LIVE REVIEW: Sounds From The Other City 2025

It’s 2:34pm on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Salford and the party of the year is just about to get underway. Much-loved new music festival Sounds From The Other City (SFTOC) is just about to kick off the celebrations of its 20th birthday. The day consists of musical and visual performances, talks, screenings, DJ sets and more hosted across 15 unique and unconventional stages, bringing music, people and ideas together in a way that only SFTOC can.

Photo Credit: Lucy Craig

Welsh-Cornish musician Gwenno kicks off proceedings inside the elegant Peel Hall situated at the heart of the university campus. Opening with a brooding array of ballads sang in both Welsh and English, she quickly makes the room, usually a home for lectures and conferences, a place to shine. In this festival exclusive piano set, Gwenno naturally opts for a collection of songs that dive into a wide range of topics; conflict in the Middle East, living in Las Vegas as a teenager, parental relationships, with ‘Dancing On Volcanoes’ seemingly drawing on a number of these themes. ‘Eus Keus?’ provides the ultimate tonic to end the set, a light-hearted sing-along-song inspired by a poem about cheese (yes you read that correct), encourages the crowd to sing back the words in Cornish. In doing so, Gwenno preserves the heartbeat of the Cornish language and gives power to those who aren’t often heard. Gwenno’s views and life experiences pour out of her set and permeate your consciousness, evoking memories you didn’t know you had, ideas you’d never previously considered and draws back the curtain to reveal a world that before you step into the room, you never knew existed.

At the heart of SFTOC is the celebration of diversity and inclusivity. Islington Mill is the architectural symbol of this, playing host to 5 different spaces, each offering up a unique programme. In doing so, the Mill is a space for individuals to freely express themselves, embodying a canvas for which new ideas and progressive thinking splash across it. A community is birthed, and with-it roads forged with each one leading to a different world. In a backroom somewhere in the maze that the Mill has now become, Post-Disco Punk outfit, The Orielles, prepare for a set that will in a few moments time transform the room into an outer-space guitar nirvana.

Beginning their ascent, ‘Sugar Tastes Like Salt’ mixes dreamy astral guitar sounds with tight, but explorative drumming. The room glows and those within it float in accordance with the sonic frequencies flowing from the stage. The set features mainly unreleased songs and like a group of astronauts sent into the depths of space to conduct new and untried experiments, the Halifax gang venture up and down the fretboard, shift across every inch of the drum kit, forcing wider the boundaries in which they operate. The room is gently brought back down to earth under the safety of ‘The Room’, shrouding the crowd in a starry shimmer like being wrapped in a warm blanket the morning after the night before. Playing a set of unreleased, untested songs, The Orielles still succeed in forging their own galaxy at the edge of the universe. They create a space to dream, a space to dance, a space that leaves you on a wave of euphoria.  

Floating out of the mill and back into the heart of Salford, day is slowly turning into night, and attention turns to student bar The Old Pint Pot. Situated by the River Irwell, punters swirl in and out its wooden doors hoping to catch the next best thing. Just after 9 o’clock a band on the cusp of greatness enter the stage. 

Photo Credit: Lucy Craig

In typical fashion Manchester based Westside Cowboy keep the crowd waiting. There’s a buzz in the air, a sense of excitement reserved only for those special bands that come around every few years. ‘I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Love (Until I Met You)’ smashes up the room and serves only to add to the energy of the already feverish crowd. New single ‘Shells’ tentatively creeps into the room, before bursting at the seams of the already jam- packed walls which now serve as the vehicle for which beautiful vocal melodies and jangly guitar sounds reverberate off. With each song, Westside Cowboy demonstrate a maturity whilst still making sure to create space for their playful personalities to shine, lighting up the room in the process. Revelling in the fun of what’s essentially a sold-out hometown show, the gang of four hop into the crowd for one final song: a Mary Wallopers-esque acoustic number which encourages cheers of adulation from the audience. The room transforms from a university bar into a scene from a traditional Irish music night hosted by any one of the many pubs scattered across the length and breadth of Ireland.  

Photo Credit: Lucy Craig

Getting out of The Old Pint Pot takes a while. The room is so packed there’s a wait whilst festival goers fit themselves through the small doors and back out into the real world. This is the beauty of SFTOC, it makes intimate 100 capacity venues feel like worlds of their own. Within them difference is celebrated, the Other is included, and time stops to allow love to shine. While this festival showcases the most new and exciting acts from across the country, SFTOC is much more than that, it’s a perfect example of how community can empower underground culture and sustain the lifeblood of grassroots music venues. 

FESTIVAL GALLERY

Photo Credit: Lucy Craig