As NME darted around Manchester’s Northern Quarter last week (October 9-12), it’s clear why this area has become home to Beyond The Music Festival. It’s one of the city’s buzziest spots, teeming with endearingly dingy basements and cozy cafés all within walking distance – the perfect environment for fresh new bands to bust their chops. Well, at least it should be.
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There’s many crises facing the UK music industry right now, but perhaps one of the most frustrating is the deepening North-South divide for new artists. Despite cities like Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool producing some of our most beloved music acts, breaking through as a Northern artist has become increasingly difficult: a report published by Youth Music this year showed a meagre 2 per cent of Northerners having played at a local music venue. Add in a lack of funding, support and music venues dropping like flies, and you have a pretty bleak situation facing new artists in the North.
Fortunately, the music industry is fighting back. With the Northern Music Awards established this year, the MOBOs being held in Newcastle for the first time and labels like NQ and Modern Sky fostering Northern artists, there are efforts to decentralise the music industry outside of the L-word. And Beyond The Music Manchester is part of those taking serious steps to close the divide: with over 200 artists playing this year, a quarter of its lineup hails entirely from the North West.
There’s Manc staples like dance-punkers YAANG, whilst OneDa represents the wave of Manchester rap ushered in by figureheads like Bugzy Malone and Aitch. It’s not just the North West that BTM are committed to supporting; Wales made a strong showing thanks to Welsh-language indie rockers Mellt, whilst Ireland’s PRNCSS brought her otherworldly experimental dance to the 0161.
Read on to find out the 10 best acts NME saw at Beyond The Music 2024:
YAANG
Oliver Duffy (L) and Davey Moore (R) of YAANG perform at Beyond The Music Manchester. Credit: Antonio Ross
There’s something charmingly vintage about YAANG, whose mulleted members don’t look a day over 25 but dress like cowboys from the ’70s. There’s a carefree panache to the Manchester trio; their stuttering drum patterns and loose guitar riffs create one of the most sweaty, visceral performances of the festival.
YAANG are totally unabashed about delighting in the flamboyance of their music. Ending with a bang on ‘Pressure’, guitarist Oliver Duffy windmills his arm maniacally on his guitar, whilst bassist Ben White stomps on his bass and paws at the strings on the ground like a crazed baboon. In the eye of the storm is frontman Davey Moore: yelping into the mic, basking in the chaos they’ve created.
PRNCSS
Zimbabwe-born, Dublin-raised and London-based PRNCSS makes music as multifaceted as her origins. Her unusual rhythms are indebted to the experimental West African electronic collective Nyege Nyege, but then there’s the swagger of old-school M.I.A. in PRNCSS’ performance, too. There’s also hazy trap and grime influences, whilst her reverb-drenched vocals seem to take a leaf out of shoegaze aesthetics.
You can barely make out what she has to say, but PRNCSS makes the crowd shake and move with her addictive beats. Warm and generous with her energy, NME is left dazed and clamouring for more.
Alien Chicks
If Fred Durst was reborn into the leader of a South London, Windmill-obsessed band, then you’d only get halfway close to the weirdness of Alien Chicks. There’s little nu-metal revivalism involved, thankfully: frontman Joe Lindsay might adopt a similar tone to Durst, but their take on art rock is way more diverse.
From awkward 3/4 shuffles to bossa nova lines, Geordie Greep-esque rambles and the pulsing funk thrust of ‘Steve Buscemi’, Alien Chicks are determined to unseat you at every turn. It’s total strangeness, but you suspect that’s exactly the way Alien Chicks want it.
OneDa
OneDa performs at Beyond The Music Manchester (Credit: Lucy Craig)
Fresh off the release of her debut album ‘Formula OneDa’, Manny’s own OneDa is brimming with confidence when NME catches her set. She’s just visited Wigan’s Three Sisters Circuit to try her hand at racing for the first time – and according to her, she smoked the competition.
Harnessing that jubilant energy, the trifecta of OneDa, DJ Jade Jaxon and hypeman Superlative raised the roof at Gulliver’s. Bringing out a remix of ‘Raised’ and rapping for her life, OneDa brought her self-proclaimed pussy power to the audience, proving just how rapidly the Manchester rap scene is evolving right now.
Slate
Cardiff newcomers Slate brought their palpitating, poetic sound to Manchester. We praised the band as “a distinctive and intense new voice in British post-punk” when they dropped second single ‘St Agatha’ – and it’s clear they have much more up their sleeve still to go. Along with the atmospheric, powerful instrumentation, what really stands out about the band is the clarity of Jack Shepherd’s voice, which cuts through the music like a knife in butter.
SlowHandClap
Not much is known about SlowHandClap – their Instagram simply describes them as “Manchester noise”, and their debut single ‘In the Belly’ lives up to that mantra with its relentless buzzing guitars and constant crashes. In person, SlowHandClap play with noise in ways that go beyond just being loud: incorporating the shrieks of their guitars, residual reverberations and crackles, the three-piece conjure up music that balances gentle developing arrangements with urgent, glitching crackles.
Nyah Grace
Nyah Grace performs at Beyond The Music Manchester (Credit: Anna Marsden)
The Oregon-born R&B singer graced the festival to preview some new music, having released her 2020 debut album at just 17. Now, Grace is seemingly stepping back into music – and with her buttery vocals, down-to-earth charm and some dedicated fans who sang all the words to ‘My Sista Told Me’ (ft. Corinne Bailey Rae), NME reckons she’ll be welcomed back with open arms.
Moreish Idols
Whilst their 2023 EP ‘Lock Eyes And Collide’ was lush and atmospheric, South London-based, Cornwall-formed Moreish Idols transformed their music into pulsing, unrelenting post-punk in Manchester. Though their inclusion of saxophone occasionally strays close to contemporaries like Black Country, New Road, the band has carved out their own unique lane thanks to their rushing, sweeping arrangements.
Mellt
Welsh-language group Mellt (“lightning”) hail from Cardiff and brought their sunny indie-rock riffs to Manchester. Having released their debut ‘Dim Dwywaith’ in 2023 which NME hailed as a “fabulous record drawing together college-rock stylings with crisp hooks and ringing guitar leads”, Mellt proved how Welsh-language music is bursting out of its seams and across borders.
Coach Party
Jess Eastwood of Coach Party performs at Beyond The Music Manchester (Credit: Gracie Hall)
Donning Slipknot and Limp Bizkit shirts, the Isle of Wight band brought pop-rock bliss to Manchester. Having released their debut album ‘Killjoy’ in 2023, which NME praised as “catchy and always from the heart”, Coach Party were charmingly raucous and rowdy at the Night And Day Café.
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