It really does feel strange posting an entire unreleased album by an artist on this blog as I’m usually pretty respectful about copyright and don’t post much that I don’t have prior permission (or at least implied permission) for. But this may be a new era of artist-authorised bootlegging, if Mr Kenny Anderson, aka King Creosote has his way.

Because each version of this album that is recorded is completely unique, and certainly in the case of this recording, which comes to you via an old dictaphone of mine, far from perfect, it seems his aim is to create a buzz about this collection of songs without taking away from the official version, whenever that may be released (he’s hinted it may be the final ever KC album so let’s hope it’s not too soon).

Anyway have a listen if you wish – there will surely be versions out there with better sound quality, but you can still get an idea of how good the songs are, and also of what a great experience it was to sit and watch this being recorded from start to finish. In between the tracks are some strange sounds, which were in fact some interesting little video vignettes which announced each song. Also we were sat right at the front by the drums and bass, so KC’s vocal is a little quieter than you would wish.

This was in fact Mel’s recording, as I was recording it with the free iTalk app on my iPhone – that version would be substantially better sound quality but unfortunately it over-modulates quite a lot so I went for the dictaphone version. 

King Creosote’s 8th Bit of Strange in 14 Years – Side 1

King Creosote’s 8th Bit of Strange in 14 Years – Side 2

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I’m a friend of The Gothenburg Address’ guitarist Chris Bathgate and a big fan of his previous bands (he was a touring member of Arab Strap and frontman for Sans Trauma) – so I have very little excuse for being so late with this review.

Sometimes it’s hard to write about friend’s bands though, but having seen this lot live I knew the album would be something pretty special, and while it’s a slicker and less ferocious beast than their live shows, it still has its fair share of breathtaking moments.

Luke Joyce is the main songwriter, and though I don’t know him at all, I imagine he’s an intense sort. Opener ‘Leaving The Last Behind’ rumbles with some ominous strings and dramatic piano rolls, and to be honest this took me off guard at first as I was expecting the album to be almost entirely guitar-based and a lot heavier. Instead it’s actually quite introspective and melodic.

First single ‘A Lesser Home’ still sounds blinding, with the kind of soaring changes in mood that make Explosions in The Sky such an uplifting listen. Shimmer is a pretty accurately titled song, with layers of guitars building up satisfyingly, and ‘Senior in the Stripper’s Light’ is a quality title (I just hope they’re not talking about me).  The album’s closer ‘I Am Made of Hearts + Fire’, actually lives up to the brilliance of its title, being a pulsating, mindstretching soundtrack to an alien space craft landing, and really does leave me gagging for more – can’t wait for the 2nd album!

Don’t believe me? Check out this Aye Tunes review

Hear a Lesser Coming Home at The List’s website

Hear their BBC Radio Scotland session for Vic Galloway over at Peenko’s blog

See them live: 18th March 7:00 PM at The Mill – Cabaret Voltaire , Edinburgh, Scotland

Buy the album and other goodies

other KC tunes on the album are the sprightly ‘Your Psycho Boyfriend’, and the more mournful ‘All I Ask’ and ‘Well Done’. Then we get some extremely lo-fi action from Mr Hand himself, with Panda Eyes, before No Cigarettes kicks in, and what an awesome version it is. 

Next we get Takeaway Food from the Religious Songs EP, a wee instrumental number and then three more KC tunes: ‘Only This Exam’, a demo version of Rims in which those DISGUSTING chorus lyrics are much more audible than on the album version, and ‘I Fall At the Last Hurdle’.

Oh and the last song will remain a secret because I’ve got the feeling KC would prefer it that way.. but I will tell you, it’s a lovely wee collection of songs by two of my favourite songwriters.

The blog, which is proving to be a great re-introduction to the world of comics for me, is run by my old Swivel Chair bandmate David Robertson, who is an excellent comic artist in his own right. In fact those of you with the fanzine will have already read my below review of his latest creation, Dump, which you can find more info on here.

(ps: see A Brief History of My Creative Efforts Part 1 for more evidence of my love for Uncle Pigg!)

David Robertson’s Dump: Comic Review

Dump is a small press comic by David Robertson which brings together a number of short pieces most of which were originally produced by the author for other outlets.

The title may lead one to think that the comic contains some scatological humour, and ‘Contemplating Suicide While Someone Else Craps’ is indeed a one page piece with some very black toilet humour.

However, “It’s Delhi Belly”, a piece drawn for an anthology unsubtly called “Crap Your Pants”, is actually a sober tale about someone who finds out they’ve contracted Crohn’s Disease. It’s a factual piece which made me think it was autobiographical, but according to the notes at the back of the comic it was thoroughly researched and written with the truth in mind.

It also contains a story which is itself called ‘Dump’ which is not in fact a bathroom related tale, but about the protagonist of Robertson’s former comic Berserkotron starting a new job at a scrap metal yard / council dump. I sense that this is a story that could follow through to further issues rather than being standalone.

Other tales in the comic include one which considers how positive discrimination would affect humans in a Star Wars style universe where we have a relatively short lifespan, and an undisguised autobiographical account of a single day for the Hourly Comics Day project. Robertson’s unique way of thinking makes each story interesting, and is also evident in the section where he imagines the thoughts of the models from his life drawing class.

There’s something of Harvey Pekar in the straightforward and commonplace nature of many of the events, and the art is simple yet effective which perfectly matches the tone. If Robertson were to weave some more emotional aspects into his stories he could develop to be a storyteller to watch.

You might also be interested to read Dave’s interview with the awesome artist Peter Bagge, written for Nude Magazine. Strangely, the very same issue featured a picture of Swivel Chair, as I had previously written a piece for their ‘beautiful losers’ section about the band. Spooky..

Though it’s hard not to describe ‘The Hours’ as a 6 minute epic, don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s overblown and full of false bluster – it’s much more subtle than that.

Yes, the plaintive pianos and strings tug at the heartstrings, but its been done in a very understated way, and vocalist Euan McMeeken (who also writes the excellent The Steinberg Principle blog and runs a live music night in Edinburgh called Trampoline) sings with such genuine emotion and gentle passion that you are utterly convinced from the very first listen.

It all bodes very well for the forthcoming album.. have a listen for yourself.

  The Kays Lavelle – The Hours

For more info including upcoming gigs, go to www.myspace.com/thekayslavelle

dear reader: I know how confusing it is, when I jump back and forth between topics like a fickle cheerleader working her way through the school football team. And while new Scottish music is clearly an interest of mine, it is not, though some incorrectly assume otherwise, all that this blog is about. But on Sundays from now on it will be Scottish Music Sundays so at least you’ll know where you are one day per week.

First up, the new album from Paul Vickers & The Leg: Itchy Grumble (officially released tomorrow!)

It can be hard keeping up with the unrelenting creativity of Mr Paul Vickers. I was a little slow in catching up with his latest collaboration with The Leg, but I wasn’t disappointed when I saw them live. The Leg are the perfect band, outside of Dawn of the Replicants of course, to accompany his weird and crazy rantings, because they are equally as twisted as he.

And so they have embarked on a “rock opera”, named after the protagonist of the story, Mr Itchy Grumble. One day, it might even be a full theatrical stage show. Now that would be something to see!

Itchy Grumble is immortal.
His immortality was sealed the day he drank the tears of witch.
One day Itchy was asked to revolve a lighthouse on the Firth of Forth to reveal the ghostly replicate underneath…

It’s all madness of course. Like Tom Waits, Beefheart and The Fall in a bar room brawl on a boat.  Literally. Which of course means it’s also bloody good. And you can hear it all right here, and then pop over to their bandcamp page and buy the whole damn album for £4. Bargain!

ITCHY GRUMBLE ALBUM LAUNCH
Saturday 13th March
Bang Bang Club, Electric Circus, Edinburgh
Doors 7pm. £8

Quite clearly influenced by Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs, each song is more like a fluid dreamscape, awash with the theremin-esque sounds of the musical saw,  accordions, glockenspiel, and melodica. There is also a strong country influence, particularly on the late night bar-room piano melancholy of ‘Fits and Starts’. Elsewhere the rolling finger-picked guitars are definitely folk-influenced but subtly so, and lead vocalist Micah Rabwin is reminiscent of the (pleasantly) mannered Murray Lightburn from The Dears, but with a lighter touch and higher range somewhat reminiscent of the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne. 

As much as I hate to say this given we’ve just endured so many from last year, this album ticks all the boxes for ending up in a lot of people’s 2010’s end of year lists. It may not do anything dramatically new or mindblowing, but the atmosphere and emotion are more than enough to justify repeated listens.

Buy on Amazon

www.myspace.com/museemecanique 

This review first appeared in the Products of a Gaseous Brain Spring 2010 Catalogue

You can hear the lead single ‘Like Home’ on the latest I Hear a New World podcast

I have a terrible habit of ignoring bands because of my innate prejudices. In the case of Mumford & Sons, I thought it was an awful name, reminiscent of a terrible prime time sitcom starring Dawn French. Plus they’re apparently from London, but they do folky music, and frankly I wanted to keep that kind of thing to Scotland because London has too much good stuff already

Then there’s the fact that everyone else knew about them before me. I don’t like that either, frankly it puts me right off. Even listening to them, I want to hate it.  They seem to have mastered the ability to sound kind of like something else you might quite like but can’t put your finger on.  In fact they sound like an Edinburgh band! How dare they.

But then again it’s not bad either, I spose. Especially when the superfast banjos kick in and the singer emotes passionately and it all builds up into a crescendo. In fact, I’ve got to be honest, I like it quite a lot.

Video for The Cave which is the 3rd single from their 2009 debut album ‘Sigh No More’ and will be released on the 1st March 2010.

Little Lion Man (1st single)

www.mumfordandsons.com  

Though predominantly a Scottish label, Fence Records seem to have found a rich vein to mine in Bristol, with OLO Worms, Rozi Plain, and now François Marry all being signed to the label. Marry is, as his name suggests French, but came to the label’s attention through playing with Rozi Plain, and clearly has excellent credentials having also toured with Camera Obscura. 

Plaine Inondable (which translates as flood plains), is a rich, piano-based album with some shades of Herman Dune in the likes of the trumpet laden French language lament ‘Moitiée’, whereas the upbeat-to-the-point-of-daftness ‘Be Water (Je Suis De L’eau)’ is Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot frolicking in a ball pool after eating too many smarties. 

There is plenty of the expected French tweeness then, but this is offset nicely by some gorgeous instrumentation influenced strongly by 70’s African funkadelia. Marry’s own voice is a low gentle croon, accompanied beautifully by gorgeous harmonies courtesy of Bost Gehio who to quote the press release are “an all-female polyphonic voice group from the Basques country”. He is also joined on the album by a band called Unkle Jelly Fish, from his hometown of Saintes on France’s West Coast, where he recorded the album.

Tracks like ‘Otage’ have a more reflective mood, feeling like a summer afternoon spent writing a letter to a long-lost friend, and Years of Rain is full of archly epic anger and faded grandeur, like an episode of Poirot scored by John Barry. It’s an album with a massive breadth of musical and geographical influences, but which nevertheless feels absolutely natural and genuine – and well worth discovering.

François & The Atlas Mountains – Years of Rain

Buy on Amazon

Read Portis Wasp’s interview with François Marry

They’re simple songs really, Beach Boys, Buddy Holly, Elvis Costello, hell, Elvis-simple. Some of them do seem to be about girls, girls like Laura or Lauren Marie. Who wouldn’t want to be their friends forever?

They’re tunes written for prom queens by scuzzy drug dealer drop-outs.  Simple rock and roll with a fucked up, frazzled, but wide-eyed sensibility. 

According to Rolling Stone, songwriter Christopher Owens was “born into the extremist Children of God cult before escaping to live on the streets at 16″. That explains the frazzled part then.  

Hellhole Ratrace

 This song is a soul mate sworn in blood with Suicide’s Dream Baby Dream, one of the most vulnerably frazzled yet uplifting songs I know.

 Sean Michaels describes Hellhole Ratrace best: “Girls sing the song three times before you see what the song really is, there behind the wine-stained melody, the jingle-bells, that golden guitar. Then, at last, they lift up the sky and let the roaring starlight in.”

Note: in the video there is the same Queen is Dead poster by the bed that I have by mine.

Lust For Life

I don’t have so much to say about this one. But I like the video. In this earlier version(not as good) you see his Queen is Dead poster again.

 Listen to Girls – Album on Spotify

Girls on myspace

Read Nick Mitchell’s Interview with Girls for The Skinny