Sounds From The Other City 2025
- Will Maull
- May 15
- 5 min read
There’s something about Salford that gets under your skin. It’s not glossy like Manchester. It’s rougher around the edges, with the kind of soul that doesn’t shout, but hums deep in your bones.
This was my first time at Sounds from the Other City and a wonderful introduction to a few venues I’ve never been to before. I don’t often get to our sister city, Salford and this festival was an excellent resource for discovering new music and artists.
Of all the venues that make up the wonderful programming of SFTOC I’d only ever been to one before, The White Hotel. Amateur geography enthusiasts can see why, it’s far out from the rest of the venues and closer to Manchester City Centre, no wonder then that we didn’t make the trek this time considering there were 14(!!!) other venues to check out in close proximity to each other.
We started off at venue no.1 on the SFTOC guide, Peel Hall for the wonderful Gwenno. I was expecting to see them with a full band but it wasn’t a disappointment to find her singing solo and playing her own piano accompaniment. She has a fantastic voice, winding through melodies in English, Welsh and Cornish. It was a great way to ease into the day’s programming and I look forward to seeing her in the future with her full band.
We took a look around The Green outside Peel Hall, this seemed to be the heart of the festival and it’s where I first noticed all the party hats and a massive birthday cake. This is, of course, because SFTOC is celebrating its 20th birthday in 2025! I seem to have a habit of being late to the party for so many amazing events and I’ll be sure to be back for birthday 21!
After soaking in the summer atmosphere on the green, we made our way down Chapel Street towards Bexley Square where we heard the energy was more focused on dance music. On the way, we got to see The Old Pint Pot. We’d heard tell that this was a fantastic pub and it really is! It’s on the water and amidst a patch of forest which makes a welcome respite. As a venue, it was definitely a tight squeeze (that's why there was no footage) but we enjoyed being part of the support that had shown up for the acts there. It was clearly a community driven event.
We passed St Philips Church which we would revisit later for Tara Lily. She was excellent, a one woman show using beat pads and a keyboard controller. The church was an excellent match for her spiritual performance. It did feel a bit weird buying and drinking a tinnie in the church but that’s nothing a few Hail Mary's won’t solve! What might be more a more difficult sin to purge is when I heard someone ask a steward which artists were on the schedule and they recommended taking a look at the banner outside and I interjected with “It’s DJ Saint Philip on next”. Didn’t get a laugh, that one...
Bexley Square was definitely my favourite area of the festival. There were decks in the actual square, Crop Radio had a takeover in Porta and there was also a packed out rave all day in The New Oxford. Samuri and Chunky would go on to dominate the square later in the day but before that we met up with some new friends of Acid Rain, Galgish, Linge, Twin Complex and thisvibrantbody.
You can check out our interviews and footage from the gigs in our long form video!
As you’ll see, both of those sets went OFF. The pub was filled to capacity (much to the annoyance of a few regulars who definitely weren’t into the dance scene!) and they were probably the highlight of my day. We’ll be holding Galgish and Ligne to their promise of a Parisian music scene tour!
Shout out to this vibrantbody for that bouncy remix of "Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance, I had sudden flashbacks to a younger and angstier version of myself and something tells me we’ll be seeing Twin Complex and thisvibrantbody in future collaborations…
We found time in our busy schedule to check out Islington Mill which I think was an excellent microcosm of what SFTOC does so well, taking spaces that you wouldn’t expect to house a venue and exceeding any expectations as to what could be done there. The Mill courtyard featured a balcony that looked perfect for a morning smoke and turned it into a stage. When we arrived it was occupied by none other than Metrodome peddling his usual quality performance. We arrived just too late to catch the Moth Sluts who were on our list but we did get a chance to chat with them (they were lovely and surprisingly approachable for a made-up, blacked out punk band) and it brought into perspective the variety of music available.
Using Bexley Square as our basecamp, we were flung straight back into the bass as Chunky B2B Samurai hit the decks — hard, fast, and absolutely classic. It was electric. The crowd was buzzing, they were buzzing, and the vibes were sky high. Their set carried a strong Free Palestine message (as they should), and they didn’t let up as the sun dipped behind the buildings, bathing everything in that golden, end-of-day glow. It was fantastic — full of energy, purpose, and exactly the kind of refresh Salford does best.
Our penultimate act of the one day festival was Grove x Toya x TaliaBle. It was a sublimely aggressive and heavy affair complete with dancers which I wasn’t expecting! We love TaliaBle, we got the chance to speak with them at last year’s Fairplay festival and I will never willingly miss the chance to see them live. I was first in the queue for the “stop TaliaBle getting to the back of the crowd moshpit game” and I have the rolled ankle to prove it!
Our last act of a long day were the Trance Fairies, it was a final test of our endurance to be part of such a hard set at the end of a long day but we went out with a bang and that set continued long after we tapped out! AYDJ and Princess Elf Bar absolutely brought the cunty beats out and I’ll be checking out another gig of there’s ASAP. I absolutely LOVE Trance, yet I find it super difficult to find it in the city!? Their set was a beautiful, uplifting end that I did not want to stop. I think we could bond over a love of disposable vapes…
But it’s not just about one weekend of magic anymore. In 2023, the team behind the festival did something clever — they formed From The Other, a year-round social enterprise that keeps the ethos of SFTOC burning. It’s all about giving underrepresented artists the platform they deserve. It’s experimental, it’s community-driven, and it doesn’t wait around for permission.
Thanks to Sounds From The Other City for having us! Thanks to the old friends we ran into throughout the day and thanks to all the new friends we made! We’ll see you next year.
And as always… See you at the front!
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