Music and Records

Jonnie Common - Master of None

Skewed-pop amble is a lo-fi electro-folk wonder

13 Jun 2011

(Red Deer Club) He’s an affiliate of Inspector Tapehead, a former member of Down the Tiny Steps, and the sorcerer behind the recent Deskjob compilation, but Glasgow’s Jonnie Common finally takes to the spotlight with Master of None, his debut album…

Fire! With Jim O’Rourke - Unreleased?

Members of The Thing, Tape and Wildbirds & Peacedrum

13 Jun 2011

(Rune Grammofon) Saxophone behemoth Mats Gustafsson is best known for his work with baws-oot jazzers The Thing, but Fire! is a relatively controlled affair, more rock-oriented improv than free jazz. Gustafsson, bassist Johan Berthling (Tape) and…

Quentin Collins/Brandon Allen Quartet - What’s It Gonna Be

Breath of traditionalism amid experimentalism of London jazz scene

13 Jun 2011

(Sunlightsquare Records) A breath of traditionalism amid the experimental directions currently dominating the London jazz scene from trumpeter Quentin Collins and saxophonist Brandon Allen, with Ross Stanley on Hammond organ and Enzo Zirilli on…

Julian Lage Group - Gladwell

American guitarist's multiple genre style quietly captivating

13 Jun 2011

(Emarcy Records) American guitarist Julian Lage made a big impression as a teenager when he appeared with Gary Burton at the Glasgow Jazz Festival a few years back, and is now maturing into an idiosyncratic and fascinating artist. Like Bill…

Singles and downloads May/June 2011

Battles' ‘Ice Cream’ take Single of the Month title

31 May 2011

The phrase ‘singer-songwriter and professional footballer’ would have most reviewers frisbeeing a CD into the bin faster than you can say ‘super-injunction’, but fortunately enough for Kevin Rutkiewicz it’s a fan of his club, the mighty Dunfermline…

Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang - Aestuarium

27 May 2011

(Ideologic Organ) Ideologic Organ, Edition Mego’s ‘old records’ wing, have given this 2005 recording by Sunn O))) and Mick Patton collaborators Jessika Kenney and Eyvind Kang the handsome reissue it deserves. A Stephen O’Malley sleeve graces this…

Matthew Halsall - On The Go

Miles Davis-inspired jazz trumpeter delivers accomplished third album as band leader

27 May 2011

(Gondwana Records) I first heard this Manchester trumpeter through his impressive work on saxophonist Nat Birchall’s Guiding Spirit, and this album – actually his third as leader – lives up to expectation. Birchall returns the favour here, and the…

The Very Best Of Morrissey

A new Morrissey collection might leave Moz fans wanting

24 May 2011

So, from the man who once spat vitriol at record companies and bands who fobbed off fans with reissued, repackaged, re-evaluated records comes The Very Best of Morrissey, long-lost brother to 1997's Suedehead: The Best of Morrissey. More than half the…

Lady Gaga - Born This Way

Finally we’ve got the freaky music to match the monsters

24 May 2011

(Polydor) However much we snigger at the egg shell antics and purposely deranged interview technique, people gobble up everything Gaga does right now. So Gaga wins. But sticking firm to her Warhol and Bowie-inspired artistic roots and achieving…

King Post Kitsch - The Party’s Over

Variegated yet cohesive; dreamy yet gripping psychedelic rock

24 May 2011

(Song, by Toad) To the regal ranks of Scots pop innovators King Biscuit Time and King Creosote, let us welcome Glasgow-via-London psychedelic rock tsar King Post Kitsch – alias sound engineer Charlie Ward. Ward kicks off his debut album in style…

Death Cab for Cutie - Codes and Keys

Where usually notoriously dour, there’s traces of sunshine here

24 May 2011

(Atlantic) There’s a tangible buzz for Codes and Keys, Death Cab for Cutie’s 7th studio album. It seems the cult US indie-ites are teetering on the edge of true mainstream triumph, and having hit No. 1 in their homeland in 2008, the time is nigh for…

Atari Teenage Riot - Is This Hyperreal?

A compelling call to arms following ATR’s abrasive sonic formula

20 May 2011

Alec Empire’s anarcho cadre issues an angry communiqué for the digital era

Various Artists - Making Moonshine 3

7VWWVW, Rory McLeod and Burnt Island contribute to tribute covers EP

20 May 2011

(SL Records) A blind musician and inventor of instruments who wandered the streets of New York dressed as a Norse god, Moondog was bloody great. He’s once more the subject of this third tribute covers EP from Edinburgh’s SL, with the five artists…

Sons & Daughters - Mirror Mirror

Optimo JD Twitch-produced album takes in goth-rock, electronics and post punk

20 May 2011

(Domino) It’s taken Sons & Daughters five years to record their third album, but the result ensures their catalogue remains high-quality and ripe for future (re)discovery. Optimo’s JD Twitch makes his album debut as a producer here, stripping things…

Patrick Wolf - Lupercalia

Partner piece to The Bachelor shows that OTT is pretty much Wolf’s MO

20 May 2011

(Mercury) ‘I wish you the top, top, top of the morning,’ beams Patrick Wolf on his fifth album’s rambunctious opener ‘The City’, as if springing fresh out of bed to begin another fine day in fantastical glam pop land. Quite how the androgynous…

Tom Vek - Leisure Seizure

Broadly similar follow-up to much-pilfered sound of debut

20 May 2011

(Island) Circa his debut album We Have Sound’s arrival in 2005, Tom Vek was hailed by some as the new Beck – quit tittering at the back there already. The Londoner’s garage-recorded mix of monotone drawl, angular beats and popping bass was…

Dananananaykroyd - There Is A Way

An incredibly smart rock record driven by their trademark tireless energy and joy

20 May 2011

(Pizza College) Award five stars or have them sectioned? It’s often a fine line, but a world without Dananananaykroyd’s glorious lunacy would be a sad place indeed. The Glasgow six-some have excelled themselves with There Is A Way; an incredibly…

Susana Baca - Afrodiaspora

20 May 2011

(Luaka Bop) Grammy award winning Afro-Peruvian singer Susana Baca was an early signing to Talking Head David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label and her latest, long-awaited album sees her explore rhythms of the African-Latin diaspora. Her attractive, clear…

Battles - Gloss Drop

Techno-rock propulsions and afro-cuban wig-outs featuring Gary Numan and Boredoms’ Yamantaka Eye

20 May 2011

(Warp) Battles feel so well-established in the innovative rock canon – so visionary, brawny and enduring – that it’s easy to forget they’ve only released one album, 2007’s thrilling Mirrored. Granted, their very formation bore the legacy of a…

White Denim - D

Further wildly adventurous tracks held together by old school psychedelic country vibe

20 May 2011

(Downtown) The Austin, Texas outfit’s previous album, the fittingly titled Fits, was a brilliantly balmy rock-out that proved to be even more dazzlingly unpredictable than their debut. And when they played material from it on tour in Scotland, they…

Jacob Yates and the Pearly Gate Lock Pickers – Luck (Re:Peater)

20 May 2011

Hallelujah! The ghost of Uncle John & Whitelock, Glasgow's seriously demented purveyors of their self-styled horror r n' b, is reborn and delivered here in the still possessed shape of Jabob Yates (nee Lovatt), former howler of that parish. Lovatt and…

She’s Hit - Pleasure

'Like The Stooges giving the Jesus and Mary Chain what for'

19 May 2011

(Re:Peater) Named after a suitably scuzzed-up epistle by Nick Cave’s former breeding ground/alma mater The Birthday Party, but judging by the band photos too young to shave, this Glasgow quintet take their forebears’ primitive voodoo trash aesthetic…

Various Artists - Songlines Music Awards 2011

Varied and fluent tracks from world music awards shortlist

19 May 2011

(Songlines) Kicking off with Femi Kuti’s throbbing Afrobeat anthem ‘Dem Bobo’, this is a superbly varied, fluent sequence of top tracks from the 16 nominees for the 2011 Songlines Music Awards. The foremost international music magazine stepped into…

Single of the month: Alphabet Song by Panda Su

Singles and downloads review, April 2011

18 May 2011

You join The List in a Central Belt end terrace on a Monday morning. And yes, it’s done up like a Dalston warehouse; yes those are over-active strobes: can we interest you in a whistling glow-stick emblazoned with Hello Kitty’s face? Correct, we are…

Labels of Love - Re:Peater Records

17 May 2011

Stevie McCaffrey ran Lucky Number Nine Records for three years before setting up RE:PEATER Records last year, a label he now runs with scuzzy Glasgow rockers, She's Hit, who he is also the manager for. Here Stevie talks to The List about upcoming…