Dumb Instrument - Dear Santa

Dumb Instrument know how to pull the rug out from under you. What starts out as a saccharine-sweet Scottish take on the Christmas Single -replete with horns, children singing, and acoustic musings on childhood- turns into a sting-in-the-tale revelation of domestic violence. But we're not quite in black-and-white 'just 50p a month to save Africa' advert territory, rather, Dumb Instrument sound like Ivor Cutler fronting Belle and Sebastian. This band offers no moral prescription: some people can be evil bastards, even at Christmas. [Ewen Millar]