CityLife

CityLife Manc Music Awards 2010

Wu Lyf

Manchester music 2010 – how you spoiled us with your infinite pleasures.

But how to remember such a momentous year? No, not by those dodgy Facebook photos (you know the ones), but with CityLife’s Manc Music Awards, celebrating everything glorious from the last 12 months.

David Sue congratulates the winners ... and gives out consolation Matt Cardle CDs to the losers.

BAND OF THE YEAR
Wu Lyf
Well, who else could it have been?
In the year when Manchester’s current music scene was rightly hailed as entering a new, epoch-defining era, one band in particular seemed to embody this restless sense of creativity – and that was Wu Lyf.
Indeed, unlike previous CityLife Band Of The Year recipients (The Heartbreaks, The Courteeners), there was scant trace of north west-hued rock classicism to Wu Lyf.
The Manc four-piece’s key strength was in penning their own sort of otherworldly rock language; a band propelled by an urge to produce constant thought-provoking, original ideas.
Hence their clandestine approach to playing live – Wu Lyf gigs were scarcer than a Wayne Rooney goal, and when the band did play live (at bohemian cafe An Outlet), a tangible sense of ‘Happening’ was felt throughout the city’s music scene.
Hence also the band’s cryptic approach to self-promotion – little information was (and still is) known about their four members, yet the band were never shy of opening up/shutting down various MySpace, Facebook and Tumblr accounts.
Most of all, though, Wu Lyf’s searing creativity was evident in their music. Bloggers and pop critics seemed breathless in their praise of the band’s murky, esoteric psyche-rock textures.
Comparisons of their music veered from Nirvana and Nick Cave to shoegazey bands like My Bloody Valentine.
Ultimately though, those comparisons seemed pointless – Wu Lyf’s songs (and let’s not forget they ARE songwriters, not just arty pranksters) seemed to come from another musical realm; somewhere harrowing, primal and otherworldly.
 It’s safe to say 2011 should throw up even more questions than answers surrounding the band (rumours are that they have signed a deal with Warners, with a debut album to follow in spring).
Naysayers might dismiss their cloak-and-dagger levels of secrecy, but it’s what Wu Lyf chose to say in their rare sightings that makes them special.
And by saying it with such profound levels of creativity, iconoclasm and intense emotion, there can surely be no more deserving winner of CityLife’s Band of 2010.

TRACK OF THE YEAR
Slow Motion Shoes: Brendan Fraser
Despite their name, there was a most breathtaking sense of velocity to Slow Motion Shoes’ rise within Manc music.
Having uploaded one track on to MySpace, the group were instantly drowned in enthusiastic blog reviews, were booked to play high-profile shows at High Voltage, and by October, they were touted as THE big highlight of the In The City music convention.
And all because of that one track, Brendan Fraser, – yes, named after their love of the American actor, rather bizarrely.            
Befitting the spell it weaved over Manchester, Brendan Fraser did possess a most pleasingly hypnotic effect. Dreamy, textured and sumptuously melodic, it took its sonic cues from Pavement, Vampire Weekend and Phil Spector, while fitting in perfectly with Manc music 2010’s sense of innocent abandon and restless creativity.
Another nine tracks of this and Slow Motion Shoes could well have 2011’s most outstanding debut album on their hands.
For now though, let’s just head over to the band’s MySpace page (myspace.com/ slowmotionshoes) and listen to this hypnotic, melodic delight just one more time.

EVENT OF THE YEAR
Un-Convention Factory
What made a decent Manchester gig or festival in 2010?
In all honesty, it was probably the ability to actually remember it.
With the arrival of so many new Manc music festivals over the past 12 months, there was a real danger in all those gigs and bands blurring into one big murky mass and becoming a single Dot To Hungry Pigeons From The Other City.
So hats off then, to Salford’s innovative Un-Convention organisers, who, back in May, resolved to stage an event no-one could ever forget.
A spin-off event from their yearly Salford convention, Un-Convention Factory set out to create a little slice of Manc history by taking over a huge warehouse in Macclesfield, assembling a load of top musicians (including Reverend Soundsystem and The Whip), then attempting to record a whole album in one day (which they did).
Part gig, part industry workshop, and part cool Manc music happening, here was effusive proof of how special Manc music events can be when they dare to be original. 

RECORD LABEL OF THE YEAR
Suffering Jukebox
Considering all the grim talk of the record industry’s current poor fortunes, it takes someone with real idealism and romance to start a new independent label and (most importantly) do it properly.
In 2010, Manchester’s Suffering Jukebox was surely that label. Run by Jack Cooper, the singer in Manc outfit Mazes, Suffering Jukebox firmly fulfilled those lofty criteria set by all the great British indie labels: to take the listener by the hand and lead them on an unfamiliar yet ultimately rewarding journey of alternative music’s furthest fringes.
Suffering Jukebox’s outstanding releases ranged from Wigan garage-rockers Brown Brogues to the melodic pop of Manchester’s Milk Maid and California art-rocker Colleen Green (which were all released on tape, naturally).
Ignore the doom-mongers; the spirit of British indie record labels is alive, kicking and being neatly packaged in a hand-designed cassette tape courtesy of Suffering Jukebox.

HERO OF THE YEAR
Soft Priest
As DJ and label boss of Manc indie label Akoustik Anarkhy, the venerable Soft Priest – aka Charles Bayley – has been commanding quiet worship for the best part of a decade.
In 2010, though, Manc audiences had even more reason to pledge their faith when Bayley released his long-awaited debut album Enjoying Moths, a bewitching collection of retro synth-pop majesty.
Bayley’s achievements can’t be emphasised enough; suffering from a rare and incurable form of heart cancer, he recorded the album at his Stockport home between cancer treatments, literally dragging himself out of bed in order to complete his magnum opus.
Enjoying Moths was a brave, astonishing album on multiple levels, but purely for us Manc music fans, here was further proof of why Soft Priest is our city’s greatest unsung musical hero.