London Zine of Music, Arts and Miscellaneous Happenings. Monthly updates & seasonal physicals.
02
___LIPWORMS @ Shacklewell Arms FREE Bad Vibrations - Wild and wonky synth groove that will have you filling the floor and throwing moves non-stop. Psychedelic acid bass and stuttering vocals leave for a wild ride when shot through the Shack’s bumping PA. You are implored to check out openers Lifeloose! rsvp
___Greg Freeman @ The Lexington £15.82 Bird on the Wire - Over from Burlington, Vermont, Greg Freeman returns to the concrete jungle that is London to serenade us fans with tracks that simply explode with energy. Providing thick textures of roaring guitars, accompanied by peaks of jangly piano and the occasional lick or harmonica, it’s Freeman’s heartbreaking lyrics; his voice can’t help but quiver from the sheer vulnerability of his own songs. If you’ve been seeking more of that alt-country that MJ Lenderman, Jason Molina, or even Neil Young have you yearning for, Greg Freeman is a must-see. tickets
05
___Pindrop Presents: Shearling @ Windmill Brixton £8 - We’re pleased to bring you, all the way from sunny Los Angeles, Shearling, the noise-rock behemoths and spiritual successor to slow-core turned schizophrenic post-rockers Sprain. Theatrical, biblical and utterly brutal, their only song, a one-hour track named Motherfucker, I Am Both: "Amen" and "Hallelujah"... is perhaps already their magnum opus. Selling out another Pindrop night on the 7th almost instantly, you can expect this one to go imminently. tickets
06
___Whatever The Weather @ Milton Court Council Hall £17 / £19.85 / 22.7 Bird on the Wire - Enfield’s Loraine James has been cooking up a glitching stew of IDM, nu-jazz and R&B for a while now, being almost immediately taken under the wing of legendary London label Hyperdub. Her alternative moniker, Whatever The Weather, is where she takes the beautiful chords that underlie her songs and pulls them apart into cavernous soundscapes of synths and keys. In the hall of the Guildhall school, they will sound eternal. tickets
___Max Richter’s SLEEP 10 Year Anniversary @ Alexandra Palace >£223.71 (yes, really!) Metropolis Music - Continuing the ambient theme with perhaps the most bizarre recommendation we as Pindrop have ever given: an overnight experience at Ally Pally for what might be the most expensive snooze of your life. Celebrating 10 years of Richter’s 8-and-a-half-hour lullaby, tuck yourself into bed (yes, really!) and be transported through your sleep cycles with dulcet minimalist piano along with 960 fellow adventurers. If you don’t fancy forking out a quarter of a grand, maybe just stick the album on while you fall asleep at home? Probably less of a hassle. tickets
08
___No Clique #7 @ Folklore Hoxton £7 Improv's Greatest Hits - A monthly night of improvised never-again bands that makes its way between the organiser’s home city of Bristol and the capital, you never know quite what to expect with No Clique. Pulling together artists from all ends of both cities’ expansive sonic spectrums, all that can be guaranteed is a wild night. Artists involved include (but are not limited to) Laurie Nankivell, trumpeter of Squid, songwriter Clementine March, and drummer extraordinaire Nate Wicks of bands Lip Filler, Velvetine and Scarlett Woolfe! tickets
___oddy knocky @ Shacklewell Arms FREE Bad Vibrations - The woozy lo-fi pop solo project of Stephen Ibanez Jr., the singer and guitarist of Connecticut indie group Bread Pilot, appears for a night in Dalston. Catchy hooks, wild instrumentation, and unexpected chord changes take the tunes to exciting places. tickets
___Elaine Howley @ MOTH Club £11.4 Bad Vibrations - Tipperary musician Elaine Howley merges the wild world of experimental tape loops with the comfort of classic songwriting. With its soft husk, her voice sounds almost like a sample itself, yet it is the only consistency across her repertoire. Wild instrumentals, reversing and cascading, are the perfect canvas for her moody, atmospheric art-pop. tickets
10
___Queering the Male Gaze [ART] @ Vagina Museum £13.91 / 14.01 / 16.18 Sexquisite - Compiling sex work photography from the ‘90s to now, the exhibition and panel discussion challenge mainstream narratives regarding the authorship, autonomy, and objectification of sex workers, uncovering the alternative perspectives that are usually brushed under the carpet by our culture’s “see-no-evil” prudence against the oldest trade. tickets
11
___studio20 @ George Tavern £8 Lau’s Birthday Party #7 - September at the George celebrates 21 years of their iconic landlady, Pauline Foster’s ownership, who has sustained the life of the venue for us all to enjoy and call our club. This night showcases London’s up-and-coming renditions of indie slacker rock. Be sure to attend for that sloppy slacker charm topped with a mixture of chaotic noise to jaunty riffs. tickets
12
___Sofia Grant & Inês Loubet @ Morocco Bound £12 - Two unbelievable jazz singer-songwriters: the voice of London’s Sofia Grant dances elegantly between close vocal harmonies and lush instrumentation, tracing every cadence with the perfect phrase, while Inês Loubet’s soft Portuguese leaves you captivated by every syllable, to which stripped-back classical guitar is the perfect accompaniment. tickets
13
___The Thurston Moore Group @ Oslo £42.49 DHP Family - Thurston Moore and his band of buddies, who include fellow Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, accomplished guitarist James Sedwards and the one and only, iconic Deb Googe of My Bloody Valentine, return to London. The group are not a rehash of what once was, but rather a stirred rendition of chosen songs from Moore’s solo albums. Be sure to expect brash jams that will transport you into a world of tumbling chaos with guaranteed noisy release. Be sure to catch opener Big Joanie, London’s very own afro-punk riot grrl group that consistently delivers raw energy. tickets
17
___UNIVERSITY @ George Tavern £11.95 Bird on the Wire - With some of the most explosive chops in the scene, Crewe emo-punks UNIVERSITY celebrate their 2025 debut album, McCartney, It’ll Be Okay (such a classic emo title!) with a mighty UK and EU tour. The record’s belligerence of frantic guitar strumming and Zach Hill-esque maximalist drumming makes every moment of tranquillity all the more bittersweet, as you wait on the textbook drawling vocals. Don’t miss their silent 4th member, who sits and plays video games at the front of the stage, and make sure to get there for the local support, emotional noise-rockers, paper hats. tickets
20
___A Celebration of The Incredible String Band @ Queen Elizabeth Hall £44.56 Subterranean Festival - With a rare appearance from original member Mike Heron, alongside special guests like Clara Mann, Daisy Rickman, Goblin Band, Mark Fry, and Milkweed, just to name a few, the cast honour the legendary ‘60s Scottish psych-folk group with a performance of their greatest hits (and I’m sure some hidden gems too). tickets
___Lisa O’Neill @ Royal Festival Hall £36.05 / 41.72 Subterranean Festival - Droning textures of piano, strings poignantly shift between precious chords as Lisa O’Neill’s powerful storytelling and infamous Irish twang set the Royal Festival Hall with such sweet melancholy. Her most recent record, 2023’s All Of This Is Chance, feels like the deepest sob that shakes and shakes your body – bring a packet of tissues because as her voice reflects off the walls, you may be moved to tears. tickets
21
___Songs of the Autumn Equinox @ Theatreship £12.36 Turning of the Seasons - In collaboration with London’s witchy collective, Weaving in Purgatory, the Isle of Dogs venue/barge glories the equinox with a TBA lineup of folk music, experimental performance and ritual. A night for the romantic, the converted, and the curious. tickets
23
___Gan Gemi Trio @ Windmill Brixton £6 - Not every day you get jazz at the Windmill – apart from some obvious exceptions, it looked like the venue had an allergy to the genre! Young jazz electronica artist Gan Gemi brings his group south of the river for a night of glitching 7th chords and skittish, glitching instrumentation. tickets
25
___Ebbb @ Windmill Brixton £7 - Although consistently touring across Europe for their upcoming releases, the Windmill-scene favourites Ebbb haven’t been seen much about London of late: the occasional secret show here, the odd support date there. Fans of their choral ambience and chock-a-block drums will be ecstatic to see them touching base at their rightful home, celebrating a new single, ‘Eyes’, which is out on the 2nd. tickets
___Clara Mann @ Elgar Room of the Royal Albert Hall £15 / 17 x - The contemporary folk songwriter writes timeless songs. Supported by piano or acoustic guitar, Clara Mann’s lilted poetry is what it’s all about. Her voice is patient, never falling into melodrama or cliche, and reminiscent of that classic folk revivalist vibrato, though it is her words that mark her work as truly exceptional. Her debut record, Rift, came out earlier this year on the State 51 Conspiracy label to critics’ delight and sold-out shows – make sure you bag your place for this night soon. tickets
28
___Anton Pearson (Squid) @ George Tavern £10 Flashback Records - Anyone who’s had the pleasure of seeing Squid live would know that Louis Borlase and Anton Pearson are two of the most innovative and interesting guitarists in the UK right now. Come on one of the last nights of celebration of The George Tavern’s 21st Anniversary to see Pearson's solo debut. We are as excited and unaware of the material as you are! tickets
by JR
It’s a Thursday night, and Mogwai are getting ready to address the audience…standing on top of a moat? The pond in Crystal Palace Park has been converted into a stage. Mogwai aren’t exactly known for their popularity with the TikTok crowd, so there is minimal queuing for a barricade spot, and gig-goers trickle through in a slow after-work current. The gig is part of the South Facing Festival, which is smaller and therefore far less stressful than some of the other park-based day fests London has to offer, allowing for a far less hectic atmosphere in which the introspective odysseys of the Glaswegian post-rock giants are easier to appreciate. When Mogwai take the stage, one thing is immediately clear – they are loud. They begin with “God Gets You Back,” the opening track off their most recent album, The Bad Fire (if you exclude The Bombing of Pan AM 103, which, for some reason, was lacking merch at the show). The undulating pulse of a synthesiser draws the audience closer, and when the guitars come in, they flesh the song out into something substantial and expansive, with distorted vocals driving the momentum of the song forward. While the park surroundings temper the band’s tendencies toward the max of the volume dial, it’s still music which can be felt rippling through the body.
One of the strongest instances of Mogwai’s emotional landscaping is “2 Rights Make 1 Wrong,” a fan favourite and a sure crowd pleaser. The crowd sways along as the sky seeps into a milky twilight, as encoded vocals shimmer over an anchoring bassline. The result is something that would feel cinematic even if you were listening to it on the morning commute, but in a live context, the track manages to produce a world entirely its own. There is a feeling of internal stillness, an expansion of sound in search of some destination while retaining a tether in the present moment. “Remurdered” sees the band return to a more synth-heavy sound, returning the gig to its unyielding momentum. The sheer volume renders what might be a simple curiosity into a force of nature in a live context. “Mogwai Fear Satan,” the arguable centrepiece of their debut album, serves as a sort of emotional peak for the set. While the song is a true post-rock behemoth – the recorded version is over 15 minutes long – Mogwai remove some of the slower opening sections in order to focus on the classic post-rock dynamism that makes this song such a crowd pleaser to begin with. Distorted guitars gallop along with the propulsive rhythm section, taking true advantage of the sound system in the louder moments to jolt the audience out of the hypnosis-inducing slower passages. This dynamic range goes beyond genre cliché, truly building the track into something captivating and evocative that the crowd resonates with.
Oasis reunion this was not, but banter and showmanship were never going to be the purview of one of Britain’s most beloved post-rock bands. There’s a modicum of crowd interaction, but Mogwai mostly stick to staying in their own world. Like all great post-rock bands, this is what Mogwai do best, producing an all-encompassing soundscape which is as moving as it is mesmerising. Song titles often have little to do with the actual content of the composition, and most of the tracks are instrumental, but this doesn’t matter – Mogwai seem to be aiming at a deeper sort of emotional truth than what measly words can capture.
MGB
___Misery Lane by Jim O’Rourke (US, 2001)
___Waiting to Hit by Lift to Experience (US, 2001)
___Favourite Son by Tummyache (UK, 2025)
GKA
___Pins by My Theatre Friend (2025, UK)
___Candombe Para José by Los Vikings 5 (1976, Chile)
___Room Mate by Lizzy Mercier Descloux (1981, US)
MLT
___Uncle Remus by Frank Zappa (1974, USA)
___The Ledge by Worldpeace DMT & Rowan Please (2025, UK)
___Reverse of Ivan by Godzooki (2025, UK)
SE
___I DM U by Loraine James (2023, UK)
___Yeh, Yeh by Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames (1964, UK)
___The Drifter by Ray Pollard (1965, US)