Music, Previews

Toro Y Moi set for 2013 UK tour with third album Anything in Return

South Carolina's Toro Y Moi on his musical influences and latest album Anything in Return

‘I want to make music that people should hear, not what they want to hear,’ says Chazwick ‘Chaz’ Bundick, the South Carolina native who records a selection of boundary-pressing intelligent dance tracks under the alias Toro Y Moi, amongst many others.

A$AP Rocky presents debut album to the UK

Controversial Harlem hip hop star gets seductive

The good thing about being a rapper is that when you do something idiotic, one of your peers will be along shortly with a different cock-up to steal the limelight. Take A$AP Rocky, the languid and beguiling New York MC and the recent furore over his…

Programme for the Edinburgh International Festival 2013 puts artists and technology centre-stage

Tod Machover, the Wooster Group and Oper Frankfurt among the EIF programme highlights

A crowd sourced orchestral work by boundary breaker Tod Machover is just one of the many highlights of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival programme. Set over three weeks this August, the EIF’s line-up includes an homage to Allen Ginsberg with…

The cream of Scottish music to play goNORTH 2013

The creative industries festival features performances from Alarm Bells, Roman Nose and Fat Goth

Important figures from across the creative industries - and more importantly, a heap of great bands - are once again flocking to Inverness for the annual goNORTH festival. There are over 70 live acts already on the bill, many of whom have already caught…

Edinburgh label Song, by Toad unveils grand plans for Record Store Day 2013

The DIY label is involved in some live performances plus a Beer vs Music experiment...

As beloved music emporia like Monorail, VoxBox, LOVEmusic and Avalanche hatch plans for Record Store Day 2013, Matthew Young of homegrown Edinburgh indie label Song, by Toad is flogging beer for a song. ‘On Record Store Day, we’ll be releasing our Beer…

Profile: Matthew Collings

The electronic sound artist explains why 'experimental' music needn't be alienating

The Edinburgh-based electronic composer/ sound artist has played alongside Tim Hecker, Chris Corsano and Nico Muhly. Besides his solo work, he’s a collaboration-loving, genre-embracing machine, making interactive audio-visual installations, or music for…

Michael Gira discusses Swans' upcoming live date at the Arches

The post-punk experimental outfit will be touring their latest album, The Seer

‘I see it all, I see it all, I see it all, I see it all,’ intones Michael Gira on the title track of Swans’ latest album, The Seer. Having carved out a 30-plus year career as a musician, label boss, artist and author, indeed the enigmatic frontman has…

Wet Sounds - Glasgow event combines swimming and music

Float in a pool listening to sounds by Joel Cahen and La Horrox

It’s the most listening fun you can have without electrocuting yourself. You get in the pool. You listen to music either in the water, out of the water or somewhere in between, floating on the surface. There are speakers submerged below you and in the…

Spring culture preview 2013

Nick Evans: Solar Eyes Evans' forthcoming solo show features a new set of his striking amorphic white plaster sculptures. The most ambitious is a large architectural complex which mimics the geometry of an Aztec temple. Evans' fascination with motifs…

Alex Scally of dream-pop duo Beach House - interview

Scally and vocalist Victoria Legrand are enjoying success from breakthrough album Bloom

An interview with Beach House’s Alex Scally is worth the chase across a continent, the reschedulings and delays as he, singer Victoria Legrand and their band and crew relay their way through the duo’s biggest tour of the United States since they formed…

RockNess 2013 Bluffer's Guide

Guide to the wide array of musical genres present at this year's RockNess

Musical genres can be tricky things at the best of times so here’s out cut out a keep guide in case you find yourself out of your depth while chatting to a musical trainspotter Techno Do Say: ‘While you have to respect the innovations coming out…

Sophie Kromholz, one of the founders of TYCI, shares the group's Record Store Day plans

The women's collective is hosting performances by Jo Mango, Siobhan Wilson and Kitty the Lion

Like many good stories, the tale of TYCI starts in a bar. A group of witty wild things were in the throes of discussion (and beverages of various alcoholic percentages), when the following issue was raised: people still make a really big deal out of…

Indie-pop group The Plimptons prepare to say farewell after 13 years

The DIY-minded posse are set to release a final compilation to mark their goodbye

Glasgow indie-popsters The Plimptons have finally decided to call it a day after 13 years together. Originally hailing from deepest, darkest Lanarkshire which, given their skewed social commentary and sardonic wit would have you believe was a…

Bwani Junction, Alarm Bells and Honeyblood join forces for Breakout Scotland

The trio form the line-up at The List's first live music event

Edinburgh's Bwani Junction will travel through to Glasgow to join city natives Alarm Bells and Honeyblood for The List's first ever live event at Stereo on Thursday 21 March. London-based promoters Breakout, whose events have showcased the hottest…

Rustie and TNGHT to perform at Pleasure Principle 2013

Weekend dance festival in Cornwall is the product of a collaboration between Numbers and Dedbeat

Glasgow’s Numbers and the team behind former Dedbeat festival have jointly created Pleasure Principle, a new music weekender to add to the 2013 calendar. The already confirmed lineup features a mix of big names in hip hop and electronic music…

The Intoxicating Rose Garden: a performance adaptation of Persian poet Hafez

Laurie Irvine, Jila Peacock, Michael Popper and Red Note Ensemble to perform score by Sally Beamish

Even the name of Sally Beamish’s latest score is something that sounds out of the ordinary. Delve further into what The Intoxicating Rose Garden is all about, and it’s clear that it is a new piece of work which is quite different from anything even the…

Celtic Connections 2013 programme launched

The music fest launches anniversary programme featuring The Mavericks, Aimee Mann and more

The cultural behemoth that is Celtic Connections looks set to bring its A-game next year, as it celebrates 20 years on the music scene with a bumper programme from around the globe. Folk, roots, indie and jazz will all be represented as stalwarts of the…

Glasgow's Minimal initiative to celebrate Estonian composer Arvo Pärt

Part's Stabat Mater and Passio will be conducted by Paul Hillier

Now entering its third year, Glasgow Music’s groundbreaking Minimal initiative brings a weekend of music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt to City Halls and Kelvingrove. His Stabat Mater will be heard one night, with Passio, a setting of the St John…

Animal Collective bringing Centipede Hz tour to Glasgow's O2 ABC

The album is slower-selling than Merriweather Post Pavilion, but fits better with AnCo's masterplan

Will Merriweather Post Pavilion, comfortably Animal Collective’s most commercially successful album in nine attempts to date, ultimately prove their happy accident? It pushed the American purveyors of strange, soupy, experimental neo-psychedelia onto…

Five reasons to check out Matthew Herbert’s ‘One Pig’

The sound experiment documents the birth, life and death of a pig

1 Not many gigs document the birth, life and death of a pig ‘The whole show is about remembering this life that existed and then passed. All of us are playing pig samples. Our drummer’s playing a drum made from the skin of the pig. We’ve also got a chef…

Bizarro-pop oddball Ariel Pink set for Glasgow's Stereo

The man and his Haunted Graffiti cohorts are coming to town to promote new album Mature Themes

Ariel Pink recently declared in an interview, ‘If I could find another Ariel to perform my songs, I gladly would.’ For someone who pathologically enjoys tying interviewers in knots, this sentiment actually rings true. Pink is like the Pied Piper of…

New BBC SSO airing of Tristan and Isolde to be conducted by Donald Runnicles

The Edinburgh born conductor will be joined by Matthew Best, Nina Stemme and Nicky Spence

In Edinburgh born Donald Runnicles, Scotland is extremely fortunate to have one of the world’s finest Wagnerian conductors as a prime mover in the country’s musical midsts. Featuring the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, of which he is Chief Conductor…

Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival programme highlights

Scottish Opera, Music Like a Vitamin and director Jack Bond are among the top tips for the fest

‘Walk in my shoes’ is the theme of the sixth edition of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival (SMHAFF). This year we’re presenting nearly 300 arts events across Scotland. As before, it encompasses theatre, comedy, film, dance, literature…

Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong talks to us ahead of their UK tour

New album Four is 'the first time we’ve communicated what we wanted to achieve, with any record'

Bloc Party paved the way for resurgence in the popularity of simplistic, yet engaging rock music when they first emerged almost ten years ago. With their biting, post-punk aesthetic and potent hooks, the band enjoyed brief but major success with three…

John Cale promises 'straight rock'n'roll' for upcoming Edinburgh gig

The ex-Velvet Underground man discusses his latest album, Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood

Whatever you do, don’t even dare to ask 70-year-old ex-Velvet Underground member and renowned experimentalist and collaborator John Cale if he’s ever thought about retiring. ‘No, I’ve never thought about retiring,’ he comes back with a bristling laugh…