Stewart Smith

Five Reasons To See: A Sonic Soak

15 Aug 2010

1. Help to restore historic community baths Govanhill Baths provided residents of Glasgow’s south side with swimming and washing facilities from 1914 to 2001. Campaigners are hoping to bring the beloved building back into use. 2. Discover the…

James Blackshaw - All Is Falling

15 Aug 2010

(Young God) This latest from London’s guitar virtuoso sees our 12-string acoustic hero go electric. But while the gorgeous resonance of Blackshaw’s acoustic tone is missed, the toothier tone of the electric 12-string suits this material well.

Afro-Beat Airways: West African Shock Waves, Ghana & Togo 1972–1978

Analog Africa's latest compilation is a testament to 1970s Africa

5 Aug 2010

Drawing from the archives of Ghanian label Essiebons and PolyGram West Africa, Analog Africa’s latest compilation is testament to the cosmopolitan culture of 1970s Africa. Tracks by Ebo Taylor and Orchestre Abass offer intricate polyrhythmic grooves and…

Glasgow trio Nalle deal in otherworldly psych-folk

23 Jul 2010

Glasgow trio Nalle (Finnish for ‘teddy bear’) are touring a new album of otherworldly psych-folk. The List caught up with Hanna Tuulikki – whose keening soprano has been compared to Joanna Newsom and Björk – to discuss music and myth. How did Nalle…

Sonic Tapas: Al-Thawra, The Kominas and Gummy Stumps

13th Note, Glasgow, Fri 25 June

7 Jul 2010

The subjects of a documentary on the North American Islamic punk scene known as ‘Taqwacore’ bands Al-Thawra and The Kominas were fresh from playing Sufi folk-rocker Richard Thompson’s Meltdown festival at the South Bank Centre, a curiously civilised…

Land of Kush’s Egyptian Light Orchestra - Monogamy

7 Jul 2010

(Constellation) Following the lead of US novelist Thomas Pynchon’s Against The Day, Montreal’s Sam Shalabi reconvenes his psych-Arabic jazz orchestra for this exploration of shame, sexuality and society. With horns, strings, keyboards, percussion…

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra with George Burt and Susan Alcorn

3 Jun 2010

Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra, led by saxophonist Raymond MacDonald, can always be relied upon to add some experimental intrigue to the largely classicist Jazz Festival, and this year sees them develop their relationship with Baltimore pedal steel…

Robert Wyatt - Greatest Misses

1 Jun 2010

(Domino) Its title may be a wry acknowledgment of Robert Wyatt’s enduring cult status, but Greatest Misses stands as a fine introduction to a truly great artist. As the drummer in Soft Machine, Wyatt was at the forefront of English psychedelia, but…

Uninstal, Inferno Quiz Show – Taku Unami

28 May 2010

Uninstal has been devised by programmers Arika as a taster for Instal later in the year, a space for discussion, experiment and play. While some recent Arika events have been a little heavy on theory and low on thrills, Inferno Quiz Show successfully…

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - Before Today

28 May 2010

Ariel Pink’s early albums were nuggets of bedroom pop alchemy, inspiring a generation of glo-fi and hypnagogic pop artists. Illicit pop pleasures – soft-rock, blue-eyed soul, 80s MTV – shone through, but as Ariel ‘Pink’ Rosenberg always insisted, the…

Kept Impulses: James Blackshaw, Nancy Elizabeth & Hauschka

6 May 2010

A self-taught 12-string acoustic guitar virtuoso, Hastings-based James Blackshaw weaves the minimalism of Philip Glass, through medieval ‘Early Music’, and the sparse ‘American Primitive’ guitar styles first played by John Fahey and Robbie Basho in the…

5 Reasons to go and see... Omar Souleyman

29 Apr 2010

1.) He’s Syria’s biggest star In the cassette stalls of Damascus, Omar Souleyman is king, with over 500 releases to his name. He plays around 20 weddings and parties a month and is also popular in parts of Turkey and the Gulf. His biggest hit, the…

Krautrock pioneers Faust embark on 2010 UK tour

22 Apr 2010

The story of Faust begins in 1970, when six dropout musicians convened in an old schoolhouse in rural Wümme, near Hamburg, to embark on a freewheeling musical project. Along the way they had run-ins with the Baader-Meinhof terrorist gang, and brought…

Wooden Shjips

Stereo, Glasgow, Sat 17 Apr 2010

21 Apr 2010

‘The three Rs: repetition, repetition, repetition’. Wooden Shjips may not sound anything like The Fall, but they’ve taken the words of that curmudgeonly visionary Mark E Smith to heart. When Ripley Johnson’s hairy band of travellers strike up a riff…

Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra play Glasgow

10 Mar 2010

Initially conceived as a side-project to Canadian post-rock heroes Godspeed You! Black Emperor, A Silver Mount Zion has blossomed into a great band in its own right, evolving from a purely instrumental concern into an expansive rock group characterised…

Sir Richard Bishop

17 Feb 2010

For the past three decades, avant-garde guitar wizard, Sir Richard Bishop has dazzled, confounded and disturbed, both as a member of Arizona freaks Sun City Girls, and as a wildly inventive solo artist. While less deranged than Sun City Girls’ sprawling…

Real Estate

Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Thu 28 Jan 2010

1 Feb 2010

‘What you want is just outside your reach,’ runs the opening line of Real Estate’s best song, ‘Beach Comber’. The crowd may skip along to its cantering beat, but the pensive guitar part and Martin Courtney’s lyrics pull the song towards melancholy. In…

Gary War - New Rayontheport

27 Jan 2010

(Shdwply Records) Finally given a proper UK release, Gary War’s debut album is a lovely, if disorienting, trip through a fog of gauzy synths, sputtering drum machines and half submerged vocals. While Gary War can’t quite match former collaborator…

Five reasons to see . . . Alasdair Roberts

13 Jan 2010

1 He was discovered performing at a ceilidh by Will Oldham. An apocryphal tale, but the pair have worked with Songs:Ohia’s Jason Molina as Amalgamated Sons of Rest, and Oldham (aka Bonny ‘Prince’ Billy) produced Roberts’ ballad collection No Earthly Man…

Beak>

6 Jan 2010

After the lengthy gestation of Portishead’s Third, it’s understandable that Geoff Barrow wanted to do something a little less painstaking with BEAK>. Written and recorded in a week, their eponymous album offers stripped down takes on the krautrock and…

Self-fulfilling prophesy

16 Sep 2009

Without wishing to play down the significance of Franz Ferdinand’s commercial breakthrough, arguably the real story of Glasgow rock in the ’00s has been the rise of the DIY gig scene. Nuts & Seeds got the ball rolling by booking weird, noisy and fun…

Exposure: Nite Jewel

16 Sep 2009

The musical project of philosophy student and artist Romana Gonzalez, Nite Jewel filter ‘80s pop, ‘90s R&B and new age music through a dreamy lo-fi haze. Following the 12” ‘What Did He Say’ on estimable avant-disco stable Italians Do It Better, debut…

Trembling Bells

Ecstatic folk-rock magic from Glasgow

14 Aug 2009

Alex Neilson’s questing spirit has led him to play with Will Oldham and Texan outsider Jandek, make free jazz with saxophonist Sonny Simmons, and explode traditional folk songs with Scatter and Directing Hand. But with Trembling Bells, the mercurial…

One man army: Billy Childish

Stewart Smith salutes the singular genius of Billy Childish

29 Jul 2009

‘Your paintings are stuck. You are stuck. Stuck, stuck, stuck!’ said Tracy Emin of former boyfriend Billy Childish. In response the artist, writer and garage rocker founded the Stuckist art movement, rejecting the conceptual practice of his erstwhile…

Exposure - No Age

8 May 2008

Set to be the breakthrough band from Los Angeles arts space The Smell, No Age have unleashed a scuzzy noise-pop masterpiece in their Sub Pop debut Nouns. Guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/singer Dean Spunt crank out a joyous racket that suggests a…