Music, Reviews, Neil Cooper

Dialogues 2008

18 Nov 2008

University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum, Sat 15-Sun 16 November. The interior of Edinburgh University’s just-built Informatics Forum on the site of the old Bristo Square car park is a retro-futurist delight resembling the set of some minimally…

The Sexual Objects

19 Jun 2008

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…

Chris Corsano and Massimo Pupillo

27 Mar 2008

EXPERIMENTAL The Ark, Edinburgh, Fri 14 Mar With scheduled headliners Italian skronk power trio Zu depleted in ranks by a broken-limbed drummer, last-minute reinforcements come in the shape of ubiquitous sticks-man Chris Corsano, briefly home from his…

Trianglehead

13 Dec 2007

The Lot, Edinburgh, Wed 14 Nov ‘Fucking technology, eh?’ spits drummer Stu Ritchie by way of an abrupt end to a mid-set melodica-led number, shattering the chummy mood of this launch gig for Trianglehead’s just-released second album, Exit Strategy.

Cycles - Mr McFall's Chamber with Thomas Strønen

13 Nov 2008

Out Of The Blue Drill Hall, Wed 12 November. Midway through the second set of this collaboration between Scotland’s equivalent of The Penguin Café Orchestra and Norwegian percussionist Thomas Strønen, an ebullient bike instructor comes up onstage to…

The Creeping Nobodies

Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, Wed 15 Oct

30 Oct 2008

Back in the dark(er) ages, The Creeping Nobodies were an imaginary indie band immortalised on a demo tape which adorned the typically slap-dash front cover of The Fall’s 1980 Grotesque (After The Gramme) album, addressed to ‘A Famous Ape’. Well, praise…

The John Escreet Project

16 Oct 2008

JAZZ Opening a 30-minute suite that runs the gamut of jazz styles with a sample of a disgruntled ansaphone message isn’t the normal way to open a show, but then, 24-year-old Doncastrian pianist John Escreet is no ordinary player. Returning to the UK…

Missing Twin presents

4 Sep 2008

Missing Twin is the publishing empire of cartoon genius Malcy Duff. Alongside geek-soul brother and Giant Tanker Ali Robertson, Duff makes up half of premier lo-fi fidgets, Usurper. This popcorn-friendly triple feature of late-night wow-and-splutter…

The Chap - live music review

5 Jun 2008

ART POP Limbo@The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Thu 1 May ‘In case you didn’t realise,’ deadpans Chap bassist Panos Ghikas, ‘all our songs are about pleasure.’ Well, blow me down with a showroom dummy, who’da thunk it? Because this pan-global North…

The Sandals of Majesty

13 Dec 2007

Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, Tue 15 Nov The name is misleading. Rather than some mellowed out, magic-carpet-riding, back-packer-eyed mystics as may be implied, this bi-aural, bi-lingual, buy-now-while-stocks-last quartet are up-tight, in-tense and…

Kuupuu

18 Oct 2007

EXPERIMENTAL Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, Mon 17 Sep There are Moomins on the poster, and something equally other-worldly about Kuupuu’s fractured folk tones. Having wafted all the way from Tampere, Finland, they sound still swathed in dawn mist…

Birchville Cat Motel

Tremors@Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, Wed 10 Jan

29 Jan 2007

EXPERIMENTAL Last time Stills Gallery white-not-quite-cubed space played host to live music was in 1998, when Quebeçois baroque apocalypsists Godspeed You! Black Emperor marked their low-key live UK debut before a phone box capacity audience (ignore…

Gay Against You

2 Oct 2006

POST PUNK The Subway, Edinburgh, Mon 11 Sep What to do with a sparse audience on a soggy Monday night? If you’re electro-saccharine noise terrorists Gay Against You, you drag all 20-odd onstage with you, thus immediately quelling the venue’s…

Euchrid Eucrow

18 Sep 2008

ALT.FOLK Two young women in full-length angel-white Victorian frocks flank a bearded young man in a tank top sitting on a stool. As he clutches his acoustic guitar for dear life, the dark-haired woman on his right puts her bow to her viola while the…

Singles & Downloads

4 Jan 2008

With January a dry month for releases, the New Year seems a good time to catch up on some left-field singles that have shamefully slipped through the net in this old-fashioned vinyl-only special. Edinburgh’s Wee Black Skelf is the most unsung but…

The Necks

15 Nov 2007

JAZZ The Lot, Edinburgh, Wed 7 Nov Live, the extended improvisations of the Australian trio of pianist Chris Abrahams, drummer Tony Buck and bassist Lloyd Swanson should curl up into an inward-looking heap. Yet, as their recent album, Townsville…

Whitehouse

20 Sep 2007

NOISE Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Thu 6 Sep For a quarter of a century, Whitehouse have existed in a flabby imaginary hinterland where late cock-er-knee geezer Mike Reid duets with shamed gang-master Gary Glitter. Or at least that’s how it seems…

Sellotape

3 Jul 2007

NEW NEW WAVE The whiff of freshly heated maize that accompanies Sellotape’s vocal version of Hot Butter’s 1972 electro-disco hit, ‘Popcorn’ (the first ever totally synthesiser-based single to chart, pop-pickers) may take its subject matter literally…