In Manchester’s underground, a disparate group of artists are blurring the lines between bands, DJs and performance art.

Bound by a shared ethos and fed up with the predictable, Another Country $$$$, BUFFEE, Crimewave, Mogan and SILVERWINGKILLER are building a DIY communal culture driven by friendship, shared purpose and a desire to upend convention. 

Read our profile on the rising scene, and dive into each of the artists’ accompanying mixes below.

 

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Another Country $$$$

Sam Shorter and Oli Knight, a.k.a. Another Country $$$$, are an audio-visual outfit who describe their sound as a mixture of liminal heavy pop, hopecore breaks, distorted UKG and archival post-dance collage. “It isn’t traditional club music. But it is inspired by going to raves at places like the White Hotel. It’s a response to the atmosphere and the emotion of that euphoria and catharsis.”

Who: Sam from ANOTHER COUNTRY $$$$.
Where: Manchester.
What: Our music generally tends to blend dance music and hyperpop, with elements of other experimental genres like vapourwave. It’s often ethereal, euphoric, emotional and bassy, especially when we play live.
When: I can’t decide. Maybe very early in the morning – like 5 a.m. – or possibly late at night in a forest.
Why: I’ve always been really inspired by worldbuilding and narrative through sound design. Musicians like James Ferraro have always been a big inspiration. I think there’s also something quite personal about all of the songs that I write. They’re often inspired by the subconscious or, on some level, quite existential. It’s often quite cathartic writing, dealing with my own personal experiences and attempting to take from them something abstract.

BUFFEE

Bristol-born artist Beth McDermott initially pursued more mainstream pop ambitions before gravitating toward a messier sound. “I didn’t know how to, so it came out really weird,” she says. “What I do is pretty janky, and my mixing is diabolical, but that’s a big essence of the sound – I’m not sticking to a production rule book.”

Who: BUFFEE.
Where: From Bristol, based in Manchester.
What: I work most with electro pop and dubstep.
When: An in-the-car with friends on a beautiful evening kind of mix. It might be a bit of a room-clearer.
Why: Making music inspires me because it’s the most beautiful, fun thing in the world to do with your friends or by yourself.

“This music would be best suited for the last hour of the night, where things are starting to go wrong, but you manage to make it for the last few tunes as the lights come on” – Crimewave

Crimewave

As the brains behind Crimewave, DJ and producer Jake Wilkinson uses elements of live guitar music, retooled for dance environments. “There’s a DJ world and there’s a band world, and we do not fit into either,” Wilkinson explains. “There’s been a lot of focus on the post-punk thing. Just guys in bands and shit. I’m hoping this is the start of all of that coming to an end.”

Who: Crimewave.
Where: From Newcastle, based in Manchester.
What: The music I make is electronic, but created from only guitar sounds – a cross between My Bloody Valentine and Aphex Twin. DJing, I play any abrasive, bass-y tune that catches my ear.
When: My album SCENES was all about northern UK nightlife and the moments in the night that can easily cause it to derail. I tried to represent this in the mix with the more noise-influenced tracks, as if this danger keeps on creeping in and out of it. At one point, the mix does fully enter noise before eventually recovering. I think this music would be best suited for the last hour of the night, where things are starting to go wrong, but you manage to make it for the last few tunes as the lights come on.
Why: Creating a tune on the same day as you play it out to a group of people is one of the most exciting ideas to me. Instant feedback on the music-making process, for better or for worse.

Mogan

DIY electronic artist Keiran Lea-Jones, who performs as Mogan, makes music partly inspired by house and 90s Euro trance, but filtered through darker, gothic undertones. Built from their own DIY sound palette, their tracks blend field recordings with synths, drum loops and noise. “The best description I ever got after a gig,” they say, “was: ‘You sound like if Nick Cave ejaculated in Berghain.’” 

Who: Mogan.
Where: Originally from Cornwall, though Manchester has been home for the last five years.
What: Synths, textures, abrasive noise, tender vocals, cinematic soundscapes, woodwind.
When: I’m not a DJ, so this is more of a collage than a mix. This is for when you’re at the afters, and it’s just you and your nearest and dearest chatting shit and taking turns selecting YouTube videos. With the fizziness of the night still bubbling around, fighting the impending daylight, the conversation handbrake-turns between the silly and strange to the most heartfelt and profound.
Why: Making music is a way of figuring out the unspeakable. It’s like a guide that helps navigate some of the trickier facets of life and can spark physical, tactile responses without necessarily being a tangible thing. It can heal and wound in equal measure, but it’s all completely valid.

“As the night goes on, the building feels less like a club and more like a Shanghainese arcade” – SILVERWINGKILLER

SILVERWINGKILLER

SILVERWINGKILLER, a.k.a. Baca and Ni Yushang, have built a reputation as an incendiary live outfit. With Baca on live drums and Yushang singing emphatically in her native Shanghainese over glitchy electronic noise, the pair operate at full-throttle maximalism. “We’re a punk band that haven’t got guitars,” they explain. “We want it to feel like the kind of music you would buy from the dark web.”

Who: We are SILVERWINGKILLER. Our real names are Yushang Ni and James Baca.
Where: We are based in Manchester, but Yushang is originally from Shanghai, China, and James is originally from Peterborough in the East Midlands.
What: We see ourselves as an ‘electronic punk’ band – we explore different styles of electronic music under the ferocity of a punk band. We play with a variety of different sounds when creating music, blending breakbeats with gabber kicks, and acid house style 303s with world music, delivered with live drums that can sometimes feel as heavy as a metal band.
When: It’s 6 a.m., and all the over-clouted DJs have finished their sets, so the electronic band that headlined before the club night takes to the decks. They play whatever they like with no agenda, tempo changes that cater towards a blend of styles that range from video game music to North Korean propaganda archives. As the night goes on, the building feels less like a club and more like a Shanghainese arcade. A truly unapologetic set where we get to play whatever the fuck we like with no remorse – SILVERWINGKILLER style.
Why: Music is like a drug to us. We find pleasure in creating music that gives us a heavy adrenaline boost, live and in the studio. The intense, hyped up feeling we get from this heavily inspires us to keep writing music that fits our chaotic lifestyle. It’s an incredible, unstoppable feeling.

Read the scene report