MANCMADE/// - Acts of Hope — AliveandGigging

MANCMADE///Acts of Hope is an eighteen track compilation album created and curated by Ben Guy from the band narcissus and brought to life by Manchester’s newest record label, 42’s Records, to raise funds for the charity MancSpirit in support of their Creative Change Homeless Project.

Having made a donation following an online appeal, Ben was left cogitating on what more could be done to help from within our city’s creative heart. His lightbulb moment was the idea to compile a fundraising album of tracks donated by some of the great and the good of Manchester’s music scene. Whilst the primary objective was to raise funds, Ben was determined that it should also be a cohesive body of work, featuring a diverse array of talent, at all levels of the Manchester music scene, from bona fide legends through to new artists and including many genres.

Lots of Manc grit and graft later and thanks to support from a wide spectrum of eighteen of the City’s musical and spoken word artists, from the highly influential and legendary, to the relatively unknown and up and coming, Bens vision has been realised.

Brimming with individual native and adopted Manc talent, the album comes packaged in beautifully fitting artwork, designed by the nineteenth artist, local designer and photographer, Paul Evans AKA painted.papillon.smile, referencing classic Mancunian imagery and reshaping it into an iconic package which unites the contents.

This album is for a fantastic cause and if you can support then please do so, I’m not going to do a full review but the standout tracks for me were Exist by IST IST, Camden - Jess Kemp, Oxford Street - Narrow Margin, The Priest -Johnny Marr and Maxine Peake, Sleep - Deja Vega, Never Wanted This - LIINES and Wolves - Brix & The Extricated.

There is something for everyone on this compilation of tracks, techno, rap, spoken word, pop and indie rock giving coverage to a lot of musical genres.

It’s a cracker of an album, lots to listen to and the perfect opportunity to listen to some new bands you may not have heard before.

If you want to get a copy of this then get yourself across to the 42s records online store:

https://42srecords.tmstor.es/

Tracklist

Show Me The Truth - Gaz Whelan and Rosetta feat. Suga Mike
Neighbours - ARGH KID
Exist - IST IST
Camden - Jess Kemp
Oxford Street - Narrow Margin
No-one Talks - Jake Fletcher
The Priest - Johnny Marr and Maxine Peake
Itksuarpok (UNE remix) - UNE (Mark Radcliffe and Paul Langley)
When I Arrived It Was Raining - Diving Station
Piano Sylogtr7 - Rebelski
Sleep - Deja Vega
Wanderlust - James Holt
Never Wanted This - LIINES
302: Come The Revolution - Thieves Will Die! - MANRAy (feat Peter Hook)
Wolves - Brix & The Extricated
Car Crash (Kerbside mix) - Factory Acts
Give Me Some Space - Space Monkeys
Our City - Dave Viney & narcissus

Mancspirit - One hundred percent of sales proceeds from all CD’s, downloads and merchandise will go straight to MancSpirit, Greater Manchester’s Mental Wellbeing Charity to support their ‘Creative Change’ project.

Damian Carr, co-founder, MancSpirit said:

Everything we do is aimed at improving mental wellbeing by creating social connections, providing entertainment and offering people the opportunity to join in, make friends and have fun.
Our ‘Creative Change’ project started with us visiting people struggling with homelessness on the streets, in hostels and day centres, to listen to their needs for creative activity. We create and facilitate that activity to help their mental wellbeing, help them re-engage with the amazing support services out there and, hopefully, help them off the streets and into their own home.
We value those people and organisations that share our vision of caring for others, helping those that help others, getting stuck in and getting things done.
When Ben and 42’s Records offered to support our ‘Creative Change’ project it was exactly what we were about. Greater Manchester’s musicians, artists, writers & designers – Our Creative Community – stepping up, getting involved and taking positive action.
With the arrival of Covid-19 we soon realised that the project needed to be expanded to include other people who had become isolated, especially the elderly.
Every CD, T-shirt or poster you buy provides us with the funds to expand and develop this work across the whole Greater Manchester.

MancMade®️ actively supports and promotes Greater Manchester based creative talent in The Arts, Entertainment and Business, through their social channels (#MancMade), production company, podcasts and MancMade®️ (Mcr) CIC.

Paul Ludden, MancMade®️ founder, co-founder The MancSpirit Charity said:

The MancMade///Acts of Hope album has taken a huge effort from Ben Guy (narcissus), Phil Morris and Andy Wood (42’s Records).
When Andy called me to say they'd like to support the charity by putting togther an album we had a chat about the artists we could approach. From the start it was massively important to me that this album had a fair chunk of new, up and coming artists involved. The eighteen tracks they've come up with absolutely backs that up and they've even managed to get a few Manchester legends involved too.
Our City, by Dave Viney, is especially poignant for both me and Damian. It's been the unofficial anthem for the MancSpirit Charity since day one. Hearing Dave's beautiful words now backed up by an amazing narcissus track sums up everything about this album and everyone who has helped to bring it to life.

If you want to get a copy of this then get yourself across to the 42s records online store:

https://42srecords.tmstor.es/

The socials for the various parties involved are as follows:

https://twitter.com/narcissushq

https://twitter.com/mancmade

https://twitter.com/MancSpirit

https://twitter.com/42_records

https://twitter.com/gazwhelanmusic

https://twitter.com/Rowetta

https://twitter.com/arghkid

https://twitter.com/ististmusic

https://twitter.com/jesskempartist