David Pollock

Lynn Macdonald, manager and promoter at the soon-to-close Soundhaus - interview

The Glasgow techno den plans final parties for massive send-off

2 Feb 2012

The first that Lynn Macdonald (manager and long-time promoter at Glasgow techno den the Soundhaus) heard of the venue’s death was in an impersonal email she found in her inbox when she arrived at work one morning. ‘It was heartbreaking,’ she says. ‘I…

The Sculpture Show

Well-managed and educational group sculpture show also contains big impressions

1 Feb 2012

Those who find their attention can escape the orbit of this show’s central spectacle – Ron Mueck’s striking ‘A Girl’, a life-like model of a quite grumpy-looking newborn baby girl rendered as a vast monolith many dozens of times the size of nature…

Anna Barriball

Sculpture show from the Plymouth-born artist contains a relaxed humour

1 Feb 2012

There’s a certain fascination in concealment within the work of Plymouth-born Anna Barriball, a tension between what the works appear to be and what they actually are. Is a framed, full-sized pencil rubbing of a door a drawing of said door, or are its…

Trailer Trash Tracys - Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Sun 15 Jan 2012

Effects-laden shoegaze fog heavy on the exquisite melodrama

27 Jan 2012

Not, as you might have expected from the name, a clan of bad-mouthin’, whisky-swillin’ Midwestern girls battering badly-tuned guitars and trying to resurrect the lost souls of L7 or The Distillers, Trailer Trash Tracys are instead three guys and a girl…

Pulp - It/Freaks/Separations

Reissue of first three albums from 1980s originally released on Fire

27 Jan 2012

(Fire) Testament to the 80s’capacity to incubate provincial bands until they’re ready for megastardom, Pulp’s first three albums on Fire were a career’s worth in themselves, although hardly anyone remembers. Containing, as all three of these reissues…

Machinedrum - sXlnd

Inventive release taking in UK funky, smooth old-school house and sophisticated club tracks

27 Jan 2012

(LuckyMe) A five-track EP rather than a full-blown album, there’s nonetheless a long player’s worth of sonic invention on the latest from Travis Stewart, running the gamut from UK funky to smooth old-school house with an understated Balearic edge.

The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know

Influence of post-punk and synthesisers lends more heart-shredding, austere edge

23 Jan 2012

(FatCat) Bearing the uncertain honour of an ‘anti-production’ credit from Andrew Weatherall (it means general pre-recording guidance, it seems), this second album from The Twilight Sad is a surprising and substantial progression. The washes of epic…

Chris Duncan of Sub Club discusses plans for the venue's 25th anniversary

9 Jan 2012

You’ll probably be hearing a lot more about this as the year progresses, but it doesn’t do any harm to draw your attention to two anniversaries happening in Glasgow in 2012 – one big and one absolutely enormous, and both under the same roof. This is the…

The best restaurants in Edinburgh and Glasgow for cheap eating in January

Dining out options that won't break the bank

9 Jan 2012

EDINBURGH The Mosque Kitchen Now relocated from its former al fresco spot outside Edinburgh’s mosque, the café-style Mosque Kitchen still serves a fine range of halal meat and vegetable curries in no-fuss polystyrene dishes for under £5 including…

Preview of 2012 - Emeli Sandé

The Scottish chart-topper aims to release a hit album in 2012

6 Jan 2012

Whenever Emeli Sandé gets a chance to stop and think, she says, the journey she’s already been on in her life still has her pinching herself. ‘To think that three years ago I was sitting in a lecture theatre in Glasgow learning about anatomy,’ she says…

Malcolm Middleton - Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Wed 14 Dec

The ex-Arab Strap man isn't as miserable as he makes out

6 Jan 2012

What better way to celebrate Christmas than with Mr Season of Goodwill himself, Malcolm Middleton, the man whose campaign to get ‘We’re All Going to Die’ to the 2007 Christmas number one spot will live long in the hearts of those who believed in it.

The Saturdays - SECC, Glasgow, Tue 13 Dec

Polished pop performance that felt lacking in soul

6 Jan 2012

With Little Mix winning this year’s X-Factor, you would think the positively elderly Saturdays (average age: 24) would be showing signs of abject desperation not to lose their crown as the current biggest UK girl group not in semi-retirement. But no...

The Lemonheads - Laughing All the Way to the Cleaners: The Best Of

Expansive look at Evan Dando and co's back catalogue

5 Jan 2012

(Rhino) Evan Dando is still going strong as the lone remaining member of The Lemonheads, although his days as a mainstream slacker rock heartthrob are long behind him. As this two-CD, 47-track collection demonstrates, though – perhaps too extensively…

Stuart MacBride - Birthdays for the Dead

The tartan noir author diverges from the Logan McRae series with a compelling and brutal thriller

5 Jan 2012

(HarperCollins) A standalone diversion from his Logan McRae series of novels, Stuart MacBride once again demonstrates how he puts the grit into the Granite City. That said, Birthdays for the Dead isn’t set in Aberdeen, instead the action shifts to…

François and the Atlas Mountains - E Volo Love

Breezy, summery pop from the former Fencer

5 Jan 2012

(Domino) Graduating, as James Yorkston and King Creosote did before him, from Fence to Domino, La Rochelle’s François Marry has produced an album here that’s worthy of the increased exposure. A set of breezy summertime pop songs which seem strangely…

Alison Watt – Hiding in Full View

The artist's paintings are good, but suffer in comparison to the photography of Francesca Woodman

19 Dec 2011

‘All rooms will hide you, if you stand just so – ghosts know this, that’s really all they know,’ declares one of the poems by Don Paterson (a credited collaborator in this show), which are printed in fluid lower case type just below eye level on the…

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 - 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…

The Hot 100 2011 - No. 22: Steven Moffat interview

Writer behind Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes and Tintin

16 Dec 2011

Perhaps the biggest stumbling block the latest series of Doctor Who hit this year were complaints in some quarters that it was becoming too complex. Yet Paisley-born showrunner Steven Moffat is rightly unrepentant about a storyline which began and ended…

Numbers discuss the club/brand's New Year plans

Hogmanay celebrations in both Edinburgh and Glasgow lie ahead

13 Dec 2011

It’s been another good year for Glasgow’s ever-growing clubbing export Numbers. So big, in fact, that they need a whole three cities to contain their send-off to 2011. First they’ll be warming up with a set at Edinburgh’s Sneaky Pete’s the night before…

Music-themed Christmas parties round-up

Festive shindigs on offer from Song, By Toad, Phantom Band, James Yorkston, Fence and more

13 Dec 2011

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas in Scotland’s indie village without a bunch of our favourite bands getting together to chip in for mince pies and mulled wine and treat us to / inflict upon us some of their most diligently practiced seasonal covers. Yes…

Arab Strap - Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, Glasgow, Thu 17 Nov 2011

Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton strip down their back catalogue

13 Dec 2011

As if anyone would have called their band ‘William Harness’ anyway. That was the not-so-secret moniker Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton chose to add deniability to the fact they were getting the old band back together here, even if it was just for one…

Hidden City

Edinburgh Printmakers members’ show a mixed bag

9 Dec 2011

In compiling their latest, largest annual members’ show, Edinburgh Printmakers have imposed an unwitting watermark of quality with their decision to give it a theme. ‘Edinburgh Uncovered’ is the subtitle, and the collection claims to offer ‘an intimate…

Jonnie Common - Hair of the Dog

Common's debut Master of None yields a just-as-good set of muso-buddy remixes

8 Dec 2011

(Red Deer Club) Jonnie Common’s debut album Master of None: a record so good he actually got two albums out of it. This remix package is more of an appendix to the original than a cohesive new creation in its own right, but its roll call of some of…

Abandoned Scotland - How derelict historic buildings are being documented

The urban explorers investigating the nation’s forgotten architecture

18 Nov 2011

‘I love it when you see a sign that says “Dangerous Building – Do Not Enter”,’ says Veranique Dron as we walk back down from the hill overlooking Edinburgh’s Barnton Quarry. ‘“Building at risk” – it’s only an invitation.’ From the crest of that hill…