Author: Mia Edwards

Loyle Carner played at the O2 Ritz in Manchester on the 12th October and I think it was honestly one of the best gigs I have ever been to.

Having missed Loyle Carner at various festivals and even at Bestival his set was cancelled due to the wind; I
thought maybe I was just never going to see him, or if when I did, the hype would be too much for what it was.
Safe to say, this was not the case at all.

Opening with the ‘Isle of Aaran’, swinging his dad’s Manchester United shirt, the the crowd atmosphere Carner
was able to create was unbelievable. The whole gig was only about an hour long, which actually added to its
effectiveness – short and sweet and kept alive by Carner telling stories about family and ex girlfriends,
sometimes through poem.

I think what made it particularly good and what kept the audience engrossed for every second was how
personal and relatable Carner makes his performance and his stories. ‘The Seamstress’ is about a girl he
used to date who “thought [he] had a drinking problem.” Carner told the story and then comically concluded “I
don’t have a drinking problem, I just f*****g love drinking!” By giving songs with such deep meaning and
resonance to his personal life a humorous and relatable touch, he kept the whole crowd completely engaged
(apart from getting a few pints obviously).

He credited his good friend, Tom Misch before playing their track together, ‘Damselfly,’ getting a huge
response. Carner also received a drawing from a fan during the performance and kept it on stage with him the
whole time. This emphasised how he values his fans, which we loved.

The enthusiasm for his music was made very clear from the energy and passion put into the songs
performed. The football shirt was swinging all over the place and when ‘NO CD’ was performed at the end, the
crowd went crazy for it. The dramatic lighting and the clear compatibility between Carner and Rebel Kleff, who
he brought out a few times, gave the big, exciting performance an element of closeness and it just looked like
they were having a great time, meaning every one else was too.

He also told the crowd that Manchester is his favourite place in the whole UK. This feeds into what I am
saying about how personable and fun Carner made his show. Loved it. A great gig, I could go again tonight.

By Jodie Bryant

The line-up for the evening was an absolute treat on paper. It was a triple
bill of my absolute favourite electronic artists: Jon Hopkins, Floating Points
and Daphni.

Starting off as an extra bonus was the German DJ Roman Flugel who moved from light and airy electronica
into much darker realms as the set moved on, warming up the crowd for the later acts.
Then came Jon Hopkins who played a ridiculously intense set from start to finish, with little room for a
break. He spent the hour and a half teasing tracks from his album Immunity and dropping them to
maximum effect. Such was the depth of the line up for the evening, that I had to miss Madlib, who
clashed with Jon Hopkins.

Floating Points’ set at 1:30am was a welcome relief, with a much more relaxed start, beginning with a long
synth only intro. From then on he played an up-and-down mixture of his trade-mark rare funk/soul and
disco bangers, along with more euphoric electronic tracks. The highlight was his upcoming release ‘Ratio‘, which
has been floating around on videos online for a while now.

Daphni’s closing set was a showcase in just about any genre of music you could think of. He moved from
electronica to jungle to drum and bass, also packing out the set with material from his new album Joli
Mai. Finishing with ‘Take me I’m yours’ by Mary Clark with the lights on was a perfect end to the
evening.

By Aidan Campbell