Records :: Single Review 03 Dec 2008
Lauren Mayberry: The Moth Trap is an enjoyable investigation of the folk and bluegrass influences of Nightjar, who comprise current and former members of Aberfeldy and Grammy-nominated folk singer Kris Drever. The ethereal melancholy of The Dancefloor and the jaunty co...
Euan Ferguson: Findo Gask soar forth with a follow-up single to the acclaimed Va Va Va just in time for Christmas: apt, because it sounds like Aled Jones running downstairs and finding a Casio under the tree (a keyboard, not a calculator). It’s a glorious, spar...
Records :: Single Review 02 Dec 2008
Chris Cusack: You know those foreboding, pitch black and neon industrial dance clubs that cops always seem to walk into in films? The kind often populated by vampires, all virtually naked and gorgeous? This is the music playing in the background as the cops are tryi...
Milo McLaughlin: Recorded live one evening in Edinburgh's Stockbridge Church and accompanied by members of the city's underground folk scene, this short EP is a fragile and haunting thing. St John's guitar jangles discordantly from time to time, the harmonium wheezes g...
Records :: Single Review 01 Dec 2008
Darren Carle: Edinburgh’s septet We See Lights are in good company these days, whether it’s playing the numbers game with the equally expansive Broken Records, or the thick-Scottish heartbreak paeans of Frightened Rabbit, all shot through with the twee b...
Records :: Single Review 28 Nov 2008
Darren Carle: By the Sound of the Automatic EP, Franz Ferdinand’s debut album has made its way to Romania where it’s been fully digested by Bucharest hipsters The Amsterdams. Which is all fine and dandy, they’re a band influenced by another band an...
Records :: Single Review 25 Nov 2008
Lauren Mayberry: Sometimes when you use the word ‘operatic’, people look at you suspiciously, as if they expect you to start talking about La Bohème and foie gras. Yet sometimes, the word can be enjoyed by the regular layman, as Society of Imaginary Friends aim to show...
Chris Buckle: Judging by the juggernaut synths and jackhammer beats driving The Human Touch, one can only assume that Leeds electro outfit Heads We Dance witnessed Justice’s success last year and decided to corner a slice of the unsubtle, bass-heavy dance-pop market...
Ewen Millar: Titus Gein have succeeded in mixing two shockingly unhip genres –prog and nu-metal - and have somehow found something interesting to say. What should have been a truly hideous union - like catching your mother in bed with (whisper it) an emo kid - turn...
Records :: Single Review 24 Nov 2008
Ryan Drever: This - the second EP from Aberdeen-born artist Yusuf Azak - is a smorgasbord. Strings, guitars, hushed vocals, and faint percussion all swell into each other like crashing waves. However, occasional flurries of brilliance are allowed to filter through,...
Chris Cusack: Using the word “dancefloor” in a song does not guarantee a hit. However, shamelessly aping the most overly-exposed indie pop of the day does tend to help. Harrison has apparently spent some time swabbing the toilet seats of expensive hotels and stealin...
Chris Buckle: Like any attempt at straightforward, anthemic songwriting, Being Here is a long way from being ‘cool’ or ‘edgy’. This is The Stills at their most conservative, ploughing the same sonic furrow as Coldplay or Snow Patrol. But whil...
Chris Buckle: After five albums and several EP collections, new single Tomorrow demonstrates the paradox that Clinic have become: they continue to sound almost exactly the same as they did a decade ago, yet they never grow stale, always finding fresh nuance in their...
Records :: Single Review 16 Nov 2008
Chris Buckle: Currently recording their debut album with Embrace’s Richard McNamara producing, Operahouse here offer up four distinctly non-Embrace sounding taster tracks - think Muse’s Showbiz days, or Canadian alt-rockers Our Lady Peace’s concept...
Records :: Single Review 11 Nov 2008
Chris Buckle: Making a name for yourself in music must be pretty difficult if that name has already been firmly established by a successful parent. Unlike Sean Lennon or Jakob Dylan however, Liam Finn may well one day outshine his father - partly because Neil Finn’s...
Records :: Single Review 05 Nov 2008
Gillian Watson: Oddball Birmingham octet Misty's Big Adventure introduce the concept of their fourth LP Television’s People on The World Outside, an eerie tour around the mind of the album's protagonist, a man who becomes dangerously dependent on TV. Lead singer...
Records :: Single Review 04 Nov 2008
Chris Cusack: Asobi Seksu demonstrate what would happen if the ghost of Bob Mould (were he actually dead) found its way back to Earth via the bodies of a more electronically-savvy, alternative pop duo. In this case they channel Sugar's fuzzed-up indie-rock into less...
Emma Smith: In collaboration with British artist Stuart Semple, London’s Subliminal Girls put forth a novel, ultra-limited edition release in the form of a package containing signed artwork and screen printed t-shirt as well as a 10” single, all availa...
Ryan Drever: If you took any Scottish indie band subscribing to the recent trend in 'tell it like it is' lyricism - complete with prominent accent - and drenched their sound in reverb along with every other production trick in the book to make it sound utterly huge...
Records :: Single Review 03 Nov 2008
Chris Duncan: How is it that a single featuring the vocal delights of David Jude Jolicoeur from the legendary De La Soul can be so below average? De La Soul were truly original. Try and count how many hip-hop artists you know that either took direct influence from D...
