Music

Exposure: Strike The Colours

10 Aug 2009

Strike The Colours is the song-writing vessel of Glasgow-based multi-instrumentalist, Jenny Reeve. Cutting her teeth on a plethora of guest appearances and tours with the likes of Arab Strap, Idlewild and The Reindeer Section - not to mention frequent…

Unicorn Kid and Young Fathers

The man with the horn

7 Aug 2009

He may wear a lion hat and be named after a fantasy creature, but with the Pet Shop Boys, Calvin Harris and a belting set at T on his side, Unicorn Kid is set to make myth a reality. The Lion and the Unicorn have long been heralded as hostile beasts.

We Like...

6 Aug 2009

This week, we like Radiohead’s back catalogue finally coming to Spotify, and Charlie Brooker’s panel show. Just because we do. We also like wearing sweetie necklaces in celebration of classic Glasgow sweet shop I Love Candy opening up an Edinburgh…

Low Sonic Drift - Shadows of the Titan

29 Jul 2009

Never ones to be criticised for false advertising, this mighty trio from Glasgow eschew the frippery and foppery of modern music for something bigger, deeper and darker than most.

Final Fantasy to play in Glasgow

23 Jul 2009

‘I play a lot of instruments,’ Owen Pallett attempts to convince us, ‘but none of them very well.’ Come off it. You don’t get to become the orchestra and string arranger for Arcade Fire’s Funeral and Neon Bible albums – at the same time helping to…

The Big Tent Festival

23 Jul 2009

‘There is a real sense of belonging and connection to something at the Big Tent Festival,’ explains the event’s programme director Mike Small. ‘The message is more “come join us” than “gimme your money”.’ Set up in July 2005, the…

Best of the Rest - Jazz and Blues

Highlights of the Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

13 Jul 2009

Jazz on a Summer's Day, Eric Burdon and The Animals, The Hot Club of Cowtown, Martin Taylor/Sylvain Luc, Niki King, Baptiste Trotignon and Jools Holland and His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra

Magazine to play Edinburgh Edge Festival

Howard Devoto's band offer a theatrical spectacle

13 Jul 2009

When Howard Devoto reconvened his band of post-punk fabulists after a 28-year hiatus earlier this year, it not only revisited a back catalogue that married a Proust and Dostoyevsky-inspired lyrical ennui to sophisticated layers of sci-fi punk-prog-glam.

T in the Park: Paolo Nutini

9 Jul 2009

Paolo Nutini is a star in charge of his own destiny, arriving at this year’s T, flying high on his success. Mark Robertson gets an insight into life behind the scenes of an errant pop star.

First word: Jamie T

9 Jul 2009

First record you ever bought Gabrielle’s ‘Dreams’. Last time you were chatted up Two weeks ago. First film you saw that really moved you Platoon. Last lie you told I’ve never told a lie. First movie you ever went on a date to I…

National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland

9 Jul 2009

Guitarist Mike Walker will join the National Youth Jazz Orchestra of Scotland on this three-date tour, which will feature a full performance of his long-awaited debut album, Madhouse & The Whole Thing Here, released earlier this year. It will be a…

The Bum-Clocks

25 Jun 2009

Leith’s Bum-Clocks are the only Robert Burns tribute band who play in the style of Iggy and the Stooges. If that sounds too high-concept for you, a glance over those involved mean they demand a listen. The Bum-Clocks – ye olde Scottish name for a…

Ancient Astronauts - We Are To Answer

25 Jun 2009

(ESL) This is an album that is very much a sum of its parts as Cologne duo Dogu and Kabanjak lay down some expansive instrumental head nodders and invite a host of collaborators to come throw in some general good vibery. Whether its hip hop legends…

The Proclaimers - Notes & Rhymes

25 Jun 2009

Hardly taking a breath from an award-winning theatre musical (Sunshine on Leith) and a triumphant global tour last year, the Hibee-supporting twins get all-emotional on their eighth set, Notes & Rhymes. Probably Scotland’s top export, and still cool…

Jarvis Cocker

11 Jun 2009

While many of his Britpop contemporaries are content to drag their increasingly saggy posteriors around the country – reforming for money-making purposes and trading solely on nostalgia – Jarvis Cocker can’t seem to stop re-inventing himself. It’s no…

The Gossip - Music for Men

11 Jun 2009

The Gossip’s extravagant firebrand Beth Ditto has bagged herself stardom in bountiful guises: disco-blues diva, brawling fashionista, feminist defender, media provocateur, political agitator — and, not least, the sexiest catsuit inhabitant since…

A Hawk and a Hacksaw

11 Jun 2009

FOLK The boisterous yet melancholy sounds of Eastern European folk music have long entranced Western musicians, from avant-jazzer John Zorn to indie-pop cosmopolitan Beirut. But few have gone as far as A Hawk and a Hacksaw in their exploration of…

Phil Campbell

11 Jun 2009

SINGER-SONGWRITER You can tell that Phil Campbell’s a songwriter’s songwriter by the company he keeps: members of Edinburgh’s Aberfeldy and The Gillyflowers have sung around for his set, and they seem to be enjoying what they hear. But then the…

Simple Minds - Graffiti Soul

11 Jun 2009

A worthy attempt to reinstate the band as stadium-filling rock contenders (while also marking their glittering 30-year anniversary), studio set number 15 ticks most boxes for fifty-somethings, Simple Minds. Four years on from the fart that was…

General Fiasco

11 Jun 2009

Northern Irish alt.rockers, General Fiasco have been touring the wilds of Scotland (from Ullapool to Stornoway) before a final assault on Glasgow. So far the indie boys have supported The Pigeon Detectives, The Wombats and The Enemy and are now ready to…

Toots and the Maytals - O2 Academy, Glasgow, Fri 29 May

2 Jun 2009

Toots and the Maytals pull in a stunningly diverse crowd. In their UK heyday, the late 70s and 80s, many of the band’s songs were embraced as anthems of radical musical and political movements and for a certain generation they remain a symbol of those…

Cobra Starship - Garage, Glasgow, Thu 22 May

28 May 2009

This has been a long time coming for New York City-bred tykes Cobra Starship. Their last two dates in Glasgow were postponed, so third time lucky – it seems. It appears they may have booked the wrong venue however, with the crowd akin more to a youth…

Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience

28 May 2009

(U) 75min New Jersey’s most popular rockers get the 3D concert treatment. No, sadly this isn’t The Boss and his E Street Band in all their blue collar glory, but Disney Channel-derived band the Jonas Brothers – a power pop threesome who make the…

Mad Decent records

14 May 2009

‘We look for people who are trying different things,’ says Jasper Goggins, New York-based manager of the Mad Decent label, ‘and who aren’t afraid to be a bit experimental with their sound. But more than that everyone on the label is friends, there’s…

Theophilus London

14 May 2009

Midway through Hinterland festival’s first evening, the indie kids of Glasgow scuttle from one bunch of guitar-twangers to another. Leaning against the building site fence next to the Sub Club, a pair of Brooklynites in retro shades, skinny jeans and…

Heaven & Hell: The Devil You Know

14 May 2009

Heaven & Hell are essentially Black Sabbath ‘Mark Two’. After Ozzy was kicked out, Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio stepped into the breach way back in 1979. Now, for legal reasons, they tour and record as Heaven & Hell but it’s still legendary…

Exposure: Louise Against the Elements

11 May 2009

They may have already supported Duffy, but Louise Against the Elements aren't quite comparable to the uncomfortable squeak of the Welsh pixie. Instead it's the raw garage power of Courtney Love and fellow Glaswegian, Shirley Manson, that drives a band…

Video: Jarvis Cocker installs himself in Paris gallery

8 May 2009

Jarvis Cocker has installed himself as an exhibition at the Galerie Chappe in Paris. The musician has been appearing between the hours of 12 noon and 7pm this week in the gallery. One highlight so far has been this video in which he dances with…

Exposure: Anna Meldrum

6 May 2009

After a short time displaying her own blend of honest lyricism and melodic, guitar-fronted pop songs to a handful of low-key crowds - as well as the odd festival appearance and support slot - Glasgow-based musician Anna Meldrum has decided to enlist the…

Exposure: Black Sun

30 Apr 2009

Black Sun are a trio of Glasgow musicians, who collectively, are purveyors of a brutally intense noise and slow-grooving metal carnage that is not to be taken lightly. Bridging the gap between experimentation in sound and pounding riffs, Black Sun have…

The Specials - 02 Academy, Glasgow, 28 Apr 2009

30 Apr 2009

How very now are The Specials? Back in 1979 when the mixed race Coventry band led the Two Tone label’s ska revival first skanked their way into the hearts of a nation’s disaffected and unemployed youth, recession was about to give way to a Tory…

Bob Log III - My Shit is Perfect

30 Apr 2009

LEFTFIELD COUNTRY Supposedly based in both Arizona and Australia, Bob Log III is a one man band anomaly who gets his kicks through frenzied slide-guitar blues that deviates severely from tradition and is, as one might deduce from his fourth album’s…

Tom Brosseau - Posthumous Success

30 Apr 2009

FOLK BLUES Bobbins to the album title, Tommy B; this finger pickin’ North Dakota man won’t have to wait until his expiration date to enjoy basking in a little glory. His style has evolved from the basic one voice, one acoustic guitar set-up (as seen…

Gallows

30 Apr 2009

Ferocious English hardcore punks Gallows are at the forefront of the UK punk scene. They are promoting their bleak new album, Grey Britain, pepped up by vocals from Simon Neil of Scots rockers Biffy Clyro. The Kerrang Award winners are famed for their…

Ghostface Killah

30 Apr 2009

You know you’re in for some quality hip hop when anyone from Wu-Tang is in the house. The New Yorker, who has seven solo albums to his name, recently recorded ‘Message from Ghostface’ dedicated to victims of domestic violence, after pop sensation…

Exposure: Ingested

16 Apr 2009

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…

The Xcerts - In the Cold Wind We Smile

16 Apr 2009

(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…

Exposure: Sucioperro

14 Apr 2009

Say hello to Sucioperro, if their exotic sounding name hasn’t crossed your path already. They’re the next band to follow in the Ayrshire footsteps left by the inimitable Biffy Clyro, which certainly ain’t any easy thing to do. Borrowing Biffy’s crashing…

DOOM - Born Like This

2 Apr 2009

HIP HOP So the MF is gone and underground hip hop’s most malcontent son insists on uppercase only for his moniker, but other than that it’s business as usual for DOOM who follows his 2005 Dangerdoom collaboration with Gorillaz and Gnarls Barkely…

Spotify - Electric dreams

19 Mar 2009

When users’ initial response to a new piece of software is a disbelieving ‘This is free?’, it’s worth installing. Although Spotify launched last year, it was invitation only until last month. Now everyone’s free to join, and they have been, with the…

Instal 09

19 Mar 2009

PREVIEW A church organ sounding the course of the stars, a cello being turned to dust, a sound poet voicing typewriter symbols, long stretches of almost nothing … Instal has been expanding the way we listen since its inception in 2002, building a…

Radiohead video remix and ECA triumph at BAFTA Scotland New Talent Awards 2009

16 Mar 2009

Glasgow artist James Houston was awarded for his take on Radiohead’s Nude at the BAFTA Scotland New Talent Awards tonight. Houston created an innovative remix of the Radiohead track using an old scanner, a dot matrix printer and other assorted vintage…

Scottish Opera – Five: 15

5 Mar 2009

OPERA Following on from the great success of last year’s showcase of five new, short operas from Scottish composers and writers, the latest batch of Scottish Opera’s Five: 15 once again shows that the company is onto a winner. Taking five completely…

Various - A Psychedelic Guide to Monsterism Island

5 Mar 2009

PSYCHTRONICA Norris also turns up on A Psychedelic Guide to Monsterism Island, which must be one of the most whacked-out comps ever. The follow-up to 2005’s The Sounds of Monsterism Island, this record expands upon the Monsterism characters created…

New Bands: The audacity of hype

19 Feb 2009

It’s not a shock to see a write-up for a new band, barely a handful of singles old, lauded as the best new band this century. But for every Arctic Monkeys there’s scores of Menswears, Towers of Londons and Mumm-Ras. Bands are expected to show up fully…

Colin Steele - Miles Davis: Kind of Blue

19 Feb 2009

It was one of the most historic recording sessions in jazz. On 2 March 1959, Miles Davis took a group of musicians that included John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, both Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb into Columbia’s 30th…

Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival and goNORTH

19 Feb 2009

The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival is offering budding filmmakers the chance to have their work screened across the country. The winner will see their work up on the big screen in cinemas across Scotland this October, with entries…

Peter Doherty - Grace Wastelands

19 Feb 2009

(Parlophone) INDIE There’s no denying Peter Doherty has talent, The Libertines were a breath of fresh air that gave the indie scene a much needed kick up the arse back in 2002. It’s a story that’s been retold a thousand times from NME to the…

First Aid Kit - Drunken Trees

19 Feb 2009

(Wichita) ALT.FOLK A curse on all precociously talented youth. With a combined age still several years less than this reviewer’s, the two teenage Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg have produced an astonishing debut, brimming with…

Scottish Music Photograph of the Year

19 Feb 2009

Top Scots music blog The Pop Cop set themselves the task of finding the best music photography of 2008, and after months of scouring the web found a winner, this spectacular shot by John Lewis who caught Sam McTrusty from Twin Atlantic mid-flight. It’s…

The View: Picture House, Edinburgh, 12th Feb 2009

13 Feb 2009

It's hard not to admire The View. They certainly have their flaws. Their records are, at best, ramshackle indie, spawned from a feigned belief that anyone could do 'Up the Bracket'. They also have a cockiness in completely opposing correlation to their…

Exposure: Jocasta Sleeps

13 Feb 2009

In their short but sweet tenure together, Jocasta Sleeps - Callum Wiseman, John McGinley, and Niall McGarvie - have spend the majority of this time holed up in bedrooms and rehearsal studios, engineering and honing their craft, whilst dedicating all…

Tricky

5 Feb 2009

Tricky is difficult and moody, right? That’s the perception of the Bristol-born rapper that still persists, 14 years after he was launched into the nation’s musical consciousness with his startling, groundbreaking and bestselling debut…

Beirut/Realpeople - March of the Zapotec/Holland

5 Feb 2009

FOLK/ELECTRONICA Ever since he quietly elbowed his way onto the 2006 end of year polls of several critical organs with debut Gulag Orkestra, there’s been intrigue surrounding Zack Condon and his peculiar combination of Eastern European party music…

Exposure: Mitchell Museum

26 Jan 2009

With no ‘Do Not Touch’ signs in sight, Mitchell Museum are one museum you’re going to have a hell of a time going to see. With Cammy MacFarlane on keyboard and lead vocals, Dougie Kennedy on guitar, Kris Ferguson on bass and a man known simply as…

Scotland The Great - Homecoming

22 Jan 2009

Four skinny boys stare up at a mountain. The mountain stares back at them. The hairiest one throws his arms out and roars: ‘Does it not make you proud to be Scottish?’; the prettiest one looks up from his vodka bottle, and hurls back bile. It’s been…

Scotland The Great - Nine Inch Will Please a Lady

22 Jan 2009

The Burnsian band I am in, with Malcolm Ross and my brother Russel, The Bum-Clocks, has a version of ‘Nine Inch’, a witty ditty in celebration of quantity. We usually locate it in our mash-up of the poetry of Burns and Iggy Pop which kicks off with ‘A…

Scotland The Great - Alternative Anthems

22 Jan 2009

For a country with such a fine musical heritage and tons of songwriting talent, Scotland has piss-poor candidates for a national anthem. ‘Flower of Scotland’, ‘Scotland the Brave’ and ‘Highland Cathedral’? Really? Even worse, a poll to find an…

The All American Rejects

22 Jan 2009

POP PUNK It sounds like effortless pop punk, but The All American Rejects almost went ‘crazy’ writing their new album, When The World Comes Down. Guitarist Mike Kennerty explains: ‘When we were writing the second album Move Along (which later went…

Johnny Griffin - Live at Ronnie Scott’s

8 Jan 2009

JAZZ This live recording from the Soho club last May proved to be the swansong for the hard-hitting American tenor man, and if the octogenarian was no longer at his peak, he more than holds his own in some very fast company, including American…

The Shee - A Different Season

8 Jan 2009

FOLK The Shee have been attracting favourable comment for a while on the live circuit now, and this impressive debut album bears out the growing reputation the six-piece all-women band have accrued. Harpist Rachel Newton, fiddler Olivia Ross and…

Eddi Reader - The Songs of Robert Burns: Deluxe Edition

8 Jan 2009

CELTIC For Burns to endure for 250 years, every generation needs its own way of appreciating him. Five years ago, Eddi Reader provided her take on the Songs of Robert Burns and not only was the folk world enraptured by one of the great Scottish…

Eddi Reader

8 Jan 2009

Fairground Attraction’s former frontwoman continues her love affair with Ayrshire’s philandering ploughman poet, as she sings the songs of Robert Burns, accompanied by the Orchestra of Scottish Opera. Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Sun 18 Jan. (Folk)

Dean Owens

11 Dec 2008

ACOUSTIC ROCK Every singer-songwriter has their holy trinity; those singers who inform what they do at the very core. During this intimate evening, the one-time Felsons’ head honcho, Dean Owens gives away Elvis Costello and Johnny Cash straight off…

Aidan O'Rourke - An Tobar

11 Dec 2008

FOLK The music on this excellent disc was commissioned and first performed by An Tobar Arts Centre on Mull, and is characteristic of the fiddler’s lyrical synthesis of traditional folk roots with a much more contemporary and exploratory musical…

12 Questions: Travis

1 Dec 2008

1. What are you most proud of? My son, Dylan, he is perfect in every way. 2. What do people not know about Travis? That we really aren't such nice guys at all. Behind closed doors we are some of the vilest people you would ever encounter. 3.

James Yorkston

27 Nov 2008

It’s no longer news to say a James Yorkston album has been ‘critically acclaimed’ – because they always are. Since coming to John Peel’s attention in 2001, releasing early material through the Fence Collective and moving on to recent albums with Domino…

Human League, ABC and Heaven 17

27 Nov 2008

SYNTH-POP ELECTRONICA When David Bowie watched Human League play an early gig in 1979, he said he’d just seen ‘the future of pop music’ and their sci-fi, deadpan brand of electronica was ‘like listening to 1980’. Almost 30 years later, with synth-pop…

Nathan Fake

27 Nov 2008

Anyone who missed Nathan ‘techno wonderboy’ Fake’s set at The Caves earlier this year can catch him again as he provides support for Squarepusher. The Border Community-signed producer melts computer-rock, a love of Mogwai and gently ambient electronica…

Glasgow music group seek old instruments and equipment

27 Nov 2008

The East End Music Group’s Equipment Drive is now live online in a bid to encourage people to search attics, sheds, backrooms and basements for instruments and equipment. See myspace (myspace.com/eastendmusicclub).

Exposure: Lykke Li

24 Nov 2008

It’s hard to get past the fact that Lykke Li has been responsible for one of the most incessantly catchy songs of the year in ‘Little Bit’, a teasing slice of strangely romantic Scandi-pop weirdness which features the frankly intriguing couplet ‘And for…

Dialogues

13 Nov 2008

Informatics: it’s the future. This study of ‘the structure, algorithms, behaviour, and interactions of natural and artificial computational systems’ has been around since 1957, when German computer scientist Karl Steinbuch coined the word, ‘Informatik’.

The Cure - 4.13 Dream

13 Nov 2008

As Robert Smith shuffles – his unlaced hi-tops squeaking across the floor – into pop musical maturity, his willingness to indulge his dark side wavers. The band’s last album, a self-titled behemoth from 2004, was The Cure gone metal. For the greater…

Jack Daniel's JD Set, Lynchburg, Tennessee

11 Nov 2008

The most surprising thing about Jack Daniel's isn't that it is distilled in the town of Lynchburg, Tennessee, in a dry state where the law decrees that alcohol can neither be bought nor sold. It isn't that it's the world's biggest selling single brand…

Slayer, Trivium, Mastodon & Amon Amarth

30 Oct 2008

When it comes to metal they don’t get any more influential than the founding fathers of thrash: Slayer. While pretenders to the throne may go heavier and faster you can’t match the peerless Reign in Blood and in particular the blueprint for thrash metal…

Exposure - Indian Jewelry

20 Oct 2008

Bad Brains, mad monks, maximalism, political radicals, yoruban drumming, Gaza handclaps and David Koresh – just a few of this Texan outfit claim to hopld an influence on their music. So far so bizarre then, and we haven’t even started blabbing about…

The Shee

16 Oct 2008

Fiddler Shona Mooney (2006 BBC Scottish Traditional Young Musician of the Year) leads this all female folk group for a unique take on Scottish folk, Gaelic song, bluegrass and ‘frisky instrumentals’. Launching their debut album A Different Season with a…

White Lies

2 Oct 2008

INDIE ROCK No money, nights drawing in, a new Kaiser Chiefs record on the way … There’s a lot of stuff to sob about these days, and while you’re at it you’d better add White Lies to the list. When the brooding Bunnymen-esque West London trio…

Dananananaykroyd

2 Oct 2008

Despite having one of the most infuriatingly difficult names to spell in indie rock Dananananaykroyd are busy making waves with their thundering guitar clatter. Just witness the addictive math rock punk mayhem of latest single ‘Pink Sabbath’. Catch them…

Bloc Party - Intimacy

1 Oct 2008

Bloc Party’s 2005 debut, Silent Alarm, has been a definitive album of the noughties, laying a sonic template for spiky indie-dance with a thumping beat that’s been well observed by bands ever since. Their latest offering, Intimacy, displays many signs…

Regal king size

21 Aug 2008

Karol Szymanowski considered himself an outsider which is why he identified with Sicily’s King Roger II and why his opera has become a gay favourite, finds Carol Main The Edinburgh International Festival’s staged opera programme is swinging from one…

Two Drummers Drumming

Where’s the six geese a laying and the five gold rings?

21 Aug 2008

Have you heard the one about the drummer? Maurice Bacon and Mathew Priest have, and they’re sick of it. Stick-bashing veterans of two notable bands of the 60s and 90s, they’ve brought their ‘Two Drummers Drumming’ show to this year’s Fringe to dispel…

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Folk and gypsy influence evident in programme of two concerts

21 Aug 2008

Starting off with a programme inspired by gypsy music and Hungarian folk melodies, the Budapest Festival Orchestra give two full orchestral concerts in the last week of the Festival plus two presented by some of their soloists. Featuring some rather…

Ryan Quigley - Laphroaig-ian Slip

21 Aug 2008

Ryan Quigley is a familiar figure on the Scottish jazz scene, not least through his long tenure in the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. The trumpeter’s love of the classic hard bop and post-bop styles of the 50s and 60s is always apparent in this…

Opera Shorts

Intimate new work in bite-sized chunks

14 Aug 2008

In its inaugural run of performances, this new opera company provides a showcase of some of Edinburgh’s freshest talent with a set of four 15-minute long operas. The intimacy of such a small theatre helps captivate the audience, and the paucity of props…

The Automatic - This is a Fix

14 Aug 2008

ALT.PUNK (B-Unique) What a difference one little personnel change can make. After ousting squawk-happy keyboardist Alex Pennie, The Automatic drafted in Paul Mullen of the criminally-underrated yourcodenameis:milo, and his influence has leant the…

Taio Cruz

7 Aug 2008

Britain’s not had a great rep when it comes to R&B but names like Estelle, Leona Lewis and Jamelia are helping to reinvigorate the scene. And young singer Taio Cruz is adding his weight to the cause. He’s already worked with Omar, Will Young, Wookie and…

Gustavo Dudamel

7 Aug 2008

With the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, he took the Edinburgh Festival and the London Proms by storm last year. Now, the charismatic 27-year-old conductor Gustavo Dudamel returns to Edinburgh with the Gothenburg Symphony. When he was…

Live at Loch Lomond - Róisín Murphy

31 Jul 2008

A backless dress with a microscopically small pork pie hat. A sequinned black body sock topped off by a feather boa. Spray-on Lycra and a red ‘Allo ‘Allo beret. Pop chameleon and ex-Moloko frontwoman Róisín Murphy knows a thing or two about killer…

All day hip hop event

31 Jul 2008

Banksy’s subversive street art sells for millions, Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre are basically musical royalty and films such as Step Up 2 continue to popularise break-dancing and battling. Hip hop and street culture couldn’t be having more of a moment. Funny…

Up close and personal - Niki King

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

22 Jul 2008

For Niki King, intimacy is something to be embraced rather than feared. Claire Sawers lends an ear as the local singer gently explains why she loves getting confessional on stage.

Burt MacDonald with Lol Coxhill

Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival

22 Jul 2008

A reunion with free jazz, lyrical flourishes and popcorn machines. One of Scotland’s most adventurous jazz groups, the Burt MacDonald Quintet are reuniting with Lol Coxhill. A legend of the soprano saxophone, Coxhill has worked with the band on five…

Regal king size - Król Roger

Edinburgh International Festival

22 Jul 2008

Fitting neatly into the EIF’s theme of Artists Without Borders, the majestic Król Roger opens up audiences to an innovative collaboration. Carol Main chats to Festival director Jonathan Mills about the opera’s arrival in the city. Listening to a…

The B-52s

Preview - Carling Academy, Glasgow, Mon 21 Jul

17 Jul 2008

Aside from almost daily radio outings for ‘Love Shack’ and ‘Rock Lobster’, new wave pioneers turned camp party pop stars The B-52s have been all but unheard of since their last album Good Stuff came out in 1992. The Athens Georgia quartet have been…

Home work - Tipis and pods

17 Jul 2008

Home work A festival that is boutique in all the right ways, Hydro Connect offers some truly original bespoke accommodation options, as Emma Newlands discovers Ideally, all camping experiences would take place in Jellystone Park with Yogi Bear, or…

Sparks - seminal finalists

17 Jul 2008

Sparks have been blowing minds for nearly three decades with their unique off-kilter magic. Hamish Brown gets down and worships With their foray into mainstream consciousness amounting to one song ('This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us'…

Tricky - Knowle West Boy

17 Jul 2008

Fifteen years in and Tricky remains a fascinatingly contradictory figure. This debut for esteemed indie Domino sees him more eclectic than ever, with a raft of obscure guest vocalists adding to that vibe, and features both some of his most commercial…

My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

3 Jul 2008

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…

Sigur Rós - Meo Suo í Eyrum Vio Spilum Endalaust

3 Jul 2008

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…

Chris Bradley - Voices

3 Jul 2008

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.