Made in Manchester: MerchandiseWho: Duo Brad B Wood and Conrad Astley who have shared a love of fusing electronica with acoustica, matching lo-fi vocals, tinkly pianos and jazz riffs with inventive sampling. Bolton born and based Wood takes care of vocals, guitar instruments, bass and production while Manchester based Astley looks after keyboard instruments, sampling and programming.

What to expect: The pair formed a goth band when they first met at York University in 1994, their name is taken from a Fugazi song and their recently released second album, Lo-tech Solutions to Hi-tech Problems, begins with a 1½ minute jazz solo. Safe to say they like a bit of variety. The common thread through their tunes, though, is an idiosyncratic, sunny mix of the stripped-down, plus an exacting use of the variety of instruments, live samples and sounds used. Collaborator Roger Williams’ lyrics give their songs a kind of everyday poetry, and tracks on their album range from joyful to hypnotic to mournful and back again.

The struggle so far: Because the duo use a multitude of instruments, samples and techniques to create their songs, they don’t perform live. “The only way of getting round it would be to change the music completely or play to a backing tape – which neither of us wants to do,” explains Wood. Because they aren’t really part of a scene, the band have received good reviews but “people don’t really know what to do with it. It’s like two strange blokes in a little cottage industry.”

What next: After recent good press, Merchandise have re-released their single ‘Swallowing Curses’, which shows their quirky style and Wood’s simple, worn-velvet vocals off to good effect. Each album has taken four years to make, so it might be a while until the next one. You can see why: “We went to the Isle of Skye to master the CD and I made the guy spend about ten minutes on the silence between the tracks. Then we listened to the album and made him redo practically every one. He used to do all the big EMI stuff – Frankie Goes to Hollywood, The Eurythmics… I don’t think he had as much hassle off them.” Album Lo-tech Solutions to Hi-tech Problems and re-released single Swallowing Curses are out now.

Nicola Mostyn