Kicking off another packed show this week was the charming Charlie and Charlotte of King Post Kitsch, who very kindly joined me in the studio. And with the three tracks they chose to play during the session, they are welcome back any time! There's nothing quite like an intimate acousitc session, and the three tracks the pair performed live in the studio were simply magnificent. In between discovering them during the show, there's chat about an upcoming new album too.
I also continued down The SAY Award rabbit hole, with another five tracks taken from long listed albums. The Aye Tune Friday Freebie track this week comes from Cuddly Shark, while it's a Fence Records extravaganza with the Re-Mixing It Up track. All that and plenty of chat and tunes about this Saturday's Stag & Dagger festival in Glasgow. Ta-ra.
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.
This week's show features new music from The Pictish Trail, Stanley Odd, The New Fabian Society, The Unwinding Hours and more!
We have a track from our Classic Scottish Album, which this week is 'City To City' by Gerry Rafferty. There's an Aye Tunes Friday Freebie track, plus chat about Doune The Rabbit Hole. And our Featured Artist is We Were Promised Jetpacks. Enjoy!
Last Wednesday's show was a good 'un, filled to the brim with new tracks from the likes of The Unwinding Hours, Crusades, Meursault, Cancel The Astronauts and more! Our featured artist this week was Isobel Campbell and we had three tracks from her in her various musical guises. And our Classic Scottish Album was KLF's 1991 album 'White Room'. Listen back for all this, some Twitter banter, and more!
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.
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