Molly Wagger – Flambeaux

It’s difficult to get a handle on Molly Wagger: an ‘alternative space rock’ outfit signed to a label known predominantly for disco and electronica, the Edinburgh quartet are folky one minute, glitchy the next. The problem with terms like ‘space rock’ is that the acts to which it tends to be assigned – Molly Wagger included – rarely live up to its cosmic promise, their ideas of the future usually rooted in dusty psychedelia.

Flambeaux initially promises a veritable constellation of possibilites, then stocks whole sectors with tired meanderings and sub-Huxley pseud-guff (“I had a dream about a girl with an eye on her forehead” indeed…). But there’s a surface scattering of genuine innovation, coaxed out carefully by producer Sam Annand of Architeq. Opening mini-opus The Weight indicates what they’re capable of when their creative stars align – more like that in future and they’ll really take off. [Chris Buckle]