Mark Robertson

The best Hogmanay holiday ideas

The best ways to bring in the New Year

28 Oct 2011

Get on the farm Forget Carry on Camping, the crew at Comrie Croft in Perthshire know how to do camping in style, with this eco-friendly farmstead conversion. Located in Crieff, surrounded by gorgeous vistas, bring in the bells around a campfire…

Helmet - The Cathouse, Glasgow, Friday 17 Dec 2010

The weight and ingenuity of metal without the cheese and pretension

23 Dec 2010

The outbreak of onstage mild hysteria at the Cathouse tonight can be attributed to a number of things – although the support band playing the first song of the American quartet’s encore is never entirely explained. Mostly, the technical gremlins along…

Five reasons to go see: Depeche Mode

4 Dec 2009

1 Enjoy the Silence It’s been 22 years since Basildon’s finest have graced a stage in Scotland, so the faithful have had to be mighty patient to see them live again. That, or make good use of Ryanair to see them in Europe, where they are still…

Homecoming Final Fling - ditch cynical, think musical

19 Nov 2009

You know the big speech by Renton in Trainspotting where he goes on about how it’s ‘shite being Scottish’? Well, he was only half right. His defeatist rant is a quintessential example of that under-a-dreich-cloud Scottish pessimism, rubbishing…

Slayer

13 Nov 2009

In 2009 what do people really need from Slayer? This is a band who set the bar at a breathtaking high over 20 years ago, releasing intense, condensed concrete slabs for albums, if concrete slabs can be dripping in blood and goat entrails. The quartet’s…

Stereophonics - Keep Calm and Carry On

13 Nov 2009

Kelly Jones’ predilection for all things both ‘classic’ and ‘rock’ has meant that, despite emerging in the early 90s, Stereophonics have never sounded particularly tied to any one era. This album, their seventh, is a more stripped back affair, tapping…

Music hitlist

4 Nov 2009

Mark Eitzel and Franz Nicolay The yin and yang of acoustic troubadourism: former American Music Club man Eitzel (pictured) whose tortured and black comic musings are the antithesis of the ever chipper The Hold Steady keyboardist and resident dandy…

Weezer - Raditute

4 Nov 2009

(Geffen) Who’d have thought one day Weezer and Slayer would be in the same spot? They’re both highly influential, having spawned several generations of bands single-handedly, but now struggling to find ways to push themselves musically. Both bands…

Slayer - World Painted Blood

4 Nov 2009

(Mercury) Being pretty much the complete package when they started, California’s Slayer are attributed with inspiring an entire generation towards replicating their heads down, relentless thrash riffage. The problem with that is that over the years…

Cuddly Shark - Cuddly Shark

4 Nov 2009

(Armelodie Records) Art school hillbillies is perhaps the finest description of a band we’ve heard all year and this vitriolic debut album from the Scottish trio live up to the claim, a disjointed mix of 50s rollers and 00s rockers barbed with…

Sharon King - Reckless Angels

4 Nov 2009

(Birnam) The third album from King – whose intimate, affecting songs are set somewhere between the mountains of the highlands and the plains of the American mid-west – charges various members of the Scottish folk scene to provide instrumental…

Devendra Banhart - What Will Be

4 Nov 2009

(Warner Bros) Less random and scattergun than his previous efforts, Banhart’s major label debut is a sun flecked collection of woozy acoustica; part Laurel Canyon dreaming, part psychedelic folly, part Latin jaunt.

Mr Hudson - Straight No Chaser

4 Nov 2009

(Mercury) Enthusiastic endorsement from Kanye West and Jay-Z can’t stop this album of electropop slickness from feeling like the slightly underwhelming little brother to West’s 808s and Heartbreak.

The Flaming Lips - Born again

30 Oct 2009

From narcotic haze to surreal crowd pleasers via drive-in musicals and sci-fi movies, The Flaming Lips are true musical originals, Mark Robertson explains why

The Social Services - It’s Nothing Personal, It’s National Security

29 Oct 2009

(Stereo Test Kit) With tongue firmly in cheek and sandwiches in knapsack, The Social Services head out on a jaunt round Popland to confirm that their frisky style is something pretty special. Two thirds Glaswegian, one third Swedish, the trio throw…

Kats Karavan: The History of John Peel on the Radio

29 Oct 2009

(Universal) There’s been plenty released to celebrate DJ John Peel’s legacy and this expansive four-disc set tries to replicate the magic of the quintessential John Peel show. By that we mean throwing the tough techno of Dave Clarke up against the…

Miike Snow - Miike Snow

29 Oct 2009

(Downtown Records) The men behind Miike Snow have got a rep: two of them, Pontus Winnberg and Christian Karlsson, are better known as Bloodshy and Avant, the producer/songwriters behind songs for the likes of Kylie, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Kelis and…

The Flaming Lips - Embryonic

16 Oct 2009

There’s always been something wistful and longing in the musical waywardness of Oklahoma’s finest ever export The Flaming Lips. Even at their most poptastic and goassamer there was an air of introspection. Nowhere is this more acutely illustrated than…

Various - Kats Karavan: The History of John Peel on the Radio

16 Oct 2009

There has already been plenty released to celebrate John Peel’s legacy, and now this expansive four-disc set tries to replicate the magic of a quintessential John Peel show. By that we mean throwing the tough techno of Dave Clarke up against the…

Biffy Clyro - Only Revolution

And evolution too chaps?

16 Oct 2009

It’s all making sense now with Biffy Clyro, since Muse showed that you didn’t need to follow the entirely conventional path and attain rock band enormodome status. And it’s not like with the demise of Oasis there will be a flood of rock geeks filling up…

Miike Snow - Miike Snow

16 Oct 2009

The men behind Miike Snow have got a rep: two of them, Pontus Winnberg and Christian Karlsson, are better known as Bloodshy and Avant, the producer songwriters behind songs for the likes of Kylie, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, Kelis and the mighty ‘Toxic…

Invasion - The Master Alchemist

16 Oct 2009

Convinced (quite rightly) that the best metal is about ‘wizards and magic’, this London trio have both applied this logic and set about tearing up the metal rulebook with super short songs, one-take recordings, no bass, no solos, no bullshit – and the…

All Tomorrow's Parties: The Film

An onscreen celebration of the alternative music institution

15 Oct 2009

A young man, at the head of a throng of people, kneels in front of a performing drummer, his hands either side of the drummer’s floor tom. The man is shouting, nay pleading with the drummer through a variety of emphatic hand gestures. Growing more…

Invasion and Jackie Treehorn - Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Tue 13 Oct

15 Oct 2009

The power of the press is something that can be overstated. Evidence of this is the glowing notices given to Invasion by both NME and Kerrang! of late which state them to be the finest new rock ensemble anywhere. Such fawning hasn’t made it out here in…

Music In The Digital Age

Technology's impact on the artform

2 Oct 2009

To paraphrase the Creme Egg adverts, when it comes to music, how do you hear yours? Streaming over the internet? Nicking stuff from torrents on the web? A bag full of goodies from Fopp? Crates of obscure vinyl from your local specialist…

J Dilla - Dillanthology 3

2 Oct 2009

Since his untimely death the legacy of rap producer J Dilla aka Jay Dee aka James Yancey’s work has been elevated beyond touchable. His influence on rap is considerable but sadly, there remains a battle over his offspring gaining the profits from his…

Phonat - Phonat

2 Oct 2009

Flashes of inspired genius abound in this debut of cunning cut up dancefloor electronica from one Michele Balduzzi, who abandoned his farmland idyll in the Italian hills to decant to London and create this stomping album dashed through with 80s rock…

Chipmunk - I Am Chipmunk

2 Oct 2009

The British grime scene is defined by its fury and bravado and Chipmunk rolls out a debut album that suggests there’s scope for having some heart too. After demolishing the charts with the simpering proto-Kanye ‘Diamond Rings’ (which features Glasgow…

King Cannibal - Let The Night Roar

1 Oct 2009

If only for the sake of his neighbours you’d like to hope that Dylan Richards lives in a cave somewhere out in the wilderness, miles from anyone or anything for his fondness for all shapes and colours of trembling, earthquake bass would have the…

Baddies

23 Sep 2009

Mixing post punk and art rock Baddies are ready to step out alongside the likes of Franz Ferdinand, The Futureheads and The Maccabees. Instantly catchy and boasting big anthemic choruses as they unleash their debut Do The Job on the public.

International Guitar Night

23 Sep 2009

A trio of truly outstanding guitar talents join forces. Lulo Reinhardt (grandson of the great Django Reinhardt) specialises in gypsy jazz; Itamar Erez combines European classical, jazz and world styles all brought together by IGN founder Brian Gore for…

Odemba OK Jazz

23 Sep 2009

Scottish debut from African collective for a night of hypnotic guitars, horns, driving rhythms and dancefloor jazz. This twelve-piece are led by guitarist Dizzy Mandjeku in this special gig to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of the King of…

Claire Martin

23 Sep 2009

Singer Claire Martin remains the front-runner in the jazz vocal department on the UK scene, and celebrates the release of A Modern Art, her 13th album for the Glasgow-based Linn Records, on this latest foray north. The Lot, Edinburgh, Fri 2 Oct…

Simba and Kobi Onyame

23 Sep 2009

Hip hop double bill featuring Zimbabwe’s Simba and Ghanaian producer/artist Kobi Onyame. Now both based in the UK mixing R&B beats with rap lyrics, yet another reason why British hip hop is so exciting right now. Electric Circus, Edinburgh, Sat 26…

Various - Haçienda Acid House Classics

17 Sep 2009

It was the last great musical revolution in British life so it’s no surprise that after years of fondness from those who were there at the time that another generation (what is this Generation Z?) would arrive to adopt the aesthetics, if not the…

Hip Hop Round Up

17 Sep 2009

Given the lightweight folly of his ‘comeback’ album, 2007’s Kingdom Come, the idea of Jay-Z adding a third chapter onto his already substantial Blueprint series promised much, but in reality, The Blueprint 3 (Universal) ●●● doesn’t deliver like the…

Idlewild - Post Electric Blues

16 Sep 2009

(Cooking Vinyl) With a bulky back catalogue soaked in boisterous, if melancholic, guitar rock the expectation for Idlewild was always for them to make their Automatic for the People: a weighty album which crystallised all their most extreme emotions.

Music hitlist

10 Sep 2009

Cocoon Counter Culture Weekender, Steel Panther, Coldplay, Jay-Z and White Lies, Gang of Four, Stereo Open Day, Tinchy Stryder, Islay Jazz Festival.

The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love

3 Sep 2009

It’s a shame that John Hughes isn’t around to make movies anymore and that The OC is finished because The Big Pink could have hit pay dirt as the official soundtrackers to both. The London duo may have underground credentials – Sunn 0)))), Merok Records…

Richard Hawley - Truelove's Gutter

3 Sep 2009

The singular skills of Richard Hawley were brought to the attention of the wider world in 2006 by Arctic Monkeys when, on accepting the Mercury Music Prize, they claimed ‘he was robbed!’ after they pipped his album Cole’s Corner for the prize. Two years…

Christ. - Distance Leads to the View

3 Sep 2009

Electronic music has always been a constant battle between (wo)man and machine, the two wrestling for the upper hand to produce something that sounds unique, unearthly and often ungodly. For his latest instalment Christ.’s taking things back to basics…

Flhip Flhop: Everything Happens on the Break

Comic theatre gives hip hop the brush off

16 Aug 2009

Given how the Fringe aspires to be a place for artistic cross-pollination and experimentation, should we be surprised when worlds collide? Well, what about the pairing of hip hop culture and painting and decorating? The white dungarees and paint soaked…

Calvin Harris - Ready for the Weekend

16 Aug 2009

(Columbia) Remember that bit in George Orwell’s 1984 when he’s talking about a boot stamping on a human face forever, and the futility of it all? That’s the despair felt after just 30 minutes of Calvin Harris’ second long-playing offering. Not that…

Mos Def - The Ecstatic

14 Aug 2009

(Downtown) His seeming impatience has always been Mos Def’s undoing. His debut 1999’s Black on Both Sides, remains a modern classic, but beyond that and his 1998 collaboration with Talib Kweli Black Star, his frankly patchy musical career has been…

Wil Anderson

Australian comedy striving to find the good in us all

11 Aug 2009

This sweet, excitable Aussie thirtysomething is driven to find the good in the world, no matter how cynical it gets. He definitely has his moments, but too often you can see the pay-off from miles away, and he deflates some of his sharpest ideas by…

Alun Cochrane

The weaver of dreams hits top form again

10 Aug 2009

Alun Cochrane came to the Fringe only a few years ago as a fully-fledged comedy concern. His debut show was the complete package – insightful, endearing, and bloody funny – and after a few visits back trying (and not quite managing) to recapture that…

The xx - xx

10 Aug 2009

How many times have we heard the maxim ‘less is more’ rolled out for someone new just because they resist knocking everything up to 11? Too often, perhaps, but this bewitching debut starts barely there, and doesn’t get much more full on than that. A…

Northern Exposure - The Last Piece of the Puzzle

10 Aug 2009

While some in Scotland’s hip hop community strive to take production into the realm of abstract art form, there’s as many willing to get their heads down, keep it real and keep the message in the music. Edinburgh veterans Northern Xposure do the latter…

Fabric Live 47: Toddla T

9 Aug 2009

For those of you who slept on this young scamp’s debut from May this year, Skanky Skanky, here’s a summation of his loves and passions in one fast and furious mix for the ever reliable Fabric stable. He sets his stall out with a track that speaks…

Julian Plenti... is Skyscraper

7 Aug 2009

It’s not always surprising when a guitarist or keyboard player unveils solo desires, but when the frontman of a band steps up, it seems a bit weird. Now, as Julian ‘Strokes’ Casablancas attempts to convince us that he really is the brains behind his…