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Music and Reviews

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Steve Strange and the Detroit Starrzz, Citrus Club, Edinburgh, Fri 3 Feb 2012

Steve Strange and the Detroit Starrzz - Citrus Club, Edinburgh, Fri 3 Feb 2012

Disappointing gig from the New Romantic

(2 stars)8 Feb 2012

When 80s tribute band, and tonight's support act Party Fears Three dedicate their bombastically unsubtle cover of David Bowie's 'Ashes To Ashes' to Steve Strange,…

Raydale Dower - Cryptic Nights at CCA, Glasgow, Thu 2 Feb 2012

Raydale Dower - Cryptic Nights at CCA, Glasgow, Thu 2 Feb 2012

Experimental but playful sound installation

(3 stars)8 Feb 2012

The title of Raydale Dower's new 'spatial sound composition' speaks volumes about the former Uncle John & Whitelock bassist and current Tut Vu Vu clarinettist and sonic architect's methodology.…

Lana Del Rey - Born to Die

Lana Del Rey - Born to Die

The starlet's debut album outshines the blogocentric hype

(4 stars)8 Feb 2012

(Polydor) Amid the conspiracy theories, the double-standards, the cosmetic surgery obsessions, the questions of authenticity (or lack thereof – like pop was ever without a scheme); amid the histrionic revelations (how dare she have tried before!…

Still Corners, Captain’s Rest, Sat 4 Feb

Still Corners, Captain’s Rest, Sat 4 Feb

Dreamy shoegaze five-piece tour recent album

(4 stars)8 Feb 2012

Still Corners had one heck of a 2011, playing SXSW, touring Europe and the US and releasing their debut LP, Creatures of an Hour, and the little basement of the Captain’s is full of people wondering if they can be as lovely live as they are on record.

Hazy Recollections – O2 ABC2, Glasgow, Sun 22 Jan

Hazy Recollections – O2 ABC2, Glasgow, Sun 22 Jan

Electro-folk and French lullabies bring weepie and comedy moments

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

Celtic Connections’ Hazy Recollections sessions are great for two main reasons. Firstly, they provide a gathering place for the legion of those with beards and plaid shirts. Secondly, you get to see just how far the festival’s remit of ‘folk, roots and…

The Unthanks, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Tue 24 Jan

The Unthanks, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Tue 24 Jan

Sisters deliver inventive tribute to Robert Wyatt and Antony Hegarty

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

This Celtic Connections show was the last planned outing for what Rachel Unthank, with inordinate modesty, refers to as ‘our self-indulgent experiment’ – that is, the Northumbrian folk collective’s double tribute to the songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony…

Henry Rollins – Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Fri 13 Jan

Henry Rollins – Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Fri 13 Jan

Prolific punk-rocker gets gut laughs on his three-hour rant

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

Few people can make a decent living out of talking on stage for two hours. Henry Rollins, on the other hand, has it down to a fine art. An honorary punk rock graduate having earned his stripes fronting S.O.A. and Black Flag in the 80s, and later, his…

Explosions in The Sky - O2 Academy, Glasgow, Mon 23 Jan

Explosions in The Sky - O2 Academy, Glasgow, Mon 23 Jan 2012

An elemental, foundation-shaking post-rock rollercoaster

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

Explosions in The Sky’s music has always had very elemental feel to it. As the unforgiving Glasgow winter freezes the breath in every pair of lungs waiting to get into the Academy tonight, the Texan’s set, which could soundtrack the bleak, sparse cold…

M83 - The Arches, Thu 19 Jan

M83 - The Arches, Thu 19 Jan

Revered French electro act let down by bad sound

(2 stars)3 Feb 2012

The problem with eagerly anticipating a show for any great length of time is that you always leave yourself open to disappointment if things don’t live up to your expectations, such is the way with live music. Sold out weeks in advance, M83’s…

Ed Sheeran, Tue 10 Jan, HMV Picture House, Edinburgh

Ed Sheeran - Tue 10 Jan 2012, HMV Picture House, Edinburgh

Unlikely chart-topping teen idol performs angsty ballads

(3 stars)3 Feb 2012

‘I have some news’, Ed Sheeran casually mentions amidst the screaming adoration, after a nice loop-pedal driven cover of 'Wayfaring Stranger'. ‘My album’s just gone triple platinum’. (More screams). Quite impressive, really, for the unlikely teen idol…

Wild Flag, Oran Mor, Mon 30 Jan

Wild Flag, Oran Mor, Mon 30 Jan

Indie-rock supergroup prove more than the sum of their parts

(4 stars)3 Feb 2012

The word ‘supergroup’ often sets alarm bells ringing. What if the weight of previous successes is too much pressure? What if this new project isn’t as good? Hell, what if it’s downright rubbish (see exhibit A: Velvet Revolver)? Wild Flag are of…

Paul McCartney - Kisses on the Bottom

Paul McCartney - Kisses on the Bottom

Macca covers 1920s and 1930s standards, with vanilla results

(3 stars)3 Feb 2012

Paul McCartney has the weirdest back catalogue of any Beatle. This is an album of the 20s and 30s standards his dad used to play and it's less weird than perplexing, thanks to the unfortunate choice of Tommy 'Mainstream' LiPuma as producer. After his…

The Banana Sessions - Mixtape

The Banana Sessions - Mixtape

Long-awaited debut album from the folksy Edinburgh fivesome

(3 stars)3 Feb 2012

Waiting four years before releasing debut album Mixtape, Edinburgh five-piece The Banana Sessions certainly can't be accused of rushing in to anything. Exhibiting an eclectic combination of styles Mixtape opens with 'Two Seasons' a well crafted folk…

The Muppets

The Muppets

Old-school bonhomie and well-calculated cameos in affectionate reboot

(3 stars)1 Feb 2012

(U) 103min Long before there were computer generated characters, fuzz, felt and puppetry launched talking animals onto our television and cinema screens, and few were as well loved as Jim Henson’s Muppets. A bona fide pop-culture phenomenon, Kermit…

Cry Parrot New Year Fest - Nice & Sleazy, Glasgow, Fri 13 Jan

Cry Parrot New Year Fest - Nice & Sleazy, Glasgow, Fri 13 Jan

Snapshot of Scotland’s restless underground featuring Sacred Paws

(4 stars)1 Feb 2012

Not so much a ‘hot tips for 2012’ shindig as a snapshot of Scotland’s restless underground, the second night of independent promoter Cry Parrot’s new bands residency is dominated by electronica, but there’s room for polyrhythmic guitar’n’drum jams too.

Steven Severin: Vampyr - Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh, Thu 12 Jan

Steven Severin: Vampyr - Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh, Thu 12 Jan

Ex-Banshees bassist delivers brooding live score to 1930s horror classic

(3 stars)1 Feb 2012

The man with the flowing white hair walks towards a small table and chair to one side of the Cameo’s big screen. Sporting a long black winter coat and carrying a glass of red wine, the man looks as if he’s stepped in from another, altogether darker age…

Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers - The Arches, Glasgow, Sat 21 Jan 2012

Zoe Muth & The Lost High Rollers - The Arches, Glasgow, Sat 21 Jan 2012

Accomplished musicianship but work in progress lacks intensity

(3 stars)1 Feb 2012

The comparisons with country greats have been made in abundance – Iris DeMent, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch – but Zoe Muth is a singer-songwriter with unique talents. The voice is strong, the tunes engaging and the lyrics, which form bleak but…

Azari & III - Azari & III

Azari & III - Azari & III

Credit due delivering a straightforward house music manifesto with compelling four-to-the-floor forc

(4 stars)1 Feb 2012

(Island) This self-titled debut is actually a major label re-release of an album that, until recently, was widely available as an import – including on Spotify. It’s getting a reboot in the UK in CD form (you remember CDs right?) though really the…

Palace - Domino reissue several albums from Will Oldham project

Palace - Domino reissue several albums from Will Oldham project

There is No-one What Will Take Care Of You/ Days In The Wake/ Hope/ Viva Last Blues/ Lost Blues And

(5 stars)1 Feb 2012

(Domino) Before he cast himself as Bonnie Prince Billy, Kentuckian alt-folk heartbreaker Will Oldham recorded several exquisite, distinguished long-players under the Palace moniker. After aeons in the hard-to-find wilderness, they will be…

Various Artists - World Routes: On The Road

Various Artists - World Routes: On The Road

30-track BBC Radio 3 compilation featuring Toumani Diabaté, Tito Paris and Ilham Al Madfai

(4 stars)1 Feb 2012

(Nascente) How would we hear diverse world musics without Radio 3? Thank goodness they still have the budget to travel to far-flung places to capture stunning sounds from ordinary musicians we’d never know about otherwise. Since 2000 the World Routes…

Ibrahím Maalouf - Diagnostic

Ibrahím Maalouf - Diagnostic

A groundbreaking album of brooding French-Arabic tones from trumpeter

(5 stars)1 Feb 2012

(Harmonia Mundi) The brooding French-Arabic quarter tones of Ibrahím Maalouf’s trumpet first seduced as guest on the late Lhasa de Sela’s desert island disc The Living Road. Bewitching then, Maalouf’s own debut with a brace of tremendous musicians…

Django Django - Django Django

Django Django - Django Django

Dense and often surprising debut spitting up bursts of bold, spaced-out texture

(4 stars)27 Jan 2012

(Because) Django Django’s debut has a lot of strings to its bow. It benefits from being the result of prolonged and measured tinkering by three Edinburgh art school grads over the space of a couple of years in a London bedroom. These efforts have…

Trailer Trash Tracys - Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Sun 15 Jan 2012

Trailer Trash Tracys - Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Sun 15 Jan 2012

Effects-laden shoegaze fog heavy on the exquisite melodrama

(3 stars)27 Jan 2012

Not, as you might have expected from the name, a clan of bad-mouthin’, whisky-swillin’ Midwestern girls battering badly-tuned guitars and trying to resurrect the lost souls of L7 or The Distillers, Trailer Trash Tracys are instead three guys and a girl…

Courtney Taylor-Taylor & Jim Rugg - One Model Nation

Courtney Taylor-Taylor & Jim Rugg - One Model Nation

Unsuccessful comic book crossover attempt from the Dandy Warhols frontman

(2 stars)27 Jan 2012

(Titan Books) It’s always interesting when someone turns their hand from one artform to another. However, One Model Nation is proof that the results aren’t always as interesting as the concept. The idea of a comic from Dandy Warhols’ frontman…

Howler - America Give Up

Howler - America Give Up

The kind of easily-digestible festival fodder that could hit the spot live, but is dull on record

(2 stars)27 Jan 2012

(Rough Trade) You think we would all have learned by now that it is frankly unproductive to call anything the ‘new this’, the ‘next that’, or, god forbid, ‘the hottest thing you’ll hear all year’. Sadly, whether they’re aware of it or not, young US…

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