Scottish New Music Round-up: September 2026

August was pretty busy, eh? We covered a fair chunk of it in this column last month, but managed to miss a few bits and bobs, as is the nature of the beast. We missed albums from Scott C. Park and mango mango mango, an EP from Erland Cooper and numerous singles from comeback artists like The Spook School(!), The Ninth Wave(!) and BEMZ(!), plus the latest cuts from KILIMANJARO, Teenage Fanclub, Eilir Pierce (featuring Aidan Moffat), Reine Beau, Anya Vincent, Brooke Combe, Ellijai and remixes of artists like Barry Can’t Swim, Pictish Trail and Pleasure Trail. If you follow our Music Now playlist on Spotify and YouTube, chances are you’ll have caught a lot of that already, of course...

This month, releases are similarly stacked. In the September magazine, our album of the month is from corto.alto, whose single featuring Jacob Alon stopped us in our tracks last month. Also in those pages, you’ll also find coverage of the ninth studio album from Arab Strap and the debut from Edinburgh duo Both Hands. There are also words on the latest from The Tubs, featuring Kingdom of Scotland’s Romeo Taylor on, well, the tubs.

Beyond that, there’s loads more happening this month in the Scottish musical landscape. On 18 September, Sarah Hayes, Inge Thomson, Jenny Sturgeon and Charlotte Printer release Shamming the Drama, their debut album as BIRDVOX. Produced by Field Music’s Peter Brewis, whose influence is apparent across the record, the four's unique voices are allowed to shine as the traditional and contemporary are brought together in a collage of different eras, genres and sounds. This mix of electronic and acoustic takes in 80s synth pop, cosmic pop, atmospheric balladry and more, peppered throughout with a Scottish sensibility that catches you off guard but delights in equal measure; a very modern Scottish twist on pop music.

On the same day, Glasgow four-piece Hound release their debut album Another Lifetime in a Different Country. Fronted by Zack Manson, originally from Shetland, a lot of this bright and melodic guitar-driven album examines changing relationships with both people and place. Recorded at Black Bay Recording Studio on Lewis, Another Lifetime… proves Hound as masters at uplifting, shapeshifting song structures that consistently offer up nuance and are rarely predictable – a crisp guitar line, pummelling drums, or a feedback squall exactly when needed; it’s a beautifully paced record too, with Hound having perfected the art of ending a song – budding songwriters, take note, this is rhythmic slacker rock at its finest.

BIRDVOX. Credit: Ruth Barrie

Another band choosing to retreat to Black Bay in the Outer Hebrides to record their latest self-titled album (26 Sep) is Leith outfit The Micro Band, stating that “the isolated location, close living quarters and cold sea-water plunges influenced the sound of the upcoming record, painting the band's characteristically upbeat songs with a subtle melancholy and wistfulness.” While there certainly is a melancholic and wistful thread running through The Micro Band, more upbeat moments can be found on the likes of Thrown, Magical Animals and Lambs Tongue Tango as the band let loose, getting themselves into undeniably catchy grooves.

The following week, alt-folk outfit Curiosity Shop, who managed to create quite the buzz before releasing any music, playing sold-out shows at either end of the M8 as well as international festivals, release their debut EP Bound for the Sky. Oozing with lush vocal harmonies that float over a mix of trad, jazz and folk stylings with double bass, accordion, guitar and more in the mix, Bound for the Sky arrives on 25 September, their quite vintage aesthetic skewed through a modern lens with rich production from Kasper Sandstrøm (Divorce, Do Nothing) and mastering by Felix Davis (Cameron Winter, Geese, Westside Cowboy). Do not sleep on Curiosity Shop.

On the same day, Glasgow punks Gallus release Life Is Bliss, in their own words, “mourning the loss of Glasgow’s former glories.” Despite there being a quite deep meaning behind the album’s creation, at its heart this is pop-punk, a weird cross-pollination of The Offspring and Franz Ferdinand, not really sounding like either, but with a mischievous twinkle in its eye, lines like ‘I’m a radge running in the wrong race’ (Alert Alert) and ‘I don’t stick or twist, I’m just sick and twisted’ (Donnie Murdo) softening the blow.

But wait, there's more. This month you’ll also find new albums from Hank Tree (Care I), Mackenzies (A Dog's Breakfast), Spell Songs (In Thin Air), The Yummy Fur (Everybody Talks About the Weather) and Cashell (If, by chance, estranged…), plus there's a 12" from George T (The Melodica Sessions) and numerous singles, too many to list here, from the like of National Playboys, Tina Sandwich, CUZINO, Philomenah and Sin Clair, the new solo project from The Ninth Wave's Millie Kidd.