Hey! Manchester promotes gigs by folk, Americana and experimental bands from around the world in Manchester, England. Read more here, see below for our latest shows, check out our previous shows, contact us, or join our mailing list, above.

Upcoming shows: Guadalupe Plata... Will Samson... Ben P Williams with Shimna... Kathryn Williams & Polly Paulusma... Jean-Michel Blais... Gratis: Simeon Walker... Martin Kohlstedt... Kristin Hersh... Lande Hekt... Someone... An Evening with Honeyblood... The Breath... Hania Rani... Ye Vagabonds... Jim Ghedi & Toby Hay... Thomas Truax... Gratis: Wesley Gonzalez... Wreckless Eric... The David Tattersall Group... One Little Atlas... His Lordship... OFF!... BC Camplight... Julie Byrne... Freya Beer... Edwin R. Stevens... Peter Brewis... Smoke Fairies... Lambert... Withered Hand & Darren Hayman... Holy Moly & The Crackers... The Rural Alberta Advantage... The Unthanks in Winter... John Craigie... John Francis Flynn... Junior Brother... Beans on Toast...

When: 7.30pm on Wednesday 26 November
Where: Mint Lounge, 46 Oldham Street, Manchester M4 1LE

Portico Quartet at Mint Lounge, ManchesterPortico Quartet are four young musicians from South London. They describe themselves as an indie band that plays post-jazz, and their unique sound has won them fans from Gilles Peterson to Radio 4 and Notion to BBC Music Magazine, and seen them claim Time Out’s Jazz, Folk and World Music Album of the Year. They were nominated for this year’s Mercury Prize too, impressing with their performance at the award ceremony.

The quartet are Jack Wylie (soprano saxophone), Milo Fitzpatrick (double bass), Nick Mulvey (hang and percussion) and Duncan Bellamy (drums and hang) – and it’s the mix of ethereal saxophone, flying saucer-like hang (imagine an otherworldly steel drum), clattering drums and earthy double-bass that gives their music it’s inimitable, beautiful sound. Their hang-inspired, trance-like repetitive patterns propel the band into stranger pastures than most: invoking memories of Philip Glass and Steve Reich’s gamelan-inspired minimalism.

Their dance-friendly, melodic post-jazz was honed busking across Europe and playing in unusual spaces such as churches and galleries. A weekly session at the South Bank and residency at the Brixton Ritzy earned them a cult following and inspired London’s hippest jazz club, the Vortex, to start a label to release their music. Sessions on XFM and Radio 1 followed and a storming set at the Glastonbury Festival had Q hailing their ‘danceable chamber jazz soundscapes’.

The Times said that they were ‘floating somewhere between jazz and modern classical music’, adding that ‘this young group make a strikingly original sound‘. Allaboutjazz said that their album, Knee Deep In The North Sea, was ‘mellifluous, exuberant and jaunty, full of catchy tunes and strong hooks‘, while Straight No Chaser believed Portico Quartet were ‘like nothing you’ve heard before‘ – ‘a band who make experimental and adventurous music sound wonderfully accessible‘.

Also playing at this special event is Gothenburg’s classical/experimental/ambient one-man-band Library Tapes, whose new album, A Summer Beneath the Trees, was awarded 7.9/10 on Pitchfork. Local support comes from The Hunter/Andreae Quartet, mixing improvisation, cinematic soundscapes and rhythmic melodies.

This is a co-promotion with Freedom Principle.

Tickets from WeGotTickets.com, Ticketline.co.uk, SeeTickets.com, Piccadilly Records on Oldham Street, Zavvi in the Arndale Centre, Ticketline Box Office in St John’s Centre, Liverpool, and on 0161 832 1111.



All shows are 18+ unless otherwise stated.