Malcolm Ross @ Ego

Malcolm Ross has a rather enviable CV when it comes to influential Scottish music. Tonight, the Josef K co-founder and all round gregarious musical butterfly rolls into Edinburgh's Ego to promote his Best Of: Wrong Place Wrong Time 1995-1999. It's a pity then that such a stalwart of this country's music scene is overshadowed by uneasy sound quality inside the newly branded 'live music venue'. Ross is not what one would call a virtuoso. His talent lies in constructing punchy melodies around infectious riffs, but with such poor sound it becomes difficult to fully appreciate. What is easy to appreciate is the influence that can be heard in today's music, in songs up to twenty years-old. From The Zutons' melodies to The Strokes' riffs, there's plenty of Malcolm in these and other current bands. This influence is the most important part of Ross' playing, as the songs tend to lack depth and, in the new music, for the most part the influence has been taken forward. The overriding feeling of the night isn't the terrible sound as such, but the plain fact that Malcolm Ross is more influential than timeless. [Angus Ross]