Five of the best acts at Sound City

Image: Liverpool Sound City

Liverpool Sound City is one of the freshest festivals on the circuit, a celebration of music which has always managed to cobble together an excellent cross section of the music scene during each of its previous eight instalments.

Sound City's line up this year is no different, with triumphant local heroes The Coral and debonair dandy Pete Doherty among the litanty of names playing (check our Liverpool Sound City 2016 spotify playlist to get a flavour of what to expect). Unsure where to start? Here's our staff picks for who to check.

Catfish & the Bottlemen

No one quite proves the magic of Sound City than this year's headliners, who got their big break performing at the festival back in 2011. Now they're headline material and will be delivering brand new album The Ride to docklands to dominate the Atlantic Stage on the Saturday, released a day before the festival starts on Friday May 27th.

Among the guaranteed tracks on that LP is '7', which recently got a studio focused video after being premièred to rapturous responses during the band's tour last Autumn.

Jimmy Coultas

Cherie and Renno

Formed from the ashes of former Rough Trade signees Izabo, Charlie and Renno are a Middle Eastern duo bringing supremely off-beat pop to the fore - all centred round a gloriously quirky home made wooden multi-synth viola. You don't find that particular instrumentation the National Curriculum.

Our favourite of their jaunty ditties is 'Let me in', the above video of it showcasing some of the left-field charm the duo bring to their shows. Catch them on the Cargo Stage on Saturday.

JC

Gerd Janson

Having made his Liverpool debut for Freeze in June of last year at The Bombed Out Church, German DJ Gerd Janson did more than live up to his reputation as a sleek and smart house and disco selector. 

Known for holding a residency at Frankfurt’s famed Robert Johnson club, no set of Janson's is ever the same. Not shy of sultry, retro-tinged beats and underground gems, he's the ultimate addition to a summer festival line up. He plays at the Baltic Warehouse on Sunday. 

Becca Frankland

She Drew the Gun

Checking Sound City wouldn't be complete without checking the huge amount of local talent on offer, and our pick of the bunch is pysch-pop four piece She Drew The Gun who hold court in the Tall Ship on Sunday.

The group have supported The Coral and ensnared Glastonbury's Emerging talent competition this year, with recent long player Memories of the Future (above) garnering a great deal of critical acclaim. The lead track from that opus is 'Where I end and you begin' and reflective of the deliriously beautiful music they're all about, a consistent skiddle office staple in recent times.

JC

Novelist

It could be said that Lewisham MC Novelist is breaking code on the grime scene at the moment. He recently lifted the lid on what he's calling 'Ruff Sound' over Rinse FM, a splinter of the increasingly popular genre that merges drum and bass, grime and jungle at a higher tempo than grime. 

If you've been keeping tabs on the XL Recordings staple, you'll know his hook up with dubstep producer Pinch sent ructions through the scene, while recent works with Katy B and Chase & Status have boosted the N-O-V brand massively. He's holding court on the NORTH Stage on the Saturday.

Ben Smith  

Buy Liverpool Sound City tickets via the box below.

Tickets are no longer available for this event