Scottish New Music Round-up: May 2022

While the middle of April saw Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite announce his literary debut, Spaceships Over Glasgow: Mogwai and Misspent Youth, towards the end of the month his band released brand new single Boltfor, a satisfyingly glitchy and expectedly epic track from the winners of 2021's Scottish Album of the Year Award.

C Duncan, whose last three albums were shortlisted for The SAY Award, is also back with new music this month. Neatly described as a "palate-refresher", Alluvium arrives on 6 May via Bella Union and sees Duncan drawing on a number of influences, from his partner (Upon the Table) to conversations with his late grandmother (We Have a Lifetime). Upon the Table somehow brings to mind Edelweiss from The Sound of Music (while really sounding nothing like it), while I Tried offers perhaps the most gleaming synthpop moment on the record. There’s also shimmering pop to be found on Pretending, instrumental interlude Lullaby is charming albeit a bit creepy, and there’s an uneasy, almost Sherlockian feel to the harpsichord-embellished titular track.

"I wanted to make a positive record with lots of different musical ideas," Duncan says, "and lyrics that could move from serious to playful to over-the-top romantic in a fluid way." We’re happy to confirm Duncan has succeeded on Alluvium, a record that one minute feels cut straight from a musical, quickly becoming nostalgic, or eerie, before suddenly it's brimming with hope.

On 20 May, Katie Lynch – who you may know from her work in Dundee duo st.martiins – releases the sublime Fragments, her debut EP as Theo Bleak, a character she’s created to help her view life more objectively. On it Lynch tackles mental health, poor relationship choices, every day mundanity and how she's affected her family. At the centre of it all is Lynch's bittersweet lyricism, beautifully juxtaposed to the bright, hazy warmth found in her voice and the rubbery sway of the instrumentation. Across its six tracks, Fragments ebbs and flows, just like the natural highs and lows of life.  

Glasgow alt-pop duo Vanives also release their debut album Thanks this month (27 May). A theme of love, both romantic and platonic, threads its way through the record, with lines like ‘Your heart has stolen my focus’ (Love Like I’m Falling) and the painfully honest ‘It would all be worth it if you loved me back’ (BARDENNOCH). The alt-electronic, R'n'B and hip-hop tinged production across Thanks flexes when it needs to; it can one moment be sparse, while the next it bounces, always feeling fluid. Studded with compelling samples mined from family VHS tapes, instrumental flourishes paired with Stuart Ramage’s rich timbre is at times utterly beguiling; it's a compelling cocktail.

One of the best experiences we had in 2021 was seeing Moema Meade, aka Lady Neptune, at Jupiter Rising. With flashing eyelashes, the neon-clad Meade offered up a feast of toothsome beats, and it’s something we think about often. More of those face-melting sounds can be found across NOZ this month, Meade’s latest EP due on 6 May via Night School Records. NOZ provides 23-minutes of gabber, hardcore and swirling cacophonous synths that don’t let up once, birling around your head like a Waltzer. As she promises on the closing track of the same name: ‘Time 2 Make You Feel Good’.

Whether the change in pace for PAWS frontman Phillip Jon Taylor was spurred on by the pandemic or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that by returning to the Highlands, where he was born, Taylor is now harnessing a tenderness not really heard in the boisterous scuzz of PAWS. This tenderness is present across his new EP Supportive Partner Please Stand Here. It's in the cracks in Taylor’s voice, in the softer more ambient instrumentation; even the way guitar and piano lines lilt and sway are washed in emotion. Lyrically, inspired by everything from Burt Reynolds’ turn in All Dogs Go To Heaven (Good Dogs), to making friends on the road while on tour with PAWS (Rear Window), SPPSH shows signs of an artist ready to embrace the future rather than dwelling on the past.

In the May issue you’ll find words on the debut album from Gentle Sinners, James Graham and Aidan Moffat’s new project, or click here for an in-depth chat with Belle and Sebastian about their new album A Bit of Previous, due on 6 May. This month also sees Emeli Sandé release her fourth studio album (6 May); Malcolm Middleton’s 2007 album A Brighter Beat gets a 15th anniversary reissue thanks to Full Time Hobby, with updated cover art from David Shrigley (6 May); Dublin-based Scot Iona Zajac transforms poetry into music on her debut EP, Find Her in the Grass (20 May); and jazz-funk outfit Nimbus Sextet release Forward Thinker (27 May). There are also a whole slew of singles out this month from the likes of Luke Jay and Russell Stewart, Aphelion, Celestial North, Pizza Crunch, Kapil Seshasayee and more.