Ghostpoet, Band on the Wall, Manchester 26th November 2015 8/10

Live music proved to be a necessary nourishment of the soul last night, and Cumbria's support act Junk Son almost immediately transported me. Their intense, intellectual dark pop matched my mood perfectly, and vocalist Amy Spencer conjured up echoes of Portishead. The groovy rhythms were a bridge to the main act, but alas a section of the audience chose not to surrender to their hypnotic minimalism and instead talked over the music. This gig was sold out, and the anticipation was understandable, coming days after the Mercury Prize announcement. Ghostpoet may have missed out on a victory for the second time, but few amongst this audience could have felt disappointed in the judge's boldness in honouring the boldly original Benjamin Clementine. In fact, his gig in Salford next week is a fund raiser for this very venue.

Ghostpoet may not have been celebrating a win, but he was both marking the end of a UK tour for the third album Shedding Skin, and warming up to support Alt-J in a huge Manchester exhibition centre on Sunday. I was most impressed with his act in a similarly vast tent at Parklife in June, and Obaro Ejimiwe has clearly adapted his stagecraft to reach out to large audiences. Yet, the magic of this particular experience owed much to the intimate space of Band On The Wall. His rapport with the audience stems from a respect and love for fans: for example he came straight into the centre of the  audience after the encore last night to pose for the obligatory selfies. Ghostpoet even made unplanned physical contact with the audience when he fell off the stage at the end of the main set, his fall broken by fans. This demonstrates an evident passion and energy: he spent much of his 90 minute performance dancing, and gesticulating, but chose to the music to speak for itself rather than make conversation between songs.

Much has been made of a departure in the third album towards an indie rock style, away from electronica: The Guardian even described it as 'Radiohead tinged'. There's certainly a greater place for guitars and and synths, alongside minimal beats in the new material, exemplified in Pleasure in Pleather.  Whilst his vocal range is relatively limited, with a low pitch and tendency towards spoken enunciation, Ghostpoet is at pains to emphasise that he is not an MC. This show felt very much a collaborative, band effort: in particular the female vocalist and keyboard player added atmosphere in the tracks such as X Marks The Spot, which in the studio featured Nadine Shah. This was the point last night when the performance really took flight. The material ranged widely over the three albums, yet felt coherent, suggesting that talk of a radical departure in Shedding Skin has been emphasised.

 Ghostpoet's lyrics are often gritty and down to earth, but always sincere: Off Peak Dreams, for example, which closed the main set, tackles the subject of homelessness, whilst he often explores themes of alienation, and even domestic violence. He told the BBC: 'I'm always wary when people describe it as political. I definitely wanted to write lyrics that were socially aware'. His unique, poetic style of delivery also adds to the intensity. Yet, live, the overall effect is surprisingly joyous: there were few moments when the audience remained still, and Ghostpoet's energy, passion, and love were infectious. One of my highlights was That Ring Down The Drain Feeling: not only did the dark sentiment speak to me last night, but its 90's trip hop influence showed a lack of regard for genre boundaries. Ghostpoet is an original, creative blend of styles, which exemplifies the cultural richness and openness of contemporary British indie music showcased at the Mercury Awards.

Set List

• Garden Path
• Better Not Butter
• X Marks The Spot
• Survive It
• That Ring Down The Drain Feeling
• Pleasure in Pleather
• Be Right Back, Moving House
• 12 Deaf
• Shedding Skin
• Yes, I Helped You Pack
• Cold Win
• Sloth Trot
• MSI MUSMID
• Cash and Carry
• Meltdown
• Off Peak Dreams

Encores

• Us Against Whatever
• Liiines

Junk Son (support act)

Of Monsters And Men, Manchester Academy 18th November 2015 9/10

Of Monsters and Men was one of the first groups I came to love, and there was welcome symmetry when I found myself on the rail next to a live music newbie experiencing this magic for the first time. The success of their accessible, folk influenced style was made possible by Mumford and Sons, yet five years later, the Brit's descent into mediocre soft rock means they've fallen out of favour, along with the genre they popularised. Perhaps acknowledging this, Of Monsters and Men has emphasised the stylistic divergence in their second album: Nanna told Rolling Stone: they're 'kind of black and white – they're pretty polar opposite'. Beneath The Skin is certainly darker than My Head Is An Animal, but I don't consider it to be a radical departure musically, and my initial impression was that it lacked the euphoric, memorable melodies of their début. Yet on this first date of their UK tour, the new music sprung into life, and showed their continued relevance.

One difference that is evident in the new album is the increasingly prominent role given to Nanna Bryndis Hilmarsdottir. She leads many of the solo sections, particularly movingly in the contemplative ballad Organs, where she sings: “I should not care but I don’t know how...I take off my face ...but I leave in my heart" as the first encore. Elsewhere, much of their material is chorus driven, and the song structure predicable, with a gradual build up to the climax, though the new album gives a greater balance of mood to this set. The instrumentation is a joy: nine people on stage playing a variety of electric and acoustic instruments including trumpet, trombone, piano, and an array of percussion. An impressive light show, with LEDs arranged into the band's motif at the rear of the stage, adds to the spectacle. Of Monsters and Men owes a debt to the folk traditions and drama of the landscape of Iceland, an influence I can relate to having just returned from two weeks in the Arctic. Another theme in the lyrics is the connection between animals and people: the white outline of a bear decorated the grille of one of their guitar amps.

The five piece Norwegian group Highasakite performs on a slightly less epic scale, but this all too rare example of astute programming led to a warmly attentive reception, in contrast to the usual pervasive chatter during the support act. They were one of my highlights of Green Man 2014, and since then lead Ingrid Helene Havik seems to have gained in confidence vocally and developed her stagecraft. The set list was very similar to last year's though, and I'm impatiently for waiting new material. Like Of Monsters and Men, they combine rousing melodies with quieter, atmospheric moments, and drums are prominent. Ingrid's vocals are idiosyncratic but emotional, and the lyrics are at times odd, but I'd definitely make the effort to see Highasakite in a headline capacity. They embody the joy and freedom of their homeland.

I'd already seen Of Monsters and Men at this venue in 2013, but last night the act felt all the more apt and relevant. The atrocities in Paris at the weekend represented an attack upon happiness: the majority of the 129 victims being murdered during a concert at the Bacalan. Less than two weeks' earlier, Of Monsters and Men had played in Paris. Along Oxford Road in Manchester, the stage at The Ritz was illuminated with the Tricolor for Kurt Vile's gig, but the atmosphere at The Academy was more of escapism, once the rigorous entrance search had been forgotten. The tribute to France here was implicit, but no less powerful in demonstrating that the values of tolerance and self-expression so detested by the terrorists cannot be extinguished. Both bands received an incredibly warm and loving reception from a crowd relieved to be able find a space for pleasure amidst the darkness in the world. Whilst there was a preponderance of new songs, the celebratory spirit reached its climax in the Lakehouse and Little Talks, which became a collective sing along. This gig has led me to re-evaluate Beneath The Skin, and consider  its lack of originality to be less important than the considerable skill of execution. It may not the the type of album to excite Pitchfork, but it's made for the very sort of festivals and mass parties fundamentalists seek to intimidate us into abandoning.

Set List

• Thousand Eyes
• Empire
• King & Lionheart
• Black Water
• Mountain Sound
• Slow Life
• Human
• I Of The Storm
• Backyard
• Crystals
• Hunger
• Wolves Without Teeth
• Lakehouse
• Little Talks
• Six Weeks

Encore

• Organs
• Dirty Paws
• We Sink