Music, Rock, Issue 627

Fence Collective's Homegame: Homeward bound

In the ever-growing Scottish music festival calendar, the Homegame remains something of a well-kept secret. Despite a steadily increasing profile since its inception six years ago, the weekend, run by Fence Collective head honchos Kenny Anderson (aka…

Health

Everyone’s favourite LA-based noiseniks Health are back, with a brand new record under their belts. More frenzied death riffs, beast-like shrieks and start-stop thundering drums then? Well, yes and no. We catch up with bassist John Famiglietti, fresh…

Five reasons to go and see: Earth

1 It’ll stop you droning on … because that’s their job. Formed in Olympia, Washington in the early 90s by Dylan Carlson, the awesome Earth were pioneers of doom-laden drone rock, influencing everyone from Mogwai to Autechre, both of whom contributed…

The Specials and The Zombies

‘Hope I die before I get old.’ Yeah, right. The way the band reformation juggernaut continues to pick up pace, that epithet should read, ‘Hope I reform before I die.’ There has been a relentless increase in the number of bands getting back together…

Exposure: Ingested

If you’re finding metal just isn’t doing it for you any more, why not delve into the brutal world of death metal, a hardcore body blow of sound accompanied by guttural vocals? This fortnight there’s a bumper bill of extreme noise with Manchester’s…

Cloudberry Records Night

The Cloudberry Records label may be based in Miami, but there is an undeniably Glaswegian influence on the roster of bands on the bill at this jangly guitar showcase. The Catalysts, in the bronze medal position on the line-up podium, are musical gold…

The Art School Dance

(E) 120min Edinburgh College of Art releases this low-budget, yet charming limited edition DVD in celebration of famous city venue, the Wee Red Bar. Filmed in 2007, ECA’s centenary year, it intersperses live performances with interviews that…

The Xcerts - In the Cold Wind We Smile

(Xtra Mile/King Tut’s Recordings) After relentless touring schedules, tremendous support appearances and several EPs, The Xcerts finally release their long awaited debut album. Filled with the most heart-wrenchingly catchy pop-rock melodies around…

Super Furry Animals - Dark Days/Light Years

INDIE (Rough Trade) As per comedian Steven Wright’s line about making his own water, ‘two parts H, one part O’, there is a tried and tested winning formula for Super Furries records, and this, their ninth studio album, is no exception. A handful of…

King Creosote - Flick the Vs

(Domino) On this first album on Domino Fife legend Kenny Anderson has a whale of a time. Brimming with sonic invention and acerbic one-liners, Flick the Vs shows experimentation and ambition vastly beyond KC’s lazy folk tag, from the seven-minute…

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

(4AD) My Maudlin Career reflects vocalist Tracyanne Campbell’s discovery of the sweet melancholy of love. Her gentle voice leads us through these songs about the search for self-acceptance during a personal clash of musical aspirations and a much…

The Enemy - Music for the People

(Warner Bros) The Enemy so desperately wish they were Oasis. And while We’ll Live & Die in These Towns had a certain Jam-esque swagger and dole-queue poetry Music for the People is a worrying retread. There’s no doubt it will be sung loud and proud…

Dananananaykroyd - Hey Everyone!

(Best Before) Producing roughly as much energy as a Mentos mint dropped into a can of Diet Coke, the Glasgow sixsome follow last year’s Sissy Hits EP with a debut album Hey Everyone!. Twelve anti-lullabies of clattery, shouty, thrashy scream-pop are…

Loner - Western Sci-Fi

ELECTRO-POP (Just Music) If Loner’s second album was a flower, which would it be? Probably one that wilted and split at the merest whiff of a breeze, so delicate are its components. Geoff Smith doesn’t so much sing his fragile numbers as emit…

Peter, Bjorn & John - Living Thing

(Wichita) Best known for their whistly, catchier-than-the-cold hit ‘Young Folks’, the Swedish trio return here with their fifth album. It has all the ingredients for a twinkling pop gem – ice cold Human League synths, crashing drums straight out a…

Ojos De Brujo

If flamenco isn’t really your thing, then you should probably turn away now. But come on, everyone needs a bit of flamenco in their life. Hip hop is also here in abundance too, consummating with each other to produce an exotically interesting mix.

The Virgins

Their name may suggest an aura of the un-cool but New York trio The Virgins are far from a group of fumbling, sweaty palmed boys with who look like their Mothers dress them. Their new-wave inspired rock with tangible dancefloor potential is sure to go…

Alestorm

Trying to confuse us all with yet another music subgenre, Alestorm are purveyors of pirate metal and are proud of it. Yes, you heard right. The pirates from Perth have made a splash in the metal community and are turning heads across Europe and beyond.