FOUND can prove

As 2007 draws to a close we can rest soundly in the knowledge that Scottish music is in safe hands. You might have noticed that Sounds has been busy collating such opinions from various luminaries of the local scene almost monthly. On the eve of the release of FOUND's sophomore album This Mess We Keep Reshaping, Tommy Perman is in no mood to rock the boat. "I doubt there's been a healthier time for the Scottish music scene," he suggests.

FOUND, if you're not already aware after reading Bram Gieben's analysis of their debut LP within these pages last year, are among the most experimental, exhilarating and without doubt enjoyable of the current crop of bands to arrive on the circuit in recent times. When pushed to summarise their sound in a single sentence, he hits the nail on the head: "Unpredictable, noisy, melodic, daft, electronic-art-pop."

Reasons To Be Cheerful: Part 2: FOUND are signed to Fife's Fence Records, one of Scottish music's leading independent lights. Life for the band, it would seem, yields promise. "We're delighted to be with the Fencers. It feels more like a family than a record label (albeit a hairy, possibly inbred family). Our approach to making music and artwork fits in nicely with their heritage."

Referencing both the Beta Band and King Creosote, it's not difficult to see where FOUND fit in with the East Neuk collective either. Certain domestic influences are inherent but by no means overriding. This Mess We Keep Reshaping casts the net far and wide. "It's really difficult to pin down," Tommy advises. "Let's just say we were listening to a hell of a lot of music when we were making the record. A few favourites were Moondog, Jay Dee, Grizzly Bear and Ivor Cutler."

The diversity captured on record is something that is ostensibly present in most other areas of FOUND's operations; Perman even describes the group as "a band and arts collective." They've played galleries, museums, sculpture workshops and storage containers. Their recent collaboration with Kimho Ip, a Chinese composer and musician, has resulted in their eclecticism being pushed even further. "Kimho plays a Chinese dulcimer, the Yangchin which we sampled on the opening track on this album, Plotkiller. We provided a weird electronic DJ accompaniment for a performance that he was giving which involved dancers, a Chinese tea house and a range of traditional music. One sample came from a 1930s Shanghai jazz standard which Kimho had given us to work into the performance."

Possibly the only Scottish band to be au fait enough with pre-War Chinese jazz music to know to nonchalantly reference the 'standards', FOUND could easily be caught up in their own trip, yet rarely come across as self indulgent. Perman explains. "What we do is fairly experimental but also accessible. I believe it could be enjoyed by a large number of people. We don't want to compromise our sound by trying to make it more commercial but at the same time we're not interested in making music which alienates people. We're trying to find a happy medium between saleability and experimentation."

On the sound evidence of their first two albums, the balance, it would appear, has been struck.