Music, Issue 616

Circuit training

‘Tangerine Dream,’ Kraftwerk’s Ralf Hutter said to Lester Bangs in a 1975 interview, ‘although they are German they have an English name, so they create onstage an Anglo-American identity, which we completely deny. We cannot deny we are from Germany…

Alan Tyler & the Lost Sons of Littlefield - Lonesome Cowboys

Sometimes all it takes is a good tune and a kick-ass attitude. Alan Tyler and his Lost Sons of Littlefield have both to spare and while there is little here that will shake up the country rock canon, Lonesome Cowboys is a tremendously likeable record.

Hydro

Straight outta Bellshill, Hydro grew up listening to his dad’s hip hop collection, split into ‘kid friendly’ and ‘non-kid friendly’ categories. He soon skipped the De La Soul and Tribe Called Quest and broke out the NWA and the Public Enemy. Moving to…

Shellac

'My band means too much to me for me to allow anyone to put me in a position of resenting my band. I insist that it remain a hobby for that reason. If it becomes anymore than a hobby then it becomes something that I rely on, and my frame of mind and my…

Martin Kershaw

A visit to the Eduardo Paolozzi retrospective at the Dean Gallery four years ago was the starting point for alto saxophonist Martin Kershaw’s ambitious new Hero as a Riddle project. A Scottish Art Council New Music Award has finally allowed Kershaw…

Singles & Downloads

You know times are tough when you have to resort to Tony Christie to get you through the day. OK, the climate’s shagged and the banks are collapsing, but it’s the piffling amount of brilliant tracks that’s really getting my goat this issue. What? Us…

Scottish Opera - La Traviata

‘Born to die’ seems a bit of an extreme expression to describe a singer, but for Carmen Giannattasio it appears to fit the bill. Star of tragic opera after tragic opera, the Italian soprano says it’s unfortunate, but, ‘I have died so much in the last…

Heartbreak

Stuck between two separate camps of zeitgeist-grabbing greatness, East London based duo Heartbreak are both flag-bearers for the much name-dropped Italo disco revival, and also affiliates of the ever-high quality scene based around Australia’s Modular…

Fleet Foxes

While music with a sense of the rustic American has been back on the menu of late (what with the rise of Band of Horses and Bon Iver) Seattle’s Fleet Foxes raise the game even further. Their music is a chiming approximation of the 60s’ best country rock…

Slayer, Trivium, Mastodon & Amon Amarth

When it comes to metal they don’t get any more influential than the founding fathers of thrash: Slayer. While pretenders to the throne may go heavier and faster you can’t match the peerless Reign in Blood and in particular the blueprint for thrash metal…

Exposure - Logan

Tomorrow’s music today

I’m sure their name rings a bell … For the past six years the boys have been doing it for themselves, with great success. They’ve sold more than 8000 copies of their first two albums,and in 2006, became the first unsigned band to have two…

The Fusiliers

Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Thu 16 Oct

While definitions of what might count as a good local band are varied, there are three broad categories: the ones who fly out from under the radar to astonish with their skill and ingenuity; the ones who perfectly sum up a period of time in their home…

Bloc Party

Barfly, Glasgow, Sun 19 Oct

It’s no way to endear yourself to a crowd when one song in you announce ‘I know it’s a Sunday night and all Glasgow, but this is a Bloc Party show!’ A declaration from Kele Okereke that could easily be taken as a preening popstar sniping because he…

The Creeping Nobodies

Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, Wed 15 Oct

Back in the dark(er) ages, The Creeping Nobodies were an imaginary indie band immortalised on a demo tape which adorned the typically slap-dash front cover of The Fall’s 1980 Grotesque (After The Gramme) album, addressed to ‘A Famous Ape’. Well, praise…

Holy Ghost Revival

Not only does the Devil have the best tunes, but he lurks in the detail, and so it proved for this five-piece, religiously obeying all the rock’n’roll clichés. Trashing equipment, leaping out into the audience and sprawling himself across the floor…

Lambchop - OH (Ohio)

After the melancholy of Lambchop’s last album, the illness-inspired Damaged, Kurt Wagner and his band return with a more upbeat – and occasionally up-tempo – offering. Their tenth album definitely has a lighter feel than its gloomy predecessor, but in…

Giant Sand - ProVISIONS

Arizona-bred Howe Gelb has been reconstructing North American country music under various guises and with numerous collaborators for the past 20 years. Almost twice as many records later it’s hard to tell the difference between his solo projects, his…

Robert Mitchell 3i0 - The Greater Good

Pianist Robert Mitchell resisted entering the crowded field of piano trios for a while, preferring to concentrate on his larger Panacea groups, but the 3io (the name apparently is how they refer to the group in text messages) with Tom Mason and Richard…

John Goldie - Open 4 Closure

Guitarist John Goldie’s latest offering eludes easy genre classification. He is probably best know for his jazz work, but is equally comfortable in a range of styles, and this disc is touched by various shades of jazz, folk, rock and funk without…

Sarah-Jane Summers - Nesta

The Norwegian Hardanger fiddle is one of the most distinctive sounding members of the violin family, and invests the Inverness fiddler’s debut solo album with a very characteristic signature, one that will be familiar to anyone who knows her work with…

Bobo Stenson Trio - Cantando

Swedish pianist Bobo Stenson leads this superb trio with bassist Anders Jormin and drummer Jon Fält in a concert in Edinburgh this month, and their new disc suggests that it will be a must-see occasion. This is the first time that the pianist has…

Super Adventure Club - Chalk Horror!

If this CD becomes a movie (Kung Fu/Ninja preferably), the hybrid title could be The Ghost of Zappa meets Fugazi on prog-rock pills. The debut from Edinburgh trio SAC (er, Bruce, Neil & Mandy) is an unpredictable, genre-busting stream of off-kilter…

Misty's Big Adventure - Television’s People

From the glam Brummie ensemble – whose claim-to-fame so far was a 2006 video for ‘Fashion Parade’ guest starring Noddy Holder – comes album number four. Conceptual – about a depressed individual cocooned in his own environs and indeed, mind…

Attic Lights - Friday Night Lights

With soaring harmonies and sweetly twee lyrics, these Glasgow kids seem to be following the right recipe for indie glee. Sadly, their debut results sound like they have come ten years too late, as they mimic the nineties pop feel of Ash, with a…

Doghouse Roses - How’ve You Been (All This Time)?

Glasgow duo Doghouse Roses have been kicking around Glasgow for the best part of three years and this, their full-length debut, makes good on the promise hinted at on two EPs and a single (‘Greener is the Grass’) that they are something a little bit…