Rendezvous In A Manchester Basement

A week ago, the Thursday before Christmas, Chris Massey's Sprechen label celebrated a successful year with an evening of DJs and bands at Yes. Yes is a great venue, situated on Charles Street, a stone's throw from the old Factory offices in one direction and the old BBC Oxford Road studios in the other- but, crucially, relying on none of the nostalgia that some parts of Manchester drape themselves in. Yes has a ground floor bar and several gig spaces. In the past few years ACR and Sonic Boom have both played upstairs. Chris held Sprechen's gig in the basement, a room that probably holds a hundred people. Psychederek was on the decks with his bag of comische tunes, followed by Mike Grubert's band Love Letters From Space, a psychedelic space rock four piece. 

Chris' group The Thief Of Time have grown through 2023 and '24. The album, Where Do I Belong?, was one of last year's highlights, a summation of all of Chris' loves and life- clubs, music, comics, cult films, cosmiche synths and mid- 80s electronic indie pop- with some beautiful songs. The Thief Of Time's live outings have included gigs at Yard in Cheetham Hill and in November at The Golden Lion, Todmorden. With each gig, they've taken bigger steps and filled out, the line up expanding to include the leopard skin clad guitarist Mike and now keys/ co- vocals Lady Lady, plus at Yes, vocals from Bay Bryan on one of the songs. 

Chris is centre stage, singing, playing synth drums and keys/ synths. They play the whole of Where Do I Belong?, Imposter Syndrome sounding especially good, the vocal sample kicking things off, 'It was as though I had no place in the world', before the mid 80s New Order gone to Cologne keyboard parts achieve lift off and Bryan's vocals surf on top

The influence of early 80s forward thinking pop, stuff that came out of the post- punk underground and then went pop such as The Human League, is strong, as is the ever present thud of club music and Manchester's past although this is absolutely not a Manchester revival thing in any way. Rendezvous For A Lost World throbs in Moroder- esque fashion with blissed out vocals, the clean lines of 80s sci fi brought to life in a basement in December. After that, there are a trio of new songs which promise that next year for Sprechen will bring more and bigger still (see also the album from Causeway that is scheduled for release early '25). 

Where Do I Belong? can be found to listen to and buy at Bandcamp.