I've had baby brain since last week following the birth of my daughter (it seeps a little bit into this podcast too. Sorry!) So as much as that is fantastic, it's also great to sit behind the microphone to record this latest episode of Scottish Fiction. Mainly because I've been sitting on a ton of great tracks that deserve an airing. Included in that are new ones from Garden Of Elks, Prides and Owl John, plus two session tracks courtesy of our friends over at Netsounds Unsigned and Houdidontblog.
On the day of the impending Mayan apocalypse, let's all take a few moments to celebrate and reflect on just how bloody good a year it has been for Scottish music. Last year when compiling this same 'Best Of...' list there was always a clear winner in my mind, Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat's 'Everything's Getting Older'. That was vindicated by the same album taking the BAMS 2011 title, and more importantly the inagural SAY Award back in June.
This year however, I've chewed this list over and over. I've mulled on my favourite, re-jigged the order, and cried at the albums I had to leave out. It was a difficult list, but I've finally settled on this, the Scottish Fiction Best Of 2012. So enjoy, listen, disagree, engage however you please.
Presented in this post is numbers 20 to 11 in our countdown.
The Glasgow quintet released their much anticipated début album back on 7th May via Stow College label Electric Honey. It's a romp of an indie-pop effort, which holds real emotion beneath the catchy melodies, and features a number of their singles released already such as 'Younger' and 'Numbers'. The band were also rather kind to come and play the first Scottish Fiction Presents: Aye Tunes vs. Peenko gig back in October, which was lovely!
The first of four, yes count them four, albums released on 17th September to feature in our top 20. The Edinburgh band put out this very accomplished album which is full of well written love songs that actually convey real emotions,
landscape sounds at times rivalling those of more establish indie acts,
and full of awkward dance moves as those oh-so-cool indie kids try not
to dance. Another charming band who came and playing for us in October. Cheers!
Teenage Fanclub are an institution that can do no wrong. Luckily that also extents to their constituent parts, including bassist Gerard Love who, with the help of some other Glasgow musicians, released his début solo album under the guise of Lightships. The influence of the Fannies is clear, as is another Glasgow institution The Pastels, under whose label the album was released, yet there's plenty of originality and a breezy summer day feel throughout.
Back in 2011 I had the pleasure of seeing Olympic Swimmers support Admiral Fallow at The Arches, and shortly after 'Apples And Pears' became one of my favourite tracks. I'd kind off forgotten about the band until... BAM 'No Flags Will Fly' dropped on 4th June and propelled the band to greater things. The first four tracks contribute one of the strongest starts to an album all year, especially my favourite 'Knots'.
Over The Wall frontman Gav Prentice chose this year to 'go solo', something which he'd been toying with for a while and was encouraged to go for during a lull in OTW activities. And just as bloody well, because début 'The Invisible Hand' genuinely does stand alone from Prentice's previous band and serves
as a vehicle for the him musician to say something he couldn't have got
across as a collective. Full of small town angst, frustration and threats of violence, it's a stonker of an album well worth checking out. Peenko, Aye Tunes and I had the pleasure of 'launching' the album at our gig in November. Jolly good so it was.
After 2010's self titled album from former Aerogramme lad's Craig B and Ian Cooke, a follow up was always expected. Thankfully it was delivered via Chemikal Underground in August, and it firmly delivered surpassing the standards the duo had set with their début. Ian Cooke has been a busy bee this year as well, popping up as part of CHVRCHES, who may, arguably, surpass TUH popularity. Time will tell. In the meantime enjoy 'Afterlives'.
Time for my favourite named album of the year, the wonderfully titled 'Something For The Weakened' from Meursault. Led by Neil Pennycook, Meursault returned with their third offer, displaying progression in their songwriting and a more 'human' and acoustic sound. Featuring tracks such as 'Flittin', 'Dull Spark' and personal favourite 'Lament For A Teenage Millionaire', this is a fine fine album worthy of your time.
The first of two appearances for DIY Glasgow label Olive Grove Records. Jo Mango's second album 'Murmuration' was a labour of love, taking six years to write and record. It's certainly worth the wait though as there's such beauty, craft, intricacy and emotion weaved throughout. Each track is a real labour of love, and for true, original songwriting you can't look further than 'Murmuration'.
And here's numero two for Olive Grove, which has nothing to do with our recent gig foray with Lloyd, and everything to do with the extraordinary collective feeling they have developed and used to entice The State Broadcasters to release their second album 'Ghosts We Must Carry' with them. The second album on the list to have been released on the magical date, 17th September, The State Broadcasters have crafted an album full of
folk/American/traditional musical influences which broads with real
human emotion.
Human Don't Be Angry, named after the literal translation of the German name for the board game Frustration, is of course Malcolm Middleton, who turns his hand to electronica and '80's influenced music on this album. Released via Chemikal Underground on 23rd April, it's an album that has intriuged me and stuck with me all year round. Sound truly landscaped sounds, tapping into the electro sound which is prevalent at the moment. Wonderful live as well. Chill out and have a listen.
On the latest Scottish Fiction Podcast is the live session from Gav Prentice who very kindly joined us in the studio recently. Gav chats about his music, his influences, his début solo album 'The Invisible Hand' and his band Over The Wall. There's a smattering of music chosen by Gav as well as two live tracks.
On top of that there's the usual serving of new alternative Scottish music, this week provided by Frightened Rabbit, Queen Jane, Michael Cassidy, The Winter Tradition and plenty more! Enjoy!
Going solo is one of rock's greatest clichés. We've all at one stage or another sat through an album from the frontman or guitarist (hell even some drummers get in on the act) of a band we really love, and thought 'what the chuff was that?' Yet every now and then there emerges a solo album which genuinely does stand alone from the artists previous 'band' and serves as a vehicle for the musician to say something they couldn't have got across as a collective.
Step forward Gav Prentice, one half of indie-pop duo Over The Wall, who released his début solo album 'The Invisible Hand' via Instinctive Raccoon on 15th October.
On first listen there's a familiarity in that Gav provided the vocals in Over The Wall, and while when speaking to him about the album he felt he'd adopted a more Scottish twang in the absence of his English counterpart, those familiar with OtW will not mistake Gav's distinctive vocal style.
Where the main difference will arise is the stripped back and acoustic style of 'The Invisible Hand'. The production work on OtW's album 'Treacherous' was fun and outlandish, 'The Invisible Hand' is lo-key, at times rather raw and is emboldened for being so. Themes of home-town blues, loss and the inevitability of ageing are explored through predominately indie-folk styled strummings and at times sung with anger and ire.
The lyrical content of many of the tracks seems to be Prentice expunging himself, yet when Gav joined us on the Scottish Fiction show recently he revealed that there are in fact three different characters at play, each giving a different perspective to the same small town mentality.
Opening track 'King George' comes from the view of an elderly gentleman George, lamenting what has been and gone and ultimately changed and lost; "tried holding on to what I loved, tried holding on and now it's gone."
Lead single from the album 'Give It Up' is a rip-roaring track with a punchy beat backing the fury of Prentice's voice as he recalls the advice of home town friends and family who's advice in his early days of playing music was simply 'give it up'.
'My home town is burning down' cries Prentice in folk track 'Burning Down' a sentiment that I'm sure many living within the small towns across Scotland's central belt. There's also a cheeky wee nod to the Reid twins at the end of the track.
The lo-fi feel of the album is at it's most strongest during the short 'Honesty Lost In Silence' and 'I Know That', which serves, as it does throughout the album, to place Prentice's words at the fore. One gets the feeling that for one reason or another these words were of such importance that they were not to be lost amidst the musical production of bleeps, whizzes and effects.
The tempo picks up again on 'How Are You Sleeping', with a fast paced drum beat driving the song forward. It's a strong track, again there's real anger in the lyrics. The penultimate track is another short stutter of a track, 'I'm Not Gonna Cry' before the traditional 'Ae Fond Kiss', the Burns song re-arranged by Gav. It's a fitting way to end an album which does focus a lot of the singer-songwriter fare of loss and anger.
On the latest podcast, which aired 31st October 2012, features new music from Jo Mango, Collar Up, Gav Prentice, Flutes and much more. There's gig chat and some general banter from me, plus all our usual features.
This week's Featured Artist are Errors, our Classic Scottish Album is De Rosa's 'Prevention' and our Re-Mixing It Up track is a brilliant Miaoux Miaoux remix of 'Where It Snows' by Olympic Swimmers. As always we have some free music in the form of the Aye Tunes Friday Freebie track, which is a brilliant number from The Yawns. Enjoy!
Took a while to get this podcast up (apologies) but you can forgive me as on this show we have a plethora of new music from the likes of Gav Prentice, Salo, Vasa and Three Blind Wolves. There's also all four of the Peenko Postcard tracks scattered across the show.
Our Aye Tunes Friday Freebies track comes from op, our Re-Mixing It Up track is a Discopolis remix of a Miaoux Miaoux track, our Featured Artists is the wonderful Withered Hand and our Classic Scottish Album is Admiral Fallow's debut 'Boots Met My Face'.
Last Saturday saw the inaugural Scottish Fiction Presents Aye Tunes vs Peenko gig go off with a bang at The Flying Duck, with great performances from The Bad Books, Cancel The Astronauts and French Wives. All in all we had a great time, and hope you did do.
And for our second trick...
We'll be returning to The Flying Duck again for another ridiculously good line up on Saturday 24th November. Here's what you can expect this time round:
Behold The Old Bear - Behold The Old Bear are a five piece from Glasgow and are the brainchild of Mitchell Museum drummer Raindeer MacFarlane, who over time have grown to a seriously good band all in their own right. We're very excited to welcome them onto the bill.
Campfires In Winter -The boys from Croy are favourites of ours, and after this gig will be favourites of yours too! The bearded four piece have posted several album demos on their Bandcamp page and are building up to a single release. Not to be missed!
Gav Prentice - Over The Wall frontman Gav Prentice has got a shiny new solo album out called 'The Invisible Hand' and if you haven't listened to it yet, what have you been doing? It's a cracking album, and Gav will be showcasing it as the gig is his official album launch.
With a line up like that you can tell it's going to be a doozy, and we'd love to see you there. Saturday 24th November from 7:30pm at The Flying Duck for all of this
and more! Once again entry to the gig gains you FREE entry to The Flying Duck's club
night 'Houndin The Streets' if you want to make a night of it!
Tickets are £6 and are available on the door on the night.
