Music, Issue 589

Hitlist - the best gigs

Recommended

* Ian Rankin's choice Idlewild and The Twilight Sad Yes, we could have picked a number of other homegrown treats of early November, but instead, we are going for the final night of this tour, a band at the top of their game, joined by arguably the…

The Rankin files - St Jude's Infirmary

Firstly can you introduce yourselves? OK, we are Grant Campbell (bass, vocals), Ashley Campbell (guitar, vocals), Emma Jane (vocals), Mark Francis (guitar, vocals) and Alun Thomas (drums). How is the second album progressing? It’s been…

The Verve - reformed and on tour

Of all the seminal bands to have announced their reformation this year, The Verve are perhaps both the most and least in need of a revival. Although each of the group’s four founder members would no doubt welcome the wage packet – even Richard…

Singles & Downloads

This issue’s singles and downloads have a distinctly local tinge, with our whirlwind tour of new Scottish bands beginning in the company of Vale’s The Casuals. ‘Confusion’ (No Carbon - 3 stars) certainly wins the prize for the most inadvertently apt…

The Proclaimers - gig preview

Whichever way you look at it, it’s been an astonishingly successful year for The Proclaimers. It’s 20 years since the Reid twins’ groundbreaking appearance on The Tube led to a string of hits, but 2007 finds their stock at its highest ever level. First…

Celtic Connections 2008 line-up announced

Celtic Connection launched in impressive style last week as organisers claimed success in 2008 could lead to the music event being super-sized for 2009. The 2008 event, held throughout January, will mark the festival’s 15th anniversary and boasts a…

Bill Carrothers Trio - gig preview

American pianist Bill Carrothers has never played in Scotland before, but he has earned a reputation not only as an inventive jazz improviser, but also as an ambitious creator of unusual and ambitious large-scale projects linked to historical subjects.

Robyn - gig review

Since storming to number one earlier this year, Swedish pop star Robyn isn’t that worried about being remembered for her brief dalliance with the charts in the 90s. ‘It was such a long time ago I don’t know if people remember,’ she says of her old hit…

Palmstar Poppy

Composer, pianist and vocalist David Paul Jones returns to his roots as a solo artist with his new piece for piano and voice, Palmstar Poppy as part of Glasgay! The title of the piece is inspired by a fleet of Norwegian oil tankers individually named…

Beirut - gig preview

Thoughts of the opposite sex, soft drugs and shoplifting tend to occupy the mind of your average 16-year-old drop out, but New Mexico dreamer Zac Condon was no normal teen. Upon prematurely ditching education, he, his ukelele and trumpet headed across…

Futuristic Retro Champions - gig review

Popshop@ABC2, Glasgow, Fri 21 Sep

Originally started as an ‘art college project’ (ie ‘skive’) in late 2006, Futuristic Retro Champions have sprouted arms, legs, wonky keyboards and a barrowload of bona fide electro-indie-pop crackers over the last year. The Edinburgh six-piece have also…

The Beecake - gig review

The Loft, Glasgow, Fri 12 Oct

At last! Scotland has its very own film star vanity project band, and – as is the unspoken tradition with such things – they’re not quite as good as everyone might hope. To be fair, though, Billy Boyd’s Beecake were playing an acoustic charity set for…

The Changes - gig review

Barfly, Glasgow, Mon 8 Oct

They say that democracy only works in principle rather than practice. Well, I ask the jury, have any of these people ever been to see The Changes? The Chicago four-piece put forward a pretty compelling case that an unequivocally democratic swapping of…

Simba and Jae P - gig review

Bongo Club, Edinburgh, Fri 19 Oct

Playing a support slot for grime star Wiley was the perfect opportunity for these two Scottish-based rappers to showcase themselves, and that’s just what we got – not so much a full and fulfilling set from each, more a little taster of what each can…

Vieux Farka Toure - album review

World

You might think that if Vieux Farka Toure entered the music business he would be doomed to failure. As the son of Malian music legend, the late Ali Farka Toure, he would be working in his father’s shadow and probably end up petering out, à la Julian…

Gordon Duncan - album review

Jazz

Admirers of the late piper will spot the echo of his debut album Just For Seumas in this collection of previously unissued cuts, broadcast sessions and limited release rarities. Gordon did not live to complete a fourth studio album for Greentrax, but…

Herbie Hancock - album review

Jazz

Herbie Hancock is by no means the first jazz artist to devote his attention to a disc of music by Joni Mitchell, and the singer herself has often turned to both jazz musicians and idioms in her work. Hancock’s reputation and some big-name guests will…

The Kings of Electro - album review

Electro

This smart, intuitive compilation splits the history of electro – funkier, dirtier, more melodic little brother of techno – into two easy to chew categories: where the genre has been, and where it’s going. Trevor ‘Playgroup’ Jackson rolls his way…

Found - album review

Eclectica

ECLECTICA FOUND This Mess We Keep Reshaping (Fence) While far from being an actual mess, there’s certainly not a huge amount of form to Edinburgh hip hop/folk experimentalists Found’s second album. Ever the slaves to the right side of their brains…

Eilidh’s Daily Ukulele Ceilidh: The Stage Show

Just a brief update on the progress of Eilidh’s Daily Ukulele Ceilidh, first featured in the Around Town section in July this year. Those interested in checking out Eilidh McAskill’s ongoing quest to play some form of ceilidh, on her ukulele, for every…

Dave Gahan - album review

Electro Rock

Depeche Mode enjoyed their most creative period when all four personalities were operating at their peak: the songwriter, the arranger, the singer and the, erm, accountant. Alan Wilder, the arranger, left after their last truly brilliant album, 1993’s…

The Edinburgh Quartet - album review

Classical

Bringing together composers from very different cultures, Frontiers and Bridges’ thread of commonality is their inspirational teacher, Nigel Osborne. Composition Professor at Edinburgh University, Osborne has guided three authoritative and adventurous…

Down - album review

Heavy metal

From the first rolling drumbeat you know we’re in Black Sabbath country. Fronted by Pantera’s Phil Anselmo and featuring assorted members of Corrosion of Conformity, Eye Hate God and Crowbar, Down were always going to be a monstrous proposition. This is…

Imani Coppola - album review

Hip Hop

Imani Coppola is a lot of fun. This is the NYC lady’s eighth album, and it eschews much of her sample-heavy traditional hip hop for a kitchen sink approach, chucking every genre possible into the mix with highly entertaining results. So we get rattling…

Terra Diablo - album review

(Nocturnal)

Suddenly losing a member to the biggest band in the country would dent the confidence of even the most self-assured act.