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15 Nov 2007
POWERPOP Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Wed 17 Oct If record labels really must go getting caught up in unseemly ‘bidding wars’, the least they can do is make sure they’re getting a good band. Columbia recently won the squabble for Manchester duo The Ting…
17 Jul 2008
Orpheum Theatre, Phoenix, Arizona, Wed 18 Jun The seldom touring ‘love or hate him’ artist transported his trademark whisky-soaked growl to the desert to kick off only his third tour of the decade. And, judging by his polished performance, one can…
10 Apr 2008
INDIE/RAVE/GRIME/PUNK/ELECTRO (Atlantic) The so-called new rave scene has been responsible for spewing out a load of old meaningless tosh since it was coined by desperate music journalists two years ago, but its latest wrong comes in the form of the…
21 Jul 2008
If there were any haters still doubting after his decisive clamping of Noel Gallagher at Glastonbury a couple of weeks back, this man of a thousand monikers, J Hova, God MC, Hovito, Jigga or, as his mother knows him best, Shawn Carter remains very much…
26 Apr 2007
The weight of expectation hasn’t affected the Arctic Monkeys one iota. They’ve hardly broken their stride and have tossed off a second album of casual brilliance. It almost feels unfair how off the cuff Favourite Worst Nightmare feels; the lyrics are as…
24 Apr 2008
DOCUMENTARY (15) 96mins After last year’s Control, Anton Corbijn’s considered and stylish dramatisation of Ian Curtis’ life, it would be easy to think that everything you need to know about the legend and legacy of English post-punk outfit Joy…
13 Dec 2007
ROCK (EMI) Released to loosely accompany the Icelandic outfit’s superb recent film, Heima, this two-CD album is a revelation. The Hvarf half contains outtakes and rarities from 12 years of full-band studio sessions and is full of the sumptuous epic…
27 Nov 2006
UNCLASSIFIABLE When the BBC were planning their resurrection of Jackanory, Tom Waits may well have been on the longlist of proposed readers. But maybe they got wind of his disturbing night-time terror ‘Children’s Story’ and revoked the invite. Like…
18 Oct 2007
ELECTRO Overpowered (EMI) A love or hatred of Roisin Murphy’s former band aside, there’s no arguing with the fact that this ex-Moloko vocalist currently makes some of the most sophisticated electro pop around. Boasting catchy melodies, demonic…
6 Sep 2007
POP KT Tunstall delared she wanted to make a ‘scuzzy rock’n’roll album’, but teaming up with Steve Osbourne, who has put the gloss on Placebo, Happy Mondays and U2 among others in the past, meant it was never really going to happen. Instead, Tunstall…
16 Aug 2007
POP Until you’ve actually seen young Faulkner attack an acoustic guitar in a whirl of spider-like fingers and dreadlocks transforming it into a three-piece band in the process, it’s hard to properly appreciate this album. There’s loads of…
3 Jul 2008
REGGAE GOT SOUL (Atlantic Records) Reggae music has taken many diversions since its heyday in the 60s and 70s. Its newest purveyor, Natty – a 24 year-old former mixer turned guitar-plucking singer-songwriter – chooses to smooth out the genre’s rougher…
POP (Polydor) If you’re tired of Abba, you’re tired of life, basically, so this deluxe re-issue of their most ambitious album is extremely welcome. Originally released in 1978 when the band were at their creative and commercial peak, The Album…
ROCK Rilo Kiley’s last album and singer Jenny Lewis’s subsequent solo debut both contained a handful of indie-country stonewall classics, but this lacklustre and scattershot offering shows none of the same spark, despite Lewis’ ever-wonderful and…
27 Feb 2007
FOLK (Greentrax) The Irish band’s second release on Greentrax offers a characteristic mix of lively, infectious tunes and wistful songs, the latter courtesy of another new young singer and fiddle player off the Irish production line, Claire-Anne…
BLUE-EYED SOUL-POP (Mercury Records) What’s the difference between Glasgow act Texas and its frontwoman Sharleen Spiteri? If listening to the latter’s debut solo album is any clue: very little. Wearing her Dusty Springfield influences proudly on her…
19 Jun 2008
ELECTRONICA/POST-ROCK (KFM) Edinburgh-based laptop whiz David Jack has made three albums of atmospheric electronica on his own already, but spearheading this debut from a transatlantic four-way collaboration, he adds a more organic post-rocking vibe…
DUBSTEP (Fabric) This instalment of the FabricLive series sees cheeky young upstarts of the Dubstep scene Caspa and Rusko at the helm. Representing the more playful side to Dubstep, their choices on this album – including much of their own work…
Not to be confused with the 80s hip hop band, this Tom Tom Club comes from Australia. They are a troupe of super-talented boys, who use turntablism, ridiculously impressive beatboxing, high energy drumming and acrobatics to make a slick modern day…
ROCK (EMI) Iceland’s favourite sons recently toured their homeland for free and released a stunning acoustic record, and these both rejuvenating processes seem to have fed into the joyous spirit of this fifth studio album. Opener ‘Gobbledigook…
COMFORT ROCK (Parlophone) Or Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends, to give the ‘Play’s new album its full and entirely unpretentious title. Make no mistake, this is the soundtrack of sitting about the house with Gwyneth and the kids, fretting…
INDIE/RAVE/GRIME/PUNK/ELECTRO The so-called new rave scene has been responsible for spewing out a load of old meaningless tosh since it was coined by desperate music journalists two years ago, but its latest wrong comes in the form of the debut album…
INDIE POP The State of Things (Wall of Sound) So-called by friends because he loves preaching, ‘Reverend’ Jon McClure uses this début collection to fuse workaday Brit-culture musings with stomping indie dance beats. Throbbing, shouty and arrogant…
20 Sep 2007
POP Places (Saddle Creek) Imagine The White Stripes raised on summer sunshine and vintage Beach Boys instead of Detroit rain and Delta blues, and you’ll get some idea of the genius of boy-girl duo Georgie James. This is pure, driven pop music with…
ROCK Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline, Thu 10 Jul This first proper gig for the newly-refurbished 1700-seater Alhambra is a fitting one, with returning Fifer Tunstall warming up for T in the Park. Opening is Johnny Lynch, aka The Pictish Trail…
COUNTRY ROCK (Splashing Duck) Edinburgh-based Chris Bradley’s biography is an impressive read, all tales of musical scholarships, first class honours studying Music at Newcastle University and – most memorably – forming Ukrainian folk groups in Kiev.
ROCK (Rough Trade) If ever a band suited a time, a place and a mood then it is The Hold Steady. Their innate ability to capture that great moment on a warm summer Friday night when everything comes together and things are just . . . right. For four…
17 Jan 2008
Destiny’s Child alumnus Kelly Rowland ’s ‘Work’ (SonyBMG) ••• might be one for the ladies, but by endlessly declaring, ‘Put it in, do it do it’, she’ll no doubt be fuelling chauvinistic male debate on whether one would oblige, fearing it lessen the…
20 Nov 2007
They were never gonna provide the filth and the fury of their 70s heyday, but there are few bands that stand for an entire genre as succinctly as The Sex Pistols so resolutely stand for punk. Fair enough, a 30th anniversary tour (marking the release of…
FOLK In Our Nature (Peacefrog) For most people, Swedish-Argentine troubadour Gonzalez will always be known for his song ‘Heartbeats’ soundtracking that Sony Bravia ad with the bouncy balls in San Francisco, and that’s his main problem. What makes…
INDIE ROCK After a year of sell-out gigs and internet hype the Cumbernauld brotherly trio plus two mates release their debut album. The opener (‘The Panic’, about STD fear) is prophetic: a great, stompy, bang of the fists and wail of the klaxons with…
ELECTRONICA On the cover of the the Vector Lovers’ third long playing offering there is a picture of a group of kids in a field at sunset. It look like it was taken circa 1977. Martin Wheeler -- the man who is Vector Lovers -- seems to crave a bygone…
22 May 2008
WORLD, JAZZ AND BEYOND (SolMusic Recordings) Fast, fun and furious Edinburgh-based ten-piece Orkestra Del Sol let loose a riot of rebellious global street music for this, their second full-length offering. With considerable talent, energy and…
8 May 2008
MUSIC BIOGRAPHY (Viking) The real joy of Mark E Smith and The Fall has always been expecting the unexpected. His music has always stuck to a rigid formula but is somehow never formulaic, and he’s survived every British musical subculture since punk…
ROCK In Return (Rock Action) More terrifying than Cradle of Filth coming to your house to do trick or treat and heavier than a sack of Ozzy’s spuds, Torche at least have the common decency not to take up much of anyone’s time, clocking this…
HIP HOP Live from the Sofa (Man Can) Don’t worry, the Sofa isn’t some tragically hip underground club you’ve never heard of – it’s in the living room of DJ IQ, one of the UK’s most tenacious new beatsmiths. With the help of a whole bus-load of UK hip…
23 Apr 2007
HORROR PUNK Dundee is spewing forth all kinds of interesting bands lately and Dirty Wee Middens are no exception. Despite slatherings of ghoulish make-up (as far away from The View as you can imagine), the Middens definitely have a pulse and it is…
INDIE Despite sporting a moniker which sounds like a cbeebies show involving two conversing plant pots, Cumbernauld quintet The Dykeenies have made quick business of vaulting themselves into contention. The now standard MySpace malarkey ensured their…
METAL (Earache) Once pegged as post-metal rip-offs in the vein of Neurosis, Sweden’s Cult of Luna are fast becoming a formidable outfit in their own right and Eternal Kingdom strengthens that reputation. A concept album lyrically and musically based…
SOUL JAZZ (Mr Bongo Recordings) Terry Callier, a true great, overlooked back in the day, but now receiving the recognition he deserves after UK DJ’s picked up his classic 70’s cuts. Welcome is a live recording from The Jazz Café, a taster prior to his…
ROCK New Breed @ The Vic Café, Glasgow School of Art, Sat 7 Jun ‘Play it a bit more Todd Rungren, baby.’ Not words you hear at every art school hop, but it’s what Fire Engines/Heartbeat/Win/The Nectarine No 9 guitarist and guiding light Davy Henderson…
ROCK (V2) Belgian artrockers dEUS have a large cult following, but this fifth album deserves a wider audience. Expansive and eclectic, Vantage Point sees the fivesome refining their mix of powerfully emotive themes with leftfield, intelligent rock…
13 Mar 2008
CONTEMPORARY (Nonesuch) The music of Terry Riley has run through the repertoire of the acclaimed contemporary music specialists the Kronos Quartet like a thread. No surprise, then, that they should have chosen to mark the composer’s 70th birthday with…
28 Feb 2008
FOLK (Hegri Music) Karine Polwart is already established as Scotland’s premier purveyor of progressive folk, and this consummate and lush album consolidates that position. A flip side to last year’s traditional collection Fairest Floo’er, this album…
SOUNDTRACK Ivor the Engine and Pogle’s Wood (Trunk) Smallfilms (a partnership between writer and narrator Oliver Postgate and animator Peter Firmin) made some of the most endearing children’s television shows from the 50s through to the 70s…
29 Nov 2007
HIP HOP American Gangster (Roc-a-Fella) Retirement plans seem like a long way off as the Jigga Man produces his second album in a little less than 12 months. If Kingdom Come was all bluster and no substance, then Jay-Z redeems himself with this…
4 Oct 2007
The Devendra Banhart live experience is akin to watching over-excitable teenagers being left in charge for a bank holiday weekend. Listening to him in your home is like being left out of someone else’s joke. While his folkiosyncratic ways have given…
That’s it. I’m officially breaking up with Kate Nash . I defended ‘Foundations’ long after everyone else had gone right off it, but the bathroom sink drama of ‘Mouthwash’ (Fiction - 2 stars) with its cringily self-aware opener ‘This . . . is my face’…
13 Mar 2007
AMBIENT ELECTRONICA It really is a terrible shame to always be likening fresh Scottish electronica to the all-conquering Soma stable, but Rubens possess that same jittery, emotive quality in spades. Christ knows how the title relates to the contents…
Dublin’s Fight Like Apes ’ ‘Lend Me Your Face’ (Model Citizen Records) •• is a three-minute, high-voltage pop song full of dance beats and female vocals with attitude. ‘Radio Friendly’ (Stereotone) ••• from The Starlets is a perfect example of Scottish…
GARAGE ROCK Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Thu 10 Jul Sweaty, shoebox-sized spaces like the Captain’s Rest are just the sort of venues Glasgow needs more of, and rough’n’ready, in yer face, garage rock trios like Austin’s White Denim are just the sort…
ART/MUSIC INSTALLATION Dialogues of Wind and Bamboo, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Sat 21 Jun It was the all-you-can-eat buffet of line-ups. There were robots playing bamboo instruments, dancing in the sculpture garden, tai chi and the chance to…
ROCK (Rough Trade) Having never trod the most conventional paths, Kentucky natives MMJ have almost been Wilco, The Eagles and The Grateful Dead in their long, productive life but have always spun off into their own otherwordly orbit. Evil Urges is a…
JAZZ (ACT Records) Swedish guitarist Ulf Wakenius follows his Keith Jarrett project Notes From the Heart with a disc devoted to the music of Esbjörn Svensson. Tragically, its release has coincided with the death of the Swedish pianist – who had been…
INDIE (Mute) Musical eccentricity in new acts is a marvellous quality, but only if they have the songwriting prowess to back it up. This debut offering by XX Teens is a diverse bag of aforementioned oddity and thrillingly experimental attitudes to…
5 Jun 2008
METAL (The Null Corporation) Trent Reznor has always been an innovator and after several years of dispute with his record label he’s finally free to operate by his own rules. With his first taste of freedom he released a 36 track instrumental album…
ROCK Is This Music? @ 13th Note, Glasgow, Thu 17 Apr Back in early 2005, few people were shouting about Mother and the Addicts, ditto De Rosa in early 2006, yet both of these bands went on to promptly release cracking debut albums through Chemikal…
27 Mar 2008
Clinic - Do It! ( Domino ) It’s nice to think that the cash made by Arctic Monkeys records goes into something positive for the world like Clinic albums. More slightly erratic, vibrating genius from a band who evoke the spirit of The Residents and Soft…
VERY HEAVY METAL (Roadrunner) Brazillian metallers Sepultura are pretty much untouchable in the world of thrash. Their Chaos AD and Roots are classics of the genre. However, frontman Max Cavalera split from the band in 1996, going on to form Soulfly…
14 Feb 2008
POST ROCK (Kids) Post rockers tend to take themselves mighty seriously (our own lovable Mogwai aside), and the same goes for po-faced Leicestershire young guns Kyte. There is plenty of ambition here, and the band are unashamedly epic in an obviously…
4 Jan 2008
INDIE (Rough Trade) British Sea Power have never been known for their traditional approach to music-making – plastic birds, fake foliage and a ten foot bear have come into the equation at various points – so it comes as no surprise that third effort…
JAZZ (ACT) This double CD from an ecstatically received set in Hamburg on the Tuesday Wonderland tour in 2006 provides an authentic record of the band on a good night. When they are on song, E.S.T. (the Esbjörn Svensson Trio) are arguably the most…
INDIE (Track and Field) This London-based indie outfit are more popular across the pond, and you can see why, with the West Coast jangle of The Byrds and their ilk an obvious influence. The Clientele combine a love of simple guitar pop with a…
The Hold, Glasgow, Thu 8 Nov Fife electro duo Motormark have done a Bis, splitting up then reconvening under so many new guises it’s hard to keep track. First they were Fake Fang, with the garage-horror sound such a name permits, and now they’re back…
CARDBOARD BASHING PUNK ROCK (Boxwars UK) Boxwars combines punk and well-behaved fighting. ‘Warriors’ make cardboard armour then launch themselves into a mauling mosh pit until a winner’s declared. The gladiatorial combat is powered by energetic…
HIP HOP (Bodog Music) The prevalence of solo efforts from the numerous members of the Wu-Tang Clan makes their joint efforts less of an event than they should be. The band’s last two outings have been worryingly inconsistent affairs and this, the…
INDIE This is What Makes Us (Gargleblast Records) This Glasgow outfit’s three members have been kicking around the Scottish indie scene for years, two of them most famously as members of Peeps into Fairyland, but their decision to join forces as…
ALT.ROCK Love/Hate (Island) When this Manchester foursome released their debut album two years ago, they sounded a great deal like Nirvana. Now they’re back it’s disappointing to hear just how little they have actually progressed. On the plus side…
There’s a definite sense of gloom hanging over this fortnight’s bunch, particularly from the Glaswegians. Make Model prove that misery needn’t be without a sense of humour in ‘The Was’ (EMI) ••••, whose grungy cries of ‘Comatose stoned/Softening the…
ROCK In Rainbows (www.inrainbows.com) So you’ve registered, paid what you thought your download might be worth (in our case £3.03 plus 45p admin fee – who are you calling cheap?), downloaded, burned, copied it and generally stuck it to ‘The Man’ in…
King Tut’s, Glasgow, Wed 12 Sep Looking a bit like a geography teacher exiting a half-pipe, Scroobius Pip arrives on stage in Glasgow soon after the final whistle in Paris. ‘Four words,’ he calmly offers, ‘Scotland 1 – France 0,’ before adding…
POP With the Comic Relief single and a musical based on their songs, 2007 has already been a great year for The Proclaimers, and this consummately crafted and soulful album can only add to their wide grins. Title track ‘Life With You’ is as big…
FOLK The title of the Skye-based band’s fifth album is a reference to the fairy lore of the island, but there is nothing ethereal or otherwordly about their high-impact delivery. If the full effect of their storming Celtic dance music is best felt…
SCARY NASTINESS Far from sitting on the fence TAWFAWW choose to unceremoniously hack down the fence, stamp it into little pieces, collect it up and feed it to a pack of hungry dogs. Well, that’s what it sounds like. To be honest this sounds like…
22 Nov 2006
POP First mentioned in the same places as fellow quirk-pop doyens Lily Allen and The Pipettes, it’s unlikely that the Beirut-born, London-raised Mika will be playing many more venues as intimate as Sleazy’s. As he played here, he was also making his…
11 Nov 2006
WORLD ESOTERIC Insane Seattle-based collective Kultur Shock have been gathering Bosnian, Bulgarian, Japanese and American members for almost ten years now with the sole intention of mashing up the music of their homelands in hitherto unrealised…
REVIEW POP The Halt Bar, Glasgow, Sun 6 Jul Claire Wood is off to seek her fame and fortune in London after spending the last ten years in Glasgow’s piano bars. She decided to launch her EP, Grow‚ and say farewell to her friends, family and…
Why is there so much slickly produced, pretend-to-be-credible pop around these days? Newton Faulkner, Amy MacDonald, The Hoosiers, Sara Bareilles – the insipid list just keeps on getting longer. Eurgh, and here’s another one; the emotionless and utterly…
ROCK Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Thu 5 Jun Starting with suitably hushed reverence for John B McKenna’s gentle powerhouse of a voice in an acoustic set, and ending with the squawking guitar, pounding keyboard and trumpet combo of Over the Wall, tonight’s…
ROCK Oran Mor, Glasgow, Mon 23 Jun ‘Was that good?’ says the chipper Scots musician early on in his set, and 20 years into his career as a singer-songwriter. ‘I thought so,’ he adds, tongue in cheek. ‘And I liked the guitar solo.’ But he has every…
ART ROCK (Ecstatic Peace) It’s been eleven years since we last heard from this art rock supergroup of sorts, but on the evidence of this fourth album, it’s not been worth the wait. Featuring Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth alongside Pussy Galore’s Julie…
METAL (Columbia) Rob Halford’s howl and tracks as powerful as ‘Breaking the Law’ and ‘Painkiller’ have cemented Judas Priest’s status as a driving force that helped shape the entire metal genre. Formed back in the early 70s vocalist Halford left…
SPOKEN ELECTRO (Beanstalk Records) At first, I took this to be a spoof. Why else would anyone rhyme ‘expressionism’ with ‘jism’? What possible other reason could there be for someone to warble ‘a word is a picture/made out of sound/a sound you can…
(Steven Sebring, USA) 109min Patti Smith, the singer-poet and one-time ‘godmother of punk’, bares her soul in this intimate self-portrait, culled from over 11 years of filming with her friend, the photographer Steve Sebring. Beginning in 1995, the film…
INDIE POP Oran Mor, Glasgow, Thu 15 May Modern pop is rarely as smart, affecting or plain funny as when it’s in the hands of Jens Lekman. Nor as succinct. ‘No encore, 11 songs, all hits,’ proclaimed the Swede at the start of his set, tongue lodged…
ROCK (Chemikal Underground) This louder, longer edition of Mogwai’s debut is a powerful reminder of what music can do for the soul: on release in ‘97 it was a real shock. Their mostly instrumental, blistering sound re-energised Scottish music and was…
BAGGY (Jeepster) One day, that baggy comeback is going to arrive, and will a band like Parka be leading the charge? Probably not. For all their verve and enthusiasm, the Glaswegian group (now based in London) sound just like the times they emulate…
FOLK (Vertical Records) Capercaillie have done very nicely with their particular fusion of traditional music with more contemporary influences, and it is hardly likely that they are going to suddenly throw all that aside in pursuit of some radical new…
COUNTRY/FOLK/BLUES (V2) Campbell and Lanegan’s Mercury-nominated debut was a one-trick pony, but it was a pretty cool trick. Campbell’s wispy whimper and Lanegan’s bourbon-soaked growl blended refreshingly over some old school folk and blues, but it…
JAZZ (Cake Music) Pianist Neil Cowley and his cohorts, bassist Richard Sadler and drummer Evan Jenkins, appear in Scotland this month as part of the last Triptych festival, and rate among the hipper items on the current UK jazz scene. Lauded for…
COUNTRY/ROCK (Rounder) Like all the best Americans, Kathleen Edwards is actually Canadian, although you’d be hard pressed to tell on the basis of her third studio album. Her punchy-yet-tender, world-weary-yet-impassioned take on country and rock could…
FOLK (BoxClubRecords) The accordion is an instrument that still has an image problem in some quarters. Box Club are out to counter that perception by presenting the venerable instrument in much more contemporary trappings, including a slick visual…
ROCK (Fiction) Mancunian troubadours Elbow have always been at the more inventive end of the indie spectrum. Their restless musical experimentalism has garnered a mountain of critical acclaim, but their refusal to take the easy route has seen them…
Hurrying past James Blunt and Bryan’s Adams’ new singles, let’s start at the only logical place, the ‘Start Beginning’ (FDM Records) ••• with Nizlopi (of ‘JCB Song’ notoriety) and their relentlessly optimistic, acoustic pop rainbow of a song that could…
POP (XL) Much is made these days of the ‘voice’. Joss Stone, if you remember, had one; Corinne Bailey Rae still has hers; why, wasn’t even the bland and affected Katie Mellua touted as being in the possession of such a thing? The newest voice on the…
ELECTRONICA (Fortune & Glory) You know that when a band are trying to create a ‘coherent mix of both digital and analogue without ever sounding disjointed’ that we may well all be in trouble. Whatever happened to writing a song from the heart rather…
REVIEW CELTIC CONNECTIONS Classic Grand, Glasgow, Thu 24 Jan The title of this show was a bold one, but proved Scottish music is nothing if not diverse. Trio Zoey Van Goey traded instruments more frequently than a Govan pawnshop while spinning their…
EVERYTHING (Rough Trade) If anything can be gleaned from these expansive, annual compilations its this: try as you might you can’t keep up with all the fine new music around unless you actually run a record store. And while you might have…
ELECTRO-POP/PUNK/ROCK Stereo, Glasgow, Fri 21 Dec ‘Twas a few nights before Christmas, and all sorts were stirring. How to Swim firstly – an eight-piece who have been bigged up by this publication plenty of times for their wailing…
Jimi Sensational Shandrix Experience Electric Landlady (Brechin All Records) A fivesome of unwieldy party animals who look like an explosion in the basement underneath a music store and a fancy dress shop who rather surprisingly knock out a respectable…
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