Shannah is a Northern, self-proclaimed bedroom artist who most people know as a professional dancer. She has written and released music reflective of her lockdown experience that many can relate to. By taking the leap from dancer-singer during this time, Shannah has had an amazing response to her tunes after keeping her voice quiet for (too!) long. We look forward to hearing what Shannah continues to make in lockdown and beyond’ Both of your songs have been released during lockdown, was that intentional? I wrote and recorded a couple of songs last year, but out of fear I just never released them so I think now having so much time think, I ended up thinking I should invest time in doing it

The Streets have shared a new documentary on the making of their upcoming mixtape. The 20-minute film features footage of the creation of new collaboration-based tape ‘None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Life Alive’, which comes out in July. The Album sees Mike Skinner collaborating with the likes of Tame Impala, Slowthai, Jesse James Solomun and IDLES. In the opening moments of the documentary Skinner is quoted in saying "collabs and features and that can be a tricky buisness, sessions are a mixture of silence, apprehension boredom, blasts of uncontainable creativity and chatting shit. In this mixtape something happened, I called it None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Life Alive." The Mixtape

The North Brewing Co have just dropped their latest collaboration with Laura Wellington, In Good Company project. #Beerforthepeople is a session IPA brewed to celebrate #Posterforthepeople featuring Morag Myercough art fuelled thanks for our keyworkers. 50% of the proceeds made from every beer sold will go to Mind and Blurt Foundation to support Mental Health during Covid19. On their site they explained their decision to make the beer, stating "we have teamed up with 10 breweries across the UK to buy the NHS a pint: Add a "pint" to your shopping basket and we'll stick one behind the bar at our taproom when we reopen for any NHS workers and volunteers to claim. A 20% NHS discount available

We find ourselves at a time where the boundaries of pop music are being pushed. Artists like Charli XCX and Grimes are creating brand new avenues for the genre to explore, with many artists sure to follow suit in the coming years following their success. Even more commercial artists like Dua Lipa and Carly Rae Jepsen are shifting away from the EDM and trap stylings which dominated the charts in the 2010s - Dua Lipa in particular trading them in for a more groove based funk-pop sound. An artist who seems to be carving out her own lane entirely though, is Rina Sawayama. Her debut album, released on Dirty Hit Records, showcases a unique ability to borrow tendencies from various pockets of pop m

To The Local are hosting For The Local Fest #1, an online festival on Friday 5th June featuring some fantastic local artists to raise money for the NHS and for local independent venues. The lineup includes the likes of The Covasettes, ALLORA, The Loose Cut and Bull, with the festival being streamed on YouTube from 3pm. A PayPal option will be made available throughout #ForTheLocal next Friday for those who wish to donate, with half of all donations going to the Music Venue Trust’s #SaveOurVenues campaign, and half to our wonderful NHS. Grassroots venues in the UK are threatened by immediate closure, and your support would mean the world to us, artists, venue owners, and everyone in the gras

Leeds-based electronic artist Lindenbaum Modular has added to his collection of releases this month, with euphoric track C is for Canada. Specializing in modular synth live sets, Lindenbaum Modular has debuted his repertoire at the latest two installments of inner city electronic, experimenting with an expansion of machines and sounds during his sets. C is for Canada showcases this talent even further, being both impressive in production and stylistically very beautiful. Opening with an accumulation of ambient soundscapes that best reflect the experimentation of Four Tet, C is for Canada’s progression gracefully builds into a full-bodied drop, enriched with guitar melodies and rolling drum p

‘Monday’ is the latest release from Portsmouth based 4-piece Crystal Tides, an anthemic indie-rock tune with arena-ready choruses, big-room guitar work and infectious vocal hooks. Following the success of previous single ‘Ex’, the South Coast rockers are keeping their momentum up as they smash through 2020 with another fresh, up and coming track. A true foot tapper, ‘Monday’ showcases the group’s undeniable talent and concreted sound. Leading with powerful vocal delivery over a foundation of characteristically indie bass tones and guitar riffs, ‘Monday’ has everything that you could want from a festival-ready summer hit. Lyrically, Crystal Tides acknowledge that they are not as young as they

IDLES have announced they have a new documentary about the rise of the band and the formation of their fan community, the AF Gang. IDLES have shared the trailer for a new documentary about the band, Don’t Go Gentle. The documentary is available to stream on the AF Gang website from 1 June, titling itself as “a film about finding strength in vulnerability.” The film will only be available for two weeks, released in conjunction with the Bristol band’s new single Mr Motivator. According to the documentary’s description on YouTube, “[Don’t Go Gentle] journeys through IDLES determination, friendship and adversity as they fight for a place in a divided socio-political environment, unexpectedly ins

Three people were arrested after about 200 revellers attended an illegal rave at a protected nature reserve. The rave was held at Kirkstall Valley Nature Reserve in Leeds on Monday night at the start of the week. West Yorkshire Police said people had waded across a section of river to gain access to the reserve, sparking concerns for their safety.A local community group said online" they also disturbed nesting birds and could have trodden on some of the young birds." They want on further to add "we hope fines will have been enforced not just a warning. This is not just breaking lock down. This is breaking the WILDLIFE AND CONSERVATION ACT. We are left heart broken for the likely damage to b

After growing anger has seen the public and tory MPs alike call for the sacking of Cummings over his lockdown trip to Durham, today we saw the government's Chief Special Advisor tell his side of the story. Whilst Cummings will have hoped to end the media flurry which he claims has hounded him over the past few days, it seems he has created more questions than he answered. That Petrol Stop After originally claiming that he hadn’t stopped during his initial journey to Durham or the return, Cummings conceded during questioning from the press that he had stopped at a petrol station to fill up the car tank during the return journey. However, he revealed this with evident reluctance, claiming that

Moby has not had an easy time recently. His career seems to have already peeked – back in the 90s – when the electronica track ‘Go’ reached the coveted No.10 spot in the UK’s official chart. Since then Moby has released two memoirs, in 2016 and 2019, and seen a fair amount of backlash. The Guardian has even gone on to publish an account of the ‘worst moments’ in his 2019 work, Then It Fell Apart. And it’s really no surprise considering the UK-based producer feigned a relationship with a young Natalie Portman – which she entirely discredits – forcing Moby to cancel his book tour. After taking some time away from the public eye, Moby has returned with his 17th studio album, All Visible Objects

South-East London rapper Jesse James Solomon has released a sequel to his first EP Strata, returning with the 6-track collection Bleak - produced by the up-and-coming Kiran Kai. Much like the name, Bleak is both lyrically and visually melancholy - with downtrodden and mellow beats propping up an equally monotone vocal. The EP’s artwork does however, sit nicely alongside 2018 Strata - as both were illustrated by Jesse himself, reflecting on the isolation of London that inspired his writing. In terms of its reception, Bleak has been surprisingly quiet and perhaps under-promoted. Considering the energy surrounding his initial work – most notably his collaborations with Giggs and Sam Wise - the

'There are only really two kings of this music: Dillinja and Calibre. Everything between is us.' - Goldie This week, DRUM&BASSARENA have announced a groundbreaking new documentary that will feature the likes of Roni Size, Total Science, Goldie, and many more. Five years in the making, 'Drum and Bass: The Movement' is set to be the most comprehensive expose of the culture to date, detailing the extensive journey of the genre from the 90s right up to the present. The 80 minute film directed by Bailey Hyatt, will be out on May 25. Check out the trailer:

Supercloud are an exciting three-piece post-punk band hailing from Glasgow – and they’re bursting onto the scene with their debut EP which is set for release this summer. For now, the trio have three impressive singles under their belt, with their latest track ‘Control’ out on May 23. ‘Control’ is defined by a fetching guitar riff, which opens the track and underlies throughout. Paired with aggressive drums and insurgent lyrics to reflect the current state of the world, ‘Control’ is quite a representative track of the band’s ethos — talking about their daily anxieties whilst bringing people together through their music and art. “Control was written after I had a sociology lecture on the Br

In an attempt to aid to revival of Britain's cultural sector, a new Cultural Renewal Taskforce has been established. Representatives from the arts, cultural, and sporting worlds will come together to plan out the ways in which the UKs creative industries can get back on their feet following this period of national lockdown. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said that: "We are determined to do all we can to help our sectors that are such an incredible part of British life in their recovery. The Taskforce is made up of some of the brightest and best from the cultural, sporting and tech worlds. Experts in their fields, they’ll be instrumental in identifying creative ways to get these sectors up a

Resident Advisor recently shared a video of Gerd Janson playing at a social distancing rave in Münster. In what might be the first legal dance party in Europe in months, Gerd Janson played to the small, socially-distanced crowd last night. It is the first known legal rave to have been held in Europe in months, giving a great sense of hope to party-goers all around. The video shows little blocked off circles around the dancefloor, which ravers used to maintain social distancing. Whilst it's certainly miles away from what we know as raving, it is still a truly invigorating video to see people take to the dancefloor once again and be brought together with music . Dr Chris Smith of Cambridge Un

Riding off the success of their last acclaimed single ‘Do Right’, Manchester-born trio Cassia are back with funk-infused tune ‘Drifting’. Featuring a warm, groovy bassline which undercuts a catchy chorus melded with lively percussive stabs, ‘Drifting’ is the perfect summer anthem, guaranteed to incite nostalgic memories of festivals gone by. Its release has been highly anticipated by Cassia’s loyal fanbase, who can’t get enough of the band’s pop-driven indie sound, impressive song writing skills and smooth melodic vocals. Amassing thousands of monthly listeners and the radio support of the legendary Annie Mac, who will be premiering the new single on Friday, Cassia have showcased the beginni

During the lockdown, BabyStep has geared its content towards lifting spirits and staying hopeful for the future. This led to us eventually coining the term 'We Will Dance Again', as a symbol of staying hopeful during these times. We wanted our contributors and readers to engage with the term, so we've therefore decided to announce a T-Shirt competition that asks you to incorporate the words 'We Will Dance Again' into a T-Shirt design. We've been so overwhelmed by the amount of contributions, so to decide our winners we thought we'd involve some of the cities most celebrated Artists to help judge the competition. The winning design will be printed as our next T-Shirt, with all proceeds being

Up until now, organ donation has been an 'opt-in' system, with people required to register if they want to donate. As of today, this system has been reversed to been an 'opt-out' system in which everyone is automatically assumed to be an organ donor, until they request otherwise. This new system is known as 'Max and Keira's Law'. This law is named after two children, after one's organs saved the life of the other. Keria tragically die din a car accident, but her heart was able to be transplanted into Max, saving his life. Keira's family want to dispel the horror stories around organ donation, and to promote education around it in order to save hundreds more lives a year: "We'd like to see ed

Google has recently announced that they are working of a new 'smart braid' technology. By pinching, patting, squeezing, or swiping a fabric cord, users will now be able to control their electronics. Through use of a “helical sensing matrix”, the wires will be able to differentiate between different types of touch, and whether or not the contact it is receiving is a human hand. A series of capacitive and conductive yarns are weaved into the wires which allow this process to occur, and, through machine learning, this technology is believed to offer easier and sleeker control for users of mobile technology. At its current stages, the wire are still in research, and are able to correctly identif