27th November 2010
Ironic veneration of the past; don’t it just make you sick? Especially when you consider the possibility that current levels of retro-worship in all its tiresome, shallow forms might actually be distorting the efforts of the numerous outfits out there that have tastefully incorporated elements of the past into their sound, with the greatest sincerity. ...
27th November 2010
I’m not from around here. As badly as I might want to believe I can slyly fit in, as soon as I open my mouth – or in this case buy a ticket to a gig – it’s clear that I don’t belong. Nervous as hell when flying away from my dear Pacific Ocean, I ...
26th November 2010
Jean-Xavier Boucherat Seeing as it’s our first issue of the year lets forget the usual wild-speculation-on-the-nature-of-the-generations-musical-identity malarky and keep it light. You’ve probably been hearing some unfortunate people throwing words like beach house, chill-wave or post-hypnogogic pop about. I’m sick of these people having all the fun making up genre names, ...
26th November 2010
When Swans disbanded in 1997, they left the world with the two-disc epic ‘Soundtracks for the Blind’, a collection of dark soundscapes, found sound and field recordings, and ambitious post-rock explorations. The parting gift was a testament to just how much the bands sound has developed since emerging from that short lived hipster wet-dream otherwise ...
26th November 2010
Deerhunter Halcyon Digest 4AD 28/9/10 Halcyon Digest will be the album to propel Deerhunter from their position as interesting indie outsiders into the front line of progressive, experimental pop music. Possibly. Halcyon Digest is a good album, very good in fact. But if making good music alone were enough to win popular acclaim, Bradford Cox, ...
26th November 2010
How To Dress Well Love Remains Lefse 20/9/10 It has been a year now since Tom Krell emerged from the forsaken playground of contemporary R&B as a salutary evening star. Behind the gentle moniker of How To Dress Well, Krell has put together the forgotten patterns of the 1990s to reconfigure them in an unparalleled ...
26th November 2010
Sufjan Stevens The Age of Adz Asthmatic Kitty 12/10/10 This is not the Sufjan Stevens that we listened to in high school. Much different from his 2005 Illinoise, the new album adds an electric element that takes away from his complex and enchanting orchestral arrangements. The Age of Adz drops on October 12th, and offers ...
26th November 2010
Live music in Glasgow. It’s tricky! You’ve no idea who these bands playing the small venues are and you’re finding it hard to relate to their own brand of groan-wave-death-skiffle, unlike the one friend you’ve come along with who appears to be having an impossibly good time. Having said this however, you should almost certainly ...
26th November 2010
Joanna Newsom Glasgow Royal Concert Hall 20/09/10 So, we’re living in an age of deafening headphones and noise worship; and feedback (as in cyclical noise) is an element that shocks few music lovers these days. Indeed, it positively delights many. So it’s a sobering and uneasy experience to witness a somewhat distressed Joanna Newsom squirming ...
26th November 2010
Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly The Garage 25/09/10 After a significant time away from Scotland (discussions with the crowd eventually calculated it had been one and a half years since his last visit) Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly – otherwise known as Sam Duckworth – made his outstanding return to Glasgow. Taking to the stage ...
