, 1979)
___He Needs Me by The Femcels (UK, 2026)
Pindrop is JR, SE, GKA, EM, JK, MLT, & PM
Contact us at @pindropzine (instagram) and pindropzine@gmail.com (email)