FutureEverything: LoneLady @ Soup Kitchen, Manchester, 26 February

FutureEverything sure has a knack for picking the right venues. On the first night of this year’s edition of the city’s premier tech festival, the austere basement of Northern Quarter eatery Soup Kitchen proves an apt setting for the live return of Julie Campbell a.k.a LoneLady, the Mancunian post-punk songwriter plugging back in after a few years off the grid in support of her upcoming funk-inflected effort Hinterland.

With projections of gas works on the wall behind her in a nod to Hinterland’s post-industrial ruminations, Campbell looks and sounds as sharp as ever, remaining impassive throughout a tightly- wound taster set. Bolstered by her band’s live and electronic percussion, Campbell’s curt and crisp guitar playing punctuates Hinterland’s funky opening rumble Into The Cave before adding playful colour to Bunkerpop’s synthy kraut-rock. An out-of-time drum machine has its way with a wintry interpretation of old track Nerve Up, but five years of fine-tuning has clearly made Campbell’s music an even more impressive machine, capable of carefully controlled six minute jams, like Silvering with its ticking guitar and gunfire drums, along with pacier cuts such as the moody (I Can See) Landscapes.

The greatest applause of the night is reserved for comeback single Groove It Out. As the crowd start to dance and the song winds into its jubilant, soulful stomp with its babbling bass, Campbell summons a rare smile before she reverts to type, crying out during the chiming galloping verses of Mortar Remembers You. LoneLady leaves us with Hinterland’s title track, its looped cello line and snappy snare drums urging us to embrace the fringes of our minds and cities. ‘That’s where I’ll always be,’ Campbell opines, diving into a demented guitar solo to prove the point. On this evidence, that’s only if she wants to be.