Scottish New Music Round-up: March 2023

Firstly, February’s offerings that we couldn’t quite cover last issue; Valentine’s Day had us falling hard for Unconscious Rivals, the new single by indie five-piece Hairband; the following day Fast Patterns showed off the velveteen vocals of Neev, and Nova teamed up with Psweatpants for new track Red Flag. We were pretty pleased with other February singles from Starsky-Rae (Fake It), Gefahrgeist (Reach), Brenda (Cease and Desist) Declan Welsh and the Decadent West (King of My Head) and Post Coal Prom Queen (Wheeling Through The Void).

March gets moving when Rest Lurks, the debut album by Lichen Slow, drops on 10 March and kickstarts the newest musical project from Arab Strap’s Malcolm Middleton, with Joel Harries. Go get the lowdown of its eclectic vibe in the March issue; review will be online from 6 March.

Expect a burst of sonic energy several weeks in, when Chinese-Scottish producer LVRA brings us Soft Like Steel, a seven-song techno-cabaret releasing alongside a mind-bending short film on 22 March. The EP takes listeners to the most frenetic edges of its artist’s mentality, with Soft Like Steel built on a grimelike base, intermixed with whispered lyrics of alienation and unreality.

It’s replete with bangers; venom blends harsh, electronic textures with a dizzying, hypnotic rap that will infect any audience with a love for LVRA’s use of noise; animalistic rhythms, spliced against a tinny, vibrant wavelength, suit themes of the crossovers between body with mind, and organic with synthetic, especially on numbers such as clones or god is dead. Our full feature for Soft Like Steel mentions when and where to catch LVRA live, so don’t miss the chance to catch the otherworldly atmos they’re capable of creating.

Ayrshire group brownbear unleash their second full-length, Demons, on 17 Mar. Opener All I Want made a particularly soulful single back in January, and the whole album’s upbeat ethos will provide a suitable soundtrack for the transition into the sunnier months. The record’s keystones are memorable riffs, which power the high-octane indie beats and are sure to stick in your head well into the end of summer.

brownbear. c: Paul Jennings

That’s not to say these songs lack substance – Little White Lies, and the titular Demons, show off the insightful lyricism of songwriter Matt Hickman, and provide the album its central subject of relationships that manage to be both messy and magnificent. Even in Unity, with Hickman his most austere, the frontman preaches solidarity and becomes animated by clapping hands and backing vocals. Winter blues? Meet brownbear.

17 Mar is proving to be a big day for demons - It’s also the title of Steg G’s newest record, aptly named for the inner demons the Glasgow-based rapper faced in the isolation of lockdown. This work of hip-hop auteurship is achingly personal, but even in dark, bassy monologues exploring his own sunken psyche, Steg still succeeds in utilising the popular artists around him – Gerry Cinnamon gets sampled in Voices, and Solareye features in Livin Devilish. Two very different types of Demons, but both we would be happy to play at the summoning circle.

The following week Jon Cooper, aka Turtle, releases Landmass, an album that interweaves a touching composition of strings with playful, cosmic effects. Inspired by serene Argyll countrysides just outside his studio, as well as childhood conversations with his physicist Uncle, Cooper keeps the tracks modulating in esoteric ways; Earth and Game are elaborate and industrial, but Moon and North slowly build using subtle, sci-fi notes. Don’t let this charming study of the synthesiser escape your orbit on 24 Mar.

The month’s end sees Alasdair Roberts release Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall (Mar 31), a collection of traditional Scottish folk ballads dutifully resurrected thanks to Roberts’ intimate mastery of the guitar. Not only is the album’s authentic style sure to transport listeners back to Scotland’s pastoral, mythical roots, but great care has been put into the curation of these songs - Astonishingly niche items from the archives of Celtic folklore offer ancient wisdom on topics as prescient as gender (Eppie Morrie is a saga following a woman kidnapped by a band of patriarchs, who refuses to kowtow to their oppression), and politics - The Wonderful Grey Horse depicts an immortal steed who is ridden by kings through the ages, but swaps sides to stand with Ireland against British aggression.

Other March music includes Lamplighter by Tommy Ashby (3 Mar), the same day that Steve Mason of the Beta Band gives us Brothers & Sisters. On Mar 27 Gurry Wurry drops Not As Bad As It Sounds (Sounds pretty good to us!). Cult record We Are Urusei Yatsura gets a 30th-anniversary re-release on 3 Mar, plus a tenth-anniversary edition of Frightened Rabbit’s Pedestrian Verse, containing a reprint of Scott Hutchison’s notebook, is on sale from 17 Mar. Finally, shorter listens include the Enshroud EP by post-metal Glaswegians Void of Light (24 Mar), on top of singles Calamity by Blush Club (3 Mar) and Babestation by Logan’s Close (26 Mar).