Gene

Gene formed in 1993 and made their debut with the single For The Dead the following year on the indie label Costermonger, which was founded especially for the release by the journalists and authors Keith Cameron and Roy Wilkinson. Limited to 1994 copies, the seven-inch sold out in two days. The band’s debut album, Olympian, followed on 20 March 1995 and quickly became one of the era’s best and most appreciated records – including singles Sleep Well Tonight, Haunted By You and the stately title track – as it reached the UK Top 10. Olympian’s enduring and superior status was recognised when NME took the rare step of revising its opinion of the record, overriding its initial on release review to praise the record in 2011 as they declared the album possessed “a strong and commanding soul.” Further confirmation of this beloved status was demonstrated by the outpouring Gene received when Martin Rossiter and Matt James revisited the album for one Tim Burgess’s Twitter Listening Parties during the 2020 lockdown. Olympian was then included in Burgess’ hardback book which celebrated the best of those global communal listening sessions.

The Slow Readers Club are a Manchester based four piece who specialise in indie electro doom pop. 'Intense, collar tugging urgency is interpreted by the emotions of young lovers, separated by the thin divide of an airport arrivals gate, in a very different way to the stock broker waiting for the bell that closes a dirty day’s trading. Urgency, the sound of sand ebbing through the hour glass to the chaos of an urban rush hour, sums up the music of The Slow Readers Club. In their former incarnation, Omertà, two thirds of The Slow Readers Club line up were loved and lauded by fans and industry figures who saw the same depth in their music as exists in the sounds of Interpol, Nick Cave, Arcade Fire and other contemporaries. The Slow Readers Club maintains these irresistible, crowd-pleasing sensibilities whilst nursing tender hearts.'

Rialto was formed by Louis Eliot and Jonny Bull from the ashes of their previous band Kinky Machine. The duo honed their first album on a 16 track reel to reel machine in Bull's South London flat. Eliot's songs had a narrative bent, mostly describing night time scenarios and Bull drew on his love of The Beach Boys and 60s wall of sound. The group disbanded in 2002 but in April 2023 it was announced that they had reformed.