Music, Issue 660

Singles & downloads - 30th June 2010

The great thing about Super Adventure Club is that they don’t take themselves too seriously – which is ideal as it’s impossible to take them seriously. ‘Hip Hop Hot Pot Pot Noodle’ (Armellodie Records) ●●● is a highly strung burst of weird psychedelic…

Vuvuzelas banned from T in the Park

Happy days! Following their rather dubious outing at this year’s World Cup, festival-goers have been told not to take vuvuzelas to T in the Park. Festival heads are concerned that the controversial South African horn will put off the artists. Organisers…

T in the Park 2010: Running order

If you're heading to Balado this weekend you'll want to see this - the full running order for Scotland's mightiest music festival. Please note that the running order is subject to change, so we'll try to keep it as up to date as possible.

Pioneering spirit - Andrew Weatherall interview

To say that Andrew Weatherall has had a diverse career is a bit of an understatement. He started way back in the late 80s DJing the backroom at Shoom (often credited as the birth place of Britain’s acid house scene). ‘I’d be the kid that would play at…

Cachín Cachán Cachunga!

The spectre of funding cuts looms heavily over the Scottish arts scene at the moment. One consequence of the forthcoming age of austerity may very well be a resurgence in low-fi events: regular cabaret and variety shows offering artists who can no…

Planet Jedward - interview

First record you ever bought John: Probably N’Sync. We have all their albums. First time you realised you were famous Edward: When we heard ourselves on the radio. Last time you cried Edward: When I fell on stage during a routine and…

King Creosote and Ballboy set for Charity Baw II

After welcoming acts like Vashti Bunyan, Aberfeldy and Meursault last year, (meanwhile raising thousands of pounds for charity) the ‘Baw’ is back with an even bigger line-up. Acoustic folkster King Creosote will be headlining the ‘main stage’, giving…

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul

(EMI) The recent suicide of Mark Linkous, aka. Sparklehorse imbues this posthumous release with oppressive waves of melancholy, but this often-inspired record – heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measure – rises above such considerations to stand…

Five pop songs influenced by world music

Arabic Gorillaz – ‘White Flag’ Damon Albarn has long foraged global sounds – his Chinese opera, his Malian album – but ‘White Flag’ was revelatory. Betwixt cameos from Kano and Bashy blazed the real stars of Plastic Beach: the Lebanese National…

Five new music books

Rob Jovanovic - The Velvet Underground Unpeeled Some bands just refuse to go away and the Reed/Cale combo is one such example. This is the first full biog for two decades and is based on exclusive chats with the surviving members. Aurum. Rob Young…

Sonic Tapas: Al-Thawra, The Kominas and Gummy Stumps

13th Note, Glasgow, Fri 25 June

The subjects of a documentary on the North American Islamic punk scene known as ‘Taqwacore’ bands Al-Thawra and The Kominas were fresh from playing Sufi folk-rocker Richard Thompson’s Meltdown festival at the South Bank Centre, a curiously civilised…

Mela 2010 programme includes Cargo, Jaz Dhami and Bonafide

Setting its stall from 6–8 Aug in Leith Links, this summer’s Mela jamboree includes the premiere of Cargo, a large-scale outdoor performance on the theme of migration, funded by the Scottish Parliament. Other highlights include sports at Leith Links, UK…

Richard Fairhurst's Triptych - Amusia

(Babel Label) Richard Fairhurst won 1994 ‘Young Jazz Pianist of the Year’, and caught the ear with a series of albums with his group Hungry Ants, but has not really made the impact that his early emergence suggested. Nonetheless, he remains an…

RPA and the United Nations of Sound - United Nations of Sound

(Parlophone) ‘I wanna put you in my arms,’ warns sometime Verve shaman Richard Ashcroft, for the RPA of the title is he, on ‘Are You Ready?’, ‘and give you a love embrace.’ Following his old band’s only modestly successful comeback, Ashcroft remains…

Gould Piano Trio and Doric String Quartet set for Music at Paxton

It’s only a few years old, but the Music at Paxton festival of top-notch chamber music in a beautiful setting is an event looked forward to by music lovers far and wide. Whether resident in the peaceful Borders countryside where Paxton House sits by the…

Land of Kush’s Egyptian Light Orchestra - Monogamy

(Constellation) Following the lead of US novelist Thomas Pynchon’s Against The Day, Montreal’s Sam Shalabi reconvenes his psych-Arabic jazz orchestra for this exploration of shame, sexuality and society. With horns, strings, keyboards, percussion…

Kasper Rosa - EP2

(Field Records) A cocktail of post-rock and prog rock is a deadly combination – not just for the ears, but for the mind too. Instrumental interludes conjoining with off-time deviances is tough stuff – but Kasper Rosa have got it right. ‘EP2’ opens…

Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid

(Bad Boy / Atlantic) The shoes, the cape, the quiff, the tuxedo; the vintage moves, the flow, the vocals; the mega-conceptual sci-fi pop: Janelle Monae has got the lot. The hype around the 24-year-old singer-songwriter is ardent, expectant, and…

Eminem - Recovery

(Polydor) Originally intended as a sequel to last year’s Relapse, Recovery looks to re-establish Eminem as the strong, inescapably bratty voice of modern rap he once was. Fully embracing his struggles – drug addiction, loss and the mixed response to…

Miriam Makeba - South Africa’s Skylark

(Nascente) Forget Shakira: the benchmark song of World Cup 2010 was a reworking of Miriam Makeba’s 1967 hit ‘Pata Pata’. Johannesburg-born Makeba, who died in 2008, was nicknamed Africa’s Skylark, evoking the beauty of her voice, but falling short of…

Devil Disco Club host HRH, Simonotron and Kris Wasabi

The Trouble duo of Hobbes and Erik d’Viking welcome us back for yet more seedy backstreet disco thrills and edgy glamour, courtesy of brand new Edinburgh electro-pop band HRH and regular DJs Simonotron (Club For Heroes) and Kris Wasabi (Wasabi Disco)…

Edinburgh's Liquid Room reopens with extra level and new kit

It might seem like only the other month that the Liquid Room was closed after a fire broke out in the Indian restaurant upstairs, but to those involved it’s felt like a lifetime. ‘It’s been too long since I’ve actually done my job,’ reflects manager…

Graeme Clark guests as The Revenge at Return to Mono

For Graeme Clark, aka The Revenge, this is something of a golden period. As if to prove the point, The List has to conduct an email interview with him all the way from Japan, where he’s on tour. It’s a long way from his home in Glasgow and even farther…

JakN continue the minimal techno at the GRV

Now heading into their seventh year, it seems a pleasure for the boys at Edinburgh techno night JakN to be able to report a positive change on the horizon. After all, they’ve already endured two venue changes (one forced on them when their original…

Doc Daneeka set for Fortified vs Stay Plastic

This isn’t, as you may have already anticipated, the character from Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 who actually knows what Catch 22 is. Instead, Swansea producer Mial Watkins is one of the rising stars of the UK clubbing scene, although which scene we’re not…