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Music and Jonny Ensall

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Summer Festivals 2012: Best dance music live shows

Summer Festivals 2012: Best dance music live shows

Which of this year's superstar DJs have visuals to match their beats?

25 May 2012

Picture the scene. Dusk has fallen on the festival site. Tens of thousands of inebriated and euphoric festivalgoers have assembled at the main stage. They’re waiting for the headliner, whooping and hollering in anticipation. Then it happens: a guy…

Summer Festivals 2012: Ones to watch

Summer Festivals 2012: Ones to watch

A selection of industry experts and List writers choose their musical highlights for this summer

25 May 2012

Lanterns on the Lake Chosen by Jonny Ensall, Editor, The List What does that name bring to mind? Boats on the water? A night to remember? An ethereal choir of knitting together a sense of the magical past and the optimistic future? You’re spot on with…

Austra and The Unthanks set for No Direction Home 2012

Austra, The Unthanks and Richard Hawley set for No Direction Home 2012

New festival with focus on quality from team behind End of the Road

23 May 2012

End of the Road has been the latte-drinking, glam-camping Guardian reader's weekender of choice almost since it's inception in 2006. Picking up plaudits from The Times and The Guardian (of course) as well as an award for 'Best Small Festival' last year…

Friends - Manifest!

Friends - Manifest!

An insidiously hooky album that's sometimes brilliant, sometimes bloomin’ annoying

(3 stars)22 May 2012

There are songs you can’t get out of your head, and then there are songs you wish you could get out of your head. In the latter category: ‘Hey Baby’ by DJ Otzi. In the former: Friends’ ‘Friend Crush’ and ‘I’m His Girl’. The Brooklyn band’s well-blogged…

Major Lazer - O2 ABC, Glasgow, Sun 22 Apr

Major Lazer - O2 ABC, Glasgow, Sun 22 Apr

A ballsy and daft neo-dancehall party that wasn't shared enough with the audience

(3 stars)26 Apr 2012

‘Make some noise for all the asses!’ encouraged super-producer, and one half of Major Lazer, Diplo, midway through the band’s dancehall blitzkrieg of a live show. A dozen Glaswegian girls had been hoisted from the audience onto the O2 ABC stage to…

Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself

Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself

Reasonably consistent album of simple, emotional music from multi-instrumentalist smartypants

(3 stars)22 Feb 2012

(Bella Union) There are signs on Break It Yourself that multi-instrumentalist and genre-hopping smartypants Andrew Bird has mellowed out somewhat. The album is reasonably consistent and settles in a gentle neo-folk groove that shows off Bird’s…

Five reasons to go see . . . The GZA

Five reasons to go see . . . The GZA

The GZA of Wu Tang approaches the Arches

1 Feb 2012

He’s a genius The Genius, to be precise. GZA, aka The Genius, (Gary Grice to his mum) is a founding member of Wu Tang Clan, along with his cousin, producer The RZA, and gravelly-voiced rap heathen Ol’ Dirty Bastard (RIP). The Clan emerged out of New…

Azari & III - Azari & III

Azari & III - Azari & III

Credit due delivering a straightforward house music manifesto with compelling four-to-the-floor forc

(4 stars)1 Feb 2012

(Island) This self-titled debut is actually a major label re-release of an album that, until recently, was widely available as an import – including on Spotify. It’s getting a reboot in the UK in CD form (you remember CDs right?) though really the…

Vieux Farka Touré set for Celtic Connections 2012

Vieux Farka Touré set for Celtic Connections 2012

Blues and country influence from son of legendary Malian guitar player

27 Jan 2012

Farka Touré. Where have you heard that name before? Vieux is the son of legendary Malian guitar player Ali Farka Touré, one of the true stars of the world music scene. Farka Touré senior passed away in 2006, but junior has picked up where he left off…

The high energy, high concept dance-rock of Justice is French through-and-through

The high energy, high concept dance-rock of Justice is French through-and-through

To these new gods of French electronic music, we say Salut!

27 Jan 2012

The hair; the crotch-hugging denim; the ‘tude - everything about Justice’s demeanour screams metal. And with good reason. The band, comprising Xavier de Rosnay (monobrow, flaired nostrils) and Gaspard Augé (hair of Robert Plant, moustache of a Deep…

Preview of 2012 - The best events this year

Preview of 2012 - The best events this year

Featuring the Cultural Olympiad, The Dark Knight Rises, WU LYF, Glasgow International and more

9 Jan 2012

It’s 2012, but fear not, things aren’t as bad as they seem. Before you decide to occupy government property, or smash a brick through Dixons, take heart in the folklore of a simpler age. For when times are black, you can always rely on the comfort of…

The Hot 100 2011: 100-40

The Hot 100 2011: 100-50

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

100: Gordon Ferris. Kilmarnock crime author makes good. The already packed Scottish crime writing field has finally found a bit of elbow room for another burgeoning talent. Joining the likes of Rankin, Brookmyre, McDermid and co is this Ayrshire-born…

HOT 100 2011 - 49 to 1

Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…

Hot 100 2011 - 54: Summerhall venue offers something special

Hot 100 2011 - No. 54: Summerhall venue offers something special

Festival debut marks beginning of major creative space in Edinburgh

16 Dec 2011

Before this August it seemed the Edinburgh Festival was already home to every sort of show and venue imaginable. So, when an entirely new major space sprang up, it was difficult to see what it might offer above the usual. On the programme at…

The Hot 100 2011 - 32: Remember Remember interview

The Hot 100 2011 - No. 32: Remember Remember interview

Graeme Ronald’s complex compositions get the full-band treatment

16 Dec 2011

‘Steve Reich on acid,’ is how one List critic described Graeme Ronald’s second album as Remember Remember, released this year. True, it has Reich’s trademark repetition – albeit combined with melodies that could only be Scottish – but Ronald is unsure…

Django Django - Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Thu 24 Nov

Django Django - Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Thu 24 Nov

Infectious fun from band with no agenda other than having a good time

(3 stars)13 Dec 2011

Django Django’s music could be described as folk-rave, or math-beat, or perhaps contemporary hoedown. It’s hard to explain, really, why the combination of American West, Merseyside and East London rhythms should sound so good, meaning that, joyously…

Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat - interview

Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat - interview

Moffat and Middleton are set to team up again to celebrate Nice'n'Sleazy's 20th birthday

7 Nov 2011

The mid-90s Arab Strap song ‘I Saw You’ was inspired by The List’s lonely-hearts feature of the same name. Do you remember using I Saw You at that time? That I Saw You feature had just started, and it was quite exciting and cool. I did attempt to use…

Toronto-based Azari & III favour Roland drum machines, crisp piano loops and emotional lyrics - just don't call them house revivalists

Azari & III - Don't call them house revivalists

Toronto-based act favour Roland drum machines, crisp piano loops and emotional lyrics

21 Oct 2011

Is it too soon for a house music revival? That’s the question The List is mulling over ahead of speaking to self-proclaimed ‘house music aficionados’ Azari & III. The Toronto-based band, comprising producers Dinamo Azari and Alixander III and vocalists…

Remember Remember and Miaoux Miaoux - Glasgow Science Centre planetarium, Sat 8 Oct 2011

Remember Remember, Miaoux Miaoux - Glasgow Science Centre, Sat 8 Oct 2011

Fantastic electronica double-bill in impressively apt surroundings

(5 stars)19 Oct 2011

It’s a simple enough idea. Two nights of live music (Saturday and Sunday) inside the Glasgow Science Centre planetarium, with the performances broken up by lectures from Simon, the centre’s laser pen-wielding resident stargazer. Simple but brilliant.

The Dø - Both Ways Open Jaws

The Dø - Both Ways Open Jaws

Overly saccharine quirk-pop from the Finnish/French duo

(2 stars)12 Oct 2011

(Village Green) There’s so much charming naivety on The Dø’s second album it makes you feel nauseous. The French/Finnish boy/girl duo can write a catchy song but lack any kind of mettle, sounding like a summer school recording project, complete with…

Arcade Fire - The Castle, Edinburgh, Thu 1 Sep 2011

Arcade Fire - The Castle, Edinburgh, Thu 1 Sep 2011

Band's enthusiasm helps suck in swirls of Edinburgh spookiness

(4 stars)16 Sep 2011

Any band gigging at Edinburgh Castle is going to feel a sense of occasion. Arcade Fire more so than most. Frontman Win Butler, his wife Régine Chassagne and the rest of the Montreal outfit are obsessed with the fragility of the modern world. Playing in…

The Drums - Portamento

The Drums - Portamento

Second helping of summery indie pop from the darlings of the hipster set

(4 stars)24 Aug 2011

(Island) On this, their second album, The Drums have made no effort to grow out of summery guitar riffs and meaningless lyrics full of innocent joy. In fact, these 12 sprightly indie-pop tracks are so similar, and so slight, that Portamento could be…

Lounge Room Confabulators

Lounge Room Confabulators

Aussie troubadours paying home visits

(4 stars)11 Aug 2011

‘Hello! It’s the Lounge Room Confabulators.’ A voice chimes cheerily through the intercom. The Confabulators – a pair of bearded Australians in Del Monte suits who will be performing an hour-long storytelling show in my home – ascend the stairwell…

Review - T in the Park, Balado, Sunday 10 July

Review - T in the Park, Balado, Sunday 10 July

Glorious Pulp, heavy rain and hard electronic madness

(3 stars)20 Jul 2011

I was duly punished for arriving late to T in the Park this year by a brief, but torrential shower, hitting at about 3pm on the Sunday. A quick meteorological experiment to measure the level of rain in my wellies revealed that it had just ‘pissed down’.

The Horrors - Skying

The Horrors - Skying

Some highlights here, but ubiquitous retro pop nonsense blunts their edge

(3 stars)13 Jul 2011

(XL) Did someone replace the light bulbs in The Horrors’ recording studio? Have they started taking multi-vitamins? Something uplifting has happened to what was previously Britain’s blackest band. And, unfortunately, it’s blunted their edge. The…

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