Music

Interview: John Cooper Clarke set for 2013 UK tour

Punk, poet and comic recaps 35-year career with humour and fresh insight

Like a recently awakened raven, all hair teased to eternity and trademark skinny suit, John Cooper Clarke is one of the most unique figures in poetry and punk. His forthright poetry, delivered in a breathless, freight-train rush of breath, was perfectly…

A History of Classical Music: Part 4 - The Later Renaissance

Alex Johnston's series of articles outlining the history of classical music - with Spotify playlist

Welcome back. We left off in the mid-16th century, and for quite a while yet, the vast bulk of music that gets written down is church music. And you know what that means, right? ... More unaccompanied choral singing? Yes! And lucky you, because…

Arika Episode 4: Freedom Is A Constant Struggle - Tramway, Glasgow, Thu 18–Sun 21 Apr

A quietly powerful weekend of jazz, poetry, philosophy and 'haiku for black people'

Arika may no longer do music festivals, but Episode 4: Freedom Is A Constant Struggle, boasted the most sublime music the innovative Edinburgh-based curators have presented since the glory days of Instal, alongside riveting talks, readings and…

New Scottish band Akord bring hard rock from the Granite City

Zealous Aberdeen-bred band sweeping competition ahead of debut EP release

On the cusp of securing top spot at their third competition in as many months, the Granite City's noiseniks Akord have been rapidly attracting major attention from both sides of the border; all of which has been impressively amassed prior to the release…

Travis, Johnny Marr and Hurts announced for T in the Park 2013

Day splits also announced - see which acts are playing when from Fri 12-Sun 14 Jul

Glasgow band Travis have been announced as performers at T in the Park 2013. Having played at the very first T in the Park in 1994 as Glass Onion, they will return to Kinross to take part in the festival’s 20th anniversary, playing on Sat 13 Jul. Travis…

Matmos - The Marriage of True Minds

Diverse album a return to form for duo specialising in high-concept fun

For two decades now, Matmos have making music that goes way beyond sticking microphones in inappropriate places and making glitchy techno from the results. Originally emerging during the post-rock wave of cerebral electronic experimentalists that…

Albums round-up - April 2013

New releases from The Postal Service, Small Black, Akron/Family, Sweet Baboo and Collar Up reviewed

The Postal Service Give Up: 10-Year Anniversary Reissue (Sub Pop) ●●●●● Jimmy Tamborello and Ben Gibbard – of Dntel and Death Cab for Cutie respectively – likely didn’t consider the longevity of their fun little ‘record-by-mail’ project. But their…

Meursault's Neil Pennycook talks touring, recording and Plastic Animals

The power-folk group are working on a new album following last year's Something for the Weakened

Fronted by the booming and distinct voice of Neil Pennycook, power-folk act Meursault have been offering their delicate, tender musings for over five years now. They put out their debut album, 2008’s Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues, the first…

Admiral Fallow, Emeli Sande and Django Django nominated for Scottish Album of the Year Award 2012

Dam Mantle, The Twilight Sad and Lau also in running for best Scottish album of the last year

Admiral Fallow, Emeli Sande and Django Django are among the artists who are in the running for the Scottish Album of the Year Award 2012. They are part of a longlist of 20 albums, whittled down from over 270 titles by a selection of journalists…

Singles and downloads - April 2013

Releases from Book Group, Digital Jones, Panda Su and Roman Nose reviewed

Book Group - Homeward Sound EP (bookgroup.bandcamp.com) ●●●● Opening with the beatific alt-rock sucker-punch of ‘Year of the Cat’, this excellent feedback-strewn debut from Edinburgh’s Book Group (ex-Come on Gang / Kays Lavelle) is packed with…

King Creosote - Oran Mor, Glasgow, Wed 10 Apr 2013

Fence Records stalwart's bittersweet railing over declining physical music sales

Following on from his low-key appearance on the fringes of Fence’s Gnomegame festival in Anstruther the weekend before, Kenny Anderson was playing the second date of a monstrous month-long UK solo tour here, the first coming the day before in Shetland.

The Cat Empire add UK dates to 2013 World Tour schedule

The ska-jazz collective are touring their fifth studio album, Steal the Light

Melbourne-based ska-jazz collective The Cat Empire will visit the UK on their biggest world tour to date. Celebrating the release of their new album, Steal the Light, the genre-defying band will visit a total of four continents and perform a total of 70…

Casual Sex - Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, Glasgow, Fri 5 Apr 2013

Upcoming post-punk 4-piece stand out a mile in Glasgow's healthy band scene

The idea that Casual Sex are successors to Franz Ferdinand’s mantle as post-punk overlords of Glasgow has already been floated. But this lot are in a parallel universe of their own. To watch them is to be aware that something special’s undoubtedly on…

Interview: Folklore Tapes - Setting to song a dark period of English history

Contemporary musicians using music to explore ideas of place, landscape, history

As long as musicians and storytellers value the immediacy and intimacy of the oral tradition, folklore and the histories it contains will live on in new and refreshing guises. One such musical endeavour that fits this idea is Folklore Tapes. An ongoing…

Five highlights from Arika: Episode 5 - Hidden in Plain Sight

(M)IMOSA/Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church. Inspired by the era-defining 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning, which shone a spotlight on New York’s underground drag queen culture, this dance performance by experimental choreographer…

Et Tu Brute??? - Henry's Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, Wed 20 Mar 2013

Avant-garage hardcore supergroup peddling intense and wilfully no-fi sound

Edinburgh scene super-groups don't come along every day, yet the arrival of Et tu Brute??? opening a four-band House of Crust bill headlined by Californian punks, Fracas, is a tantalising prospect. Initiated by Edinburgh School For the Deaf/St Judes…

Steve Mason - King Tut’s, Glasgow, Tue 9 Apr 2013

Heady atmosphere evidence of deep personal and musical connection

The beered-up battalion swarming the venue are celebrating like a home game victory. Why wouldn’t they be on this Tuesday? (Insert obvious Thatcher comment here.) But it’s Mason’s danceable, wry mid-tempo indie that's the primary source of the crowd’s…

Fuaim is Solas - Douglas Robertson Photography, Edinburgh, Thu 4 Apr 2013

Film and live music combine at event from Screen Bandita collective

With the location shrouded in mystery until the last minute, those who sought out film collective Screen Bandita’s intriguing Fuaim is Solas joined a winsome crowd on stools and scatter cushions. Hypnotic mastery from singer/songwriter Gareth Dickson…

Top 5 ex-wrestlers

The Rock, Hulk Hogan and Chris Jericho are among those who have attempted non-wrestling careers

With the dust from Wrestlemania XXIX still settling, and wrestler-turned-writer Mick Foley coming to Edinburgh on April 24 to try out his new persona as a stand-up story teller, The List looks at the top 5 wrestlers who tired of being beaten up for a…

Still Corners - Strange Pleasures

A record of great pop and immense beauty destined to possess your summer

(Sub Pop) A pleasure for certain, but not an unexpected one. As much as it owed to the much-missed Broadcast, Still Corners’ 2011 debut Creatures of an Hour was such an auspiciously pretty arrival that it’s little wonder to find the London-based…

Phoenix - Bankrupt!

Post-breakthrough return is brash, unapologetic, full of pomp and self-assured tunes

(Atlantic) Bankrupt! begins with the brilliant bravura of ‘Entertainment’, a blitzkrieg of uptempo synths and guitars. It’s the kind of epic, contemporary new wave swagger that goes down just swell when performed in front of huge summer festival crowds.

William Tyler - Impossible Truth

A shimmering, uplifting psych-folk album influenced by 70s singer-songwriters

(Merge) With gilded stints as backing guitarist to Bonnie Prince Billy, Silver Jews, Candi Staton and Lambchop under his low-slung belt, you might be inclined to wonder if prodigious fingerpicker William Tyler had the motivation, energy or indeed time…

Thirty Pounds of Bone - I Cannot Sing You Here, But for Songs of Where

Album exploring location and identity via travelling odes and upbeat celtic folk knees-ups

(Armellodie) As you might suspect of an itinerant folk hoarder who takes his grisly nom de plume from the average weight of a dead man’s bones, Johnny Lamb appreciates the gravity of his songs. His third album, I Cannot Sing You Here... frames his…

Eagleowl - This Silent Year

Languorous chamber-pop full of silence, distortion and exquisite humour

(Fence) Here are a few clues that this is a rare and unhurried debut album: it starts with a beat, and then the beat slows down; the instruments come in one by one; the opening words are ‘some other time’. The album’s centrepiece is in fact its…

Neon Neon - Praxis Makes Perfect

Gruff Rhys concept album based on rogue leftist Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli

(LEX) Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys has long loved turning strange biography into pop music that’s stranger still. With the Furries, he referenced Howard Marks, Che Guevara and Einstein’s parents, and on the 2008 Mercury-nominated Stainless…