Previews, David Pollock

Exposure: Snide Rhythms

ECA-friendly genre-benders with a strong musical heritage

Many fine Edinburgh bands have some connection to Edinburgh College of Art, and Colvin Cruickshank – manager of its union, the Wee Red Bar – has seen them all come and go. This project, an artsy combination of The Fall, The Durutti Column and Happy…

Futuristic Retro Champions play in Glasgow's Mono

And here are five reasons for you to go and see them...

1. Futuristic Retro Champions Yep, like we said above. After all, this is the Glasgow-based (aside from the one who lives in Edinburgh), all-girl (aside from the one who’s a boy) electro-pop quartet’s launch party for their single ‘May the Forth’, and…

Crystal Stilts UK tour takes in Glasgow date

The noise-pop group's JB Townshend talks to us ahead of their show at the Arches.

‘It’s the morning, I’m at home in Brooklyn,’ informs JB Townsend, guitarist in ethereal noisemongers Crystal Stilts, ‘just watching a movie about a giant squid.’ Ah, the life of the between-albums alternative musician. Townsend’s band’s debut album…

Gavin Sutherland aka Fudge Fingas to launch new album Now About How at Ultragroove

Edinburgh-based producer's smooth, soulful deep house

‘I’m not a fan of DJ culture, to be honest,’ says Edinburgh-based producer and musician Gavin Sutherland, aka Fudge Fingas, who leads the way as one of the most exciting electronic artists working in Scotland today. ‘Although I suppose I support it…

Razorlight's new drummer David Kaplan on the band's headline slot at Haddow fest

Edinburgh date ahead of summer festival slots

Razorlight are a band with a chequered history. Undeniably, they’ve been a big success in their day: three top five albums and five top ten singles since 2004 testify to that, including the undeniably hook-laden likes of ‘America’ and ‘Somewhere Else’.

Six Black Candles revives adaptation of Des Dillon novel

Revenge story from writer of Singin’ I’m No’ a Billy, He’s a Tim

'I see myself as the Bruce Springsteen of Scottish writers,’ says Des Dillon with a smile. ‘I write about a certain class of people – white trash, basically – and I write about them in simple language, using hardly any words to create powerful images.

Efterklang set for Glasgow show and screening of film An Island

Danish band screen Vincent Moon documentary on UK tour

Efterklang are back, as you’ve never seen them before. Although the delicate and atmospheric soundscapes of the Danish quartet will be familiar to Glasgow’s live concert-goers, this latest show will be enhanced by a pre-gig screening of An Island, their…

Maximilian Zentz Zlomovitz: Rape Me

The new exhibition from Berlin-born artist’s exposes instinctive nature of work

The work of German artist Maximilian Zentz Zlomovitz, says the press release accompanying his latest show in Glasgow, concerns itself at least partially with ‘the aesthetics of destruction’. It’s hard to ascertain from the limited contact The List has…

Edinburgh psychedelic ensemble Delta Mainline hit their stride

Success with second EP sparks plans to record album

They’ve got eight years of history behind them, but only now do Delta Mainline feel as if they’re hitting their groove. Formed in Musselburgh by childhood friends David McLachlan (singer and guitarist) and Gavin King (bass player), they’ve since grown…

The Vaccines among highlights of NME awards Tour 2011

Buzz surrounding new band offering a trawl through six decades of rock history

Rock music, say recent reports, is dead and buried, with only three of the top 100 UK singles of 2010 falling into the category. Pummelled by pop and humbled by hip hop, that’s the once all-conquering sound’s lowest return in 50 years. The Vaccines…

A look at Deadmau5's rise to fame

The Canadian DJ and producer set for Braehead Glasgow show with Magnetic Man and Calvin Harris

How the hell did Deadmau5 get so big? The Canadian DJ and producer has been a powerful force on the commercial end of the dance music circuit for a couple of years now of course, but this month is set to prove he’s no longer just another face in a crowd…

A Guy Called Gerald set for Glasgow date at Animal Farm

Pioneering Manchester producer's show is live performance of back catalogue

For a man who’s had a two-and-a-half decade career in electronic music, including some definitive mid-90s work on the UK jungle and drum & bass scene, Gerald Simpson will be forever known for the fruits of a very brief moment in his career. It was…

Bigfoot's Second Birthday Party

M_Nus artist Ambivalent to kick off third year

‘I guess you could call what we do environmental art,’ says George Russell. ‘We started Bigfoot’s as a way of exploring unconventional ways to host electronic music events, and that involves spending as much time on the production side of things as…

Vintage Violence - new Edinburgh club from the makers of FAST

Glam Rock with a twist

‘It’s pretty rock’n’roll,’ says promoter Chris FAST, discussing the spirit of his semi-regular club night at Edinburgh College of Art’s Wee Red Bar. That should come as no surprise – Chris’ old club FAST was among the very best nights in Edinburgh for a…

Manuel Göttsching of Ash Ra Tempel lines up Glasgow date

Influential German electronic composer plays first gig in Scotland

This is a coup and then some for the team behind Glasgow’s Men & Machines club night. Not only has Manuel Göttsching never played Scotland before, but he only plays about two or three gigs around the world every year. ‘I’m usually too busy with other…

Exposure: S-Type

Homegrown beat-maker launches EP at Mixed Bizness

Bobby Perman’s new single on Scottish label Phuturelabs isn’t his first, but it does signal a change of musical direction under his production alias S-Type. The Edinburgh-raised, Glasgow-based brother of Dougal (who runs Radio Magnetic, where Bobby…

Glasgow clubs Death Disco and Pressure hit 8th and 12th birthdays

The Count & Sinden, Brodinski and Slam set for club birthday events

Take Glasgow’s most famous venue, two of its finest and most enduring nights, add a busload of excellent DJs and sing a big old chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’. The Arches’ Death Disco and Pressure both celebrate birthdays this fortnight, so we asked people…

Doc Daneeka set for Edinburgh StepBack date

UK funky and basement house DJ and producer

Name Doc Daneeka Also known as Mial Watkins is his real name. Occupation Producer and DJ of what many might call UK funky, but what he prefers to refer to as ‘basement house’. ‘Endorsed by Marcus Nasty, L-Vis 1990, Gilles Peterson, Kode9…

Gruff Rhys new solo album a collection of autobiographical piano ballads

'Hotel Shampoo' a departure for Super Furry Animals singer

‘I don’t keep diaries,’ says Gruff Rhys, on the phone from his home in Cardiff, ‘but I’ve kept every bottle of free shampoo I’ve been given (in hotels) since I started to tour 15 years ago. I always wanted to build my own hotel out of all that free…

Gold Panda on UK tour to promote Lucky Shiner

Essex producer follows the 'old-school hip hop rules'

He’s from London, but Essex was the making of Gold Panda. (His real name? ‘Just Derwin, if that’s all right.’) ‘I lived in Peckham until I was about 15, then my family moved to Chelmsford, where a cultural scene didn’t really exist,’ he says. ‘I found…

Club promoters Men & Machines end Stereo residency to explore new forms

Respected Glasgow electronic music night changes format

Men & Machines is over, but this isn’t the end. After two and a half years of regular nights at Stereo, the M&M team of Ewan Dunnett and Alasdair Stewart will be giving up their bi-monthly residency status. ‘We’re slightly reluctant to call it a…

The Vaselines

The Vaselines’ three point plan for cult success: step one, create some excellent, individual, perfectly of-its-time guitar pop music. Next, split up less than three years later, having released just one album and two EPs and created very few ripples…

Reel-to-Real: The Movies Musical aims for a spectacular show of the best of the genre

Show promises intense live multi-media entertainment

Producer Simone Genatt Haft is utterly convincing in selling Reel-to-Real, the show she and business partner Marc Routh are bringing to this year’s Fringe, and it sounds like she has every reason to be. ‘This is probably the most intense live…

Hot Mess takes modern angst theatre into the nightclub

Experimental look at contemporary relationships from hot young playwright

Despite feeling increasing pressure to give in and follow every other hot young thing to London, playwright Ella Hickson doesn’t want to leave Edinburgh behind. A graduate of Edinburgh University, Hickson wrote and directed her breakthrough Fringe play…

Damo Suzuki's cancer recovery brought him back to music

Local musicians invite the ex-Can singer to their city for improvised sets

‘I was with Can for three years,’ says Damo Suzuki simply, ‘and after that, I had many experiences in my life. I don’t like to compare with that time. I was a hippy then, I just liked smoking big joints and making the music happy. But since 30, 40 years…