Issue 649

Valentine's Day: Restaurants

18 Feb 2010

Love is a many-flavoured thing, and not all couples are looking for the same Valentine’s experience. Donald Reid suggests a handful of choice tables for lovers of all persuasions...

Kelvingrove Kids Fun

18 Feb 2010

If you’re a primary school aged child growing up in the Central Belt, people are falling over themselves to entertain you with fun workshops. Pre-schoolers do increasingly well, too. But when it comes to those tricky teen years, the well of…

Profile: Taz Buckfaster

18 Feb 2010

Name Taz Buckfaster Occupation Glaswegian dubstep rabble rouser. Nice name, you can tell he’s from Glasgow but what does he sound like? ‘Various styles which float around the 140bpm mark,’ explains Buckfaster of his bass heavy productions.

Food Inc addresses western diet debate

18 Feb 2010

A feast for the eyes with new food flicks and local beer makes a comeback. The eye-opening US documentary Food, Inc. opens in the UK on Friday 12 February, with a week-long run at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh and three days at the GFT. Feature-length…

The Golden Hour

18 Feb 2010

The Forest Cafe’s glorious, shambolic and boozy literary cabaret night, hosted as ever by the utterly affable Ryan Van Winkle, gets in on the Edinburgh City of Literature One Book / One City campaign. The theme this year is ‘Carry a Poem’, and readers…

Scottish Chamber Orchestra: Leschenko plays Chopin

18 Feb 2010

Russian pianist Polina Leschenko is just 29 years old, but has played with big name international orchestras throughout the world, including as soloist with the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra at the tender age of eight. Expect fluent, delicate playing…

An award is born!

5 Feb 2010

Yuletide comedy Nativity! starring Martin Freeman and Ashley Jensen has won The List’s Film of the Year Award as part of the fourth annual Richard Attenborough Awards (RAFAs). Confetti director Debbie Issit’s new film pleased our readers so much they…

Cary Grant retrospective heads up impressive Glasgow Film Festival programme

A Career to Remember

3 Feb 2010

Miles Fielder talks to Glasgow Film Festival co-director Allan Hunter about a retrospective of the films of one of Hollywood’s true greats. If old movies are your thing – and they should be, because they rarely do make ‘em like they used to anymore…

A Single Man - Christopher Isherwood and the silver screen

3 Feb 2010

With Tom Ford’s stylish adaptation of A Single Man tipped for Oscar glory, Allan Radcliffe looks into novelist Christopher Isherwood’s enduring relationship with the silver screen. Think of Christopher Isherwood, and the first image that springs to…

John Digweed, Timo Maas and Hot Chip lined up for Musika third birthday

3 Feb 2010

For Derek Martin, promoter of Edinburgh house and electro clubbing brand Musika, the fire which has temporarily put the city’s Liquid Room venue out of action represents an opportunity more than it does a setback. Musika’s residency there wasn’t even…

Mighty Boosh, Todd Solondz and Michael Moore amongst Glasgow Film Festival highlights

3 Feb 2010

Youth Journey of the Childmen: The Mighty Boosh on Tour Documentary look at the genius of the Boosh being screened with Julian Barratt’s short Curtains and a Q&A (tbc) with the cast. GFT, Fri 12 Feb, 8.15pm. Cary Grant Bringing up Baby…

Errors - Come Down With Me

3 Feb 2010

(Rock Action) It’s been a while since a bunch of arty boys from Glasgow made one of the records of the year. But with their second offering Come Down With Me (a title in homage to the Channel 4 dining bitchfest), Errors have done exactly that.

Valentine's Day: Love letters to Glasgow

3 Feb 2010

Dear Glasgow. We love you. We sincerely do. You’ve given so much to us over the years, we felt we just had to say something – as did some of your more well known inhabitants. Here, an assortment of Glasgow's finest list the people, places and things…

Valentine's Day: Gifts

3 Feb 2010

Finding the right gift for your Valentine is a fraught, potentially dangerous experience. Fortunately, The List’s own shopping agony auntie Kirstin Innes is here to help you cut through all the heart-shaped dross and find personalised presents Your…

Valentine's Day: Love letters to Edinburgh

3 Feb 2010

Dear Edinburgh. We love you. We sincerely do. You’ve given so much to us over the years, we felt we just had to say something – as did some of your more well known inhabitants. Here, an assortment of Edinburgh’s finest list the people, places and things…

We Saw You

3 Feb 2010

I Saw You List reader, sending your I Saw Yous into the magazine for 15 years, and making an institution of our ‘missed connections’ service. From the truly foul, to the achingly romantic, to the depressingly desperate there’s a lot of Glasgow and…

Karen’s Unicorn, Metropolitain and Mimi’s Kitchen amongst recent Glasgow and Edinburgh restaurant openings

3 Feb 2010

Karen’s Unicorn 8b Abercromby Place, New Town, 0131 476 2602, £13 (lunch/dinner) Having taken over the running of the long-standing Unicorn Inn at the quieter end of St Stephen Street, Karen’s Unicorn opened a second venue in late 2009 in the prominent…

Valentine's Day: A night at One Devonshire Gardens

3 Feb 2010

I’ve always been suspicious of Valentine’s Day. It’s not that I’m not romantic, I just object to being told how, with what colours, and on what day I ought to be expressing my love. All that pink. All that expense. All that expectation. While I can see…

Backbeat - Stuart Sutcliffe story comes to Citizen's Theatre, Glasgow

And the beat goes on

3 Feb 2010

This season’s major show at the Citizens Theatre is more than just a Beatles biopic. Writer/director Iain Softley explains why to Jonny Ensall

Central Office of Information and Agnes Varda among DVD highlights

DVD boxsets roundup

3 Feb 2010

(15) 116min Director Martin Campbell (GoldenEye, Casino Royale, The Mask of Zorro) returns to the scene of one of his early successes with this feature film adaptation of the 1985 BBC television series that helped make his name. Mel Gibson (in his…

Labels of Love: SL Records

3 Feb 2010

A treasured Edinburgh DIY imprint, SL Records has propagated local and global anti-folk, alt-rock and indie-pop since 1997. With ballboy, Misty’s Big Adventure and Saint Jude’s Infirmary among its dexterous alumni, SL’s current roster spans Withered…

Valentine's Day: Holidays from home

3 Feb 2010

Enjoy some Valentine’s Day decadence without being too irresponsible: book yourself into a central city hotel and you’ll still make it into the office the next morning. We round up some of the V-Day packages on offer The upper-class love in Howard…

Bombay Bicycle Club, The Maccabees, The Big Pink and The Drums set for Shockwaves NME Awards Tour Glasgow date

3 Feb 2010

The latest NME tour brings another collection of bands – Bombay Bicycle Club, The Maccabees, The Big Pink and The Drums – looking to put a modern twist on familiar sounds. With sharp, noisy guitars and quivering vocals all round, the tour harks back to…

Murray Grigor shot-for-shot remake set for Glasgow Short Film Festival

3 Feb 2010

The GFF short film strand contains some of the festival gems, writes Miles Fielder. ‘Short film is something of a catch-all term,’ says Matt Lloyd, co-curator of the Glasgow Short Film Festival and co-founder of Scotland’s independent shorts…

Taking Time: Craft and the Slow Revolution

3 Feb 2010

Warmly welcomed into the exhibition space by Shane Waltener and Cheryl McChesney Jones’ colourful ‘Stepping and Stitching’ you might feel comfortable enough to take a seat and knit or knot a contributory piece to this collaboration between an artist and…

Christine Tobin & Liam Noble revisit Carole King’s Tapestry

3 Feb 2010

Carole King’s 1971 album Tapestry is one of the most successful singer-songwriter albums ever made. It stayed on the US charts for six years after its release, and has sold over 15 million copies. Almost every track is regarded as a classic, whether in…

Limmy and Rab, welcomed onto TV

3 Feb 2010

Are we actually in the midst of a halcyon period for Scottish telly comedy? Or is it easy to get carried away when, to use the vernacular of their main figureheads, two current shows aren’t actually pish. Ringing in the new is Limmy’s Show (BBC2, Mon…

Hot Chip’s Top Tips: Five of Their Favourite Tunes

3 Feb 2010

Hot Chip’s Top Tips: Five of their favourite tunes Joe Goddard ‘Set It Off’ by Strafe This is an 80s electro record produced by Walter Gibbons. It has a great minor key chorus which inspired the bassline for ‘Take It In’ on the new album. Al…

Creative hub Central Station stage Dundee Pop-Up event

3 Feb 2010

Central Station is fast garnering a reputation as the essential online hub for artists, designers and filmmakers to share their work and forge creative partnerships. Now this artistic melting pot is putting together a special one-day event to the City…

Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago

3 Feb 2010

(Matador) Texan indie outfit Shearwater don’t lack ambition, or for that matter, pretension. This album is the final instalment of a triptych of records about ‘environmental and personal decay and humans’ impact on nature’, apparently. How much it…

Sarah Millican

3 Feb 2010

The funniest woman in Britain? If you discount Iris Robinson, then surely there’s no contest. A couple of excellent Fringe shows under her Geordie belt, Ms Millican only started telling jokes in public when she split from her husband. And from there…

Inspiration, stylings and getting bored - Hot Chip interview

1 Feb 2010

Back with an album packed with real instruments, hymns to male friendship and informed by increasingly grown-up personal lives, Hot Chip are maturing into a proper band. Rumour has it that the mighty Hot Chip have gone a bit soft. They’ve never been…

Food, Inc.

1 Feb 2010

(PG) 93min Robert Kenner’s Oscar-nominated documentary seeks to lift the veil surrounding the food industry in America, and to reveal, in the director’s own words, ‘the truth about what we are eating’ – cheap food, it transpires, comes with some…

Invictus

1 Feb 2010

(12A) 133min ‘Rugby is’ as Oscar Wilde noted on behalf of the sane and humane ‘a good occasion for keeping thirty bullies far from the centre of the city.’ Clint Eastwood’s new film Invictus not only invites the bullies back within the city walls but…

Youth in Revolt

1 Feb 2010

(15) 90min Alongside Adventureland star Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Cera has cornered the market over the last few years when it comes to playing the thoughtful, mildly nerdish boy-next-door. Be it in juvenile comedy (Superbad), adolescent angst-drama…

Manic Street Preachers, Paolo Nutini, Enter Shikari and Brett Anderson mark King Tut's 20th birthday

King of clubs

1 Feb 2010

If there’s one thing that every music fan around the nation knows about Glasgow’s King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, it’s that Creation Records’ boss Alan McGee (a Glaswegian himself) first saw Oasis play live there in 1993 and decided to sign them before their…

Vampire Weekend set for Edinburgh and Glasgow dates

1 Feb 2010

Upon the release of their eponymous debut album almost exactly two years ago, it seemed possible to bracket Vampire Weekend as a novelty band. They were four preppy middle class New York kids taking the traditional sounds of impoverished African folk…

Magne F: Alpha Beta

1 Feb 2010

While many people will remember Magne Furuholmen as the keyboardist in 1980s Norwegian band A-ha, few will realise that he has had a concurrent career as an artist, having first exhibited in 1989. This dual vocation has been a large part of his life…

A Single Man

1 Feb 2010

(12A) 99min Tom Ford, the fashion industry’s Dorian Gray, adapts Christopher Isherwood’s spare, lyrical study of alienation and loss for his film debut (as director and screenwriter). A Single Man traces a day in the life of George Falconer…

Toby Paterson: Consensus and Collapse

1 Feb 2010

The fear of knocking over an exhibit – along with mistaking an artwork for a bench or a light switch for a sculpture – is a point of comic reference frequently bandied around in relation to the physical experience of contemporary art galleries. This…

Tinchy Stryder shows in Edinburgh and Glasgow

1 Feb 2010

One of the vanguard of the new British urban scene, Tinchy Stryder (aka Kwasi Danquah) was one of the highest selling artists of 2009. His second album Catch 22 crossed over into the mainstream with hits like ‘You’re Not Alone’, ‘Never Leave You…

First Word: Catherine Czerkawska

1 Feb 2010

Playwright and novelist Catherine Czerkawska’s career has gone from strength to strength since she stopped ‘watering her Dylan Thomas adjectives’. Just don’t ask her if she’s ‘still writing’. Here she reveals her love of Lennon, linen and lace…

Why the Beats & Cubes show is the square root of live electronic music - Etienne de Crecy interview

Square Pusher

1 Feb 2010

Henry Northmore is spellbound by French producer Etienne de Crecy’s new ‘Beats & Cubes’ live show. Etienne de Crecy is an outstanding DJ and producer. Born in Lyon, it was a move to Versailles, where he attended Jules Ferry College with Air and…

Nothing But The Truth - Anna Politkovskaya

1 Feb 2010

In a world where the worst atrocities some journalists might face are their copy being ravaged by unscrupulous subeditors and unreasonable deadlines being imposed by cold-hearted commissioning editors, the fate of our kin abroad make such concerns seem…

NTS history and Gutter magazine latest National Library of Scotland events

1 Feb 2010

Eagle-eyed readers of the Around Town listings may have already noticed that change is afoot at the National Library of Scotland. Over the last few months, there have been an increasing number of interesting, well thought-out, exciting and downright…

Huma Dressage - Russell Kane interview

1 Feb 2010

Now we don’t want to suggest that high energy Essex-based comic Russell Kane might be accident prone, but there’s worrying evidence floating around to back up such a theory. In July of last year, just prior to Kane’s latest Fringe show, Human Dressage…

Scottish Ensemble: Toby Spence sings Jacques Brel

1 Feb 2010

Way back in the 60s, when the Scottish Ensemble was born, it was christened the Scottish Baroque Ensemble. Although a group always admired for pushing boundaries, a programme featuring music by Belgian singer/songwriter Jacques Brel forty years down the…

Profile: DJ Heather

1 Feb 2010

Name DJ Heather Occupation In demand Chicago DJ. Chicago has a bit of a name for its house DJs doesn’t it? It does indeed my friend, in fact Chicago is considered the birthplace of house in the 1980s. Specifically at the legendary…

Midlake set for Glasgow date

1 Feb 2010

When skateboarder turned TV man named Earl, Jason Lee fell for Midlake’s sound, it was love at first album. After hearing their 2004 debut, Bamnan and Slivercork, Lee got onboard with both feet, and bells on. In the past, Lee has promoted the lo-fi…

Nice Buns: Hamburger Heaven

1 Feb 2010

Blue Moon Café on Broughton Street has a new sidekick, Hamburger Heaven. Donald Reid visited the celestial venture. The latest twist in the varied career of the ‘back room’ of Barony Street’s Blue Moon Café – a space that happens to enjoy prime…

Five reasons to go see . . . tUnE-yArDs

1 Feb 2010

1. She’s well monikered Yes, that lower-case/upper-case thing is kind of annoying, but we’ll forgive tUnE-YaRdS because her real name is just great: Merrill Garbus sounds like she’s stepped straight out of the script of a Coen Brothers film, no? 2.

Way To Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake

1 Feb 2010

Nick Drake’s popularity has only increased in the years following his death in 1976, and this concert, curated by Drake’s producer Joe Boyd for Celtic Connections, was one of the most anticipated of the festival programme. The main appeal was…

The 3 Craws

The Caves, Fri 22 Jan 2010

1 Feb 2010

The 3 Craws are what might in certain circles, those more given to overblown rhetoric posturing perhaps, be termed a supergroup: the three lynchpins of the Fife-based Fence Collective – Kenny Anderson, alias King Creosote, Johnny Lynch, otherwise known…

Real Estate

Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Thu 28 Jan 2010

1 Feb 2010

‘What you want is just outside your reach,’ runs the opening line of Real Estate’s best song, ‘Beach Comber’. The crowd may skip along to its cantering beat, but the pensive guitar part and Martin Courtney’s lyrics pull the song towards melancholy. In…

In The Electric Mist

1 Feb 2010

(15) 117min (High Fliers) The real mystery surrounding this adaptation of James Lee Burke’s bestselling crime novel In the Electric Mist With the Confederate Dead is why a perfectly respectable Hollywood movie boasting such an impressive cast and…

Taking Chance

1 Feb 2010

(PG) 78min (HBO) There’s something to be said about a movie which doesn’t take the knee-jerk sensationalist route to making its point. And with a sensitive subject, such as the war in Iraq, you can see why Taking Chance would opt not to ramp up the…

The Fox Family

1 Feb 2010

(15) 102min (Terracotta) Manic Korean tale about a family of shape-shifting ‘kumiho’ (literally a nine-tailed fox) spirits hiding out with a circus troupe as they prepare to become human beings permanently. The chance occurs only once every thousand…

Paul Cornell & Leonard Kirk - Captain Britain and MI13: Vampire State

1 Feb 2010

(Marvel UK) It’s a shame to see Paul Cornell’s rebirth of Captain Britain come to a close so quickly (the final six issues and the 2009 annual are collected here), but such is the fickle world of mainstream comics. At least it goes out with an…

Mary, Queen of Scots

1 Feb 2010

(PG) 126min (Second Sight) Charles Jarrott’s 1971 historical melodrama chronicling the tiaras, tantrums and Machiavellian spite traded between Tudor royal cousins Mary and Elizabeth re-emerges on DVD as something of a surprise. For Mary, Queen of…

Died Young, Stayed Pretty

1 Feb 2010

(E) 95min (ICA) Eileen Yaghoobian’s film delves into the underground poster culture in North America. In detailing the motivations and examining the creative spirit of these independent graphic designers, Yaghoobian uncovers a whole stratum of…

Paul Vickers & The Leg - Itchy Grumble

1 Feb 2010

(SL Records) A sophomore album project for ex-Dawn of the Replicants frontman Paul Vickers and former Khaya/Desc buddies Dan Mutch, Pete Harvey and Alun Thomas; the latter part of the Leg alumni also a former ballboy and St Jude’s Infirmary…

Social Science - the adults-only evening at Glasgow Science Centre

1 Feb 2010

It’s adults-only evening Social Science at the Glasgow Science Centre again, and appropriately for the date, this month the focus is all on the science of attraction: what attracts certain people to each other, why particular dance moves have certain…

Niki King pays tribute to Billie Holliday

1 Feb 2010

Cool Edinburgh jazz vocalist Niki King continues her tribute to one of the true greats of jazz Billie Holliday. ‘The time of prejudice that she worked through, the hardship and awful situations endured growing up; all of this pain and vulnerability…

Kailash Kher & Kailasa - Yatna (Nomadic Souls)

1 Feb 2010

(Cumbancha) Cumbancha are an intrepid label who have brought a host of brilliant musicians to the world, including the late Brazilian artist Andy Palacios. Now they capture the infectious sounds of Kailash Kher, a household name in India for singing…

Fangs, French Wives, The Big Pink and Bombay Bicycle Club set for Pinup Nights

1 Feb 2010

Indie heaven at Pin Up Nights this fortnight as they host the NME Awards tour afterparty, with DJ sets from two of the stars of the show: The Big Pink and Bombay Bicycle Club. Plus there are live sets from new wave electro rockers Fangs (pictured) and…

Lostprophets line up Glasgow and Edinburgh dates

1 Feb 2010

One of Britain’s big rock success stories, Lostprophets are one of the few UK acts to break in the US with their catchy, crunchy guitar hooks. The Welsh nu-metallers latest album The Betrayed continues the theme including anthem in the making ‘It’s Not…

It’s Only A Movie - An Evening with Mark Kermode launches his autobiography

1 Feb 2010

The Exorcist-obsessed, leather-clad and utterly iconic film critic is in (both) town(s) this fortnight, to discuss his autobiography, It’s Only A Movie, probably in a sardonic and slightly sarcastic fashion. Little-known Kermode fact: he plays double…

Isa & The Filthy Tongues launch new album Dark Passenger

1 Feb 2010

Launching their new double album Dark Passenger with this special gig (and an aftershow party in the Cab’s Speakeasy) of dark pop and yearning scuzz rock. Last seen soundtracking Richard Jobson’s film New Town Killers with their track of the same name…

Jesca Hoop lines up Edinburgh and Glasgow dates

1 Feb 2010

Quirky folk with an indie twist from Manchester-based Californian Hoop. A startling singer of complicated folk melodies that beguile with their lightness of touch as showcased on her self-released debut Hunting My Dress from November of last year.

Yeasayer set for date at Oran Mor, Glasgow

29 Jan 2010

Difficult second album? Pshah. These Brooklynites make it look like a piece of cake. Their second, or ‘sophomore’ record if you speak Pitchfork, is a confident, energetic burst of colour and beats – the felt-tip highlighter flip-side to their floaty…

Henning Mankell - The Man From Beijing

29 Jan 2010

(Harvill Secker) As all Wallander fans will testify, Henning Mankell does a good line in legal professionals. His long-running series about the flawed but eminently likeable detective has sold millions worldwide, not to mention spawned TV adaptations…

Glassjaw

QMU, Glasgow, Tue 26 Jan 2010

29 Jan 2010

After several false starts Glasgow has finally been given a chance to experience Glassjaw (the band cancelled a slew of gigs in 2003 due to frontman Daryl Palumbo’s Crohn’s Disease, then went on ‘indefinite hiatus’ from 2004 to pursue other projects).

Battle For Terra 3D

29 Jan 2010

(PG) 78min Having festered on the shelf since its April 2009 US release, Battle For Terra 3D arrives in our cinemas to cash in on the current wave of enthusiasm for three-dimensional cinema, and specifically Avatar, although Canadian director…

Natasha Walter - Living Dolls

29 Jan 2010

(Virago) When Natasha Walter published The New Feminism in 1998, it was with a triumphant air that she declared sexism to be in permanent decline. As New Labour women such as Harriet Harman, Mo Mowlam and Clare Short achieved high office, the signs…

Ponyo (Gake No Ue No Ponyo)

28 Jan 2010

(U) 101min An animated feature about a five-year-old boy who falls for a goldfish princess may not sound like a hot ticket, but the delightful content of Ponyo will be no surprise to anyone already in thrall to the Studio Ghibli brand. After Hayao…

Five Things You Might Not Know About: Dave Gorman

28 Jan 2010

1 Born in sunny Stafford in 1971, Dave Gorman dropped out of Manchester Uni while studying mathematics to get into stand-up. 2 He eventually became bored of the basic set-up/punchline joke form, so set himself projects to pursue and see if comedy…

Astro Boy

28 Jan 2010

(PG) 93min A popular manga in Japan since 1952, and a cult TV show in the US since the early 1980s, Astro Boy makes a bid for worldwide domination in this flashy but flatly realised animation from director David Flushed Away Bowers. Freddie…

Yeasayer - Odd Blood

27 Jan 2010

(Mute) Now we’ve come to acquiesce – nay, love – the fact that the future sounds like the 80s, then let us embrace three vanguard globetrotters who ride a psychedelic tide of ultra-modern synth-pop nostalgia. Their name is Yeasayer. Emerging from…

The Unwinding Hours - The Unwinding Hours

27 Jan 2010

(Chemikal Underground) One of Glasgow label Chemikal Underground’s best-loved bands is resurrected, after a fashion, in The Unwinding Hours, the new project from Craig B and Iain Cook of Aereogramme. Where the pair’s old group were unafraid of being…

Pantha Du Prince - Black Noise

27 Jan 2010

(Rough Trade) Hendrick Weber’s third album, the follow up to 2007’s acclaimed This Bliss, is equally laden with his signature digital bells, chimes, dings and tings. It’s also full of brilliant examples of the more recognisable elements of minimal…

Massive Attack - Heligoland

27 Jan 2010

(Virgin) Massive Attack have been in the studio for an age with this album, leaving fans restless and critics wondering if they had given up. The result is Heligoland, only ten tracks long but still hard-hitting with an enviable guest list. Damon…

Hot Chip - One Life Stand

27 Jan 2010

(Parlophone) Electro-poppers Hot Chip have gone soft. Their fourth album, aptly released just in time for Valentine’s Day, is all about love and meeting that special someone (hence the punning title). It looks like the boys have grown up and are keen…

Darren Banks: Soothsayers / Oonagh Hegarty: Tabloid Alchemy

27 Jan 2010

It’s Hell in there. Or at least it sounds like it. From the moment you step into Sierra Metro’s concrete darkness at the edge of town, you’re hit with a barrage of mind-melding visual and aural loops, from Italian goresploitation flicks to bug-eyed…

New musical celebrates venerated piece of lesbian history Club Gateways

27 Jan 2010

Club Gateways has a special place in LGBT history as the longest surviving lesbian nighclub in the world. The venue, on London’s Kings Road, opened in 1930 and attracted celebrities such as Joyce Grenfell, Quentin Crisp and Joan Collins in its 1960s…

Cheeba set for Mixed Bizness date

27 Jan 2010

Although he’s been doing it for more than a decade, Simon Luscombe’s big break as a DJ came in 2008, when he won Solid Steel’s Mix of the Year award. Most DJs would be grateful of the associated glory and set about getting on with their own thing, but…

Erland and the Carnival

27 Jan 2010

Erland Cooper and his Carnival are unlikely to be fazed by Glasgow’s notoriously ‘lively’ gig-goers. Although based in London, these are no southern pansies: Cooper was raised on Orkney’s stormswept outcrops, and cut his teeth as a performer in the…

Exposure: Cobra Starship

27 Jan 2010

Essentially ‘punk kids’ in a very, very successful stateside power-pop band, bassist Alex Suarez of Cobra Starship (signed to Pete ‘Fall Out Boy’ Wentz’s Decaydance label) takes us back to the beginning. Gabe Saporta (singer) insists he got the band…

Laila Lalami - Secret Son

27 Jan 2010

(Viking) Nineteen-year-old Youssef El Mekki lives with his mother in a Casablanca slum, having grown up believing that his father died when he was young. In fact he’s the illegitimate son of a rich local businessman, and when he makes the connection…

Robin Robertson - The Wrecking Light

27 Jan 2010

(Picador) Like his previous book, the Forward Prize-winning Swithering, Robin Robertson’s new collection is powered by contrasts. Stark, ominous, depictions of nature rub shoulders with a strongly developed sense of the domestic, as in ‘Tinsel’…

Monk Inc - Propensity

27 Jan 2010

(Comuse Recordings) As the band’s name suggests, this is a project dedicated to the singular music of pianist Thelonious Monk from a young UK-based quintet. The first thing that catches attention even before playing the album is that the line-up is…

Fringe Magnetic - Empty Spaces

27 Jan 2010

(Loop Records) Fringe Magnetic is an eclectic project even by the Loop Collective’s famously open-ended standards. The nine-piece band had its origins in a commission from University College London in 2006 allowing trumpeter and composer Rory Simmons…

Angelique Kidjo - Õÿö

27 Jan 2010

(Proper) Kidjo, undoubtedly Africa’s top female singer, creates an album for the new decade marrying her passion for the music of her home country Benin with the soul music and jazz she also grew up with and a broader Afro-American picture. Her…

Gary War - New Rayontheport

27 Jan 2010

(Shdwply Records) Finally given a proper UK release, Gary War’s debut album is a lovely, if disorienting, trip through a fog of gauzy synths, sputtering drum machines and half submerged vocals. While Gary War can’t quite match former collaborator…

Puerto Muerto - Drumming for Pistols

27 Jan 2010

(Fire) Since their ecstatically-titled debut album, Your Bloated Corpse Has Washed Ashore in 2001, the Chicago matrimonial duo of Tim Kelley and Christa Meyer have engendered a cult following thanks to a miscreant blend of alt-country, gothic-folk…

Fudge Fingas returns to Edinburgh's Ultragroove

27 Jan 2010

Expect multi-layered house, Detroit beats and jazzy interludes as Fudge Fingas returns to Ultragroove. Garnering praise from the likes of Theo Parrish, Derrick May and Gilles Peterson for his own productions on Edinburgh’s Firecracker Records, he’s…

Clutter Keeps Company

26 Jan 2010

Davy Anderson’s oeuvre, which has been fairly prolific since the mid 2000s has shown a consistent impulse toward the social diagnostic. From his examination of alienation within a council flat, incorporating a commentary on our culture’s propensity to…

The Government Inspector

26 Jan 2010

Back in the 1980s, Scottish theatre audiences could count on the likes of Communicado, Wildcat and 7:84 to maintain a live, lively commentary on contemporary events, often by drawing analogies sourced from Scottish history. It’s perhaps a force that’s…

The Sound of Music

26 Jan 2010

There is a moment, quite near the end of this mostly jolly musical, when Nazi Germany comes to Edinburgh. The hairs stand up on the back of your neck, and it’s almost possible to imagine what life under the swastika was really like. Other than that…

Alexis Marguerite Teplin - One foot in the past

26 Jan 2010

Voluptuous, salacious and lavishly overshooting the decorative, Alexis Marguerite Teplin’s paintings are as visually arresting as they are referentially dense. Boundless pleasures can be sourced from the unpacking of their rich montages, and the…

Vivienne Edgar: Nature With Nature Within

26 Jan 2010

Contemporary artist Vivienne Edgar uses mixed media and texture to explore the beauty, pattern and seduction found in nature in a unique way. The exhibition also features a ‘secret garden’ that will appeal to the more traditional eye by showing images…