Single/EP Review - The Son(s) - Leviathan

I'm beginning to think that me and reviews don't mix well.  Firstly, they always take more time that you expect.  Secondly, I'm not very good at them.  Yet despite pretty much giving up on a few other reviews, I've persevered with this one, because quite frankly this little collection of six songs is one of the finest I've heard this year.  Plus ever since receiving my copy, that little yellow cassette tape has been mocking me and forcing me to kill people and bury the bodies in the forest  finish this review.

Released on the very good Olive Grove Records on 7th May for physical copies / 21st May for downloads, 'Leviathan' sees the return of The Son(s), mysterious as ever, following 2011's well received self-titled album.  Opening track 'Roaring Round The House' drips with Americana with it's laid back and easy going vibe.  If I didn't know that the EP was recorded in Edinburgh during the dead of last winter, you'd picture the sun beating down on a man swinging back on his front porch somewhere just off the Mississippi river.

'If I Hear You Talk Apostrophes Again...' was released a few weeks before the EP as a taster.  And what an appetiser it proved to be.  Picking the pace up with a stomping rhythm, before layering in melodies and a rather infectious guitar solo it's the barnyard hoe-down to the laid back Americana that fills the rest of the EP.  Lyrically, the refrain of "When I'm king, you're first against the wall", reminds me of Radiohead's Paranoid Android, and while this tracks is by no means a 6 minute-three part-epic, it holds the same attitude.

The press release for 'Leviathan' contains the following:

"It was the coldest winter there for more than 50 years. There was sometimes a blue hue to daylight on the very coldest of days, when the temperature fell to minus 14C. It was colder at night, colder still at home. Snow fell, trains stopped."

I love the idea of Karl (The Son(s) by another name) having the feeling of isolation and concocting tracks like 'Cocksure Boys' and 'Half-Lived' which are so stripped back and down to earth, they reek of sleepy shoe-gaze with Karl's assured vocals hung over the top.  The latter of those two tracks is particularly dreamy, almost like Grizzly Bear or Beirut.

'Shot Out A Cannon' loses the slight scuzz of 'Half-Lived' and sails down calmer waters.  Lie back, close your eyes and simply let this brilliant song wash over you in an effortless wave of dream-pop at it's finest.  This may be a small scale release, by a somewhat reluctant artist, yet it is equal of Beach House, 2:54, Real Estate, and plenty other indie darlings.

Closer 'There Is No One To Thank' completes the EP with echoey guitars and soft melodies, sounds which lap at your ears like the tide on bare feet at the beach. 

The EP is out now and you can still purchase physical copies with a free download for £6 here.  Digitally you'll also find the album on iTunes and Amazon.

Check out more from The Son(s)

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Scottish Fiction Out And About...

Above is graffiti found in the ladies toilets at The Captain's.  Proving that toilet graffiti does indeed lead to bigger and better things, here's a round up of what we've been up to with press snippets and internet tomfoolery.


West End Festival

We wrote a guest blog for the West End Festival, exalting the virtues of our Scottish Fiction Presents gig on Sunday 17th June.  Have a read!


The SAY Awards

The SAY Awards were kind enough to ask us to write a short piece for their offical blog.  Have a read!


Barrhead News

A local newspaper in Barrhead, home of Pulse Community Radio, the Barrhead News ran a feature on the show in this week's paper.  Embarrassing photo included...

Scottish Fiction May 2012 EP

We are nearing almost a year's worth of free EP on the Scottish Fiction blog.  It's impressive given that I never thought the first one would get off the ground.  I've got something very special in the pipeline to celebrate that milestone, but for the time being you can be content with four brand new free tracks all wrapped up in our May EP.  Here's what you get for your lack of money:

Mummy Short Arms
Kick To Kill
The Little Kicks
The Beautiful Lies

Enjoy!

We're Only Here For The Banter - The Beautiful Lies

The Beautiful Lies are a Glaswegian four piece, who despite working away on music for a while, have only really just popped onto the radar.  Not that this is a bad thing of course, given that their demos sound like a band who take their music seriously, we can only assume that when more music comes our way it's gonna be great.  Here's this week's 'We're Only Here For The Banter':

Hello, how are you?

Fantastic!

It's the question everyone hates, but could you tell us a little bit about your music and your influences?

I've always thought that music has to be about passion and I think that's what we aim for with our songs.  With that in mind we are probably heavily influenced by The Manics ('Holy Bible' era), Tom Waits, The Pixies, The Twilight Sad, Suede etc.   Basically bands who play like the songs mean absolutely everything to them.  Although we probably don't sound anything like that lot!  We tend to write quite melodic songs with a heavier edge to them.

What's your song writing process like?

Our guitarist (Baz) comes to practice with an idea and we dissect it, play around with it and force it until we have a song.  The four of us very rarely agree on the best route for a song to take so a lot of time is taken convincing the others that I am right and that they should agree!  We're highly critical of ourselves but I think that it always works out with a better song in the end because we've explored every conceivable option. ~

What could we expect to see from a live show?

A lot of energy, we tend to make a lot of noise but there's always a melody beneath it all keeping it together.

If it were all to end tomorrow, what would you say has been your greatest achievement?

Well we've only just started getting ourselves together (we've got the new bass player, Scott, to thank for that) after a number of years of writing songs but not gigging them.   Lately we've became more focused and have pieced together a good portfolio of songs which we're all proud of.

What have you got planned for 2012?

We're halfway through!  I think we'd like to keep writing, recording and playing songs.  If we can start to build a strong reputation for ourselves as a quality live band and pick up some significant support slots then that would be brilliant.

At Scottish Fiction we focus on new Scottish music, how do you as a band view the Scottish music 'scene'?

I think it's fantastic, you hear so many talented bands from Scotland and it really makes you want to get out and see more and more music.  You can walk into Nice 'N' Sleazy's, King Tut's, Stereo or The 13th Note any night of the week and see some cracking live acts.  I've got into so much Scottish music through blogs like this one, Peenko, Kowalskiy, etc.  The fact that there is such a constant stream of brilliant music surfacing on the blogs and podcasts every week shows the depth of talent there is.

What other Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?

That depends on what they're into of course but I heard a couple of demos by a band called Poor Things the other day and I thought they were fantastic as well as the advance pieces of the Plastic Animals EP which should be pretty stunning!  Alongside that we've been listening to loads of Galleries, Capitals, CHURCHES, An Echo, Blue Sky Archives... you could just list great bands for days!  Alternatively Tisoki and Teklo are both consistently releasing brilliant house music alongside guys like Baby Diego, Miaoux Miaoux and Africa.  And then you've got the more established guys like The Phantom Band, their first album is just brilliant, PAWS and The Twilight Sad.   The best thing to do is to just keep reading the blogs and they'll keep you plied with more new music than you can shake a stick at!

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

"We don't allow faster-than-light neutrinos in here," said the bartender.  A neutrino walks into a bar.

Check out more from The Beautiful Lies

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Kilmarnock's Dirty Weekender Festival

Happening this weekend is another new music festival, proving that the appetite to organise small scale music events in places outwith the central belt is alive and well.  This is the first year that Dirty Weekender has run, yet with SAMA's organiser Richy Muirhead on board, things have been well organised, promoted and they boast a line up that other more established events should be jealous of.

Kicking off on Friday 1st June and running over the full weekend, the festival is split between two venues, Bakers and Dirty Martinis.  I'm not familiar with the town personally, but I'm informed that both venues are well known as good music enviroments. 

Tickets are on sale now for the festival via Tickets Scotland in-store & online.
Weekend passes are £25
Day Tickets £12 (Excluding Sunday £15)
http://tickets-scotland.com or 0141 204 5151

The big name is of course We Were Promised Jetpacks who have only a few weeks again been amazing people at Coachella.  Catching them in such a small setting should be a treat, and worth the Sunday ticket price alone.  Other than that my tip would be to camp out in Dirty Martinis on Saturday 2nd June, where several of my favourite singer songwriter type chaps will be.  Julia And The Doogans, Shambles Miller, Mike Nisbet.  It'd be rude not too.

Prizes To Be Won!

Is it really sad that I'm actually swelling with pride that less than three weeks until our Scottish Fiction Presents gig to mark a year of the blog's existence, somebody spotted the above piece of graffiti in the ladies toilets at The Captain's?  I've officially made it!

(On a side-but-related-note, have a read at The Pop Cop's cracking post about toilet graffiti.  There's some belters in there.)

All this free advertising courtesy of the ladies of Glasgow, has given me an idea for a giveaway for our up coming gig.  Tickets are in short supply, and we'd love to see as many of you there as possible for what will be a great night of music.  Feel free to share details of the gig and the competition to as many people as possible.

 So here's details of how you can win two tickets to see Michael Cassidy, The Spook School, Queen Jane and Saint Death in The Captain's on Sunday 17th June from 8pm as part of Scottish Fiction Presents.

How to win

Winning couldn't be simpler.  Across bars, clubs, venues and shops in Glasgow (there's also a few in Paisley for those keen poster spotters) you'll spot posters advertising our gig.  They look like this:

There are pretty well spread out, and we've put up close to 100, so finding one shouldn't be hard.  Simply take a photo and post it on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/thisisscottishfiction) or our Twitter (http://twitter.com/scotfiction984).  We'll pick one winner at random on Wednesday 6th June and you'll get yourself two tickets for the gig.


 If you can't wait until then, or you just don't think you'll win, then tickets will be available on the door for £5, and can be purchased online now from this link. (If you buy tickets in advance and then win the competition we'll refund your money, cause we're nice like that!)

Scottish Fiction Podcast - 21st May 2012

After a fun Saturday spent rounding around Glasgow, firstly putting up posters for the upcoming Scottish Fiction Presents Gig, and then dashing between venues for Stag & Dagger, it was good to put my feet up and play some cracking new music.  On this week's show there's new music from The Winter Tradition, Penfold, North American War and Rachel Sermanni.  We play a stonking track from CHURCHES in the Peenko Friday Freebies track, and our featured artist is one of the highlights from Stag & Dagger, The Phantom Band.  For all that and more, have a listen below.

Joy Division - Atmosphere
Napoleon's Dogs - Kings & Queens
Rachel Sermanni - Eggshells
Bacchanal Party - You Won't Get Far
Mad Nurse - Submissive

Peenko Friday Freebie - CHURCHES - Lies

North American War - Ivory And

Classic Scottish Album - Mogwai - Batcat - The Hawk Is Howling

Delifinger - Escapes
Jesus H. Foxx - So Much Water
Crusades - Pseudo Andro
Miaoux Miaoux - Snow
Olympic Swimmers - Knots
Night Noise Team - Picking Up The Pieces
The Beautiful Lies - For Far Too Long
wherehumanseat - Loom
The Winter Tradition - San Diego

Featured Artist
The Phantom Band - Halfhound
The Phantom Band - Everybody Knows It's True

Penfold - Echoes
PAWS - Linus Van Pelt
Admiral Fallow - The Paper Trench

Scottish Fiction 21st May 2012 by Scottish Fiction on Mixcloud

We're Only Here For The Banter - The Little Kicks

This week we offer a big warm Scottish Fiction welcome to The Little Kicks who join us for some banter.  Not physically you understand, as it is a long road down from hometown Aberdeen, but in spirit the guys are here.  Coming back with their second album; 2009's debut 'Boxing Clever' saw them bag support slots with the likes of Frabbit, Errors and The Maccabees; self titled 'The Little Kicks' was released November 2011.  The band are touring like mad just now in support of that and stopped by (metaphorically) to answer some questions.

Hello, how are you?

We are all very well thanks.  Enjoying a rare day of Scottish sunshine and looking forward to playing a couple of shows this weekend.

It's the question everyone hates, but could you tell us a little bit about your music and your influences?

I guess our music is essentially upbeat indie disco pop and we like to think we very much have our own sound/style.  Alongside a couple of synths we use an old Korg MS10 synth now which adds a lot to the sound and this takes in a much different direction to when we first started.  Our influences are pretty varied to be honest but as a unit we do share some common tastes; we all love Scottish music like Orange Juice, Frightened Rabbit, Twilight Sad, We Were Promised Jetpacks and also bands like Phoenix, LCD Soundsystem, Soulwax, Foals, Whitest Boy Alive, Bon Iver and Fleetwood Mac.  We listen to a lot of obscure stuff too but these bands are probably our most common collective influences and most likely what you would hear in our van en route to a show.  Oh and Hall & Oates are in all seriousness a LKs favourite.

What's your song writing process like?

Usually I come in with a song which I will have written and if it’s finished and can be done justice solo I would come in and play to the band.  However, this sometimes does not articulate the full idea you have so often I make pretty grand demos with lots of parts for the band to hear.  It not only helps me work out new parts/hone my part and learn the song; it also helps to show the band the direction I have in my head.  I’m lucky to be in a band with some great guys so they are very encouraging when it comes to new stuff and really do take the threads of any idea I have and turn it into something of a group effort.  They are also very honest if what I'm bringing in isn't very good but it's good to have a quality control as the results of getting the band involved are always for the better.

What could we expect to see from a live show?

For our live show we play the guts of our second album and we play a couple off our first which have kind of become firm favourites among those who come to our shows.  We pretty much consider ourselves an upbeat party band and with the exception of one track where we take it down a little, we usually play best in small sweaty late night places with lots of people dancing.  In a live setting you can expect the songs to be a bit faster and louder than on the record but we were nominated in the SAMA’s for best live act this year so we must be fairly alright by now!

If it were all to end tomorrow, what would you say has been your greatest achievement?

I think our second album is probably so far our greatest achievement.  There have been lots of nice moments at shows and so on, but the sentimentalist in me likes having something physical to show for our efforts and were really proud of that one.  We are happy with both our records but for the second album we went from almost splitting up to making that record and then getting it positively reviewed in the NME.  When you’re an unsigned band that feels pretty good.

What have you got planned for the rest of 2012?

In short - a lot.  We are away to release a Remix EP which we are really excited about as we can’t wait to let people hear it.  Among others it features a mix from Discopolis, who are great, and also JD Twitch of Optimo (Optimo are heroes of mine) who has done a beast of a mix for it.  We are away to play a couple of shows supporting We Were Promised Jetpacks and immediately after that we have a show at GoNorth.  Following that we are playing a heap of the small festivals this summer, playing Tuts in July and are also playing in Berlin.  We plan to do a UK Tour in early September which will precede a break from gigs for six months to write and record the third album.  I’m sure we will be tempted out of our cave occasionally but that will likely be our main focus for the rest of the year.

What other Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?

As I mentioned we love a lot of Scottish bands and think its really healthy.  There is definitely something in the water (or the beer) up here and I think Scottish bands are known to produce great pop music.  On the opposite end of the spectrum you have a pretty healthy alternative scene here in Scotland with lots going on so it feels like we cover all fields up here.  I'm biased as some of them are our pals and you will likely have heard of them but I really like heaps of Scottish bands and would recommend CS Buchan, JJ Bull, Marionettes, Stanley, Stanley Odd, Three Blind Wolves, Over The Wall, Phantom Band, Indian Red Lopez and Pictich Trail to anyone who has ears.

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

This is awful but someone put it on my wall on Facebook once.  I will apologise in advance but I only know really unsuitable offensive jokes.

Q: What is the difference between a guitar and a tuna fish?
A: You can tune a guitar but you can't tuna fish.

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The SAY Awards - Short List

I hate being stuck in work all day with no access to Facebook, Twitter and Blogger.  Means I miss all the exclusives.  (That and being bone idle, and generally having no access to exclusives).

So it's pretty common news by now I guess, yet given my continued support for The SAY Awards and the fact I'm genuinely delighted to see some albums on this list, I thought I'd post up about it anyhoo.  So just pretend you haven't already seen the list and inject some sense of excitement into this post.

Firstly we should acknowledge the winners of the public vote, Twin Atlantic.  Over 9000 people voted, which goes to prove that I'm out of touch with the public, and this means that Twin Atlantic's 'Free' makes the Short List.  Fair enough, it isn't my cup of tea, but you can't argue with democracy.  It would be interesting to know if the album was also picked by the judges OR if they had to bump someone else to include it...

Next shout out goes to Happy Particles, who defied logic by even making the Long List and now find themselves up £1000 and, in my opinion, in with a very decent shout of winning the grand prize.  However the importance of their album 'Under Sleeping Waves' inclusion extends far beyond the monetary rewards.  They are flying the flag for the unsigned, self financed and promoted musicians, those for whom making outstanding music is done in the confines of their bedrooms, in borrowed time in studios, paid for by gigging and working two jobs, the end results never in any danger of being what one would call 'chart successful'.  I'm delighted to see Happy Particles make the Short List and gain even more exposure.

Also we are delighted that another two of our original nominations have made the Short List.  They are of course Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat's 'Everythings Getting Older' and Remember Rememeber's 'The Quickening'.  Both are brilliant albums and I couldn't complain in the slightest if they were the overall winners.  Sad of course to see We Were Promised Jetpacks miss out on the final nod.

On last Monday's show I presented my 'dream Short List', and as well as 'Under Sleeping Waves', 'The Quickening' and 'Everything's Getting Older', we also plumped for King Creosote & Jon Hopkins, Conquering Animal Sound and Mogwai, so it's good to see them also on the final Short List.  That's six albums out of ten that I would have chosen myself.  Not bad.

Completing the list is Mungo's Hi-Fi with their album 'Forward Ever', Tommy Smith's 'Karma' and Rustie with the album 'Glass Swords'.  I have to say I enjoyed Rustie's album when I listened to it, and can appreciate it's inclusion.  Mungo's Hi-Fi are also very good at what they do, it's just that what they do isn't something I'm overly fussed about.  And Tommy Smith's music is also off my radar.  Yet the beauty of The SAY Awards is that it completely inclusive of all genres and that shows in the Short List.

My one gripe is the seemingly inexplicable exclusion of FOUND and their brilliant 'factorycraft' album.  At least it proves that Stewart Henderson, the brains behind The SAY Award's and also head of Chemikal Underground to whom FOUND are signed, isn't exerting any influence over proceedings!  I jest of course, but I'm genuinely shocked that FOUND did not progress into the Short List.

So that's my 2 cents.  There's now two weeks on Monday for you to listen to each album again via The SAY Awards website and app.  Once that is all over, it's just a hop, skip and jump to the Award Ceremony and the crowning of Scotland's Album Of The Year 2011.  Here's the list in full (in alphabetical order):

Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Everything’s Getting Older
Conquering Animal Sound - Kammerspiel
Happy Particles - Under Sleeping Waves
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine
Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
Mungo’s Hi Fi - Forward Ever
Remember Remember - The Quickening
Rustie - Glass Swords
Tommy Smith - Karma
Twin Atlantic - Free

King Tut's Summer Nights 2012

The UK's finest small venue, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, unveiled the line up for it's Summer Nights run of gigs.  Returning for a third year, and running for 15 nights starting on Thursday 12th July, in the past it's been a great showcase of the talent bubbling just under the surface in Scotland.  This year proves to be no different.  Here's the full line up, with our recommended favourites in red.  (Mad props to the hip-hop crowd for playing the dreaded Friday 13th!)

Thursday 12th July – Pronto Mama + Brazil Exists + The Little Kicks + Lost City Soul
Friday 13th July – Hector Bizerk + Madhat McGore + Bigg Taj feat. Spee SixNine + Becci Wallace & BilL Breaks
Saturday 14th July – John Wean + The NK Jays + Seed + Minor Delilah
Sunday 15th July – Xavia + Lost in Audio + Atlas : Empire + Seams
Monday 16th July – Daniel Docherty + Craig Fagan + Chloe Latimer + Anna Shields
Tuesday 17th July – Beerjacket & Friends play 'The White Feather Trail' and other favourites + Quickbeam + Mike Nisbet
Wednesday 18th July – Brown Bear And The Bandits + The Sea Kings + Aaron Wright + Lovers Turn To Monsters
Thursday 19th July – Midnight Lion + Galleries + Aames
Friday 20th July – Holy Esque + Queen Jane + The Mirror Trap + The 10:04s
Saturday 21st July – Jack Butler + Selective Service + Mickey 9′s + Kobi
Sunday 22nd July – The Recovery! + Hunt / Gather + Fat Janitor + No Island
Monday 23rd July – The Unwinding Hours + Olympic Swimmers + Dead Electric
Tuesday 24th July – Fires Attract + Scarlet Shift + The Darien Venture + Crusades
Wednesday 25th July – Randolph's Leap + Jonny Jack + Blue Sky Archives + Bronagh Monahan
Thursday 26th July – DARC + The Mouse That Ate The Cat + Johnny And The Giros + TeKlo

Tickets are on sale now from gigsinscotland.com or by calling 08444 999 990 and in person from King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut.  There will be a limited number of Golden Tickets on sale allowing holders entry into every show, with details available at kingtuts.co.uk.

T-Break 2012 - Let The Ranting Continue...

I wish the T-Break stage at T In The Park could get announced more often.  It's a hugely entertaining day, because of all the ranting, raving, moaning and conspiracy theories that surround the announcement of the 16 artists playing the stage at Scotland's biggest festival.  (Blogger Favourite Son kindly rounded the best up on his Facebook page if you're curious).

So I'm late to the party, but if you haven't seen it already here's the lucky (or otherwise if you are convinced of dodgy deals going on) 16 artists who are playing the T-Break stage at this year's T In The Park:

Anderson, McGinty, Webster, Ward & Fisher
Bacchanal Party
Beerjacket
Blank Canvas
Brown Bear & The Bandits
Capitals
Chris Devotion & The Expectations
Crusades
Davey Horne
Nevada Base
Open Swimmer
Randolph’s Leap
Roman Nose
TeKlo
The Machine Room
The Mirror Trap

Follow the link for each band to find out more about them.  There's some we've not heard of, some we plain don't like, and some we think are pretty awesome!  In particular check out our Scottish Fiction Session with Beerjacket, our Scottish Fiction January EP featuring Blank Canvas, and I'm sure we've played tracks from Capitals, Chris Devotion & The Expectations, Crusades, Open Swimmer, Randolph's Leap and The Machine Room on the show before if you care to explore our Scottish Fiction Podcasts.

Scottish Fiction Podcast 14th May 2012

You the good public were invited to vote for your favourite album for The SAY Award longlist on Monday.  The votes are now in, and the Shortlist of ten will be announced tomorrow.  On Monday's show we played a track from our ten picks, as well as plenty of great new music from Plastic Animals, Satellite Dub, PAWS and more!  There's also a track from Plum whose album we recently reviewed, a Peenko Friday Freebie and some previews of Stag & Dagger which takes place on Saturday.  Enjoy!

We Were Promised Jetpacks - Medicine
Die Hard - In The Garden
Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - The Greatest Story Ever Told
Isobel Campbell - Walk Away
Plum - The Truth & The Knife
Remember Remember - White Castle
Wolves Of Winter - The Thaw
Happy Particles - Slowness
The Mouse That Ate The Cat - u.r.all.i.c
Django Django - Wor
Conquering Animal Sound - Crawl
Plastic Animals - Yellowcraig
Steve Mason & Dennis Bovell - Letter Dub
The Phantom Band - Mr. Natural
Satellite Dub - Plans Of Smoke And Mirrors

Peenko Friday Freebie - Randolph's Leap - Counting Sheep

Michael Cassidy - Till You
FOUND - Anti Climb Paint
PAWS - Misled Youth
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Your Own Spell
Jonny - Candyfloss
Miaoux Miaoux - Emitter
Mogwai - San Pedro

Scottish Fiction 14th May 2012 by Scottish Fiction on Mixcloud

We're Only Here For The Banter - Aggi Doom

Aggi Doom are that rare entity that crop up every now and again, a band that don't come with a whole heap of hype and press, but sneak into your subconscious.  The band have their single 'Bring The Head' out on 21st May, on independent label Soft Power Recordings which is like the piped piper leading you down an addictive path.  We caught up with the band for some quick questions.

Hello, how are you?

Good!

It's the question everyone hates, but could you tell us a little bit about your music and your influences?

At the very beginning we bonded over a lot of post punk and '60s garage.  A lot of the bands that people have compared us to like The Raincoats, Grass Widow and The Delmontes are bands we listen to, but we never made a concerted effort to sound like them or even really discussed it.  They're great bands but they're also all female fronted and we feel music shouldn't be judged solely in terms of gender because it's never the whole story.  We're always sharing new and old musical finds with each other and so our influences are probably changing quite a lot.  Some people have commented on how different the A and B sides of our single are and maybe that's a reflection of that; we wouldn't want every song we made to sound like it came from exactly the same place.

What's your song writing process like?

We're all pretty fidgity and antsy so usually someone's messing around with something and then the other of us will just join in and we build it up from there.  Generally then Claudia will go away and write some lyrics, and on occasion someone else will pull some out that they've been working on.  It means that we have tonnes of scraps of songs laying around, but also that we're all doing it together which is important.

What could we expect to see from a live show?

We can sound pretty shambolic sounding cos we're new, but we don't mind.  The look of a show differs quite a lot depending on the occasion, we could be under acid clouds by volcanos in Ancient Aliens-style get-up or relaxing in our day clothes.

If it were all to end tomorrow, what would you say has been your greatest achievement?

It's great to us that we're actually able to play together and make songs because you always want to play music with your best pals but it rarely works quite so fluidly and happily as this has, famous last words.  Putting out the single with Soft Power is obviously a major achievement for us, they're such good people.

What have you got planned for the rest of 2012?

We have a 7" single (Bring Me The Head/Cakewalk) coming out on Soft Power Records on the 28th of May, followed by a split cassette release with our friends Palms.  We're planning to do a small UK tour with Palms in August, so hopefully we'll be doing that this summer!

At Scottish Fiction we focus on new Scottish music, how do you as a band view the Scottish music 'scene'?

It's extremely varied at the moment in Glasgow.  There's obviously loads of bands here, but right now it's incredibly eclectic and people are really doing their own thing.  It's more about having a similar ethos to each other than having a similar sound, the result is shows tend to lose their pretensions and they're rarely dull.

What other Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?

The best place to find out who's good here is probably the Winning Sperm Party website, they have so much up and it's a true reflection of who you'll see playing a lot if you're here.  Notable ones for us are probably Palms, North American War, Neighbourhood Gout, Rosy Crucifixion, Fem Bitch Nation, Organs of Love, Happy Particles, Wild Pegasus and the list goes on forever.  We're not going to go on because the more we list the more we'll feel we've missed folk out.

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

You'd really rather we didn't.

Check out more from Aggi Doom

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Album Review - Plum - The Seed

'The Seed' is a concept album of sorts, gifted to the world by singer songwriter Shona Maguire.  Released under the guise of Plum, a childhood nickname, it's the concept of taking an idea and allowing it to grow naturally and flourish.  The album was released on 7th April, and much like the concept, I've been sitting on the beginnings of this review since then.  I hope Plum is sympathetic to my plight as it took a few weeks to formulate my thoughts about the album.

Album opener 'The Seed' possess a stormer of a bass line, one which slightly betrays the direction the album will take over the course of it's twelve tracks.  "You planted a seed in my mind" Maguire proclaims, the idea of which "made my heart go blind".  It's a verse which makes me think of the film Inception.  The track quickly turns into an electro pop song which a good number of chart stars at the moment would be proud of.  It's a very strong opening to the album.

'The Truth & The Knife' is a much slower track, pulling back on the heavy electro vibe in 'The Seed'.  Combining xylophones and bongos there's a eerie tribal feel to this track.  Maguire's voice hangs in the air, and swirls round your head.  'The Truth & The Knife' is my favourite track on the album.

Things continue on much the same vein with 'Dirt' and 'Dust' which follow.  'Dirt' has a little more sparkle to it, whilst 'Dust' revisits the tribal element but in a more simplistic and minimalist vein.  These two tracks, along with next song 'Smile' do seem to merge into each other a little.  With the minimalist electronica production behind Maguire's voice, it is hard to distinguish the tracks at times.

I'm reminded of trip-hop forgotten boys Sneaker Pimps by the time we reach 'Chrysalis'.  There's an incredible hypnotic loop which dominates this track, and it's clear by now that this album is not at all what I had expected.  'Butterflies' is softer and mellower, although my one complaint would be that I want to hear the vocals soar towards the end.

Maguire has a beautiful voice, and when the bells and whistles are removed it really does ensnare you. 'Butterflies' shows that as does 'Quietly' a stripped back track, as the name suggests.  It's just skin and bones, vocals and acoustic guitar.  A lovely little double to shore up the middle of the album.

It's at this point I have to reveal the source of my quandary in listening to this album.  It seems to me that the 'seed' from which this album grew, was to make an electro-pop album, or at least to experiment in that genre.  Yet I'm unsure how much Plum really wants to be like Florence & The Machine, Marina & The Diamonds, Nikki & The Dove, et al.  There's restraint, and a lot of the songs are far too dark to ever really be in the same ball park as those previously mentioned albums.  Plum's strenghts to me are when things are stripped back, and her voice is brought to the fore.  That isn't to say that 'The Seed' is a bad album, it's just things could be far more interesting if the production was scaled back a little.

Overall, 'The Seed' is an intriguing album.  I kept coming back to it, and that really is the mark of a good album.  It's not perfect, and there's things I'd change, but then what do I know.  Check it out yourself and make up your own mind.

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Scottish Fiction April 2012 EP

The April EP hit Bandcamp a few days ago, yet I totally forgot to put it up on the blog.  So without any further delay, as I actually realised this on Thursday but spent all weekend drinking, here is that very EP.

April's EP features tracks from these lovely people:

The King Hats
aLCTRAZkIDz
Thula Borah
Father Sculptor

Brilliant stuff I say, and all of it will cost you not a penny at all.  Get stuck in!

SAY Awards - Remember Remember - A Closer Look

It's been over three weeks since The SAY Awards Long List was announced and hopefully you've been busy familiarising yourself with the unknown quantities that it threw up.  As there's also now less than twenty four hours until the all important public vote, and with the winner of said vote guaranteed a place on the Short List of ten albums, there's a lot at stake (£10,000 to be precise!)  As one of the 100 nominators for the SAY Awards, we were chuffed to see four of our five selections make the Long List.  And we've decided to give you the low-down on each of these four albums.

That isn't to say that the other 16 albums are not worthy of your vote or being the overall winner.  Indeed there's plenty of other worthy contenders in our eyes, and we'll come to them in due course.  We all have our favourites and these four albums happen to be mine.  That said the most important thing is to make up your own mind and you can do that over at the SAY Awards official site.

Without further ado, here's the forth and final one of our choices, 'The Quickening' from Remember Remember.

Released on Mogwai's Rock Action Records on 26th September, the album is musically an orchestrated work of art.  Keeping the simple method of layering over a repeated beat, this time round, Graeme Ronald has added in fuller sounds by recruiting a band of instrumentalists to his side.  At it's peaks, of which there are many, the music soars high, even though there's a tinge of melancholy which was absent from Remember Remember's debut. This is music for grown ups.

Highlight's include the twinkling 'White Castle', the dark 'Scottish Widows' and closer 'John Candy' which brings a happier ending to an otherwise solemn album.

Why should 'The Quickening' win The SAY Award 2011?

This, ultimately, is the question that I had to ask myself when nominating the album, and one which you should ask when deciding to vote, or not vote, for it.  The answer?  I'm genuinely excited to see just what Graeme Ronald and his group of backing musicians create next.  I'm too young to properly remember Mogwai when they first came out back in 1997 but having listened to their back catalogue and transition into the premier post-rock Gods, Remember Remember excite me in the same way that fans of Mogwai must have been excited.  The vision and creativity of musicians like Remember Remember deserves to be nurtured, and free from record company pressures given time to bloom.  Winning The SAY Awards could allow the next masterpiece from Remember Remember to be made.


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Scottish Fiction Podcast - 7th May 2012

It's a tad late this week, but here is our latest podcast all fresh and ready for your ears.  In it you'll find such gems as Kid Canaveral and RM Hubbert snuggled neatly alongside new music from Holy Mountain, The Son(s) and Plastic Animals.  There's also our usual features, Peenko Friday Freebie, Classic Scottish Album from The Delgado's and a very special artist of the week; Beastie Boys.

Enjoy!

Kid Canaveral - You Only Went Out To Get Drunk Last Night
No Comet - It's Good To Find You
This Silent Forest - Milk
Mungo's Hi Fi - Computer Age
Michael MacLennan - Wolves
Plastic Animals - Ghosts
French Wives - Younger
Richard Craig - Alpha Waves, for Solo Alto Flute
Fatherson - Gone Fisson

The Delgado's - All You Need Is Hate - Hate - Classic Scottish Album

RM Hubbert - Car Song
Holy Mountain - Gunner
Muscles Of Joy - Coins

Peenko Friday Freebie - Q Without U - I Thought You'd Never Ask

The Son(s) - There Is No-One To Thank
Tommy Smith - Land Of Heroes

Featured Artist - Beastie Boys
Intergalatic
Sabotage
No Sleep Till Brooklyn

Fudge Fingas - Me & U
Errors - Pleasure Palaces

Scottish Fiction 7th May 2012 by Scottish Fiction on Mixcloud

SAY Awards - Happy Particles - A Closer Look

It's been over three weeks since The SAY Awards Long List was announced and hopefully you've been busy familiarising yourself with the unknown quantities that it threw up.  As there's also now less than twenty four hours until the all important public vote, and with the winner of said vote guaranteed a place on the Short List of ten albums, there's a lot at stake (£10,000 to be precise!)  As one of the 100 nominators for the SAY Awards, we were chuffed to see four of our five selections make the Long List.  And we've decided to give you the low-down on each of these four albums.

That isn't to say that the other 16 albums are not worthy of your vote or being the overall winner.  Indeed there's plenty of other worthy contenders in our eyes, and we'll come to them in due course.  We all have our favourites and these four albums happen to be mine.  That said the most important thing is to make up your own mind and you can do that over at the SAY Awards official site.

Without further ado, here's the third of our choices, 'Under Sleeping Waves' from Happy Particles.

Self-released on 25 December 2011, 'Under Sleeping Waves' is an album that plays great tribute to Scotland's love of the dreamy, shoe-gazing side of pop.  The influences are here, lead singer Steven Kane has a dream inducing voice that harks back to fleeting beauty of The Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser, the swooning melodies equivalent to Boards Of Canada and more recently the likes of Errors and Remember Remember.  The last band mentioned shouldn't come as a surprise as Happy Particles share some common members with Remember Remember.  There is at times even the sense that the layers of music, built painstakingly into an atmospheric triumph could explode into a full blown Mogwai-esqe sound, although the closest we get to that is towards the end of 'Come Home All Dead Ones'.

The album plays by the maxim 'less is more'. Opener 'Aerials' breezes in with little more to it than Kane's soothing vocals and an eerie translucent distortion.  'Infinite Jet' comprises of the more 'traditional' song structure, a resounding melody, steady but not overpowering drum beat ply together to flesh out the sound.  'Slowness' demonstrates further the post rock sounds further, with careful emphasis on providing just the right amount of sounds.  Not one beat, note, string or key is out of place or unnecessary here.  Indeed it's easy to imagine the band gathered round dissecting their sound to remove all the superfluous elements.  And what's left is just sublime.

There's an air of beauty that surrounds this full album, and right at the very heart of that is 'Offline Contact', a track that has the ability to melt your heart then wrap it's arms around you all within it's 4 minutes 33 seconds.  As strong as it started the album draws to a close.  'Empty Circle' embodies the band's ability to build towards a heavenly effect; crashing cymbals, tinkling xylophones, epic strings and that ever present falsetto all intertwine and for those few fleeting moments it's as fine a collective sound as you'll ever have the pleasure to hear.

'Classes In Silence' has a prophetic name as the tracks is just as much about what isn't there as what is.  It's minimalist post rock at it's finest, and one imagines that years ago celebrated gentry may have gathered in large concert halls to appreciate music of this exact quality.  'Under Sleeping Waves' will bring you immense joy, and if you let it, immerse you in swathes of gorgeous waves of unrivalled beauty.  Case in point is closer 'AM Sky (Bleary)'.  Like it's name sake, the track has the feel of light drifting over the landscape, each note on the xylophone represents the light touching each point with it's warmth.  The warmth of this epic album will, one suspects, live well on past the end of the day.

Why should 'Under Sleeping Waves' win The SAY Award 2011?

This, ultimately, is the question that I had to ask myself when nominating the album, and one which you should ask when deciding to vote, or not vote, for it.  The answer is that in an award which focuses on the underdog that is Scottish music, Happy Particles are the racehorse equivalent of the 1000-1 shot.  Everything is stacked against them, and in any other 'traditional' award structure they wouldn't even be at the party.  The album released as a download only via Bandcamp, on Christmas day no less, by an unsigned band with little to no hype surrounding it, embodies the very ethos of The SAY Awards.  It's about championing the unsung talent, about highlighting music which may have been lost to obscurity, and rewarding the talent that exists amongst that group.  As a blogger I also see Happy Particles inclusion on the Long List as a vindication of what is good about music blogs.  'Under Sleeping Waves' flowed through the blogsphere like a tidal wave, gathering critical acclaim along the way.  This album has benefited probably more than any other (Muscles Of Joy also received the same benefit) in the attention it has gained since being long listed.  It also received a printed CD run allowing it to be stocked in high street and independent music retailers.  Winning the £20,000 prize would be the ultimate reward.

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We're Only Here For The Banter - Kick To Kill

Kick To Kill are a four piece from Glasgow, who are full of intent and have delivered two knock out tracks so far, 'Black Kisses' dropped late last year and 'Avalanche' followed this month.  They have definitely been paying attention to The Twilight Sad, as their sound isn't too far away from Kilsyth's finest.  Dark and addictive post-punk is the order of the day.

Hello, how are you?

Dave: Yeah pretty good.
Harris: Grand
Ewen: Nearly the weekend!

It's the question everyone hates, but could you tell us a little bit about your music and your influences?

Dave: Our influences range from Velvet Underground to Nine Inch Nails.  Our music is quite hard, dark pop.
Harris: There are a few obvious influences like Joy Division and Jesus And Mary Chain, but we have always felt strongly about not immitating other bands and styles.  Influences range across all genres but we hope we are harder to categorise.

What's your song writing process like?

Dave: We write in rehearsals & normally start with a bass riff or drum beat then we keep adding to it and altering it to suit, then I do the vocals last.  Quite back to front I know.
Harris: Pretty straight forward.  We tend to all be on the same wavelength so songs and ideas tend to come together pretty quickly.  We will usually find a hook or section to work around and play about with it until we are happy.
Ewen: Interesting, the finished product rarely sounds like the idea or riff we started with so it involves a lot of feedback and refining between the group.  However, we do seem to manage it relatively quickly.

What could we expect to see from a live show?

Dave: 25 minutes of noise
Ewen: A grinding, thumping, melodic, sinister, catchy, purple, yellow and blue refined sound.

If it were all to end tomorrow, what would you say has been your greatest achievement?

Dave: Writing our last batch of songs.
Harris: We have played some great gigs.  The Damned was very memorable.  The album is something we are all very excited about, perhaps our greatest achievement will be when it’s finally released!
Ewen: Kissing Dave on the lips.

What have you got planned for 2012?

Harris: Our single is out shortly and the album will be out by the turn of the year.  We should be playing all over to promote it.  Look out!

At Scottish Fiction we focus on new Scottish music, how do you as a band view the Scottish music 'scene'? 

Dave: A lot of really good bands come from Scotland and clearly we can produce good music.
Harris: I think Scotland has a strong music scene.  But this can be split into different groups.  The music we play doesn’t fit everywhere but there is lots of support for bands in Glasgow and venues are usually pretty busy.

What other Scottish artists would you recommend to the Scottish Fiction readers?

Dave: Twilight Sad, Mogwai - I'm sure everyone has heard of them before but they are definitely two of the best at the moment.
Harris: I’m sure you would know them all.  Mummy Short Arms are super (label plug).

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

Ewen: David Cameron.

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SAY Awards - Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - A Closer Look

It's been over two weeks since The SAY Awards Long List was announced and hopefully you've been busy familiarising yourself with the unknown quantities that it threw up.  As there's also now less than two weeks until the all important public vote, and with the winner of said vote guaranteed a place on the Short List of ten albums, there's a lot at stake (£10,000 to be precise!)  As one of the 100 nominators for the SAY Awards, we were chuffed to see four of our five selections make the Long List.  And we've decided to give you the low-down on each of these four albums.

That isn't to say that the other 16 albums are not worthy of your vote or being the overall winner.  Indeed there's plenty of other worthy contenders in our eyes, and we'll come to them in due course.  We all have our favourites and these four albums happen to be mine.  That said the most important thing is to make up your own mind and you can do that over at the SAY Awards official site.

Without further ado, here's the second of our choices, 'Everything's Getting Older' from Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat

Right from the off it should be stressed that this record should not be looked upon as solely an Aidan Moffat record.  Opener 'Tasogare' should destroy that illusion straight away, with it's emotional outpouring from Well's piano.  Released on Chemikal Underground on 26th April, 'Everything's Getting Older' has probably been my favourite album of 2011 since buying it.  Even at the tender age of 26, I find myself identifying with the gloomy Moffat at times.  It's an album of unparallelled insight, beauty, humour.  Fans of Moffat will click with his usual silver tongue, demonstrated especially on 'Ballad Of A Bastard' and 'Glasgow's Jubilee'.  But whilst there is the underlying theme of 'ageing', penultimate track 'The Greatest Story Ever Told' is one of the most awe inspiring tracks I've ever heard.  A complete understanding of this great adventure we call 'life', Moffat shows he can do beauty just as well as scathing.  As for 'The Cooper Top', well no words I have can do it justice.  It's quite simply stunning.


Why should 'Everything's Getting Older' win The SAY Award 2011?

This, ultimately, is the question that I had to ask myself when nominating the album, and one which you should ask when deciding to vote, or not vote, for it.  'Everything's Getting Older' is as honest an album as you may ever hear.  It's full of grown up, real life emotion, the kind that many of us will encounter one day.  Moffat has no problem describing his flaws either, and that takes some doing.  Musically, with Wells at the helm, the beauty of the music matches the raw emotion of the lyrics.  It's a partnership made in heaven, and this album for me is the one of the list which tells the most about life.


Finally, if all of the above isn't enough, we caught up with Bill Wells to pose a few questions about the whole proceedings.  Special thanks to Bill for taking the time to answer.  Have a read below.

Hi Bill. how are you?

Not bad.

Congratulations on 'Everything's Getting Older' being longlisted for The SAY Awards.  How do you view The SAY Awards as a whole? 

Thanks. I would say it's undoubtedly a positive thing, especially as there has obviously been no little time and effort taken to ensure that it avoids the cliquishness of most of these types of award.  It's heartening to see that it really does feature a very broad range of styles of music and includes bands who have little or no record company backing.

Scots are notoriously self deprecating.  How important in your view is The SAY Awards in terms of highlighting the talent that spans across many genres here in Scotland? 

I would like to think that this is it's main purpose rather than being just a competition.  The additional promotion and exposure granted to the bands even which have made it thus far is substantial.

We have a tiny nation bursting with talent, yet not often do we shout about it.  Do you think a lack of a sense of self-importance helps nurture better music? 

I don't know that a lack or abundance of self importance makes much difference, it really depends on the artist. However I do feel that there is a very down to earth attitude here that encourages a reasonably high standard regardless of genre.

A lot of people, rightly or wrongly, don't see industry awards as a positive thing.  As musicians how affirming is it to have your work recognised with nominations and awards such as this?

 I do think that people generally like competitions and awards so it's an immediate way to connect and create interest and hopefully lead a new audience to the music itself.

The lenghty creation of 'Everything's Getting Older' is well documented, what are the resounding positive memories you have from creating this album?

I suppose putting it all together after we had finished recording and thinking it felt like something special.

Take yourself out of the running, who would be your choice for The SAY Award 2011? 

Since I still haven't actually listened to everything I'll pass on that.

As far as the future goes, are there plans for further collaborations?

I don't think we stopped, we've already done a couple of one-off tracks this year and there will be a full length album, eventually.


Have a listen to 'If You Keep Me In Your Heart' below.  And purchase Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat's album 'Everything's Getting Older' here. 

Scottish Fiction Podcast - 30th April 2012

On this week's show we feature another five artists long listed for The SAY Awards.  Our featured artist is Kilsyth's The Twilight Sad, and our classic album track comes from The Beta Band.  All that and music from Aerials Up, Craig_FS, The King Hats, Kick To Kill and more!

Drunk Mule - Love That Sound
Tesla Birds - Flocks In RGB
Mogwai - Mexican Grand Prix
Aerials Up - All Your Mother's Daughters

The Beta Band - Squares - Classic Scottish Album - Hot Shots II

Craig_FS - Helmet Wars
Conquering Animal Sound - Giant
Two Wings - Feet
The Leg - Bake Yourself Silly
Happy Particles - Empty Circle
Kick To Kill - Avalanche
Human Don't Be Angry - First Person Singular, Present Tense
6th Borough Project - Find A Way
Minature Dinosaurs - Lightspeed
The King Hats - Burning Bridges

Featured Artist - The Twilight Sad
I Became A Prostitute
That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy
Don't Move

Remember Remember - White Castle
The Son(s) - Shot Out A Cannon

Scottish Fiction - 30th April 2012 by Scottish Fiction on Mixcloud