David Pollock

RockNess - Clunes Farm, Dores, Sun 9 Jun 2013

Part 2 of our RockNess review coverage features Lianne La Havas, Madness and Camera Obscura

At any British festival the tendency is to review the weather first, and RockNess certainly comes off best when you do that in this case. Sunday’s line-up rounded off a glorious Highland weekend in one of Scotland’s most scenic spots, with a diverse…

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…

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

A track by track breakdown of the heavily hyped, mixed-bag of a disco-synth album

It’s the most anticipated album of the year, but it’s only partly been worth the wait. While Tron-helmeted duo Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo’s commitment to using real live musicians and an eclectic pool of guests to recreate the…

Interview: Phoenix - Thomas Mars on success and learning to write songs again

The French four-piece take album Bankrupt! into the heart of the mainstream

With each new release, Phoenix are getting bigger, bolder and better. David Pollock talks to Thomas Mars about making the right album at the right time This year in pop music is all about two French groups heading rapidly towards global glory.

The rise of Daniel Pearce, aka Eats Everything

The Bristolian DJ has collaborations planned with Justin Martin & Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

The Bristolian renaissance in dance music perhaps hasn’t had a lot of overground attention because of the disparity of all the producers to have emerged from the city in recent years (would you put Julio Bashmore, Peverelist, Joker and Appleblim on the…

Cold Cave's Dominick Fernow takes his Vatican Shadow alter-ego on tour

The Hospital Records boss (aka Prurient) specialises in dense beds of instrumental electronica

Go to Discogs, search for Prurient and feel the next few hours of your life contract as you imagine yourself rifling through their creator’s online footprint to find out exactly what Dominick Fernow has done with his time. Lots and lots of electronic…

DJ Steven Warwick aka Heatsick discusses his 'club music as sound installation' approach

The producer creates vivid, compulsive, danceable grooves with discordant interventions

Speak to your average DJ and you’ll find they usually had two reasons for getting involved with music. For some, their first clubbing experiences were right at the heart of a vibrant scene as it was taking off and they just went with the flow. Steven…

Edinburgh Festival of Cycling 2013 - Talks, rides, workshops and bike polo

Five reason to attend the Edinburgh inaugural celebration of all things bike

It’s the first one ever. Edinburgh doesn’t seem to have reached festival saturation point yet, so how about one for cycling? The original proposed mission statement suggested that, ‘it wouldn’t be about the cyclist, it would be about people who use or…

Nomeansno - Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Tue 28 May 2013

A ridiculously good gig by the unfeasibly great group of Canadian math rock progenitors

‘I hate wankers,’ declared guitarist Rob Wright apropos of nothing, with a wry grin. Who was the Canadian punk’s tirade in reference to? Surely not his adoring crowd, who helped the band produce a show to remember. As one hirsute stage invader attempted…

Celebrate flash fiction in Edinburgh this June

Small But Perfectly Formed is the approach for National Flash Fiction Day

To those with a foot in the literary scene, flash fiction isn’t a new concept. In fact it’s become so entrenched that there’s now even a national day when it might be celebrated and performed. Edinburgh’s plentiful array of literary promoters are coming…

Promoter Sandy Morland promises The Shimmy is 'a party', not 'a club night'

Brazilian duo Digitaria (Hot Creations) are set to play the event at Saint Judes

Anyone reading the papers lately might have noticed a furore build up over a Glasgow club with two-way mirrors installed in the ladies’ toilets, a story which went viral, then national, causing a spot of bad publicity for the club involved.

Singles & EPs round up - June 2013

Leonidas & Hobbes, Frightened Rabbit, theapplesofenergy, Harvey McKay and more reviewed

Leonidas & Hobbes Machines, Tapes & Electronic Setups EP (Hobbes Music) ●●●● The debut EP from Edinburgh electronic duo Leonidas & Hobbes (the latter, Andy Richardson is a well-known promoter about town and sometime writer of this establishment) is…

Jerry Dowds & Redjade Yuan: Circadian Symphony

Glasgow School of Art graduate prize show presents two up-and-coming artists

For the RGI’s Glasgow School of Art graduate prize show, it’s enriching to see a none-more-Glasgow piece of art displayed in the window. Two sheets of bubble wrap hang floor-to-ceiling, certain of their small spherical compartments filled with coloured…

Nile Rodgers set for 2013 UK tour

Pop icon and serial hit producer performs at Summerhall and Wickerman Festival 2013

Nile Rodgers isn’t the most famous person in the world, but he knows plenty of them. These two very special summer appearances on Scottish soil will most likely not sell out as swiftly as, for example, one of his former collaborators announcing a…

Black Sabbath: 13

Latest album falls short of expectations with pretentiousl lyrics and overdriven sound

‘Wow, a new Black Sabbath record: this should be really good!’ involuntarily blurts out your brain before it has time to digest the relevant information: just about everything Ozzy Osbourne has done with his career since the 1970s. Press play. Courtesy…

5 Reasons to Go See . . .I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore

1 Talking about music isn’t like dancing about architecture. A curse on whoever was meant to have said that thing about writing about music. Steve Martin? Elvis Costello? This is a talk, it’s about music and it promises to be really quite…

Long-running West End musical Blood Brothers on 2013 UK tour

The musical, which concerns a pair of twins separated at birth, stars Sean Jones and Tracy Spencer

Compare actor Sean Jones’ 14-year association with the hugely successful touring musical Blood Brothers to a marriage, and he gently replies that it actually is. He met his wife (actress Tracy Spencer), while working on the show, where he plays Mickey…

Kyla Mccallum: Foldability

Aesthetic pleasure brought to The Lighthouse by Glasgow School of Art graduate

Due to its very specific remit as a centre for design, The Lighthouse often hosts exhibitions that aren't quite exhibitions at all. Foldability is more of a product display or a craft demonstration, yet the artefacts here are beautiful to look at. Kyla…

Ilana Halperin: the Library

Geologically-themed show repurposing museum exhibits as art

Location is everything for this new exhibition by Glasgow-based, New York-raised artist Ilana Halperin, the first recipient of an artist's fellowship at National Museums Scotland. Flying in the face of even the richest modern art's essential…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.