Manchester artists are sometimes accused of being overly in thrall to their city’s musical heritage, yet this is something Julie Campbell positively embraces on her second album. Into the Cave opens proceedings with a bassline as forebodingly funky as anything A Certain Ratio could muster, whereas Bunkerpop’s mechanical rhythms and icy synths recall Joy Division’s Isolation. Campbell refuses to deal simply in facsimile, though – rather, she uses these reference points knowingly to tell a sonic story about her home city’s post-industrial landscape and mindset. She also experiments, letting these grey-skied influences coalesce with more vibrant sounds, such as on the soulful 80s dance-pop of Groove It Out. The title track is an especially astonishing creation, constructed out of striking cello, scratchy funk riffs and a solo in which Campbell somehow wrangles melody from a seemingly random collection of thrashed-out notes. It proves Campbell is that rare artist: one not just with a singular vision, but also the technical ability to realise it.
