Simon Webbon

Along with Wesseltoft/Schwartz’s epic collaboration album Duo, the new Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble LP, Mr. Machine completely epitomises everything I love about electronica infused jazz. By deconstructing what we understand as, in this case, tech house music to its constituent elements, it can be understood what produces a great dance track. The real genius with Mr. Machine is how the music is put back together again. Drum machines, samplers and synths are replaced by traditional classical instruments – Acoustic drums, grand piano and strings are used to create a form of live dance music that is almost beyond genre classification. This isn’t a jazz record, it isn’t a techy house record and its far too upbeat to be considered along future classical artists such as Olafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm and the like.

The album bears some similarities to Anders Trentemoller’s astonishingly brilliant debut album The Last Resort, a multi layered and absorbing exploration of downtempo minimalist techno lounge electronica, as well as the aforementioned Bugge Wesseltoft/Henrik Schwarz collaboration of jazz and techno – in so much as a lot of the album is heavily reliant upon piano. Mr. Machine however, is quite a different beast altogether – a strange and alluring mix of the organic and the mechanical, as the name would suggest. A piece of music that, when performed live, would be equally understandable in the formal concert hall or at a late night Berlin techno party.

Bella Union really are a label at the top of their game at the moment, With releases from Lanterns on the Lake, Jonathan Wilson and of course Cashier No.9 ranking pretty highly on my favourite records of 2011 list.

Tonight, perhaps my favourite Bella Union act, Cashier No.9, hits Manchester. A gorgeous blend of alt.country warmth, subtle electronic energy and pop hooks that really drive the sound forward, their recent LP To The Death of Fun blew me away as soon as I heard it (out now on gorgeous 180gm red vinyl – buy it!) and if they’re half as good live as they are on record, then tonight is going to be unmissable.

Cashier No. 9 play Now Wave at The Deaf Institute, Manchester, tonight. 8pm.

Having already established herself on the Manchester music scene as the singer in acoustic-jazz/soul outfit To Sophia and electro-dub duo The Electronic Exchange, Najia Bagi knows a thing or getting up on stage and singing her heart out. Well, now, she’s done the whole rockstar going full circle thing and ‘gone solo’, having decided to make a record in a quieter, more introspective direction . Comprising of a simple piano and string quartet setup, combined with her incredible voice, this new solo project could be the best showcase yet for what is clearly one of Manchester’s finest vocal talents.

If anything teaser track The Fall is anything to go by, this new record should be a real treat. By stripping back the heavy dub rock influenced instrumentals of her previous work and working with a minimalist, almost new classical style setup, her incredible voice is allowed to flourish.

Najia performs at The Dulcimer, Chorlton, on Thursday November 10th. Info here.

Another great week for music in Manchester! Tonight, the marvellous electromelodic-post punk band Patterns are launching their brand new single BETA in style at the Castle, with the equally talented shoegaze revivalists Louche F.C showing their support. Whats more, its free in!

Tomorrow night is the biggie – electronica/jazz pianist Bugge Wesseltoft is set to perform a UK exclusive solo gig at Band on the Wall – having already cemented his place at the top of the pile as king of contemporary jazz, he’s also worked with techno producers Laurent Garnier and, more recently, releasing a collaboration LP with Henrik Schwarz, including a knockout set at the Red Bull Music Academy. A unique music journey through downtempo, techno and jazz, the music of James Blake, for example, owes a lot to his work.

Friday night sees Greg Wilson return for an extremely rare Reels of Steel set – the disco edit pioneer is putting on a full A/V show utilising vintage reel-to-reel tape recorders. Sounds nuts..but it really works. Click the links below for more info.

Patterns & The Louche F.C

Bugge Wesseltoft

Greg Wilson presents Reels of Steel

Its going to be a big one this week in Manchester – there’s some epic gigs on in this city.

Kicking off with what has to be ‘band on the moment’, Submotion Orchestra on Monday. My ears pricked up the first time I heard them, largely due to them being signed to Exceptional Records, home to what was one of my favourite deep house producers, the brilliant duo that was Plej (sadly, they’re no longer making music). Submotion Orchestra mix various styles of downtempo electronica and have clear roots in jazz and soul disciplines, yet their live shows are by all accounts almost a full-on club experience. They’re playing as part of the Hit&Run DnB clubnight, so It’ll be interesting to see how they work it. I personally can’t wait to see them live.

Tuesday brings us the return of the mighty Plaid – figureheads of the Warp Records IDM scene, they’re playing Sound Control in support of their brand new LP. The last time they played Manchester, at Victoria Baths as part of the FutureEverything digital arts and music festival they utterly smashed it – an unmissable gig this.

On Thursday I suggest you get down to Joshua Brookes for arguably Manchester’s hottest new clubnight, Chow Down – featuring two of the finest UK Funky producers around today – the now superstar of the genre that is Joy Orbison (last time I saw him was 2 years ago at Band on the Wall playing to about 30 people, so this will be an interesting one), plus support from the ‘next big thing’, the Mancunian rising star and Martin Blackdown‘s latest signing to Keysound Records, Damu, who will be performing a full live A/V set. Can’t wait.

Well, thats one hell of a week to look forward to. See you down the front. Click the links below for more info:

Hit&Run presents Submotion Orchestra

WotGodForgot presents Plaid

Chow Down presents Joy Orbison / Damu

Check out this song by Lana Del Rey – her voice is jaw-dropping. There’s a real tragic, tortured beauty there.

Video Games is out on October 16th on digital and limited edition 7″.

Manchester based experimental/world label Finders Keepers (Twisted Nerve/B-Music) was one of many indies to be severely hit by the fire in the PIAS distribution warehouse as a result of recent rioting and general cunty behaviour by some of this nations youth.

Rather than feeling sorry for themselves, FK have announced the ‘Made Do & Mend’ series of compilation CDs. Each disc costs a fiver and features a selection of the Finders Keepers/Twisted Nerve back catalogue as chosen by some of their favourite artists. The first disc has been compiled by Jarvis Cocker and is out now. Future releases will include tracks chosen by Gruff Rhys and Manchester noise outfit Demdike Stare.

For more info, check out the Finders Keepers website by clicking here.

Thankyou ITV. Thankyou Simon Cowell, and thankyou to the millions who phoned in. To everyone who voted, everyone who felt the urge to help one young girl reach her lifelong dream of becoming a popstar. To each and every one of you……..you’re a cunt.

[edit...]

Here was a video of Cher Lloy’s new video Swagger Jagger. I’ve taken it down in an effort to do my bit to save humanity. This video is like The Ring. if you watch it, you’ll die.

The Great British institution that was the National Rail cuppa is a memory that few people in this country will forget, and for all the wrong reasons. Well the rather marvellous Leeds-based post rock group ILikeTrains are trying to correct that. Like British Sea Power (British Tea Power) and Mr. Scruff (Fancy A Brew?) before them, ILikeTrains are embracing our new found love for the national drink.

Celebrating the launch of their new single Sirens tonight at the Leeds Brudenell Social Club, ILikeTrains new line of tea (and a rather nice mug to go with it) will be available at the gig, and you’ll also be able to buy it online from their website as of tomorrow.

Milk, one sugar please boys.

Purchase ILtea by clicking here now.

10 minutes from fridge to plate. So easy I’m not even going to bother telling you how to do it. Infusing your own olive oil is one of the cheapest, easiest and damn right most delicious things you can ever do.

Sole has become one of Manchester’s most talked about new restaurants having opened up in a quiet back street of the Northern Quarter a few months ago. Big things have been said about this small place, so I was very excited about trying it out. Even more so as it was my birthday. Well, did it live up to such high expectations? Short answer: no. Long answer: keep on reading.

The rather bizarre experience began the week before we even walked through the front door. Having booked a table for 11, I was emailed a menu and asked to get everyone’s order before we arrived. A bit of a pain, sure, but with there being a large group of us I could sort of understand this, if they didn’t want to run out of anything. Fair enough. I spent the next week chasing people, only to be told the day before we were due to dine that the menu had changed and I’d wasted my time hassling my friends over razor clams. Not cool.

Now, on to the meal itself. Most of us opted for the grazing menu – which is a very keenly priced selection of dishes that each go for around the £6 mark – order two each and you’re nicely full. “#fishytapas” we called it. The food frankly didn’t live up to the hype and rave reviews that I’ve been hearing about. I ordered two dishes – mussles and chilli prawns. The mussles, while tasty weren’t anything particularly special and the waiting staff didn’t bring an extra bowl for the shells or lemon water to wash our hands with when done. This being a seafood restaurant you’d think they’d remember that. The chilli prawns they actually completely forgot about until I reminded the waiter, and when they did arrive were quite overcooked and had an overwhelming taste of burnt garlic. Now, for £6 a place I’m not going to argue too much as it does represent good value but considering the image of contemporary fine dining this restaurant is trying to create, the food just wasn’t up to scratch by a long way. If anything it was comparable to pretty decent home cooked suppers. Okay, but nothing too memorable.

Average food at a decent price is fine if the atmosphere and service are something to savour though, but sadly for Sole this is where things get a bit worse. They forgot the wine, forgot one of my dishes and then tried to charge us £12 for bread we didn’t order and were told was complimentary. Add to that the rather sterile atmosphere and surly waiting staff, and I probably won’t be returning in a hurry. I still had a great evening, but this was down to the company, and sadly not the food.

Food 6/10

Service 3/10

A delicious Spanish inspired dish that  is absolutely marvellous. Gorgeous slowly cooked smokey sausage with a big punch of chilli that goes great with the deep flavour of the garlic and sweet red onions and tomatoes. Served with crispy sautéed potatoes and slices of olive ciabatta, toasted and topped with home made garlic and parsley butter. I had a nice glass of full bodied Spanish Tempranillo with it – beyond gorgeous. Tempranillo is a great wine to serve with rustic spicy dishes like this. Its robust, smokey yet sweet and stands up to strong flavours, and is low in tannins.

My previous post highlighted how to make your own pasta. Well, here’s how to make something from that. Lasagne!

Serves 4

You’ll need:

• 400g minced beef
• 1 tin of good quality canned tomatoes
• 1tbsp tomato puree
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 onion
• oregano
• 1 glass of red wine
• splash of worcester sauce
• glug of olive oil
• beef stock [or a stock cube -  I use Knorr stock pots if I don't have any home made stock to hand]
• butter
• flour
• milk
• parmesan cheese

Start by adding the beef to a hot pan with a glug of olive oil. Fry off until it starts to brown. Add the chopped onions and fry for 5 mins, or until the onions start to brown. Add chopped garlic and fry for another 5 mins. Deglaze with red wine and add tomato puree. Cook for a minute or two and add the canned tomatoes [remember to swish out the can with a splash of water and add to the sauce for extra tomatoey-ness!]. Add a splash or worcester sauce and season with black pepper. Add the beef stock. Stir, cover and cook on a low heat for 2 hours, stirring every 30 mins and adding water if needed. Seriously, the longer you leave it the better it gets, so no rushing this, ok?

While thats cooking, you can make the white sauce. Start by melting some butter in a pan and adding an equal amount of flour. Cook the roux for a couple of minutes and slowly add milk, whisking constantly. Keep doing this until you have a thick sauce that coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and melt in a handful of grated strong cheese [A comte, gruyere or even a vintage cheddar is good].

Now to assemble the lasagne. In a large baking dish place your home made pasta sheets, covered by a layer of the meat sauce, then a layer of the white sauce. Repeat until the dish is almost full. Finally sprinkle generously with grated parmesan and place in a preheated 200 degree oven for about 20 mins or until the top is golden brown. Leave to stand for about 10 mins [make the salad!] then dig in. And have seconds.

I can’t believe I haven’t actually posted a pasta recipe before. Maybe because its the easiest thing in the world to make. Home made pasta is so quick and so delicious that I don’t understand why more people don’t make it in this country. From cupboard to plate, including the cleaning its quicker than shop bought as well. Anyway, let’s crack on:

You’ll need:

• 1 egg [Fresh, free range organic eggs are of course best. I get mine from a friend of the family who keeps chickens ]
• 100g ’00′ flour [Normal flour will of course work as well, but get 00 'tipo' flour if you can. It also rocks for making pizza. Its very easy to find in Italian delis and higher end supermarkets].

Thats it – end of ingredients list. Easy, eh? Basically crack the egg into a bowl with the flour, mix with a fork, knead onto a flat surface and roll out with a rolling pin. Forget pasta machines, they’re not worth the faffing around. And you’ll never see a proper Italian Mamma using one of those.

Cut into shaped of your choice and cook in boiling heavily salted water [we didn't season the pasta, remember] for 3-4 minutes. Serve with any sauce you like!

I’m not one for following recipes. Its not that I’m a snob or have a mad amount of confidence in my own culinary genius [I'll leave that for others to decide], its just that I like to play around and make things up myself, I own a grand total of two cookery books and frankly I can’t be arsed reading instructions. So, as a little experiment I decided I was going to follow a recipe, to the letter, and see what happened. I had some chicken thighs in the fridge and fancied making a pie so I cracked open Heston Blumenthal’s delicious sounding recipe for chicken pie.

The result, after a lot [and I mean a lot] of faffing around all evening was pretty good. Personally I’d half the amount of mushrooms and leeks that the recipe instructs though – they overpowered the dish. I’d also be tempted to add a bit of cheese into the sauce for extra deliciousness. Everyone loves cheese. Basically, next time I’ll stick to my own recipe. Sorry Heston. Close, but no banana.

N.B – His method of ‘low and slow’ cooking of the meat does produce really tender and tasty chicken though. What a G.

The Marble Arch pub on Rochdale Rd, just on the fringes of Manchester’s Northern Quarter is a real institution. Famous for its artisan real ales and onsite brewery as much as its drop dead gorgeous Victorian architecture, the pub also boasts an impressive food menu. I’ve been meaning to try the Marble Arch’s fayre for ages now, and now I have I can firmly say that my meal here has to be one of the finest I have tried anywhere in the city (ranging from the delicious cheap eats of the Rice & 3 merchants through to the fine dining experience of Michael Caines @ Abode).

The Marble Arch’s menu is firmly in the best of British tradition – a great selection of timeless classics including full roasts, pies, fish & chips and burgers, as well as an inspired speciality cheese selection. The prices are more on the restaurant end, but completely worth it and, given the quality of ingredients, practically a bargain. I had the rib eye steak and chips, served with grilled mushrooms and tomato and very impressive mushroom and peppercorn sauce. The steak was cooked to utter perfection, the chips were a beautifully golden and crispy, and the sauce was to die for. Everything was clearly made fresly from scratch The sauce in fact was the real star of the show – a complex blend of various kinds of mushrooms, brandy, cream, garlic and no doubt various other ingredients that I’m not aware of. The perfectly cooked simplicity of a dish like this really shows the chef has some serious confidence and ability.

At £16.50 this is on the upper edge of the price bracket for pub grub, but had this been a £30 meal at a formal restaurant I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid – this is the kind of food that puts some of the region’s so-called fine-dining-cum-gastropub institutions to real shame.

I’ve read so many good reviews and been recommended this place by so many people that I finally had to check it out. Going in through the doors of this tandoori Nepalese restaurant is like entering some kind of weird 70s time warp. The dodgy worn hotel style chairs, the ‘We accept travellers cheques’ sticker on the door (what exactly is a travellers cheque? I’ve still yet to figure it out), through to the brown decor, the whole place has a kind of creepy retro vibe. Upon entering, we were given our menus. The only word I can describe these menus as has to be epic. I mean, really, really big. I’ve never seen such a large and bonkers menu. Half the starters, for example are more expensive than most of the mains, and there’s about 6 pages of main courses, most of which sound so similar I was left scratching my head. Anyway, the poppadoms arrived, which was a nice break from the menu browsing, and wow, they were good. Really light, crispy and fresh with a selection of clearly homemade chutneys. A very nice surprise.

We ordered lamb chops, boti kebab, a dry chicken Nepalese curry, a tarka daal, some pilau rice and plain naan bread. The lamb chops were out of this word. So deliciously tender, full of flavour with a warm hit yet very fragrant. Winner. The boti kebab wasn’t frankly much to write home about, sadly. The mains were, again, a mixed bag – the chicken had a gorgeous ginger and onion hum and its charred flavour went well with the gorgeous fresh naan bread. The tarka daal sadly had a powdery texture, I suspect down to not cooking the spices off properly. The food, then, was a bit hit and miss. Great in parts (some of the best lamb chops of any kind I’ve ever had, anywhere) but a letdown in others (iffy daal).

Where this place really comes into its own though is the service. Seriously, I felt like any second a Nepalese Basil Fawlty was about to storm into the dining room, throw us out and kick the waiter up the arse. On one hand the waiter wouldn’t let me take a sip of water without topping up my glass, yet at the same time whipped away a plate of poppadom and chutney from under my nose while I clearly hadn’t finished. They also looked at me with a strange kind of suspicious grin when I wanted to pay by card. None of this annoyed me, I have to say. If anything I found it bizarre and frankly amusing, it kind of added to the strange atmosphere.

Some people rave about this place, and I can see why. I guess if you know what to order, and don’t mind the dodgy service, you can have a great meal. I’ll probably come again and stick to the chargrilled/tandor cooked dishes as this is clearly what they excel at.

The Great Khatmandu is located in West Didsbury, opposite the Metropolitan pub.

I’ve been getting pretty obsessed with sushi recently. Not quite sure why but it really is my favourite food in the world right now. Pretty much the perfect meal. Its packed with flavour, has a kick (Mmmm, wasabi!) and is filling yet healthy! Definitely good karma food.

Manchester has a few decent sushi outlets (Wasabi, Samsi, Out of the Blue) but here’s the lowdown on how to make it yourself. Now, this is one of those tasks that is a bit tricky first time round but is pretty easy to get the hang of.

You’ll need:

• Sushi rice
• Nori seaweed
• Rice vinegar, sugar and salt (or ready prepared sushi rice seasoning)
• Wasabi
• Bamboo rolling mat
• Soy sauce & pickled ginger (to serve)
• Fillings of your choice
• Water