Jonny Ensall

Way To Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake

Nick Drake’s popularity has only increased in the years following his death in 1976, and this concert, curated by Drake’s producer Joe Boyd for Celtic Connections, was one of the most anticipated of the festival programme. The main appeal was…

Pet sounds - Frightened Rabbit interview

With an obscene amount of expectation surrounding the March release of their third album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, Frightened Rabbit look set to be the Scottish sound of 2010. Jonny Ensall visits front man Scott Hutchison in a snowy studio outside…

Hot 100 2009 - Peter Capaldi intervew

‘You cannot fuck me. You cannot fuck me. I am unfuckable. I have never been fucked.’ The penultimate episode of The Thick of It, series three, ends with this classic rant from Malcom Tucker, played with psychotic intensity by Peter Capaldi. Tucker has…

Florence and the Machine - Florence Welch interview

Florence and the Machine’s frontwoman Florence Welch is a surprisingly normal 23-year-old, albeit one blessed with the looks of a 19th century beauty and the best singing voice of her generation. So why is she so mired in doom and gloom? Jonny Ensall…

Best of a decade: Music

Arcade Fire – Funeral, The Knife – Silent Shout, Radiohead – Kid A, Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago, The White Stripes – White Blood Cells, Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand, Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion, Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever To…

Bunny and the Bull - Julian Barratt interview

From Mighty Boosh to feature canine friend

Bunny and the Bull may well be the British comedy of 2009: quirky, hilarious and with a striking visual sensibility comparable to the best work of Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze. A talent for assembling richly detailed, dreamlike shots was not the only…

Public Interest - Edinburgh Royal Mile pub crawl

Between the sprawling concrete shapes of the Scottish Parliament and the historic heights of Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile covers some of the best and worst aspects of the city. Plenty of tartan tourists and Australian backpackers stroll aimlessly up…

Confined Human Condition

Comprising song, acting, dance and original musical scores, the two compositions that make up Confined Human Condition are both, evidently, Theatre Cryptic, but otherwise make strange bedfellows. The first, ‘Baghdad Monologue’, is an examination of…

Easy Ryders - Kasabian interview

It’s taken a while, but Kasabian are finally as big as they always thought they deserved to be. Jonny Ensall chats to singer Tom Meighan and finds out that fame and critical validation have calmed one of the biggest egos in rock

Monsieur Montpellier: Entertainer Extraordinaire!

Derren Brown he ain’t

In a well-trodden Fringe tradition, Monsieur Montpellier is a cabaret performer who just can’t help getting things wrong. Aided by his show-stealing assistant Le Cabaret, the grand monsieur waxes lyrical about his many life experiences (meeting Bernard…

Exposure: exlovers

Quiet is the new loud. It's an old adage that has once again come to be true, this time via the talents of lovely band exlovers. This London-based troupe make wistful, melody-led guitar pop of the highest order - acoustic guitar hooks and perfect…

Exposure: Ben Butler and Mousepad

The geeks will inherit the earth. So it was prophesied that men wearing big glasses and bright jumpers, and carrying around portable Yamaha keyboards in their backpacks, would come to replace posturing rock stars as the myspace heroes of a new…

Exposure: zZz

Let's get the bad out of the way first: zZz are from Holland, they have a name that sounds like sleeping and their music has appeared on a car advert (and surprisingly also a Japanese mayonnaise commercial, although that's neither here nor there).

Exposure: Popolo

Existing under the slightly dubious banner of math-pop, Popolo are a Dundee outfit who make tight, methodical, indie-dance in between studying at various Scottish universities. Having successfully avoided both their coursework for the last year, and…

Exposure: Meursault

Meursault are a beguilingly diverse operation, with a noisy sound that skips lightly across genres, and evokes great bands from Arcade Fire to the Postal Service, without really sounding like anyone else. The music has got folk roots. At its heart is…

Exposure: Broken Family Band

The Broken Family Band are something of an anomaly. They're a British band (from the heart of folksy Cambridge no less) that have the educated Americana sound of such stateside alt superstars as Calexico or The Decemberists. Lead singer Steven Adams…

Exposure: Jesus H Foxx

Jesus H. Foxx is not the likeliest name for an Edinburgh-based indie 6-piece; it'd perhaps be better suited to the Latin American uncle of someone from CSS. That new rave double 'x' is somewhat misleading however. Jesus H. Foxx's real musical…

Exposure: David Grubbs

Stupidity has become something of a trend. The charts are awash with artists who tread a finely ironic line between affected emotional naivety and actual brain dead sexual emptiness. David Grubbs, on the other hand, is a Brooklyn-based musical…

Just what is a Midgie anyway?

For those who have recently arrived in Scotland - as opposed to residents who know these blood-sucking terrors all too well - the midgie (or midge) is a small biting insect that swarms across the Scottish countryside, delivering sharp nips to anyone…

Bloc Party - Intimacy

Bloc Party’s 2005 debut, Silent Alarm, has been a definitive album of the noughties, laying a sonic template for spiky indie-dance with a thumping beat that’s been well observed by bands ever since. Their latest offering, Intimacy, displays many signs…

The Riot Showgrrrls Club

Cabaret fun with an anti-porn message

A polemic against mainstream pornography is not what you’d expect from two be-corseted cabaret performers, but as the Riot Showgrrrls say themselves, there’s a difference between taste and morality, and this show aims to celebrate the flamboyant…