Doug Johnstone

Miaoux Miaoux - Light of the North

Gloriously melodic dance-pop in the vein of Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx and the Avalanches

22 May 2012

This is a perfect example of how good pop music can be if it’s driven by a restless intelligence. Miaoux Miaoux, aka Julian Corrie, has been turning heads with his distinctive electro-pop sound for a while, but this first album for Chemikal Underground…

Jackie Kay - Reality, Reality

A short story outing with some beautiful moments but overall patchy quality

24 Apr 2012

(Picador) In the wake of 2010’s fantastic memoir Red Dust Road and last year’s poetry collection Fiere, this short story outing has some beautiful moments in it, and Jackie Kay’s trademark compassion for her characters is intact, but the quality of…

Lightships - Electric Cables

Teenage Fanclub's Gerry Love album of sun-soaked, blissed-out guitar pop

26 Mar 2012

(Geographic) Gerry Love might have insisted on a band name for this new project, but the sound is all Gerry. Love’s contributions to Teenage Fanclub are invariably the understated gems, and so it is here with this sumptuous, trembling collection of…

M Ward - A Wasteland Companion

Americana full of understated charm

26 Mar 2012

(Bella Union) M Ward is probably best known these days for being one half of She & Him, his collaboration with Zooey Deschanel, but long before that partnership he was dishing up dreamy slices of Americana like this. As the title hints at, this…

Bobby Conn - Macaroni

Sixth album from flamboyant glam-pop weirdo

26 Mar 2012

(Fire Records) Imagine if something really emotionally scarring happened to, say, Prince, something in his formative years that sent him down an altogether darker path. Now say hello to Bobby Conn, flamboyant glam-pop weirdo from Chicago with a…

Seamus Fogarty - God Damn You Mountain

Dreamy, mesmerising folk music with Americana feel from Irish singer-songwriter

23 Mar 2012

(Fence Records) We’re beginning to suspect Fence Records have some secret laboratory in Fife where they genetically splice brilliant musicians to create new wonders. In the case of Irish singer-songwriter Seamus Fogarty, that would involve DNA…

Little Doses - Rock Riot Soul

Sadly lacking in songwriting originality and inspiration

22 Feb 2012

(Black Ditto Recordings) Little Doses are an Edinburgh indie outfit established by bassist Mark McClelland, most famous for departing Snow Patrol just when they made it big. The Little Doses blueprint is undeniably more varied than Snow Patrol’s…

Shalom Auslander - Hope: A Tragedy

Probably the funniest book that’s ever going to be written about the Holocaust

1 Feb 2012

(Picador) This is probably the funniest book that’s ever going to be written about the Holocaust. But then Shalom Auslander has previous experience of laugh-out-loud writings about Jewish guilt, paranoia, misery and self-loathing. His short story…

The Ting Tings - Sounds From Nowheresville

Second album a mixed bag containing glimpses of what makes them fun

23 Jan 2012

(Columbia) Pity the poor Ting Tings. After selling millions of records, the Mancunian electro-pop duo got stressed, scrapped a whole album and hid from their record label. Allegedly. You can see why the pair might worry about following We Started…

First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar

Heartfelt ode to Americana from the Swedish siblings

5 Jan 2012

(Wichita) On the surface, First Aid Kit’s obsession with Americana looks a little odd, given that they’re Swedish sisters barely out of their teens. But the pair’s homage is steeped in knowledge, and this second album sounds like it could’ve been…

Explosions in the Sky set for UK tour 2012

The post-rock icons return to Glasgow to tour latest album Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

19 Dec 2011

There’s a long tradition of guitar bands scrabbling around trying to define the zeitgeist or whatever. Then there are the more restrained bands who quietly go about the business of being casually awesome. Explosions in the Sky fall into the latter…

Christos Tsiolkas - Dead Europe

Brutally bleak but beautiful novel, re-issued in the wake of The Slap's international success

18 Oct 2011

(Atlantic) The Slap was a major breakthrough for Australian writer Christos Tsiolkas, winning the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 2009 and becoming an international bestseller into the bargain. In the wake of that success, Tsiolkas’ backlist is…

Sigur Rós - Inni

Stunning live recording to accompany the Icelandic quartet's latest film release

12 Oct 2011

(Krunk) Sigur Rós’s effortlessly epic post-rock feels over-exposed these days, seemingly soundtracking every nature documentary of the last decade, but stripped of that banal association it still wields enormous emotional power, as demonstrated on…

Alice Hoffman - The Dovekeepers

Overworked historical drama with underdeveloped characters

16 Sep 2011

(Simon & Schuster) Alice Hoffman is one of the big guns of American fiction and an Oprah favourite, but this overworked and overwrought novel rather contradicts that reputation. Set in 70AD in the aftermath of the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans…

We Were Promised Jetpacks - In the Pit of the Stomach

Not groundbreaking, but an impressive second album

14 Sep 2011

(Fat Cat) The main challenge for Scottish noiseniks these days is to not sound like Biffy Clyro, something We Were Promised Jetpacks achieve with aplomb on this accomplished second album. There are echoes of Interpol and even The Skids on the likes…

The Shivers - More

Sixth album of diverse styles linked by soulful sensibility from New York outfit

14 Sep 2011

(Fence Records) Having tootled along in NYC for years, this is The Shivers’ sixth album but first to be released over here, and it’s a perfect introduction to their idiosyncratic and gentle form of genius. Diversity is the name of the game; anti-folk…

Interview - Alan Bissett

Writer tackles Scotland’s sectarian shame in fourth novel Pack Men

24 Aug 2011

With the rivalry between the Old Firm reaching dangerously manic levels recently, you’d think that sectarianism would be reflected in our nation’s fiction, but it’s hard to think of many novels that examine our unique bigotry. Step forward Alan Bissett…

George Pelecanos - The Cut

An exemplary piece of work from the writer of The Wire

24 Aug 2011

(Orion) George Pelecanos has taken his foot off the novel-writing pedal recently to work in television, most notably on The Wire, but it’s good to have back ‘perhaps the greatest living crime writer’, according to Stephen King. And he’s not wrong…

Ross Raisin - Waterline

Unconvincing follow up social drama to God's Own Country

14 Jun 2011

(Viking) The strength of Ross Raisin’s debut novel, God’s Own Country, was the authenticity of the central character’s Yorkshire voice, but for this follow-up Raisin has moved proceedings to Glasgow, and it has to be said that his Scottish brogue is…

Denise Mina's 'The End of the Wasp Season' is a worthy addition to the DS Alex Morrow series

13 Apr 2011

(Orion) Denise Mina is one of the most interesting Scottish crime writers, continually fighting the war on cliché in terms of prose, plot and characterisation. This second novel featuring DS Alex Morrow is a consolidation of her recent move towards…

Explosions in the Sky: Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

Post-rock titans add a few subtle colours to their palette for fifth album

21 Mar 2011

(Bella Union) It’s been over a decade since this Texan post-rock foursome first formed through an advert – ‘Wanted: Sad triumphant rock band’ – and this fifth album sees them sticking to that definition while subtly expanding their sound. It’s…

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine

Plaintive vocals and guitar meets atmospheric melancholic soundscapes

1 Mar 2011

This was apparently a labour of love between Fife folkster King Creosote and London electronica artist and producer Hopkins, recorded in fits and starts over the last seven years. It’s a beautifully complementary collaboration, Kenny Anderson’s…

Norman Blake and Euros Childs take Jonny on tour

Teenage Fanclub and Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci members line up UK gigs

11 Feb 2011

Indie fans of a certain vintage might once have daydreamed about what a collaboration between one of Teenage Fanclub and one of their Welsh equivalents Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci might’ve sounded like. Well wonder no more, because Norman Blake and Euros…

Tony Black - Truth Lies Bleeding

Fifth outing for Scottish crime writers’ Scottish crime writer

9 Feb 2011

(Preface) Tony Black has a reputation as the Scottish crime writers’ Scottish crime writer, garnering praise from contemporaries to match impressive sales figures. This fifth outing demonstrates plenty of reasons why that’s the case, with fantastic…

Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will

Post-rock legend's seventh album ventures further into experimental territory

26 Jan 2011

(Rock Action) Now on their seventh album, Mogwai could be forgiven for taking their feet off the pedal. They haven’t. But there is a feeling on Hardcore …, despite the occasional foray into the monolithic riffage of their early days, that the band…

Anne Holt sets new novel 1222 in isolated hotel - interview

The bestselling Norwegian crime writer on her latest book

16 Dec 2010

An isolated hotel is the setting for the new novel by bestselling Norwegian crime writer Anne Holt. Doug Johnstone hears of a place where DNA can’t touch Sometimes it feels as if developments in forensic science have taken all the fun out of crime…

Surrounded - Oppenheimer & Woodstock

26 Oct 2010

(One Little Indian) On their last album, 2008’s The Nautilus Years, Swedish five-piece Surrounded were a virtual facsimile of Mark Linkous’s Sparklehorse. With their musical inspiration sadly no longer with us, the band here have eschewed the…

Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz

6 Oct 2010

(Asthmatic Kitty) An endlessly inventive songwriter and musician, Sufjan Stevens here abandons for the most part the nu-folk banjo-and-piano sound that first got him noticed, replacing it with a mix of offbeat glitchy electronica and wide-eyed studio…

The Walkmen - Lisbon

6 Oct 2010

(Bella Union) This sixth album from New York-based scattershot indie troubadours The Walkmen is something of a consolidation exercise, taking the many disparate sounds that have influenced their back catalogue and combining them into something which…

Weezer - Hurley

6 Oct 2010

(Epitaph) Weezer have been underachieving for most of their career, reaching a nadir with last year’s risible Raditude. A recent switch from Geffen to an indie label has injected a modicum of energy into Hurley, but it’s still a long way from the…

Susan Hill - The Small Hand

22 Sep 2010

(Profile) Susan Hill has been writing precise and chilling books in the rather unfashionable genre of the ghost story for decades, so she more or less has it down to a fine art by now. This short and typically gothic tale demonstrates the refinement…

Superchunk - Majesty Shredding

15 Sep 2010

(One Four Seven Records) It’s been a ridiculously long nine-year hiatus for this seminal Yank punk-pop outfit, the band members concentrating on running the pivotal Merge Records instead (and releasing a who’s who of American indie into the bargain).

Afrirampo - We Are Uchu No Ko

1 Sep 2010

(Rock Action) When even the press release refers to them as a ‘lunatic girl duo’, it’s safe to assume we’re not in 4Music territory, and so it transpires on this double-disc release from the recently disbanded Japanese pair. There is an unhinged…

Swans - My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky

1 Sep 2010

(Young Gods) ‘Uncompromising’ would be the best way to sum up legendary post-punk experimentalists Swans, a band who once had the reputation for being the loudest in the history of music. Michael Gera is back after a fourteen-year hiatus with a…

Jackie Kay: Finding Family

Red Dust Road is a remarkable account full of passion and humour

12 Aug 2010

The ideas of belonging and identity are at the very core of what it means to be human, but those themes become much more complex when the person in question is adopted. The adopted person’s search for their biological parents is a familiar narrative…

Albanian Ismael Kadare's newest: The Accident

The author obliquely examines his homeland's paradocixal nature

6 Aug 2010

Albania’s foremost literary writer and winner of the Man Booker International Prize has spent his career examining his homeland’s paradoxical nature. This latest offering from Ismael Kadare does the same but more obliquely, with a central premise that’s…

Louise Dean - The Old Romantic

29 Jul 2010

(Fig Tree) There’s plenty of mileage to be had, both in terms of pathos and comedy, from the subject matter of death. Sadly, this tepid novel fails to capitalise on its dark premise, being neither moving nor funny, despite trying for both. Ken is an…

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse - Dark Night of the Soul

7 Jul 2010

(EMI) The recent suicide of Mark Linkous, aka. Sparklehorse imbues this posthumous release with oppressive waves of melancholy, but this often-inspired record – heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measure – rises above such considerations to stand…

Tim Thornton - Death of an Unsigned Band

24 Jun 2010

(Jonathan Cape) The internal wranglings of unsigned indie bands is fertile territory for dramatic tension, as well as self-aware comedy, and so it is with this second novel from Tim Thornton, a veteran of plenty contract-free groups himself…

Harvey Milk - A Small Turn of Human Kindness

24 Jun 2010

(Hydra Head) Welcome to the crawling, heavy, doom-laden and utterly convincing world of Harvey Milk, experimental noisemongers of gargantuan riffage, bowel-loosening bass and primal, apocalyptic howls. It’s elemental, monumental stuff, but if that…

Kid Canaveral - Shouting at Wildlife

16 Jun 2010

Indie guitar pop is out of favour with music industry fashionistas at the moment, but Scottish boy-girl quartet Kid Canaveral could be the band to bring it back with a bang. This debut is packed with singalong melodies, frisky jangles and a real sense…

Ozzy Osbourne - Scream

1 Jun 2010

Rock/ Metal Ozzy Osbourne Scream (Columbia) ‘I’m a rock star,’ growls Ozzy at the start of this, his tenth solo album. Well, not really, Ozzy, you’re primarily a global reality television celebrity, something you’re actually better at these days.

Pernice Brothers - Goodbye, Killer

1 Jun 2010

(One Little Indian) There’s a lot to like about this sixth album from the veteran Massachusetts indie outfit, but somehow it never quite coheres into a standout record. The mood is generally strummy, melancholic and mature, somewhere between the…

Teenage Fanclub - Shadows

19 May 2010

(PeMa) The Fannies’ 20-year career has been a gradual progression from joyously stomping Doc boots to comfy, worn-in slippers, and this eighth studio album is a further refinement of their jangly, harmony-laden craft. The fire in their bellies is…

Jackie Kay - Red Dust Road

19 May 2010

(Picador) Those familiar with Jackie Kay’s poetry and fiction will know it exudes a uniquely uplifting and rib-tickling form of optimism, and that general ambience also pervades this wonderfully engaging memoir. Kay was born in Edinburgh to a…

Cibelle - Las Venus Resort Palace Hotel

19 May 2010

(Crammed Discs) Any album containing a cover of Kermit the Frog’s ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green’ is probably not taking itself entirely seriously. This nuts concept album from a Brazilian Tropicalia star is packed with bizarre fun, as musical magpie…

Phosphorescent - Here’s To Taking It Easy

12 May 2010

(Dead Oceans) Up until now, Phosphorescent has been the solo work of Alabama-born, NYC resident Matthew Houck. But from the opening horn parps of ‘It’s Hard To Be Humble (When You’re From Alabama)’ it’s clear this is a more expansive, full-band blow…

Singles and downloads - May 4th 2010

4 May 2010

Trying to be cool is often the death of decent music, so let’s avoid style mag darlings and delve into the hinterlands of good tunesmithery. First up are Glaswegian foursome Kassidy who look and sound like they’re from Big Sur circa 1972. ‘Stray Cat…

Jachym Topol - Gargling with Tar

28 Apr 2010

(Portobello) Jachym Topol is a leading cultural figure in the Czech Republic and this fourth novel, his first translated into English, is an astute blend of the personal with the political. It’s 1968 in rural Czechoslovakia, and orphan Ilya has his…

Holy Fuck - Latin

21 Apr 2010

(Young Turks) Imagine the organic power of Explosions in the Sky married to the ultra-chic beats of Hot Chip. At their best, Toronto punk-dance outfit Holy Fuck blend the two threads brilliantly – crunching guitars, analogue synths and ferocious…