Music and Camilla Pia

Hot Chip - In Our Heads

The elctro-pop masters' fifth album is their most smartly accessible effort to date

21 May 2012

Every self-appointed creative with a WTF haircut and a MacBook thinks they’re an ‘electronic artist’ these days. But there’s more to it than bedroom-recording cry wank vocals over presets and dropping them to Tuesday night cheek-chewers. Hot Chip’s…

Zulu Winter - Language

The indie rockers' debut is disappointingly unadventurous

23 Apr 2012

(Play It Again Sam) With their unabashed love of Czech new wave cinema, Steve Reich, TS Eliot, Ayn Rand and modern dance troupes The List won’t even pretend to have heard of, we expected something a little more adventurous from Zulu Winter’s debut…

PAWS - Misled Youth

A pacey, frantic and melancholy EP from the Glasgow garage pop-rock trio

23 Apr 2012

(Fat Cat) Grrr, Paws are good. Be it gigging in weird places (the Glasgow trio have played in bathrooms, skate shops and on top of double decker buses) or the bedroom recordings released on painstakingly put-together, hand-numbered limited edition…

Interview: Grimes - Electronica artist

The Canadian musician shares the intense creative process that spawned new album Visions

16 Apr 2012

The stunning future pop masterpiece Visions by Claire Boucher aka Grimes is inspired by Enya, Japanese anime, TLC and Aphex Twin and samples Renaissance composer Palestrina. Her dream? To be Timbaland and Lydia Lunch simultaneously and leave a mark on…

Kindness - World, You Need A Change Of Mind

Superb spellbinding pop which pulls of a mulititude of hipsterism sins

28 Feb 2012

(Female Energy/Polydor) You could be forgiven for thinking Kindness is little more than hipster ‘lolz’. Tracks have trickled out sporadically accompanied by cryptic soundbites and moody black and white shots of a recording studio in Paris and New…

Grimes - Visions

Jaw-dropping record of carefully crafted and cleverly created songs

22 Feb 2012

(4AD) Visions is Claire Boucher’s fourth release in less than two years, and shows the Vancouver-born music-maker feverishly developing her sound at a rate of knots. Since she moved to Montreal in 2006 and birthed performance art, video and audio…

The Shins - Port Of Morrow

Timely reminder of value of solid indie rock built on smart storytelling and melodies

22 Feb 2012

(Aural Apothecary/Columbia Records) Oh, James Mercer, we’ve missed you. Port Of Morrow is The Shins’ first new material in four years and in a world where the young’uns are dabbling in skew-whiff electronica and art funk ‘jams’ with varying results…

Real Estate set for UK tour

New Jersey trio take one of the best albums of 2011 on the road

27 Jan 2012

Let England Shake may have topped most of the critics’ lists, but for many it was word-of-mouth, you have to hear this, slow-burner Days by Real Estate that became their hands down musical highlight of 2011. This much-lauded record was an Ariel Pink…

Emeli Sande - Our Version Of Events

Powerful, sophisticated and smart mix of stripped down, acoustic songs

24 Jan 2012

(Virgin) Just imagine it, Adele and Emeli Sandé down the pub, putting the world to rights over copious pints. Men? Screw ’em. Hype? Whatever. But the main reason they’d make great gal pals is because they’ve both worked out ways to channel their…

Die Hard - Die Hard

Glasgow outfit's eponymous debut of magnificently off-kilter, avant pop tales

23 Jan 2012

(Halleluwah Hits) If this Glasgow outfit had named themselves after any other Bruce Willis film we’d have issues, but as it is we’re rather partial to a bit of John McClane action so we’re giving Die Hard a go. Stick their eponymous debut on and…

Errors - Have Some Faith In Magic

Superb third album that should push the foursome out of Mogwai's shadow

6 Jan 2012

(Rock Action) Lazily regarded as Mogwai-lite for most of their seven year existence, Errors’ third offering finally sees the Glasgow foursome shrug off the shackles of their legendary label founders’ early patronage. Anyone with half a brain could…

Single of the month: Trailer Trash Tracys ‘Candy Girl / Strangling Good Guys’

Florence and the Machine, Arctic Monkeys and more also reviewed

5 Jan 2012

Music snobs love to flame Florence and the Machine these days. But as ‘No Light No Light’ (Island) ●●●● proves, Welch does epic, pagan pop pretty much perfectly. Her only crime is that lots of people now like it. They’d no doubt sneer at the recent…

Interview: Stuart Braithwaite deconstructs Mogwai

An examination of what makes them great, ahead of their 2011 UK tour

9 Dec 2011

40% Quiet/Loud ‘For our first few years this was our raison d’être’ says Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite of a technique that came to define the band’s early, and much revered, nerve-shredding sound. That jolt as the volume soared and dipped without warning…

Seafieldroad - Seafieldroad

Thoroughly beguiling second effort showcases a spine-tingling delivery

10 Nov 2011

(Biphonic) It’s a shock to find Swimmer One and Seafieldroad’s Andrew Eaton-Lewis stripped of all his usual sonic accoutrements. But this second solo effort of piano-backed ballads is thoroughly beguiling. Rich, sonorous vocals are the focal point…

White Denim - Last Day Of Summer

A stripped down snapshot of a band in transition and showcasing awe-inspiring musicianship

10 Nov 2011

(Downtown) Last Day Of Summer is a fascinating insight into what White Denim were knocking out for fun before the release of this year’s breakthrough; deservedly lauded fourth offering D. Recorded in a month and initially available only online, this…

Summer Camp - Welcome To Condale

Seeped in nostalgia and one of the smartest synth pop romp of the year

19 Oct 2011

(Apricot Recording Company/Moshi Moshi) Summer Camp’s music is seeped in nostalgia, but the London duo pay homage to the past cleverly; their 1980s’ teen flicks-inspired debut thankfully free of the usual pitfalls of cynical pastiche and straight…

Twin Sister - In Heaven

Insanely infectious pop melodies and playful, off-kilter lyrics from Long Island quintet’s debut

14 Sep 2011

(Domino) Twin Sister’s biog tells us they want to make music you could feel comfortable cheating on someone to. And while The List can’t speak from experience on this one, honest, we can certainly imagine In Heaven blissing listeners out so much they…

Veronica Falls - Veronica Falls

Gorgeously gritty indie pop referencing C86, Pastels and Vaselines

14 Sep 2011

(Bella Union) You may recognise this boy/girl foursome from their various past musical projects The Royal We, Sexy Kids, Your Twenties and Correcto. But The List hopes they stick with this one, because with Veronica Falls they’re really on to…

Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

New-found soulfulness with assured second album

14 Sep 2011

(Fantasy Trashcan/Turnstile) At times Christopher Owens’ religious cult upbringing and drug dabbling has threatened to overshadow the music he makes as the driving force behind San Francisco’s Girls. No such problems with this assured follow-up to…

Butcher Boy - Helping Hands

From strength to strength, without fanfare or fuss

24 Aug 2011

(Damaged Goods) Butcher Boy’s John Blain Hunt has a habit of taking your breath away with words. Three albums into the band’s career, he’s still that brilliant; Helping Hands filled to the brim with the beautifully crafted, poetic storytelling the…

Interview - Battles' Ian Williams on the story behind Gloss Drop

Ian Williams on life and making music after four members became three

24 May 2011

While deeply ensconced in the making of their second album, Battles singer/guitarist Tyondai Braxton announced his departure from the band last year. The news hit fans keenly anticipating the follow-up to 2007’s math rock masterpiece Mirrored hard; as…

Lady Gaga - Born This Way

Finally we’ve got the freaky music to match the monsters

24 May 2011

(Polydor) However much we snigger at the egg shell antics and purposely deranged interview technique, people gobble up everything Gaga does right now. So Gaga wins. But sticking firm to her Warhol and Bowie-inspired artistic roots and achieving…

Dananananaykroyd - There Is A Way

An incredibly smart rock record driven by their trademark tireless energy and joy

20 May 2011

(Pizza College) Award five stars or have them sectioned? It’s often a fine line, but a world without Dananananaykroyd’s glorious lunacy would be a sad place indeed. The Glasgow six-some have excelled themselves with There Is A Way; an incredibly…

'Feel It Break' by Austra is a stunning introduction to the Canadian electro-poppers

14 Apr 2011

(Domino) While Katie Stelmanis is very much the beating heart of Austra, her vocals are the icing on an already rather tasty cake. Feel It Break introduces us to this Toronto trio and their dark blend of electronics, keys and minimalist beats with…

Singles of the month: Gyratory System and Something Beginning with L

'New Harmony' and 'Angel Sized' best tracks of March/April 2011

24 Mar 2011

You join The List in a proper strop. Blame Aaron Wright’s ‘Trampoline’ (Dset) ● and ‘Interrupt’ (Albino) ● by Toy Horses; the latter all timid boy vocals and Turin Brakes-isms; the former reminding us that we hate the bloody Kooks. We also hate the…