Hey! Alphaville ft. Tulpa, Big Other and more

Event information

We welcome Tulpa to Kamera for this all-dayer in collaboration with Alphaville – featuring seven bands!

Tulpa are very new: nothing has been released up until now, not even a digital single. Despite this, they attracted the attention of Marc Riley & Gideon Coe, who invited the band to record a live BBC 6 Music session this summer. Around the same time, Skep Wax Records were sent the finished album, Monster Of The Week, and knew they had to release it. Meanwhile, in the creative hotbeds of the UK’s DIY festivals and indie venues Tulpa are quickly gathering a loyal following. They have recently supported Throwing Muses, Pale Blue Eyes and Bug Club and will be playing a series of headline gigs in October and November 2025.

This album has some of the same qualities. A whole set of loud, catchy, perfectly-crafted pop songs have been conjured into existence – and want to be part of your life. Josie’s hyper-melodic lead vocals are cool and crystalline – but the lyrics are warm and human. The twin guitars create a sonic mesh, a web of textures that traps you, whether you like it or not. And yes, something scarier does lie below the surface. Occasionally the guitars force their way to the front, furious and intense. And sometimes those lyrics aren’t as innocent as they first appear. The danger, just below the surface of the songs, is maybe that’s what makes this album so arresting…

First single Let’s Make A Tulpa! is an upbeat crunchy pop song that explodes into a huge chorus, somewhat in a Breeders vein, that will encourage sober people to throw themselves around their living rooms. Psyops is gentler, but spooky and equally compelling, with echoes of Yo La Tengo: hypnotic in the extreme. Amateur Hour is a lilting, gentle confessional. By contrast, Raw Nerve is all frenzied guitars, and may remind seasoned listeners of the spiky excitement of Josef K.

Tulpa consist of Josie Kirk (vocals, bass), Daniel Hyndman (guitar), Myles Kirk (guitar) and Mike Ainsley (Drums), and are based in Leeds. Daniel was lead guitarist and songwriter in esteemed post-punk band Mush. Tulpa are nothing like Mush, and yet… all the energy, ambition and inventiveness of that earlier group are still here: it’s just that the creative power has been diverted into the service of a set of pop songs: songs that are in love with melody. Josie Kirk’s irresistible vocal delivery seals the deal. This is a very exciting new band.

Joining Tulpa are Big Other. Big Other are an alternative indie rock band from Manchester who take inspiration from Sonic Youth, the Pixies, Veruca Salt and Fugazi. Their sound has been described by reviewers as ‘screeching and sprawling … with compelling and quick-witted lyrics’ and ‘a gripping wall of sound’.

Also on the bill are Oh Hippo. Oh Hippo invites you to sit down, sway a little, and have a couple of beers babe, you deserve it. They are a five-piece indie pop number made up of members of Precious Metals, Ether Mech, Flesh Couch, Blue Screen and Guys Eyes, full of soaring vocal harmonies, smooth basslines, and a subtle undercurrent of anxious dissonance. Come have a beautiful time.

They will be joined by Tigers & Flies, who make ‘incompetent pop for competent people’, Captain Starlet, who released their eponymous debut album earlier this year, Manchester-based alt-rock group Rollups and brand new band DDHP (FFO The Replacements, Pixies and The Rentals) for this all-day event, running from 3pm until 11pm.

Kamera is the brand new venue upstairs at Lloyd & Platt (formerly The Lloyd’s) in Chorlton – by the team behind the Castle Hotel and Gullivers.