Music, Reviews

The Group - Live

Gloriously creative and soulful 1986 live recording from dream team of first generation free jazzers

(No Business) A dream team of first generation free jazzers (altoist Marion Brown, bassist Sirone and drummer Andrew Cyrille) and 1970s avant-gardists (violist Billy Bang, trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah and bassist Fred Hopkins), The Group left no studio…

The Asphodells - Ruled by Passion Destroyed by Lust

Andrew Weatherall project takes in electronica, guitar and acid house

(Rotters Golf Club) Given the ephemeral nature of dance music, remaining relevant after 25 years involvement without taking advantage of nostalgia for your former glories, may not be the easiest task. However, Andrew Weatherall seems to have…

Function - Incubation

Expertly crafted exploration into the darker side of dance music

(Ostgut Ton) Sandwell District alumnus Dave Sumner, aka Function, goes on a solo odyssey, veering away from the techno stalwarts/defunct label with his debut foray into LP territory. Incubation sees him exploring his kinship with the darker side of…

Dur Dur Band - Volume 5

Heady Arab-inflected melodies on gem of 1980s Somalian pop

(Awesome Tapes from Africa) Following last year's brilliant album from Ghana’s Bola, the redoubtable Awesome Tapes from Africa have uncovered this gem of 1980s Somalian pop. Recorded in 1987, Dur Dur Band's Volume 5 gives a tantalising flavour of…

Wayne Shorter Quartet - Without A Net

Ingenious chamber jazz from 79-year-old saxophone legend

(Blue Note) Wayne Shorter's first album for Blue Note in 43 years is not quite the daredevil leap into freedom its title might suggest, but it does show the 79-year old saxophone legend in inquisitive form, leading his superb group through an artful…

Atoms for Peace - Amok

Oblique Eraser-esque debut from supergroup featuring Thom Yorke, Flea and Nigel Godrich

(XL recordings) Don’t let the jaunty, almost flamenco-styled bassline which opens the light crackle of electronic pop and fizz of ‘Before Your Very Eyes’ wrong-foot you, because here comes the man at the controls to rain on your parade. ‘Look out at the…

Steve Mason - Monkey Minds in the Devil’s Time

Politically-charged and slickly-produced album of conviction from ex-Beta Band lynchpin

(Double Six) There’s plenty to be written elsewhere about the sad lack of socially-conscious mainstream music being made, whether that’s because most artists just aren’t interested or have an understandable fear of offending someone who might buy…

Conquering Animal Sound - On Floating Bodies

Duo's second album is full of daring and with gloriously rich palette

(Chemikal Underground) Glasgow-based Conquering Animal Sound’s mosaic aesthetic bristles with invention on this their second full-length effort. There are times here when the term, a cornucopia of sounds, seems like damning with faint praise; but…

Kid Canaveral - Now That You Are a Dancer

Second album from promising indie-rock act on Fence Records

(Fence) Legend has it that Kid Canaveral almost expired in an amp inferno during the making of their excellent second LP, Now That You Are a Dancer. Said loudspeaker burst into flames as the Scottish alt-rock quartet recorded album closer, ‘A…

Golden Grrrls - Golden Grrrls

Album of concentrated fun and sunshine with 'best summer ever’ written all over it

(Night School) For decades now, Glasgow has been known for its capacity to produce great pop music. Not ‘pop’ in the vapid, trapped-in-the-digital-jaws-of-the-music-machine sense, but rather that which takes the form of intelligent, instantly…

Pure Love - Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Fri 8 Feb 2013

High energy live show from former Gallows frontman Frank Carter and co

Gallows had built up a reputation for intense, fearsome live shows. They were the leaders of the UK’s hardcore scene leaving a trail of trashed venues in their wake. Each gig an explosion of feral punk rock, flailing bodies, blood and gore. Picked up by…

Nature Boys - Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Sat 2 Feb

Sweat-drenched show from the punk foursome

Cameron Shields, Nature Boy’s eccentric frontman, walks on stage to find an audience already buzzing from the support act’s performance – Pirate Sons. Shields shows up wearing a tweed blazer, and the rest of the 4-piece band have that H&M men’s section…

Dinosaur Jr. - The Arches, Glasgow, Wed 30 Jan

Refreshing reunion from the influential 90s indie stalwarts

Dinosaur Jr. are one of those rare anomalies that seem to defy all logic based on the awe-inspiring precedent that they set at the start of their illustrious career. Not just content with a cash-in reunion tour - like many of their peers - a flurry of…

Mike Heron & Trembling Bells with Hapton Crags - Celtic Connections, Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 24 Jan 2013

Psych folk line-up gives a glimpse into an electric Eden

Nothing lifts the soul quite like The Incredible String Band. This is why you must never swallow the line that ISB were some kind of 1960s novelty outfit, a crowd of free-love Catweazles seeing salamanders in the bonfire. They weren’t. Well, they were a…

The Punk Syndrome

Music documentary following Finnish punk outsiders Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät

A sleeper hit on the film festival circuit, The Punk Syndrome follows the trials and tribulations of Finland’s Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, a punk band whose members have learning disabilities and their rise in popularity within the local crust-punk scene…

TeenCanteen - Noble’s Bar, Edinburgh, Sat 29 Dec

On the last Saturday of 2012, with Leithers gathering to get in training for Hogmanay in one of the area’s better locals, it's not the situation where you might expect to experience one of Edinburgh’s finer prospects. ‘I think that’s the first time…

Monoganon - Mono, Glasgow, Thu 10 Jan

Charmingly ramshackle psych-folk performance from John B McKenna and co

Wandering onstage to the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme, then spending ages tuning up, deliberately awkwardly, Monoganon are a glorious curveball. Gigs by the Glasgow-formed quartet are relatively rare, as singer/songwriter John B McKenna lives in Malmö…

Randan Discotheque - Sonderweg

Artist Craig Coulthard's art-pop posse release an album that's part-po-mo Proclaimers, part Zappa

Fuck miracles. The art/pop diaspora of the last few years traverses regions, as this first non-CD-r release from Forest Pitch imagineur Craig Coulthard’s revolving musical troupe proves in spades. Sonderweg opens with some very wise spoken words before…

Kendrick Lamar - ABC, Glasgow, Wed 16 Jan

An energetic, confident show from the fast-rising Compton hip hop artist

‘My name is Kendrick Lamar,’ our host informs us. ‘I come from a place called Compton California. You know? West Coast, Tupac...’ That’s all he needed to say to remind us of the lineage he’s already managed to hustle and work his way into, after his…

Paul Banks - King Tut’s, Glasgow, Mon 21 Jan

A vaguely phoned-in performance from the Interpol singer formerly known as Julian Plenti

After Interpol announced an indefinite hiatus in 2011 following the departure of bassist Carlos Dengler, the period of uncertainty that followed, and almost welcome respite for the New York post-punk revivalists, allowed the opportunity for its members…

Alex Smoke: Wraetlic - Oddio at Berkeley Suite, Glasgow, Sat 12 Jan 2013

Visuals-heavy set from London-based producer's vocal-based side project

It’s unclear how many of the healthy crowd packed into the Berkeley Suite’s underground art deco-meets-urban gothica black box of a basement know what they’re here to experience, with a small crowd of serious head-nodders and fans of the artist before…

Fatherson & Friends - King Tut’s, Glasgow, Wed 16 Jan

Acoustic show from Celtic indie band fleshed out with brass and strings

Calling in a string quartet and horns section is normally the preserve of bands entering the ‘mature’ middle-phase of their career, but young Kilmarnock quintet Fatherson already feel grown-up enough to dial orchestra, albeit as a one-off for this King…

Anderson McGinty Webster Ward and Fisher - King Tut’s, Glasgow, Sat 12 Jan 2013

Gig showcases Dundee acoustic fivesome’s musicianship

Uniting five pillars of the Dundee music scene, rootsy acoustic collective Anderson McGinty Webster Ward and Fisher is a smart and fruitful exercise in individual songwriters and players combining strengths. With so many talents jostling for primacy as…

Rick Redbeard - No Selfish Heart

Outstanding debut solo album from erstwhile Phantom Band man Rick Anthony

(Chemikal Underground) And the man called Rick Anthony, hitherto deified for conducting The Phantom Band like a stars-and-brimstone preacher, retreated to rural Aberdeenshire; cultivated an elegiac Redbeard; amalgamated an earthly Scots tongue with…

Pissed Jeans - Honeys

(Sub Pop) Four LPs in and Philadelphia’s Pissed Jeans are still hocking up some severely scuzzed-out bile with Honeys, their most consistent set of songs since their debut album Hope For Men back in 2007. Straight off the bat, single and opener…