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
03
___Pindrop Presents: Charlemagne @ Windmill Brixton £6 - We’re excited to announce a night of raucous, enveloping-pushing rock, with some of wildest young bands England has to offer. Headlining are Charlemagne, a band that’s already made a name for itself with their precocious guitar work and progressive, engaging songs, rewarding them with supports for Geordie Greep and the essential London badge of honour, an approving Lou Smith co-sign. Before the main attraction though, we have Liverpool’s avant-prog cabaret trio Domestic Partners, London’s emotional indie four-piece Little Grandad, fresh back off the boat from Rotterdam’s Left of the Dial Fest, and Bristol’s noisy post-punk experimentalists Kill Mirror Image. tickets
___John Maus @ Kentish Town Forum £28.47 Parallel Lines X Upset The Rhythm - Spacey, hypnagogic, and gothic, John Maus’s nostalgia-dripping electronic pop does not prepare you for his live shows in the slightest. In his signature one-man “karaoke” style, he scurries, whelps and head bands in pseudo-masochistic hysteria. There’s a reason his cult following has only grown since the mid 2000s. tickets
___Search Results @ George Tavern £14.2 Bad Vibrations - The Dublin-based jangling punk trio celebrate their sophomore album Go Mutant with what is set to be a clanging night at the George. Endless tumult provided by drummer Jack Condon, whose style can only be described as Ringo Starr on amphetamines, choralls the rocketing, melodic interplay of guitar and bass that find ever-creative ways to write shaking, catchy tunes you’ve not heard anything like. tickets
04
___Reptile B @ Old Blue Last FREE AZNSZN - “THAT’S WHY I PEGGED YOUR MAN WITH A BOTTLE OF WRAY!” A self-described genre-anarchist MC, Reptile B blends grime, dancehall, ballroom, and punk into one unapologetically black, queer package. Reclaiming historically homophobic genres with all the choreography to show for it, if you want a night of energy and bars that will have you spitting out your drink, this one’s for you. tickets
06
___The Holy Mountain: Screening and Live Performance by The Romance of Baba Loco [MISCELLANEOUS] @ St Giles’ Church £20.34 Dash The Henge X Secret Ceremony - Starting the night is the long-awated return of the enigmatic collective The Romance of Baba Loco, a spralling multi-lingual group that take inspiration from eastern mysticism, the avant-garde, psychedelia, and rock ‘n’ roll. Honestly, there’s no better band to support a screening of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s cult-classic mind-fuck film The Holy Mountain (1973), a must-see flick for absolutely anyone brave enough. tickets
08
___Pitchfork Dalston Takeover @ Multiple Venues £42.11 Pitchfork Festival London - An international lineup you can’t say no to: Nottingham neo-psych legends Panchiko, Bay Area hyperpop star underscores, Philadelphia nu-gazers Full Body 2, Mancunians and Pindrop fav’s Another Country $$$$, and LA dream-pop project Winter. What are you waiting for?! tickets
09-11
___Swans @ Electric Brixton £46.14 FORM - Helmed by Michael Gira, Swans have never failed to evolve and innovate since their inception in the New York No Wave scene over 40 years ago. Having a reputation of being one of the loudest bands around, Swans might quite literally blow you away. However, this is, they announced, their final foray into the spellbinding, seismic, post-rock sound they have wrestled with since their 2010 reformation. Don’t tell your kids how you could have seen Swans, tell them how you did see Swans. tickets
13
___FIRST FIFTY: The Itch @ Sebright Arms £9.55 DORK X The Great Escape - Luton outfit The Itch were formed after the members played together at a Talking Heads tribute night. This fact helps catch the essence of the group, whose dance punk sensibilities are infused with groove and fun. Joining them are Irish rockers Really Good Time and Brighton Math-pop outfit SLAG, who dot between time signatures with intricate guitar lines and catchy vocals. Announced as part of the first fifty artists to play this year's Great Escape festival, the gig is sure be a good'un tickets
15
___FIRST FIFTY: Tommy WÁ @ The Jago £8.98 CLASH x The Great Escape - Nigeria born and Ghana based Tommy WA takes inspiration from traditional African folk music of the 20th century and blends it with a contemporary sound. Littered with hooks and swells of instrumentation, Tommy’s music is universally endearing. tickets
16
___The Antifolk Fest 2025 @ Windmill Brixton £10 - The 4th annual antifolk festival will be in full swing with a crazier lineup than ever. Alongside festival regulars David Cronenberg’s Wife, En Heat, and Amelia Blackwell, there are some delightful additions. Of which, London’s frantic anti-fascist anti-folk 8-person collective MPTL Microplastics never cease to drop jaws, and cram audiences’ ears with frantic noise, clinking kitchenware, and gargled beat-poetry. tickets
18
___Sunglasz Vendor @ The Piehouse £4 / 7 Falling Moon - One of the most refreshing bands to emerge in the last few years, Bristol’s indie trio Sunglasz Vendor have some of the most ingenious guitar work you can find. They write burning, dynamic songs that blend tense, melancholic Midwest emo chords, whipping, fuzzed-out hooks (just listen to the recently released track “I’ll Do It To You Yourself” and deeply personal witticisms, aware of their own insecurities. Their debut album Unwinding came out earlier this year, and seriously punches above its weight. Co-touring with the indie-slowcore group Glasshouse Red Spider Mite, this gig is set to be a howler. tickets
21-23
___Mats Gustafsson At 60 Residency @ Cafe Oto £17 / 22 / 25 - Swedish free jazz legend celebrates the start of his 6th decade with a 3-night Dalston residency. He’s touched all corners of the avant-garde with his 39-year career of squealing baritone sax, rich in overtones, yodelling between impossibly high harmonics. Catch the first night where he'll be alongside Thurston Moore and more… tickets
21
___Model/Actriz @ Heaven £22.7 Bad Vibrations - It's hard to pin down the sound of Brooklyn quartet Model/Actriz. Having had the mantra of “everything is a drum” for their debut record, the group continue to push the boundaries of what a guitar band can sound like. Frontman Cole Haden spends much of their sets walking through and effortlessly commanding the crowd, blurring the lines between the stage and the audience. tickets
___Tortoise @ Barbican Hall £37.75 Serious - Post-rockers Tortoise weave elements of dub, krautrock and trip hop in order to create a sound that is both welcoming and challenging. Deeply influential and now releasing new music for the first time in nearly a decade, go down to the Barbican Hall to see some of the veterans of the genre play. tickets
___Soup Activists & Class @ George Tavern £10 Heat Wave X Gob Nation - Get down, dirty, eggy, and jangly with St Louis post-punkers Soup Activists and co-headliners, Tucson power-poppers Class. Not two bands you’d usually see this side of the Atlantic, so if concise tunes of crunching power chords are up your alley, make your way to the George. tickets
22
___Baxter Dury @ Hammersmith Apollo £35.11 Eat Your Own Ears - Touring his new record Allbarone, Dury’s witty lyricism is being blended with instrumentals that are certain to fill the dancefloor. Rarely seen not in a suit, Dury’s stage presence is equally erratic and enthralling. tickets
24
___Good Sad Happy Bad @ 100 Club £17.1 - Mika Levi, composer, songwriter, producer, has been working extensively with some of the most interesting filmmakers and musicians this century: from scoring Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest, co-producing with Arca, and writing with Dean Blunt, Overmono, and bar italia. Since 2008 their band Mikachu and the Shapes (now known as Good Sad Happy Bad) has been writing experimental, distortion-laced art-pop to a devout following. Now a quartet, the band plays something in the world of twee garage pop with the mindset of drone music: they are unique in their approach of shunning clear hooks and dynamic choruses. Muted singing and wailing saxophones take to the front. tickets
25
___Tyler Cryde + Band = “Jenny Kennedy” @ Theatreship £14.18 Bathtime Records - Tyler Cryde (BC,NR) + Cameron Picton (black midi) + Luke Mark (BC,NR) + Lyle Burton + Rachid Fakhre (Skydaddy) = “Jenny Kennedy”. Support Band = Kit Mosely + Cameron Picton = Two Guitars. What the hell? What a lineup!! Sure to sell out quickly. tickets
27
___Stratford Rise @ George Tavern £12.1 JOY - After a raucous, sell-out night in July, Belfast’s best are back. Unbelievable songs, propelled with wacky pedals, pull you into their crunching world with the fervent voice of frontman Orion Courtney-Lee. Joining them are Holly Head, combining relentless grooves with impassioned political messaging. The Mancunian band is making a name for itself as one of the strongest voices to come out of the city. tickets
___Jimmy and The Boonies Release Show @ Avalon Cafe £12 Lost Wisdom - Months of anticipation come to an end, Jimmy and The Boonies second recorded release, Here Comes The Spectre, is here in our ears and live on stage. The band throws you into their world of fuzzy surf rock and builds from the staple sound of their first LP, Travis The Chimp. New singles like ‘Wake In Fright’ explore a more melodic passage of textures atop sparkly guitars, while retaining their lo-fi moodiness in ‘Digging Concrete’. The Boonies’ energy’ll be matched with support from romantic guitar rockers Glasshouse Red Spider Mite, the raucous Can’t Read visiting from New York City, and a Pindrop favourite, Godzooki. tickets
by MLT
This evening, the audience takes the stage as nestled on the floor of the George Tavern, noise supergroup kissgem.burn begin taking their places for what can only be described as a disgusting, loud soundscape of noise. Why a supergroup? Well, the band is made up of a core group of musicians, led by drummer Jimmy; however, every show has a different number of instruments on stage. Perhaps 5, or maybe even 8! Tonight, the audience is shocked to see a set-up of three drum kits (Sonny, Jimmy, Noah), three basses (Finn, Jayden, Leo), Sax (Rosie), Trumpet (Idris), Guitar (Matt) and Synth (Oli) sat on top of piles of leads and pedals. So if our maths is right, Pindrop readers, that's 10 musicians… only a recipe for loudness.
Brooding drums kick in, as guitars babble and yawn, hints of horns and synths eep through the thick foggy stench of noise as we’re first greeted with what is so far, menacing. Prior to the start of the set, word was out that KGB would be playing a faster and meaner than usual. As the band continues to play, loudness seeps into the floorboard and walls of the George, sending the vibrations ripping through the seams of our jeans and the canals of our ears. Band leader Jimmy leans into the mic and begins to lament words of what we can only imagine to be those of deep sentiment. Whether they are, only he can hear. As the growling noise builds in pressure, drums begin to roll at double speed, exploding into a burst of ripping chords that simply get faster and nastier. Tempo is KGB’s subordinate. Trills of guitar ring out.
These moments of seamless transitions from slack doom into speedy motorik beat start to plant similarities to jam bands, old and new. Be it the rotating head count of players, or the multiples of instruments. KGB may not be grinning away, noodling across multiple scales, but they remain fluid in movement, feeding off each other’s energy, providing space for set structure and improvisation. Our verdict: KGM are a jam band for those who fancy wearing moody black hoodies rather than dancing gummy bear tie-dye tops.
As ramblings of guitars and hypnotic pulsing basses lead from one section into another, we feel the tempo coming back down, though the pulse remains harsh. Whispers of synth, flourishes of sax, low hums of singing, and each drummer occupying their own territory. They create a moment's whimsical soundscape, which is befitting, as what follows is nonstop heaviness, returning to that evil driving chugging. Kick drums are slammed, bass strings are plucked violently, and don’t cease but keep the chugging going, stringing us along. Audience members are so intensely fixed upon the band, eyes flickering around, or some are focused on a specific individual; there is so much to take in. If you’re looking for intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-blah-blah-blah, these aren’t your guys.
The synth yowls and cries, soaring above the mugginess of the revving bassier instruments. There is a single moment of stillness, even still, not quiet enough to hear the usual chatter of clanking glasses at the bar. Slick bass notes hum out, vibrating the stage floor, accompanying vocals into a serenade. Hushed words of unknown are sung out, as hints of previous instrumental motifs play out, a sweet melodic moment washes over us all, allowing our bodies to sway rather than trash. This moment fades back into what sounds like the creeks from within a large hull of a boat on a stormy night, as licks of the horns sing high and bright, providing us light to shore. Waves of hazy guitar echo into the surrounding audience, as the pounding drum kit returns, shifting the movement into an emo-reminiscent heartbroken tune of longing. Winding into a merge of sounds that twist and crawl, echoes of trumpet and sax, the drums pull us back out of the vortex, rummaging chords, into a soft end. To hell and back, watching the brutal kissgem.burn feels like traversing the rough high seas on a trawler that lets you experience anticipation, fear, love, and remorse.
SE
___Elevation by Television (US, 1977)
___Playa Playa by D'Angelo (US, 2000)
___Diana by Prefab Sprout (UK, 1989)
JR
___Korg Funk 5 by Aphex Twin (UK, 2023)
___zur bank lachen by bangerfabrique (Germany, 2025)
___I’m Just a Killer for Your Love by Blur (UK, 1997)
GKA
___Moog City by C418 (Germany, 2011)
___Love Is by Dove Ellis (Ireland, 2025)
___Hornets by Dog Saints (UK, 2025)
EM
___Instrumental Piece II by Hildegard Von Bingen performed by Sequentia (Germany, 12th Century)
___When Doves Cry by Price and the Revolution (US, 1984)
___Alien Boy by Wipers (US, 1980)
Pindrop is JR, SE, GKA, EM, JK, MGB, MLT, PM, & P
Contact us at @pindropzine (instagram) and pindropzine@gmail.com (email)