Music, Exposure

Exposure: River of Slime

FOUND's Kev Sim on his sample-loving, genre-mixing alter-ego

Hello, is that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency? We have a toxic aural sludge to report. It is known locally as River of Slime, as adulterated by one Kev Sim, the beat-seeking third of pop alchemists FOUND. That’s some heady slime alright.

Exposure: Haim set for 2013 UK tour dates

Sweet, yearning, retro pop melodies from sister-heavy band

When Haim look towards their future, do they see anything between themselves and a torrent of riches and acclaim? We’ve checked, and we can detect nothing. Were we to be unimaginative, in fact, we’d say they have all the retroisms to one day go on to be…

Exposure: Roman Nose

Glasgow's enigmatic, beepy, dark electro trio talk masks and Satan, among other things

Roman Nose are generally to be found decked out in black hooded tops and intimidating masks, paying little respect to eardrums or graffiti laws [their press release claims they 'scream and kick ears for sadomasochistic pleasure], the Glasgow trio's sets…

Exposure: Glasgow act Golden Teacher take their live dance music to club nights

Bells From the Deep End EP out on Optimo Music

Another winner has emerged from the Optimo Music stables, with the sleazy Dinosaur L-isms of Glasgow’s Golden Teacher. One of the greatest things to have hit the city’s dancefloors in memory, the ad hoc assembly are a collaboration between members of…

Exposure: Stubborn Heart

Luca Santucci and Ben Fitzgerald are the duo behind the synth act with a heart

Assumed to be a couple of kids from south London after a white label of their zeitgeist-seizing track ‘Need Someone’ circulated among tastemakers, Stubborn Heart is in fact two thirtysomething electronic music veterans finally bringing a long-gestating…

Exposure: Daughter

The ambient alt.folk trio are tipped for great things in 2013

One daughter and two sons, this London trio will be all over the January tips-for-the-year lists with their unnervingly, transfixing model of emotionally derelict ambient alt-folk. Having spent the last few months bedding in with a handful of singles…

Exposure: Josephine Foster

How to describe Miss Foster’s warbling psych-folk voice... Swooning. Vibrating? With rollercoaster peaks and dips? Or ‘Morriconean’ as one reviewer put it. Josephine chats to The List before her Glasgow date, touring with a live band including Trembling…

Exposure: Azealia Banks

The Harlem hip-hop artist with a filthy mouth and great hair hits Glasgow this month

Well done to Harlem’s Azealia Banks, who’s managed to build the foundations of an entire career with three and a half minutes of non-stop, glorious filth. We never knew swearing could get quite so eloquent until we heard last year’s ‘212’, the…

Exposure - Honeyblood

Two-piece garage 'crunch-pop' from Glasgow

Fans of grungy plaid-shirted slacker-pop in the Pixies/Breeders mould, rejoice – your new favourite band have arrived. Honeyblood is comprised of Edinburgh singer-guitarist Stina and Kiwi drummer Rah, who proclaim they were ‘brought together by a mutual…

Exposure: The Machine Room

Grand, glistening electro-indie invoking New Order, Chapterhouse and The House of Love

One of the essential new Scottish bands to catch at this summer’s festivals (they play Go North, T in the Park and Wickerman), Edinburgh quintet The Machine Room’s grand, glistening electro-indie invokes all from New Order to Chapterhouse and The House…

Exposure: Friends

The Brooklyn hipster quintet make disgustingly cool indie post-punk-funk

The List makes two predictions with regards to this fresh Brooklyn indie post-punk-funk ensemble. 1) They’re going to be the sound of many people’s summer, and 2) they’re going to have music journos punning furiously on their sitcom namesake. They’re…

Exposure: Hannah Cohen

The NY model/photographer-turned-singer/songwriter is beloved by The National's Thomas Bartlett

Two years ago New York-based model and photographer Hannah Cohen met Antony and the Johnsons and The National pianist Thomas Bartlett, aka Doveman, at a party. She shyly played him some songs she’d been secretly penning, and he immediately offered to…

Exposure: Gotye

An introduction to the YouTube-conquering ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ singer

Meet 31-year-old Wouter ‘Wally’ De Backer, aka Gotye, a Belgium-born, Melbourne-raised singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose inescapable international super-hit ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’ (featuring Kimbra) possesses an almost…

Exposure: Still Corners

Cinematic dream-pop with a Lynchian vibe

The whispery female vocal, the unsettling tone, the shoegazey guitars... There’s a very cinematic, 1990s David Lynch feel to the heavenly dream-pop of London-based Still Corners. The List finds singer Tessa Murray and songwriter Greg Hughes drinking…

Exposure: Dead Boy Robotics

Edinburgh's avant synth-pop outfit, who released their self-titled debut album in November on Tape

The name Dead Boy Robotics must be an obscenely cool reference to an obscure sci-fi tome, right? No, they came up with the name all by themselves. It fits pretty well as it happens; they describe their sound as an amalgam of ‘laptop bleeps, synth…

Exposure - Lana Del Rey

The 'Videogames' singer's second stab at stardom looks set to be a sure thing

The List hesitates not a moment in declaring this picture of dusky American pop perfection a star in the making – how could the self-styled ‘gangsta Nancy Sinatra’ not be? The New Yorker’s debut single ‘Video Games’ – a YouTube sensation that’s scored…

Exposure - Connan Mockasin

Erol Alkan's psychedelic protegé talks motivation and ideal album lengths

Originally from Hawkes Bay in New Zealand, Connan Mockasin has lived in London for the last five years, during which time he’s covered Michael Jackson, worked with Charlotte Gainsbourg, played with Crowded House (find him below alongside them and Johnny…

Exposure: Alpines

'Night-pop’ London duo support CSS

This girl/ boy duo from SW London have us hooked with their moody single ‘Cocoon’, a dose of ‘night-pop’ with more than a little hint of Portishead about it. It’s hopefully a taster of more to come from their debut album in 2012. We caught Catherine…

Exposure: Café Disco

‘We love nice melodies, we are all fans of Jimmy Eat World'

Café Disco. What’s that then? Are we on the brink of a revolution in clubbing/dining? Actually, it’s an excellent pop-rock four-piece from Scotland’s west coast, although they have said that the band ‘is actually just a way in which we hope that one…

Exposure - Ben Howard

Folksy Devonshire singer-songwriter who surfs

Songsmith and West Country surfer dude Ben Howard, 23, has been building up a word of mouth fanbase over the last two years. His folksy guitar sound initially attracted Mumford & Sons singer Ben Lovett’s label Communion, a fitting home for his debut EP…

Exposure: Wolf Gang

Max McElligott prepares for debut release Suego Faults and UK tour

Multi-instrumentalist Max McElligott, otherwise known as Wolf Gang, spent a good chunk of his childhood living in Scotland. If you've not heard of him yet, his single 'Dancing With The Devil' is probably a good intro: an infectious electro-indie pop…

Exposure: Tenniscoats

Japanese duo/couple Saya and Ueno Takashi who have released eight albums

Who are Tenniscoats? They’re a charming Japanese duo made up of real life couple Saya and Ueno Takashi, who, over the last decade, have released eight albums of their prolific songsmithery as well as playing with fellow traveller Maher Shalal Hash…

Exposure: Glasgow indie trio PAWS

Over the past 12 months, Glasgow trio PAWS have gone from ambitious bedroom jams to supporting damn near every cult US indie export to grace our fair shores (Dum Dum Girls, Wavves, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti etc). Combining Dinosaur Jr-esque melodic…

Exposure: Snide Rhythms

ECA-friendly genre-benders with a strong musical heritage

Many fine Edinburgh bands have some connection to Edinburgh College of Art, and Colvin Cruickshank – manager of its union, the Wee Red Bar – has seen them all come and go. This project, an artsy combination of The Fall, The Durutti Column and Happy…

Jaego's Live and Unsigned audition diary

'About a year ago Jaego formed to take new material out to a live audience. Since forming we have been successfully gigging and writing new songs. We decided to audition for the Live and Unsigned competition as we are looking for opportunities to be…