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23 Jul 2009
Launching their Optimo Records debut EP – a satanic slab of red vinyl sleeved in a painting of ragged teeth and diseased gums – Divorce affirm their status as Glasgow’s most thrilling band. Their support acts are no slouches either. Teenage Ricky stage…
Taking Back Sunday have had so many line-up changes since their inception in 1999 that they’re now printing T-shirts with the slogan ‘I used to be in Taking Back Sunday’. So have they sent one to former bassist, Fred Mascherino, who had an acrimonious…
Belfast-born singer-songwriter, Martin (or Bap) Kennedy, has been treading the rocky boards for nigh-on 20 years having led minor hitmakers, Energy Orchard, on their unsustainable UK Top 60 debut in 1990. Once sharing a stage with mentor, Van Morrison…
Imagine Antony Hegarty from Antony and the Johnsons fronting vintage Talking Heads. It might just work, right? Wrong, at least in the hands of Kendal kids Wild Beasts, it is. Maybe it’s all in the execution, which is at best seriously underwhelming and…
‘I play a lot of instruments,’ Owen Pallett attempts to convince us, ‘but none of them very well.’ Come off it. You don’t get to become the orchestra and string arranger for Arcade Fire’s Funeral and Neon Bible albums – at the same time helping to…
‘There is a real sense of belonging and connection to something at the Big Tent Festival,’ explains the event’s programme director Mike Small. ‘The message is more “come join us” than “gimme your money”.’ Set up in July 2005, the…
Glen Lyon, 1982, is as good a place to start as any. That summer Andy Shearer, son of the local deerstalking ghillie, met Will Oldham, a young American holidaying on the estate with his family. They struck up a friendship and began to swap music…
Nile Rodgers defined an era with the classic disco soul of Chic and again as one of the most sampled act in hip hop history. David Pollock meets him.
As church fetes go, this second edition of this DIY noise festival was an appositely unholy resurrection. Lit from an archway behind them and playing on bare floorboards, the 18 acts on show tapped into industrial metal roots, surrealist slapstick, an…
Re-issued from 2006 on the strength of their recent ‘New Town Killers’ single (from Richard Jobson’s film of the same name) Addiction marked/marks the return of Goodbye Mr Mackenzie alumni Martin Metcalfe, Fin Wilson and Derek Kelly. Having seen…
Unlike, say, The Lemonheads, Growing are a band with a literal soubriquet: their evolutionary noise and experimental rock exploits provoke a sense of advancing ambience, metal progression and, well, growing. They’ve recorded for Mogwai’s Rock Action…
1 They’re a band of brothers The molten rock of Pontiak is forged by a hairy Virginia fraternity: Van (guitar/vocals), Lain (drums) and Jennings (bass) Carney. Their agrarian wig-outs are hence imbued with a profound musical intuition that edifies their…
Twenty-three-year-old Vincent Frank dropped out of art and fashion school before becoming a very decent beatboxer, then a remixer, and now a popster. This, his first album takes the high-energy hooks of Swedish hyperpop, fizzes them up with falsetto…
It’s been seven years since Cornershop’s last outing, and they’ve clearly spent that time being happy, but not necessarily getting inspired. Judy Sucks a Lemon … is upbeat, sunny, summery fare, but almost pathologically derivative of 60s rock, pop, soul…
Indie punk with a hint of glamour. OK, maybe doused in glamour, but still maintaining their edgy punk vibe. With front lady Roz Davies’ lashing pink locks and seductive vocals, this band are capable of really captivating an audience at a live show.
Former beatboxer (going by the name Mr Mouth) has metamorphosised into electro-popper Frankmusik with the release of his debut album Complete Me. It’s an unashamed shiny pop record packed with hooks, leading to remix work for Pet Shop Boys, CSS and…
Retelling his musical experiences, Freddie King brings us ‘From The Heart: A Journey Of One Man’s Love For Singing’, what a journey he has had too. Spending his childhood in the mountains of West Africa with a tribe renowned for their singing, Freddie…
Based in Leith, Edinburgh Roster Linkwood (Nick Moore, from Bristol but based in Leith), Fudge Fingas (Gavin Sutherland, from Edinburgh), Vakula (from Ukraine), Intrusion (one half of the Detroit/Chicago-based duo Echospace), House of Traps (Lindsay…
The title comes from the Dusseldorf group of which Wolfgang Flür was drummer prior to joining the German band that pioneered popular electronic music, Kraftwerk, in the early 70s. Still very much active in electronic music, Flür would surely be…
‘We are Duran Duran!’ shouts Simon Le Bon, legs spread, hips thrown forward, blonde highlights dipped backwards. ‘The band designed to make your nipples harder!’ Cue hysteria from thirtysomethings who scribbled Mrs Le Bon over school jotters, and man…
Two-piece bands are an irregular find these days, especially ones who can make this much noise. With a simple set-up of drums, guitar and one hell of a screeching set of lungs, Glaswegian duo Bronto Skylift easily cram this modest venue with their…
Hard on the heels of the Orchestra’s GIOpoetics disc from the Creative Sources label in Lisbon comes this recording on the Glasgow-based Iorram Records (http://iorram.blogspot.com/), run by three members of the band. The music was recorded during the…
The Borders Traditions series of CDs issued by the Scottish Borders Council to showcase the traditional music of the area has generally concentrated on precisely that, but this sixth volume in the sequence takes a slightly different tack by offering new…
Zed-U are a London-based trio made up of saxophonist and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings, bassist Neil Charles and drummer Tom Skinner. Their debut album has the feel of a work-in-progress, but an intermittently intriguing one. There are a couple of…
Despite a touring schedule which might fairly be described as minimal, Fife’s long-serving Cruiser are still criminally under-rated. So anything that gets the gospel out there – particularly a well-realised remix version of their last album Happy…
33 articles.
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23 Jul 2009
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