David Pollock

Scottish festivals 2013 - An A-Z of the best summer festivals

The best festivals of music, film, food, cycling and more taking place in Scotland 2013

When it comes to festivals, Scotland really doesn’t hold back. From Orkney to Byres Road, muddy fields to stately homes, the growing number of them cater to all tastes, styles and budgets. Our A-Z guide profiles Scotland’s best summer jamborees, the…

The best European music festivals you've never heard of

Featuring Electric Elephant, Unsound, Oya and Sunsplash

1 All Tomorrow’s Parties Iceland Sadly coming to an end in the UK, hipster holiday camp hideaway ATP is once more branching out overseas, starting with this weekender on an ex-NATO air base starring Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Fall, Deerhoof and…

Neil Young: Journeys

An intimate homecoming documentary by the country rock legend, shot by Jonathan Demme

‘This is a town in North Ontario,’ are the first interview words uttered by Neil Young in this Jonathan Demme-directed documentary, and it’s probable that he’s consciously referencing the lyric of his own song ‘Helpless’. In the opening few minutes of…

Edinburgh Zoo Nights promises a wild night out in one of the capital's landmarks

Food, drink, comedy and animal handling among the activities on offer

Food, drink, comedy and pandas. Sounds like a good night out? That’s what Edinburgh Zoo (in partnership with your favourite listings magazine) is promising as part of the inaugural Zoo Nights event this month, the latest in a line of attempts to turn…

Young Fathers - Tape Two

Textured and intriguing album from Edinburgh hip hop group who have come of age at last

(Anticon) As if their breakthrough release of Tape One earlier this year on groundbreaking Los Angeles intelligent hip hop label Anticon wasn’t vindication enough of the promise that Edinburgh trio Young Fathers have been putting in the bank for…

Julie Brook's made, unmade

Fascinating multimedia installation calling upon all senses to enter landscapes' wilderness

For this large-scale multimedia collaboration with Dovecot Studios, Julie Brook has attempted to bring the wilderness with her and site it within a darkened gallery space. Although she lives on Skye, it’s the hot desert tones and ambience of her working…

Exposure: Haim set for 2013 UK tour dates

Sweet, yearning, retro pop melodies from sister-heavy band

When Haim look towards their future, do they see anything between themselves and a torrent of riches and acclaim? We’ve checked, and we can detect nothing. Were we to be unimaginative, in fact, we’d say they have all the retroisms to one day go on to be…

Toro Y Moi set for 2013 UK tour with third album Anything in Return

South Carolina's Toro Y Moi on his musical influences and latest album Anything in Return

‘I want to make music that people should hear, not what they want to hear,’ says Chazwick ‘Chaz’ Bundick, the South Carolina native who records a selection of boundary-pressing intelligent dance tracks under the alias Toro Y Moi, amongst many others.

New young producer Koreless mixes dreamlike ambience and 2-step beats

The breaking electronica/dubstep producer returns to the city where he first made his name

‘I developed an obsession with music after getting a computer filled with all sorts, from Ali Farka Touré through to AR Rahman, off my uncle Gareth,’ says Lewis Roberts, the currently-breaking-through 21-year-old producer who dug a first foothold under…

Old Vic production of Noises Off set for UK tour

The play within a play gets a scientific and funny makeover

‘It’s one of the purest farces ever written in the English language,’ is how director Lindsay Posner describes Michael Frayn’s 1982 comedy Noises Off: ‘I do see it as a truly great play.’ Posner’s new touring version of the play celebrates its thirtieth…

Marilene Oliver: Confusao

Impressive works of the human body based on MRI and PET scan material

In the accompanying literature, Londoner Marilene Oliver provides an impressively idea-packed insight into the layers of conscious metaphor in her work. One line has particular relevance to what she does: ‘playing with disillusioned promises that…

The National - Trouble Will Find Me

A great sixth record, but not one which parades the fact before you

(4AD) The idea that much of the music here was written by guitarist Aaron Desner while bedevilled by bone-aching fatigue and sleepless nights following the birth of his baby daughter is a compelling one. It ties into the sense of a band shattered…

Casual Sex - Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, Glasgow, Fri 5 Apr 2013

Upcoming post-punk 4-piece stand out a mile in Glasgow's healthy band scene

The idea that Casual Sex are successors to Franz Ferdinand’s mantle as post-punk overlords of Glasgow has already been floated. But this lot are in a parallel universe of their own. To watch them is to be aware that something special’s undoubtedly on…

Podcast review: Resident Advisor

As the best online-only dance magazine in the world, there are many reasons to visit Resident Advisor. They do international club listings, ticket sales, features on new and established artists, short documentaries, a forum and an aggregated news feed…

Crate Digging: Richard Fearless selects six of his current favourite tracks

DJ and co-founder of Death in Vegas starts new night Drone at Glasgow’s Berkeley Suite

'578’ Gunnar Wendel (FXHE Records) is a stunning, melodic, trance-inducing piece of techno. Lauded by the likes of Mr Andrew Weatherall, it's been remixed by the genius that is Omar S, a man who can do no wrong in my eyes. It's truly sublime, with…

Peles Empire: F X G

Multidimensional reproduction of a Peles Castle's ceramic sculpture by established artists

One possible first thought upon entering the gallery and witnessing this exhibition is that its hanging doesn't appear to have been finished. Against the austere walls of this old industrial space, featureless rectangles of concrete hang unlabelled and…

William Tyler & Hiss Golden Messenger - Summerhall, Edinburgh, Sat 4 May

Songs setting a dense emotional mood and strong sense of place

Despite the setting in a cool, dark, wood-panelled lecture theatre, sometime Silver Jews and Lambchop guitarist William Tyler and Hiss Golden Messenger songwriter and fulcrum Michael ‘MT’ Taylor brought a certain sense of the pastoral with them for this…

Container, Dalhous and The Orpheus Choir set for Glasgow club night Collapse

Off-beam US techno producer Container makes loud, rhythmic techno

How plans to bring off-beam US techno producer Container to the UK transformed into a cutting edge electronica night

Optimo: The Underground Sound of Glasgow

Tracks from Golden Teacher, Auntie Flo and Debukas feature on mix compilation showcasing the city

(Glasgow Underground) The mouth waters and the ears tingle at the thought of this, the first in a series of compilations showcasing the sound of a city by someone who knows it well. The producers have chosen well here, for they could have no more…

Wet Sounds - Glasgow event combines swimming and music

Float in a pool listening to sounds by Joel Cahen and La Horrox

It’s the most listening fun you can have without electrocuting yourself. You get in the pool. You listen to music either in the water, out of the water or somewhere in between, floating on the surface. There are speakers submerged below you and in the…

King Creosote - Oran Mor, Glasgow, Wed 10 Apr 2013

Fence Records stalwart's bittersweet railing over declining physical music sales

Following on from his low-key appearance on the fringes of Fence’s Gnomegame festival in Anstruther the weekend before, Kenny Anderson was playing the second date of a monstrous month-long UK solo tour here, the first coming the day before in Shetland.

David Batchelor's Flatlands highlights the artist's painted and drawn pieces

Show of artist's two-dimensional work puts colour centre stage

Renowned for many years for his sculptures using lightboxes and pieces of reclaimed detritus from city streets, the Dundee-born, London-based David Batchelor didn’t show his drawings and paintings in public until a show at Edinburgh’s Talbot Rice…

Theatre director Michael Emans set to revive Hector MacMillan's The Sash

The play, which was first staged at the Fringe 40 years ago, addresses the dangers of sectarianism

Forty years after it was first staged on the Edinburgh Fringe, Hector MacMillan’s homespun homily about the perils of sectarianism and its grip on the past and the future remains depressingly familiar to the landscape of Scottish society. Michael Emans…

Fence Gnomegame - Town Hall, Anstruther, Sat 6 & Sun 7 Apr 2013

The Pictish Trail, eagleowl and Golden Teacher all play the micro-festival in Fife

’I know some of you are excited about this next band because we've already sold out of their records,’ declared Pictish Trail Johnny Lynch in advance of eagleowl’s Saturday afternoon set, whichpremiered material from their new album *3this silent…

Stag and Dagger: Glasgow's city festival prepares for fifth edition

One-ticket-admits-all festival to feature exciting acts from all genres

It’s uncertain whether anyone remembers the ‘Sauchiehall Crawl’ event of a few years back, which attempted to do for Glasgow’s busiest late night thoroughfare what the Camden Crawl in London was doing. Well, despite being ill-remembered in the face of…