Scottish New Music Round-up: April 2025
There's a spirit of collaboration in the air this springtime, as the Scottish music scene's cream of the cool come together to give you the most danceable April you could ask for
Let’s be real, the most exciting thing about March was seeing the sun set at almost 7pm; but great new music is a close runner-up. Releases that didn’t make it into last month’s column include a teaser track from the debut album of this month's cover star Jacob Alon (Don’t Fall Asleep) and singles by Kathryn Joseph (HARBOUR), Alice Faye (Bitter Minded Lover), Barry Can’t Swim (Different), Water Machine (Tiffany), The Twistettes (ALL I WANT), Kapil Seshasayee (Whose bright idea was this?), Hannah Laing (4am In A Rave), Humour (Neighbours), LVRA & Soda Plains (Hard Decisions), Theo Bleak (Peach Sky) and Brìghde Chaimbeul (Bog an Lochan). As always, keep an eye on our Spotify playlist for new releases throughout the month.
But even if these recent blue skies have just been a premature prank on any April fools, there’s still a lot of springtime left, so here’s good tunes this month; to start, the sophomore EP of husband and wife duo Sarah/Shaun, Someone’s Ghost, is out on 11 April. The partnership’s creative syzygy is displayed across four dreampop tracks, delving into Anhedonia (a concept for which Sarah McLachlan’s echoing vocals are the antidote), and a tribute to Debbie Harry; 'Everything you do, shakes me to the core'. Expect buzzy drum beats, high, distant chimes, and heavenly electronics. Filter Of Love fades into a cacophonous wall of sound, epitomising the record’s namesake; indistinguishable, but very ethereal.
Someone’s Ghost isn’t the only otherworldly project cooked up by a pair of eclectic artists. Right on the opposite side of April, Paradise Palms Records releases Real Dreams (25 Apr), an acid dance EP by George T and Mairi 'B' Pots, alias Accident Machine. Opener Real Dream Scene (which drops 4 Apr) is a concoction of persistent, droning beats, layered over the delivery of hypnotic lyrics, and, like in the noisome Doors cover (Break On Through) that follows, so loaded with textural effects that it plays good trip/bad trip with your nervous system. Even with their disorientating sonic manipulations, these two make you want to dance – it must be something subconscious.
Prolific instrumentalist Alasdair Roberts is back with fellow folk artist Màiri Morrison, for the first time since 2012’s Urstan. This collaboration, Remembered in Exile: Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia (25 Apr), employs all of the pair’s expertise and brings to life ten traditional ballads sourced from the Scottish diaspora in Canada. Also on the 25th, twin siblings cloth release Pink Silence, which has a full review in the April mag – other local heroes on the reviews pages include R’n’B singer Nikhita, with her new EP Solace, and Perfect Hit! by bluesy art-rock unit Buffet Lunch, both out 4 April.
SOAPBOX. Image: Victoria Sykes.
Jumping back to the end of the month, Highland-born Tide Lines release Glasgow Love Story (25 Apr), the band’s love letter to the Dear Green Place. Their high-flying folk sound on Homeward Bound and By the Quayside is achieved with a blend of traditional instrumentation and Robert Robertson’s energetic, indie vocal style. Other nostalgic notes include the 80s, alluded to with keyboards and electric guitars in opener Better Days. It’s a personal toast to days gone by, told through Glasgow’s places and people against the bitter backdrop of a changing world.
On the same day, there’s a decidedly different take coming from the West Coast, as Glasgow punk band SOAPBOX unleash their EP LOCK IN. An immediate assault on the ears, SOAPBOX are putting punk back where it belongs; right up against the establishment. Between the rapid-fire percussion and snarling guitar riffs, Tom Rowan attacks neoliberal propaganda on Good Guys and the desperate financial reality of artists on Do As Ur Told.
Earlier in the month sees the release of Kite (11 Apr), the debut album by Lapland-born, Edinburgh-based dreampop songwriter Aino Elina. Elina’s vocals come in both English and Finnish, and with a backing of heady, hazy beats, it’s the perfect sound for her untethered explorations of the natural world and liminal states of mind. Reflected, reflected, a mixtape of bonus tracks from Canadian-born indie composer L.T. Leif, is out on Lost Map Records on 4 April, while Scottish music mainstays The Waterboys' 16th studio album Life, Death and Dennis Hopper, a retrospective of 20th century history told through the lens of pop culture, comes out on the same day.
Singles we’re excited for include Copycat by Rosé Chrissy and Wasted by Pippa Blundell, both out on 3 April; Niamh Maclennan’s single Escape comes to us on the 11th, the same day as a new song from Morgan Szymanski & Tommy Perman (Harmonic Rain). Maxwell Weaver & The Fig Leaves release a Jukebox-ready retro jam (Shake It (If You Want)) on the 4th, while the end of the month brings the latest opus from Her Picture – Reasons I Tried (25 Apr).