“This song is about someone who goes out into the woods to meet their love. But their love never arrives… so they just lie down and die…” As far as introductions go, Marika Hackman has got them nailed. Since the outset, Marika has become more impressive with every step she’s taken. Releasing four EPs before her debut dropped, she’s amassed quite the devoted following, as we soon find out, fighting for space in Manchester’s Night & Day Café.

Sophie Jamieson opens the evening with her melancholic haunt-folk meanderings. At times seeming possessed, she twitches onstage creating spectral soundscapes, with her soft, wavering delivery reminding one of Liz Harris’ solo output as Grouper. At her most desperate and impelling there’s also hints of Angel Olsen. Marika referred to her as ‘spellbinding’, which certainly seems to epitomize Jamieson as she stills and comfortably lulls the growing crowd.

Marika appears onstage like an angelic apparition, with the stage lights reflecting off her tinted blue hair and oversized shirt in a blinding white gleam. When Gigslutz recently had the pleasure of interviewing Marika, she had this to say:

“Playing solo creates a much more intense and intimate show, which I really like. I’m playing the songs how I wrote them, how they were first born into the world. You feel that connection so strongly, so it’s more of an intense experience overall.”

This becomes clear as she plays a stripped-back rendition of ‘Drown’. Often she creates a canvas of sound – through sustaining notes, producing a meditative drone or through swelling reverb on choruses – which she then cuts away from, allowing the dark and light textures of her music to collide. Next she reaches for her baby blue Fender Jaguar and performs ‘Cannibal’. We watch as her thin fingers skilfully work their way up the neck and I stare to the ceiling and notice the dripping. ‘Sticky-hands Hackman’ notes the heat and asks for everybody to get out the party hats as she begins another ‘club-banger’.

During ‘Monday Afternoon’, one of Marika’s earliest Vashti Bunyan inspired songs, one could hear a pin drop… or a pint drop as is the case. It seems the dreamy hush has put the audience into a state of heat-induced hibernation. Marika sings “The air out here is think and I’ve grown thin”, which sure seems fitting as water is soon being passed through the crowd as audience members begin to feel faint. It shows some serious dedication when people feel too transfixed to draw themselves away from Hackman’s inescapable gaze and stunning melodies. Hackman continues with a lounge-like version of standout single ‘Animal Fear’, whilst ‘Claude’s Girl’ and ‘Ophelia’ add to the heavenly haze that has set in.

She then performs a captivating cover of Joanna Newsom’s ‘81’ from her Sugar Blind EP and a chilling, fine-spun interpretation of ‘Skin’. She ends with the revolving acoustica of ‘Cinnamon’, which seems the closest the crowd comes to a sing along. Recently I’ve written so much about Marika, I was worried I might be nearing Hackman ‘overkill’ for this gig. However after her 11^th Manchester show to date I still stand as enamoured as ever, if not more so. And amongst the wilting topknots and the heavy panting I feel the audience would whole-heartedly agree with that as well.

David Weir