T in the Park Diaries - AmatrArt

It might be nearly all gone and forgotten by two weekends ago over 100 artists, 80,000 people, and our good selves descent upon Strathallan Castle for Scotland's biggest music festival; T in the Park!  Once again we recruited some of the finest talent playing across the T Break stage over the weekend to keep a T in the Park Diary for Scottish Fiction.

On Saturday in the T Break stage the job of opening up fell to Glasgow five piece AmatrArt.  The band grabbed the ear of the judges with their pop laced wavey synths, and we caught up with Josh from the band for their T Diary.

Friday 10th July

Our slot was at 12:10pm on the Saturday morning so if we were leaving from Glasgow that would have meant we’d have to leave ridiculously early.  Luckily enough for us Jonathan's folks live in Comrie - about half an hour from the new site - and there was a few acts we wanted to see on the Friday including Jessie Ware, Hot Chip and The War on Drugs.  So we decided to head up on the Friday stopping off there to drop off all the gear.

We sadly missed Jessie Ware as it took some time for us to work out where we were to go to get our artists accreditation.  The rest of the night was pretty good though.  We left before the headliners to get back to Comrie at a decent time where we sat up and had some beers before heading off in the morning.

Saturday 11th July

As we were the first on, and you were to arrive a few hours before your slot, we arrived super early.  The site looks quite bizarre at this time as there’s hardly anyone about.  A few security folk and stage crew.  It also confirmed that the new site was indeed much smaller which could mostly be considered a good thing except from the occasional crush we experienced.  We had a few hours to kill before we were scheduled to play so there was quite a lot of waiting around which we mostly filled by drinking the free beer!

The stage was very impressive and was by far the biggest we’ve played on.  At a lot of the gigs we play it’s unusual to have more than one monitor mix between the band but here we had a dedicated sound guy who's job it was to control the monitor mix for us as well as the guy who did the sound out front.  That was really sweet and the gig was the best sounding for us yet.

The boys from Catholic Action informed us that a bigger stage suits our sound which was nice of them.  The gig itself was super fun, we were all pretty much smiling the whole way through it and we hope it will be the first of many festival gigs.

After our set we watched Catholic Action and then headed over to the BBC Introducing tent to catch Pinact.  Both bands were really good and it was cool to see lots of folk at each of their gigs.

By this time we were all already pretty shattered so afterwards we sat behind had the BBC Introducing tent had some beers with the bands and chilled.  The weather was still pretty decent at this point so were able to utilise the fancy beach chairs they had outside.

Later on we went to see St Vincent who was very impressive.  Probably the best guitar player in the world just now and the choreographed dance moves were pretty captivating.  The sound was quite muffled though and there was probably less people there than were at her ABC show last year which was a bit of a let down but nothing to do with her actual performance which was probably the highlight of the day (except for playing of course!)

We then went to see Alt-J who sounded great but no one could really consider it a very energetic or exciting live performance.  We finished the night catching Ded Rabbit at T Break who in contrast to Alt-J were very exciting.  It was a really nice end to the weekend.

Then began the epic that was getting out of the car park.  We left before the majority of folk but were stuck in the car park for well over three hours.  It wasn’t until half 3 in the morning that we eventually got moving.  It wasn’t all bad though, we helped push cars through the mud, told ghost stories and had dance offs with fellow festival goers.  We’re looking forward to hopefully making a return at some point in the future!

Scottish Fiction Rado Show - 9th July 2015

After focusing on the BBC Introducing Stage on last week's show, this week we focus on the artists playing the T Break stage at T in the Park, as well as rounding up the rest of the Scottish artists playing across the weekend including Hector Bizerk, The Twilight Sad and Admiral Fallow.

SE­­ØUEL is added to the playlist, there's a stunning remix of The Great Albatross from Tongues, plus new music from Akela, Nieves and Tetra.

Prides - Messiah
Ded Rabbit - Scarlet Cardigan
Nieves - Black Tie
Errant Boy - Imaginary Song
The Duke, Detroit - Summer's Come
Schnarff Schnarff - Desk
AROUND THE WORLD - The Libertines - Gunga Din
PLAYLIST - Catholic Action - The Real World
PLAYLIST - Pinact - Everybody Says
PLAYLIST - Kathryn Joseph - the worm
PLAYLIST - SE­­ØUEL - Fear Party
AmatrArt - Forgot About The Last Time
Admiral Fallow - Holding The Strings
Mt Doubt - Leap
Dec '91 - When You Come
Wendell Borton - Adjusting
The Van T's - Growler
The Twilight Sad - It Was Never The Same
Akela - Past Sunrise
RE-MIXING IT UP - The Great Albatross - Roots (Tongues Remix)
Tetra - Whistle By Wolves
Vukovi - Boy George
Hector Bizerk - Rust Cohle


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Scottish Fiction - 9th July 2015 by Scottish Fiction on Mixcloud

EP Review - AmatrArt - AmatrArt

Artists’ self-sanctioned spelling reforms are becoming more common.  Equally modish are the logos emblazoned on the album covers of almost every alternative music rocker.  AmatrArt, the Glasgow quartet being au courant with the indie music vogue, seem content in dropping vowels two and five from their moniker and also opting for a severed double-tepee logo of sorts, the linear diffractions of light muted only by the subtly blended backdrop of turquoise and lilac.  Cynicism aside, the Glasgow four-piece fully justify their post-modern appellation and trademark through their eponymous EP.

From the outset AmatrArt focus on tonal character.  Forget About Last Time  enkindles warmth and opens with a backmasked, dreamy synthetic musical phrase.  The muted 808 drums and breathy vocals are accompanied by a waltzing guitar that builds into an arresting double chorus, the second half of which is elevated by rich vocal harmonies and a bass guitar melody.  The drum machine is put into full use in the second verse and the lead singer’s vocals become more adventurous, with moments reminiscent of Wild Beast’s Hayden Thorpe, and develop a subtle rhoticity, giving the group identity.

The undeniably complicated Delirium Tremens  opens with a simple breath.  Wailing hums and echoing vocals act as an addled communiqué demanding the listener’s attention.  The rack-tom rhythm and synthetic hits serve as a fantastic backdrop to the entwined guitar and bass accompaniments.  The airy synth builds into a quiet crescendo prior to the dizzying verse.  The chorus is mellow while the second verse is more immediate and the lead singer tests his vocal range and lyrical aptitude.  An interlude of guitar chops and commanding beats is followed by a heavy bass and drum sub-mix before the track descends into a delirious melee, with voce di strega and effect-laden guitars at the fore.  The outro is the standout moment in the EP, which is brilliantly introduced on the backdrop of the pedal-driven madness.  The rushing ride cymbals and rhythm guitar create an apparent change in tempo and the vocals are evocative.

The EP culminates with recent single Souls,  described by the band as a song about their love for the colours green, red, blue and yellow.  Whether this was a conscious statement or not, what it represents is pure abstraction and a vision of the Glasgow four-piece in bringing together the sensations and sound of pure colour.  The dark background hums, bright dance claps, heavy piano drops, acoustic guitar melodies and reverse tapping of this track work well.  The numerous influences of the band and styles afforded are evident and the soulful vocal of the soloist is noteworthy.

Some would argue that AmatrArt belong to that much vilified portmanteau, indietronica – a sub-genre in which groups are too often criticised for their lack of instrumentation and deliberate phlegmatism.  There is no doubt that the Glasgow quartet remain a representation of the original.  However this debut EP establishes them as Orphists in the indie electronica scene, breaking away from the negative associations and focusing on the expression and significance of their sound to construct new forms and colour harmonies.

- Andrew Kidd

AmatrArt - AmatrArt  is out now via Del Trem Records and can be purchased from all good online music retailers including iTunes and Amazon.

Scottish Fiction Podcast - 8th September 2014

It may be into September, but the Indian summer sunshine and great music continues.  Our latest episode contains the first EVER plays of two tracks from our Cassette Store Day releases giving you a chance to hear Boygirlanimalcolour's new single and a track from Behold, The Old Bear.  There's also music from Skinny Dipper, Stanley Odd, and AmatrArt, to sate your musical appetites.

Algernon Doll - Candy Striped
Lenin Death Mask - Drowned
Sink Alaska - The Path of Least Resistance
Boygirlanimalcolour - JUPITER FIST
Behold, The Old Bear - Restless Day
The Deadline Shakes - Slipping From Your Heart
Prehistoric Friends - Bermuda Triangle
AmatrArt - Delirium Tremens
Skinny Dipper - Landing
Chrissy Barnacle - Hazelnuts
Stanley Odd - Son I Voted Yes
Fatherson - James

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Scottish Fiction - 8th September 2014 by Scottish Fiction on Mixcloud

We're Only Here For The Banter - AmatrArt

At the start of the month, Glasgow four piece AmatrArt officially moved into the 'scene' with the launch of their debut single Souls  at The Old Hairdressers.  A quirky electro track with a dark, haunting vibe (see The xx), we featured the track on the show a few weeks back.  To find out a little more about the band, we caught up with them for our regular 'We're Only Here For The Banter' feature. 

Hello! How the devil are you?

Yeah, we’re all pretty good. 

It's the question everyone hates, but could illuminate our readers with a little bit about your music and your influences?

We’re still not very good at defining our music but we shall try.  I guess in terms of influences there are the usual culprits for bands like us; Talking Heads, Pixies, Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Bowie, Zepplin...  It’s a bit of a never ending list.  We just look for people who are or were doing something interesting or a bit different.  They all have a ‘sound’.  We’re into that.

In terms of what we bring…  Well that's hard to say as we have a lot of different songs in a lot of different genres, but I guess the main ones would be electronic alternative.  There's a couple of funk rhythms involved in other songs; Niall's a shredder on bass so we had to write a few funky numbers to let him flaunt his feathers a bit.  There are certain people who we guess are responsible for us all playing music together and who deserve a lot of credit, although they haven't directly influenced our sound as such.

What's your song-writing / creative process like?

It changes quite a lot.  Usually it starts with someone will bringing a riff or an idea for a song to the table and everyone will pick an instrument and see what they can get from it.  We like to record ideas early on, usually guitars and some sort of drum machine and then see what else we can do with it.  There is a lot of computers involved and a lot of recording in our various bedrooms.  However, our most recent song Alexander, which we’ll be closing our set with, came together quite differently.  We came to our first practice in a while, because of uni work etc, and Josh and Jonathan had two riffs that worked pretty well together.  The rest of us just jammed it out and it sort of fell into place as a really cool groove, it actually was a lot more laid back than our normal process.

What could we expect to see from a live show?

Us and our instruments.  Also egg shakers, a sneaky fifth member, lights, dancing, drums, falling, and laughing.  Hopefully the audience will have a party too.  The first 100 attendees will get a free iPad.

Tell us about new single Souls.

Well it’s the first one, which is exciting.  It was all recorded in Josh’s bedroom too and it came together pretty quickly.  It’s also been fun because its the first song we’ve got to do others things for besides writing and recording music.  We’ve been out and about filming short teaser videos for the songs and editing tiny remixes for each trailer.  It's also a love song, about our love for the colours green, red, blue and yellow; in that order.

What else have you got planned for 2014?

We’ve just about finished recording a few more songs so should release our first E.P soonish but our main plan is to be playing a lot more gigs and partying with new pals.  We also need to seriously up our computer game playing.

What are you listening to at the moment?

St Vincent, Sylvan Esso, Adebisi Shank, Hundred Waters, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, DVA.

Thanks for speaking with us, would you care to share a joke with us?

How can you tell when it's a drummer at your door?

He doesn't know when to come in.


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