News, reviews, features & guides

Corinne Bailey Rae set for Glasgow date - interview

10 Mar 2010

First record you ever bought? A 45 of Prince’s ‘Thieves in the Temple’. I got it from a ‘Boyes’ [bargain department store] in Scarborough. First film you saw that really moved you? E.T. First movie you ever went on a date to? The English…

Polymath drummer Charles Hayward plays CCA, Glasgow

10 Mar 2010

He’s a drummer, but, like jazz percussionist Han Bennink, Can’s Jaki Liebezeit and improvisational drummer Chris Corsano, he’s so much more, as this solo show should prove. 2: He was in This Heat In 1976, Hayward, Charles Bullen and Gareth…

Autechre - Oversteps

10 Mar 2010

(Warp) Manchester duo Autechre haven’t so much been breaking boundaries for the last two decades as searching for them, like two astronauts blasting off into space, charged with finding the edge of the universe. Oversteps, their tenth album, isn’t…

Goldfrapp - Head First

10 Mar 2010

(Mute) Today’s pop charts may be awash with female vocalists and 80s synth-pop, but a decade ago, our prevailing sounds were bloke rock (David Gray) and maudlin MOR (Eva Cassidy). It was onto this bland, unsuspecting landscape that electro-pop siren…

Lourdes

10 Mar 2010

(U) 99min Austrian writer/director Jessica Hausner’s debut feature takes a thoroughly anti-mystical approach to the phenomenon of miracles. The action centres on a pilgrimage made by a group of invalids to the eponymous French city during which a…

The Unwinding Hours

Stereo, Glasgow, Fri 5 March 2010

10 Mar 2010

The pin-drop silence that fell on Stereo at points during this first ever headline show by The Unwinding Hours – the new venture from Craig B. and Iain Cook, formerly of the much-revered Aereogramme – reflected the stock of goodwill the pair amassed…

Lady Gaga

SECC, Glasgow, Mon 1 Mar 2010

10 Mar 2010

Lady Gaga returns to Glasgow (she debuted here opening for Pussycat Dolls last summer) to showcase her very own kink-pop juggernaut, equal parts high-end fashion experiment and ingenious pop alchemy. The sheer stupidity of the scale of this production…

Benni Hemm Hemm plays Glasgow and Edinburgh dates

10 Mar 2010

Perhaps you missed the folksy melodic pop of Benedikt Hermann Hermannsson at this year’s Fence Collective Homegame? No need to beat yourself up – the man (and accompanying band, which can range between three and forty others) better known as Benni Hemm…

Bonobo - Black Sands

10 Mar 2010

(Ninja Tune) Brighton producer, Simon Green brings delicate oriental orchestral arrangements, and lovely big bass-heavy, jazz-tinged melodies, in the lush, Fly-Lo mould.

Cincinatti three-piece Why? set for Glasgow date

10 Mar 2010

Humorously blunt lyrics accompanied by sumptuous melodies, tender harmonies and the occasional hip-hop edge – sound like your cup of tea? Us too. You may care to check out this beardy three-piece from Cincinatti – whose interracial lovelorn rap ballad…

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - The Logic of Chance

10 Mar 2010

(Sunday Best) Like listening to Russell Brand or Simon Amstell rapping about Britain’s flaws, and preaching about safe sex over uninspiring drum & bass beats. Painful polemics. Light years away from ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’s glory.

Exposure: Egyptian Hip Hop

10 Mar 2010

This teenage Mancunian quartet – singer Alex Hewett, guitarists Louis Miller and Nick Delap and drummer Alex Pierce – are at the forefront of the new wave of bands emerging from their city, but don’t expect a history lesson from them. Miller brings us…

Isa & the Filthy Tongues - Dark Passenger

10 Mar 2010

(Neon Tetra) Bunnymen echoes from Isa (real name, Stacey Chavis, from Portland, Oregon) and those Filthy Tongues, including ‘New Town Killers’ used in the Richard Jobson film of the same name.

New Young Pony Club and Is Tropical set for Glasgow King Tut's date

10 Mar 2010

Besides the appeal of a date with kinky-popsters, New Young Pony Club (they of ‘Ice Cream’ fame), the support, Is Tropical, promises an added dose of throbbing electropop. A new London three-piece, they play on whatever instruments they can scrounge off…

Prins Thomas - Prins Thomas

10 Mar 2010

(Full Pupp) The Norwegian space-disco producer’s debut LP is a deeply good mix of rolling krautrock beats, moving away from the Balearic beats he normally makes with fellow Nordy, Lindstrom.

Skinnyman guests at Edinburgh's One Drop night

10 Mar 2010

Initially signing to Talkin’ Loud, his calling card was his debut album Council Estate of Mind, that summed up the reality of city life with sharp rap, grime beats and heavy bass. Describing his own productions as ‘rhythmatic urban poetry’ he…

The Besnard Lakes

10 Mar 2010

‘I think one of the most rock’n’roll things ever done was landing on the moon,’ muses vocalist Olga Goreas of celestial pop voyagers The Besnard Lakes. ‘It was the end to a great decade that produced more than just amazing music and art: it was a…

The Elves and the Shoemaker

10 Mar 2010

An Easter treat for children and young people, courtesy of the Dundee Rep ensemble. This adaptation of the classic Grimm Brothers’ tale, about the penniless shoemaker and his wife who discover an exquisite pair of shoes waiting for them when they wake…

The Scouting Book For Boys

10 Mar 2010

(15) 93min One hazy summer in a sleepy Norfolk holiday park, David (This is England’s Thomas Turgoose) and Emily (Holliday Grainger), constant companions by default of being the only teenagers there, spend the days mucking about under the permissive…

Withered Hand plays Edinburgh Limbo date

10 Mar 2010

Jarvis Cocker recently showed his love of this outstanding Edinburgh-based, quirky alt.folk singer-songwriter, when he played song ‘Providence’ on his BBC6 music show. We’ve been fans of Dan Willson’s flaky, one-liner-laden melodies ever since he…

David Patrick Trio with Bobby Wellins

10 Mar 2010

Bobby Wellins was a unanimously popular choice when he received a Lifetime Recognition award at the Scottish Jazz Awards last year. The Glasgow-born saxophonist has been a major figure on the UK jazz scene since the 60s, and is still going…

Derek Walcott - White Egrets

10 Mar 2010

(Faber) Derek Walcott’s White Egrets was years in the writing, its publication coming after last year’s Poetrygate which resulted in his reputation smeared through allegations of sexual harassment. If there was one way in which Walcott could get the…

Jacques Loussier Trio bring their pioneering crossover sound to Glasgow

City Halls, Glasgow, Sun 21 Mar 2010

10 Mar 2010

Nestling among the classical superstar line-up of pianist Joanna MacGregor, Dutch cellist Pieter Wispelwey and violinist James Ehnes, who appear in Glasgow’s International Classical Season to celebrate the music of JS Bach, there’s a name that doesn’t…

John Warren - Following On

10 Mar 2010

(Fuzzy Moon Records) As the title suggests, this album is drawn from the same 2008 recording session that yielded the excellent Finally Beginning last year, and is every bit as impressive. Like its predecessor, it features Warren’s original…

Nicolas Meier - Journey

10 Mar 2010

(MGP Records) Having produced three fine records on Naim Jazz, London-based Swiss guitarist Nicolas Meier turns to a new label for this highly satisfying album. And ‘album’ it is – in these days of single-track downloads, Meier has opted to create a…