London Zine of Music, Arts and Miscellaneous Happenings. Monthly updates & seasonal physicals.
01
___Mono Aware #1 @ Windmill Brixton £6 Polished Stone - Debuting their label, Polished Stone get weird and wonderful with a night of improvised collaboration recorded straight to a limited 1 of 1 tape cassette and live-printed to zine, to be bought on the night! tickets
03
___Ex Agent EP Release Show @ George Tavern £5.5/8 - If you’re craving crunching monolithic noise built on fuzzed-out jazz dissonance, you’ve come to the right place, for the melting pot of Bristol bubbles with the avant-garde, spitting out the impish post-rockers Ex-Agent. Their debut EP New Assumptions demonstrates their confident grip of the gear-stick: sudden belligerence disintegrates into winding passages and choken-word, shifting back up to crashing harmony and feverish saxophones. It’s no wonder they’ve played alongside Lee Ranaldo and the late Mark Stewart! Check out support from Seigfried Komidashi too. tickets
05
___3D Jesus @ @ Sebright Arms FREE Scream/Shout - Witness the heavens open and the radiant, spaced-out bliss of 3D Jesus, an image of the Son of God so powerful it can only be safely seen with stereoscopic glasses. Don’t be satisfied watching them on your phone – two dimensions aren’t enough! You have to experience the new quartet’s rapturous whirlwind in the flesh (and blood). Drums, violin, saxophone, and guitar distil the air with something heavy and ecstatic. Support comes from Manchester’s incredible indietronica outfit catbandcat (if you need any more persuasion to get down to the Sebright, check out our review of their May Windmill gig). rsvp
___Amelia Blackwell Single Release Show @ Venue MOT £6/8 - As the haunting solo-project of the mandola player/singer of steaming hot London anti-folk collective MPTL Microplastics, Blackwell thrives in the sparser context. The stripped-back instrumentation allows for subtly developing instrumentals and introspective lyrics, while experimentation rears its head again in sprawling sections that fall into each other like puzzle pieces. tickets
10
___Cap’n Jazz @ Electric Ballroom £36.31 Communion One - “The only real emo band from the Midwest scene” have reunited to take on an EU touring stint! Mixing strained vocals and lyrics stained with tragedy with the chiming guitars of indie rock (or was it the other way around?), the band are the forefathers of (nearly) everything the genre holds dear. They released just one album, Shmap'n Shmazz, which is heralded as paramount for carving a new sound away from the dissonant post-hardcore of early emo. Pay your fucking respects! tickets
11
___Tomo Katsurada @ St Matthias Church £25.5 Bad Vibrations - Known best as the founder and lead singer of Japanese psych band Kikagaku Moyo, Katsurada dives deeper into the warm textures that act as a hearth on a cold, rainy day. Embracing the softer side of things, his solo project has more patience and whimsy; his voice coos as echoing guitar lines sustain and intertwine with strings and radio hum. tickets
13
___wing! @Windmill Brixton £6 Memorials of Distinction - Windmill regulars and recent winners of the Green Man Rising competition, trip-hopping trio wing! celebrate “something fun” with some of the scene’s most exciting artists: Emily Izen Row’s cerebral folk, Flytrap’s energy-packed psych-rock, Star City (fka Pyongyang)’s dance punk and the ever-changing songwriting project of Tommy Barlow. tickets
___Outbreak Festival @ Victoria Park £80.25 - While the price tag might not be for everyone, what a lineup this is: Alex G, Danny Brown, feeble little horse, Glassjaw, Have a Nice Life, Jane Remover, Model/Actriz, Sunny Day Real Estate, and They Are Gutting a Body of Water, to name a few! With plenty of artists already selling out their UK headline gigs in June, this may be your only chance to catch them. tickets
___Andy Morin @ Colour Factory £29.36 Outbreak - As an official Outbreak Festival afterparty, cross the A12 from Viccy P to Hackney Wick, where speakers will blare freakish rave energy from midnight til 3 am! Alongside the legendary Death Grips synthster Andy Morin is Toronto digital-hardcore artist Femtanyl, LA duo japanophones Kumo99, and the raunchy and ravey Machine Girl-collaborator LustSickPuppy. Even if you didn’t make it to the festival, this will be the place to be. tickets
14
___Formal Sppeedwear @ George Tavern £8.5 JOY - The Stoke-on-Trent new-wave trio capture all the detail of ‘80s groove nostalgia with a telepathic rhythm section, zany guitar-work relying on not 1 but 2 pedal boards and vocals that are as percussive and guttural as melodic and catchy. FFO: Talking Heads, Berlin-era Bowie, & The Associates tickets
___Palestine Fundraiser Day Festival @ Ivy House £5/10/15 Bowl Cut - Venture to the whimsical Ivy House nestled within Nunhead to raise funds for Medical Aid Palestine (MAP)! A great cause, some great great acts (e.g. Sculpture Park, Dudu, tallchild, Conus Sp Bent, Salmone Wu, and Glass Eel), some awesome stalls from Afon Mor, Hajar Press, and How to Catch a Pig, and a raffle! tickets
17
___Vogues, FLOCO & Yuki @ Shacklewell Arms FREE Bad Vibrations - Make your way down to the Shack for a night of genre-bending alternative music, journeying across fields of alt-pop, cyber-folk, and dark synth punk. Headliner Vogues will take the hands of the audience as they lead us into their world of colourful introspective lyrics, accompanied by flurries of lush synths and pulsing drum machines. Prepare yourselves for the emotional power, beauty and purity Vogues’ voice emits. With support from the ethereal dream pop-via-folk songstress Floco, who’ll don her violin to create a soundscape of organic sound conjured by the use of field recordings and freeform electronics. Yuki and her band add fuel to a fire of dusky and distorted melodies as dissonant synths add to sultry dark femme rage. rsvp
18
___Bathing Suits @ Sebright Arms FREE Big Richard Records - The babes of Leeds, the noise-rocking, popping and locking Bathing Suits, bring their cataclysmic dance music to the Bethnal Green basement. Blasting beats, shrieking guitars and their frontwoman’s actual bathing suit all make for an exciting set. Some generous support comes from Manchester post-punks Holly Head and London’s all-analogue synthpop band Domina – and it’s free??!!! rsvp
19
___fantasy of a broken heart @ Windmill Brixton £16.02 FORM - The NYC-based art pop duo will make your head spin with giddiness, with dense upbeat idiosyncrasies, cute vocals that weave between each other, and sudden progressive chord changes that sweep you off your feet. Euphoric and gripping, and with the help of their live band, the group will have Brixton boogying all night long. Support comes from Pindrop favourites and West Country slacker emos Sunglasz Vendor. tickets
___Fitzcarraldo Editions Summer Party @ Bold Tendencies £8/13/18 - Bar Italia once proclaimed that everyone in south London is obsessed with Fitzcarraldo editions and making shit club music. While obviously a sardonic takedown, there’s some truth to the idea of the aesthetic appeal of the publishing house. Having published four Nobel laureates before they won the prize, they clearly have their finger on the pulse, and this event offers attendees the chance to get acquainted with the perfect summer read. With readings from the works of Fitzcarraldo alumni like Olga Tokarczuk and Jon Fosse, Fitzcarraldo offer a summer party in style. tickets
19-22
___RCA2025 Arts & Humanities Show [ART] @ @ RCA Battersea Campus FREE - The end-of-year showcase will, for the most part, take place in the studios the students have been working in since September. Variety is the name of the game, with painting, sculpture, performance and curatorial work all being demonstrated. Some highlights to check out are Leah Jelf, whose ceramics work combines historic techniques with contemporary tile-making, resulting in a series of church tiles honouring childhood wonder; Stevie Chow, who pushes the medium of painting beyond its classic state by incorporating printmaking, maintaining a glorious texture left by printing imperfections; Nasrah Omar’s photography, saturated with vibrant color and explorations of the cosmos and activism; Kenneth Greiner, whose sculptures focus on the organic shapes found in foraging; and Pindrop’s own Palencar presenting their LARGE BOOK of small sculptures! info
21
___Bad Vibes All Dayer @ Shacklewell Arms FREE Bad Vibrations - A free day-festival full to the brim with some of London’s most playful indie-folk artists: catch Ninush, Black Country New Road’s touring violinist and spectacular songwriter in her own right; Drive Your Plow, a collective who we at Pindrop have got our money on to be the capital’s next rising stars; and Glasgow’s Stanley Welch chamber melancholy just to name a few. rsvp
___4AD presents Milk A Bull @ ICA £29.8 - The sweet and creative folk-pop of US duo and new 4AD signing @ (pronounced ‘At’) has enough earworms to turn even the coldest hearts to compost. What grows out of steel-stringed guitar, electronica embellishments, and the ‘60s harmonies of singer Victoria Rose never fails to warm the soul. Alongside ambient-pop duo Insides, young experimental composer Claire Rousay and James Krivchenia of Big Thief, the night will be a gentle chin-scratcher. tickets
23
___David Grubbs @ St Pancras Old Church £17 Upset The Rhythm - With a CV spanning four decades, through bands such as slowcore legends Codeine, experimental post-rockers Gastr del Sol, emo progenitors Squirrel Bait and avant-psych weirdos The Red Krayola, it’s clear Grubbs is well schooled. However, it is his solo guitar work that is perhaps the most transfixing of all: his 2025 album demonstrates daring compositions of gorgeously crunching chords and returning motifs, coloured by wubbing distortion, electrifying the air. Support comes from the brilliant dadaist trio Secluded Bronte, who, with frontman Richard Thomas’s almost Stewart Lee humour and the assorted instruments of the Bohman brothers (including a table overflowing with knick-knacks for Adam to bow), sets can chicane from humorous Hackneyite fiction to sound-poems in the blink of an eye. tickets
27
___The Hard Quartet @ EartH £42.9 Eat Your Own Ears - Best known for his work with American indie icons Pavement, Stephen Malkmus returns to London with the supergroup Hard Quartet. Expect scuzzy guitars and stoner dad vibes. tickets
29
___Vaiapraia Album Release Show @ George Tavern £8.5 - The Portuguese quartet debut their third album Algeria Terminal live at the George Tavern. Prepare yourself for momentous surf punk with hints of twee laced throughout, under the mellifluous voice of lead singer Ro. If you’re a native Portuguese speaker, this is a night to mark in your calendar, as you’ll be able to pick up on the witty and poetic songwriting of Vaiapraia. The night will be supported by a personal favourite, London Mermaid, Dudu. tickets
30
___The Rebel Residency #5 @ Windmill Brixton £7 - With the final night of his annual Windmill residency, Ben Wallers, aka The Rebel, takes his cult-following to the interzone with a set of his finest, freakish punk country. A solo project from his band Country Teasers, Wallers’ sparse guitar playing and Nintendo Gameboy backing tracks underpin wild Burroughs-esque stories of cynicism and/or depravity. Carefully selected by The Rebel himself, support comes from Findom, London’s squawking no-wave kinksters. tickets
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by MJR
While death to many is the ultimate transition, the humble mushroom reminds us that there may be life beyond death. And indeed, with Lady Diana herself making an appearance at the “Princess Diana as Mushrooms” zine launch in Lewisham, it becomes clear that perhaps miracles of all sorts are possible. The night surely has it all, with a booth offering tipples such as Diana’s favourite peach bellini and pale ale for the more pint-inclined gallery-goers. A shrine to the late princess, replete with giant crocheted mushrooms and battery-powered candles, reminds everyone why they’ve come to Pagemaster Studios, a printing studio operated by the much-loved SET social club.
The sure highlight of the event is the Lady Di impersonator, who flits around talking to various event attendees. Her responses are always off-kilter but perfectly timed: when asked about her biggest ‘opp’, she responds with “You!” before launching into a gracious yet scathing take-down of the Queen consort Camilla. With her entourage of photographers and fans, she throws darts at a photo of Camilla with studied precision. Perhaps Charles should have been included on the dartboard – you can’t get rid of only half of the problem!
Of course, the night centred the launch of artist Lulu Williams’s second edition of the “Princess Diana as Mushrooms” zine, in which images of Diana sit side by side with mushrooms in a way typically associated with a Twitter feed. However, the zine itself is a refreshingly physical take on what is often reserved for the confines of social media. As everything becomes increasingly digitised, this inversion of the digital into the real feels increasingly resonant. This is not to make something which clearly relishes in the playful and satirical into something which is ultra serious: the playful approach to notions of hierarchy makes for a very entertaining reading experience.
Peeking below the surface, though, there is a certain morbidity to the comparison of one of the most infamously dead people in popular culture with the humble mushroom – the decomposer which will come for us all eventually. The immediate conclusion might be something macabre, but the flipside feels more optimistic: there is something almost regal about the role of the mushroom in our ecosystem, and the mycological and human worlds might be closer than we first anticipate. Indeed, the line between decomposition and composition might be closer than is comfortable, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. At the end of the day, all we can do is have fun with these facts and maybe throw a few parties (or book launches) along the way.
by MGB
In contrast to the guitar and drums setup typical of bands who play the Windmill, Manchester’s catbandcat take the stage with a diverse set of synths, samplers, an accordion, a violin, and more. The crowd is packed and talkative to say the least, and in spite of the fact that they aren’t from London, they seem at home on stage. The show starts with a discordant cold open, spaced by blasts of dissonant glissandos down the piano keys and sharp bursts of harsh drone as an ominous beat threads the track together. The three standing members trade off who sings their cute and creepy ditty into the mic, but the band’s ultimate attention is on the keyboardist, whose cues prompt the band in the way a ragtag orchestra might follow their conductor.
After a long round of applause, the band start their energetic and glitchy debut single, ‘Giv£ M£ Mon£Y’. The up-tempo dance song reminds the audience why they don’t have a drummer: they don’t need one. Funky basslines and a soft violin and accordion play over a mesmeric drum track. It’s a song so fidgety and precise that it’s truly impressive that the band can stay on beat and play off each other so well, but this is a fundamental of their songwriting. Their unique selection of instruments comes together to create the distinctive sound of “catbandcat,” who have said previously they don’t mind any label, as long as it’s not indie. Some aspects are reminiscent of pop, IDM and trip-hop: regardless of what you call them, the most obvious fact is their talent and originality. The bassist and guitarist feature heavily on vocals., While they both sing in a high range, the mix of male/ female timbres is pleasant and underutilised by many of their contemporaries.
Throughout the set, the audience meets the many hats of catbandcat: there is the bittersweet accordion-led storybook waltz of ‘East Wing’, which sits alongside ‘Fork and Knife’, their EP opener, during which members of the crowd are spotted doing the Macarena to the song’s jittery drumbeat. In spite of a nearly distracting amount of audience chatter early on in the set, the band manage to bring the volume down before performing a track which effectively transports the audience to the stars. The band plays slowly through a chord progression, droning and drawing out each chord, while the keyboardist returns to conducting duties, starting each new bar with subtle rubato. Other songs are much more complex and active, with odd time signatures and eclectic drum beats blasting away. The true magic of catbandcat is in these moments of chaotic synchronisation: this kind of music cannot be composed by one person and played by a group. Such music is so special because it represents a synchronised mesh of players fixated on a single idea, producing the sort of artistic collaboration which makes DIY music so special. An unmissable set from an unmissable band. Check out their debut 2025 EP ‘I Don’t Know Much About Rocks’.
GKA
___Motherfucker, I am Both: “Amen” and “Hallelujah”… by Shearling (US, 2025)
___U R UR ONLY ACHING by caroline (UK, 2025)
___Cheers! You’re the Reason God Created the Middle Finger by Ted Williams (US, 2024)
MJR
___Be Nice 2 Me by Bladee (Sweden, 2018)
___Swallows in the Heatwave by Blur (UK, 1997)
___Grins by Charli xcx (UK, 2013)
MLT
___Loneliness Song by Best Friends Forever (US, 2009)
___At The Arcade by Mixel Pixel (US, 2006)
___I Never Play Basketball Now by Prefab Sprout (UK, 1984)
SE
___Martial Arts Washing Cars by Oro Swimming Hour (UK, 2017)
___Academy Fight Song by Mission of Burma (US, 1981)
___Caller No. 99 by Chris Cohen (US, 2012)