Cosmosis Festival is still a young festival in the fact that it’s only really just starting to become a more established name in the heavily overcrowded UK festival scene. Mixing a heavy dose of the Psychedelic and Shoegaze with a touch of Electronica, Cosmosis 2016 brought together legendary acts alongside the younger generation in a haze of loud music at Manchester’s Victoria Warehouse. The Warehouse itself proved to be the perfect setting, with darkened eerie looking sections housing live music almost at every turn. Alongside this, the Fire Stage being slightly separate from the other four over in the venue’s hotel lobby provided a nice bit of respite from gloom of the warehouse.

The day kicked off early in the afternoon, and as the punters were still filing in the first couple of bands began to hit the stage. One of these were Black Delta Movement (10/13) who delivered a set worthy of seeing them much higher on the bill. Their loud and energetic breed of Garage Rock did provide the perfect wake up call for everyone looking forward to what was set to be a very long day - showcasing a clear set of core influences for some of the older bands we were expecting later on. The set was helped a brilliant sound - something which thankfully remained consistent throughout the day. At the conclusion of their set we made our first trip over to the Fire Stage in the hotel to check out one of the more local bands, The Watchmakers (4/13). Admittedly, this is a festival containing a majority of Psychedelic/Shoegaze so perhaps unfair to expect too much bounding energy, but The Watchmakers apparent inability to even show any interest hampered the whole performance. It was difficult to work out whether this was a set consisting of several different tracks, or whether it was one long repetitive song. Don’t even get us started on those vocals as well. The very definition of a band trying too hard.

Moving to the tight confines of the Aether Stage for the first time today, we caught another local band. The Slovaks (9/13) injected a bit more energy back in to proceedings, blasting through a eclectic, almost neurotic, sounding set. They were let down by the vocals slightly, which sounded great when the vocalist boomed through like the snarling deeper edge of Rob Halford, but deviating away from that felt both unnecessary and harmful to their general sound. That’s not to say the set itself wasn’t impressive - this band definitely have a bucket-load of potential.

Moving back to the hotel lobby, we caught a band who were definitely one of more interesting acts on the day. Simply named Cabbage (10/13), this is a band who are injecting their local music scene with an idiosyncratic and slightly satirical take on current society. With Punk flowing through their veins they provided one of the more energetic performances on the day, encouraging pits throughout the set and giving the security a mad half hour in which they were tasked to really work for their wages. You got the impression that a lot of those in the room were there out of simple curiosity for their name, but by the end they’d won over the vast majority with several boos ringing out after the band had their sound cut due to going over their allotted time. This is a band whose small cult following in Manchester is unlikely to grow out any further, but this was an incredibly fun set to watch nonetheless.

The Main Stage, or Air Stage we should say, sat dormant in a plume of smoke for the early part of the day, but once it opened it became a fantastic centrepiece for the event as a whole. We mentioned earlier that the sound on the Earth Stage was particularly good, something true of all the stages in fact, but the Air Stage sounded absolutely imperious.

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Our first taste of this came with the brilliant Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats (12/13). This is a band who have unashamedly donned the 1970’s Doom outlook, looking to pick up the mantle from the bands from this era and riff their way in to everyone’s psyche - fair to say, these guys like Black Sabbath a lot. Whilst what they’re playing isn’t necessarily ground-breaking or fresh, they are absolutely captivating. The intelligence in song-writing, heard across their records, hits new highs on the live stage as they cascade through riff after riff after riff, soaring between guitar solos like they’re going out of fashion. The vocals were perhaps the only aspect that let them down a bit, but frankly, with a set time allowing them to let loose, the absolute gold dust shines through when the band unleash in to what feels like an extended jam session you’ve had the privilege of watching. Looking across the day as whole, this was absolutely up there as one of the performances of the day.

A short walk over to the Earth Stage allowed us the opportunity to catch another show of the day contender. Deafheaven (12/13) provided easily the most intense live performance of the festival, and perhaps even this side of 2016. They don’t do anything by half measures - with every single member of the band ploughing through with such ferocity and precision it leaves you genuinely needing a sit down and a breather at the end. They initially seemed so unassuming, but as they grew in to the set the intensity absolutely engulfed everyone in the crowd. If you’ve not heard anything from the band before, they blend incredible proggy/shoegaze soundscapes with violent Black/Death Metal - as insane as it sounds. Vocalist George Clarke becomes this absolutely towering figure, staring deep in to the crowd before throwing himself in to the menacing sounding Black Metal vocals. It feels like it shouldn’t work, but the incredibly neurotic nature of their overall sound makes them a unique leading light in the heavy music world. Highlight of the set came with the track Dream House - an apt name considering the quality of the set.

Heading back over to the Main Stage and to one of the lead selling points for Cosmosis 2016. If you conducted a survey based around the amount of t-shirts you seen for a certain band on the day across the festival then The Brian Jonestown Massacre (8/13) would absolutely have come out on top. A shame then that their performance itself didn’t. The show didn’t get off to a great start, with technical issues meaning a slight delay - not the fault of the band in any way, but when you’ve got someone like Anton Newcombe in your band, unfortunately something like this will end up dampening the performance as a whole. Anton’s the leader in the band, and whilst initially it’s somewhat amusing to watch him cantankerously call the shots on stage, the archaic tension which spreads across the stage did become somewhat tiresome. The frustrating thing is, when they played some of the old school classics the place erupted, but the set list centred around a lot of the newer, more experimental, stuff.

In a complete contrast to the sounds of The Brian Jonestown Massacre, next up for us were the duo making up Sleaford Mods (10/13). Sleaford Mods are made up of simply Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn, one rapping/ranting the other pressing play on his laptop. Literally, Andrew Fearn simply hits play on his musical creations and dances around in the background as Williamson spits his way through vicious rants. They packed out the Earth Stage, with their die-hards taking centre stage, crowd surfing and bouncing around like a bunch of lunatics. It’s a unique performance, one we’d highly recommend checking out if you ever got the chance, but it’s incredibly samey nature can allow your attention to wane.

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On then to the festival’s main event. The Jesus & Mary Chain (10/13) have had more band member changes than letters in the alphabet (probably an exaggeration) but original members Jim and William Reid are in itself a selling point and subsequently the Air Stage was absolutely packed out as they hit the stage. With a massive back drop showcasing the cover of the 1985 classic Psychocandy you can probably guess where they were going with their set list choices. Their dynamic presence on stage is captivating in itself, but as a live performance the whole thing did begin to wane a little bit. After being exposed to a lot of younger, hungrier, bands throughout the day who’d tout these along others as one of their main influences, it just didn’t feel like they’d really hit the nail on the head with this performance. Their cult following is almost legendary, and it did actually feel like a lot of people in the venue had literally just arrived for The Jesus & Mary Chain, but as you know and as we know, these aren’t elements which necessarily lead to a spellbounding live performance - something the band certainly fell short of tonight.

At the same time as these festival headliners, hidden away in the dark Aether Stage upstairs and in the corner of the warehouse, a band called K-X-P(11/13) were mesmerising what was sadly only a handful of people. This Finnish Electronic Rock unit rivalled Deafheaven for the level of intensity in their performance, with the two cloaked and hooded figures taking up their respective seats behind two drum kits looking like Nazgul who’d taken the night off from looking for the Ring. The theatrical, atmospheric, vibe created by the band becomes enhanced by the incredibly loud and powerful beat infused Goth Electronica. The whole live experience pushed them in to being one of the better performances on the day, it was just a shame there wasn’t too many people there to see it.

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Overall then, the organisers for Cosmosis Festival 2016 can be very proud of the event as a whole. They brought together the very best in Psychedelic/Shoegaze/Garage Rock and helped truly establish their name for festival seasons in the future.