Sat 28th June, Fuel, Withington, 8pm, £4

EYES come from Chicago and make glorious music for dancing that straddles the vibes of Ariel Pink and HEALTH. The type of band people might lie about having seen first time round once they make the cover of Plan B. You know, if they felt so inclined.

Skitanja, in spite of what the poster says, are actually from Bournemouth. They make scrappy, electronic bleep party pop music with guitar.

Shiu-Yeung Hui is the Chinese member of Japanese group Maher Shalal Hash Baz. He drinks quite a lot of neat vodka then takes to the stage to perform his wonderful, fractured, miniature songs using guitar and keyboard. An exercise in patience, an audience with Shiu pays off massively.

Elapse O are a death disco unit from Oxford. Imagine swimming the butterfly through a load of broken Swans LPs. That's what they sound like. Dig.

SPECTRE FOLK (Pete Nolan of Magik Markers) + JON COLLIN + NEIL BURRELL

It's extremely appropriate that Magik Markers' drummer Pete Nolan is currently in the country to play with Jandek in London (which is how this gig came about, coincidentally).
Because his solo Folk Spectre record on the Woodist label demonstrates a penetrating knowledge of what makes that great Texan loner so amazing. Lo-Fi in the early 90s Shrimper label sense (yes!), the record contains a clutch of fragile, skeletal songs that inspire a depth of relaxation self-help tape manufacturers could only dream of. Of course, we're not talking 'swimming with dolphins' here. It's the constant hum - of tape hiss, mellow feedback, room boom, whatever - that sits beneath these beautiful songs that gives them their dreamlike quality. The name has been switched around to Spectre Folk but the vibrations are the same.
The Folk Spectre record is something truly special and we anticipate this show to be one of the most enthralling of our 2008 calendar.

Here's what Pete's Magik Markers partner Elisa Ambrogio had to say about it all:

"Here drum-dilweed extraordinaire Pete Nolan takes on new dimensions of low-fidelity radness through the Woodsist imprint. The infamous label in charge of releasing other super-jammers such as Axolotl, Loosers and Blues Control, Woodsist put this mother out in the o 7. So many good songs, I don’t know where to start; it’s like Gene Clark in a manhole with Von LMO in Bushwick. This is another artist criminally unappreciated for his solo work, most probably due to his surly manner. Just ‘cause the man don’t hold doors for people doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to build castle bridges of strangeness into the void. LISTEN.
"

www. myspace. com/spectreflux

SAT 17th MAY, 2008, ISLINGTON MILL, SALFORD, 8PM, £5 ticket/£6 door

SCORCES + PLUM SLATE + JACKSON MITCHELL DUO

Over here and out there for their first ever UK tour. The duo of Christina Carter (Charalambides) on guitar/vocals and Heather Leigh Murray (Taurpis Tula) on pedal steel guitar/vocals make music that is heady, physical and timeless. Scorces stop the world spinning and portal the listener to places unknown, unkept and starless. Like Earth, Coil or Gyorgy Ligeti they make music of a certain elemental power... it can do these things.

Order your ticket from www. myspace. com/goldenlabrecords