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Mark Robertson

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Duffy is top of the pops

7 Mar 2008

After topping tipsters’ polls for potential hotness in 2008, husky pop chanteuse Duffy has delivered in spades and has done the double this week, topping both the singles and album charts. Her debut album Rockferry (no we still don’t know what a…

Taylor Clark

Taylor Clark

28 Feb 2008

Full fat? Half fat? Skinny? A shot of eggnog syrup maybe? Since the coffee house revolution of the 1990s, your morning cup comes in an endless myriad of permutations. It wasn’t always like this of course, there was a time PS (Pre Starbucks) that coffee…

Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree

Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

POP (Mute) For a woman who has done so much unashamed musical thievery in her time that she would put a gang of Pollock shoplifters to shame, Alison Goldfrapp has always been a bewitching character. In her efforts to distinguish herself from the…

Dig Lazarus Dig!

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig!

(4 stars)28 Feb 2008

ROCK (Mute) Rather than retreating back to relative serene solitude after the Stooges-ish stramash of his tremendous side project Grinderman, Cave has rallied the troops and made his first distinctly ‘group’ record since 2004’s Nocturama. Dig…

Also Released - Music

28 Feb 2008

Amp Live and Radiohead - Rainy Dayz (No label) In the spirit of free enterprise, US rap producer Amp Live took it upon himself to rework the finer points of Radiohead’s In Rainbows. After much wrangling and various cease and desists the two parties…

Devendra Banhart becomes virtual clothes horse

27 Feb 2008

Genius American alt-folk troubadour Devendra Banhart has never been backward in coming forward when it comes to parading his musical musings but now he’s showing even more than before by turning himself into a web fashionista with his own personal…

Vampire Weekend and Michael Franti announce Scottish dates

26 Feb 2008

New York’s most sartorially astute indie kids Vampire Weekend capitalise on the success of their new self-titled debut album with a pair of dates this spring. They will play Liquid Room, Edinburgh on 3 May and Oran Mor, Glasgow, 3 May. Less dapper but…

Various - Rough Trade Counter Culture 07

Various - Rough Trade Counter Culture 07

(4 stars)14 Feb 2008

EVERYTHING (Rough Trade) If anything can be gleaned from these expansive, annual compilations its this: try as you might you can’t keep up with all the fine new music around unless you actually run a record store. And while you might have…

Shelby Lynne - Just a Little Lovin’ – Inspired by Dusty Springfield

Shelby Lynne - Just a Little Lovin’ – Inspired by Dusty Springfield

(2 stars)14 Feb 2008

COUNTRY (Lost Highway) We may be waiting forever for that Whiteout tribute album: most artists prefer to wrestle with back catalogues far sturdier than their own in these situations. Dusty Springfield’s greatest hits are only a hair short of genius…

Health - Health

Health - Health

(2 stars)14 Feb 2008

NOISE (Lovepump Unlimited) With the back catalogues of bands like Liars, Boredoms and Lightning Bolt part of the alt.rock curriculum these days, it’s not wholly surprising that they should spawn self-conscious imitators. Los Angeles-based quartet…

Nada Surf - Lucky

Nada Surf - Lucky

(4 stars)14 Feb 2008

INDIE (City Slang) Some bands are so damn unassuming that you almost miss them in the rush for the next big thing. Nada Surf are part of a slightly wonky lineage in rock music that starts with Neil Young and stretches through Paul Simon and The Cars…

King Creosote

The art of writing love songs

31 Jan 2008

How do you approach writing about love? Kenny Anderson AKA King Creosote, Fife’s own regal tunesmith of the heart With my heart on the accelerator and my head on the brakes. Emotional turmoil is exactly what you need to get the pen moving, but…

Civil War

Mark Millar & Steve McNiven - Civil War

(4 stars)31 Jan 2008

Having dealt with DC’s ambitious crossover we have to mention Marvel’s equivalent, Civil War, a far more user-friendly prospect for the casual comics fan. The outbreak of unrest within a people is rarely less than tumultuous, and bloodshed is a tragic…

Lupe Fiasco - The Cool

Lupe Fiasco - The Cool

(4 stars)31 Jan 2008

(Atlantic) HIP HOP The fondness for branding artists the ‘new’ someone means they have little or no time to establish themselves as themselves. So, with this in mind, young Master Fiasco is neither the new Kanye West or Jay-Z, though the Chicagoan…

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

(4 stars)31 Jan 2008

(XL Recordings) INDIE Indie rock has taken many wilful turns in its ragged adolescence but the predilection for smartening up and tuning up has been one that’s arrived to infrequently for most. Vampire Weekend look like dropouts from an Abercrombie…

The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath

The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath

(4 stars)31 Jan 2008

(Universal) ROCK Listening to the barrage emanating from the speakers for 78 minutes it’s hard to believe that Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (for they are the heart, soul and hair of The Mars Volta) have reeled things in for album…

American Music Club - The Golden Age

American Music Club - The Golden Age

(3 stars)31 Jan 2008

(Cooking Vinyl) AMERICANA Terminal romantics Mark Eitzel and AMC have been breaking hearts and taking names for over 20 years and still manage to turn out new albums that surprise with songs that are utterly evocative, fragile, dry, witty and truly…

Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

(4 stars)31 Jan 2008

(EMI) POP Hot Chip were in mortal danger of being ‘that band that did the over and over song’. Lucky then, that this, their third long player, is crammed full of bloody marvellous tracks. Providing some kind of parping, clunking, rolling…

Also Released - Music

4 Jan 2008

Jimi Sensational Shandrix Experience Electric Landlady (Brechin All Records) A fivesome of unwieldy party animals who look like an explosion in the basement underneath a music store and a fancy dress shop who rather surprisingly knock out a respectable…

James Blunt

James Blunt

4 Jan 2008

Some stories you just couldn’t make up. The tale of young Blunt going from armed forces orderly to supermodel serial dater is one you couldn’t make up. The secret behind his ascension into the upper echelons of international stardom? Those songs. The…

Phil Campbell

Phil Campbell

4 Jan 2008

Being branded ‘one to watch’ is a curse as much as it is a blessing. While it draws initial attention, the worry is an artist may still be finding his feet under the impatient gaze of Joe Public and their itchy downloading finger. No such worries for…

Brodsky Quartet

Brodsky Quartet

4 Jan 2008

The internationally renowned Brodsky Quartet, who unfortunately had to postpone their performance as part of Edinburgh’s New Town Concerts series in November, are now happily rescheduled at the Queen’s Hall. In a wide-ranging programme that is typical…

Flook and friends

Flook and friends

4 Jan 2008

Determined to give punters what they want without appealing to anyone’s vanity, Celtic Connections brings back acts the punters demand which means the musicians feel compelled to find new ways to challenge themselves and their audiences. One shining…

Parka

Parka

4 Jan 2008

Endorsement from Zane Lowe and a forthcoming in-store appearance at Urban Outfitters will strike fear into the hearts of some and warm the cockles of others. Glasgow indie troupe Parka bear such credentials and have assimilated the notions ‘indie’ and…

Korn

Korn

4 Jan 2008

These dreadlocked, bagpipe-wielding metal mongers have been through plenty in their time, recently losing a member to Jesus. The band, who virtually single-handedly invented nu metal in the early 90s, may have slipped out of favour somewhat as rock…

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