Tag: Edinburgh Scotland UK

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Formerly known as Super Inuit, Edinburgh-based pop duo Slim Wrist — Fern Morris and Brian Pokora — pair assertive beats, organic tones and pop sensibilities with an understated poignancy in a way that has drawn comparisons to Cocteau Twins, Portishead, Broadcast, and Sylvan Esso.

The duo formed back in 2016 and since their formation, they have evolved from having separate and distinct musical roles to a much more collaborative and cohesive unit that shares ideas and then develops them further together.

The Scottish duo’s full-length debut Closer for Comforting officially drops today and the album, which was written over the past two years, sees the band stripping their songwriting to the bone and leaving the listener with exactly what they need. “We’ve developed quite a direct approach to writing and with Closer for Comforting we’ve really tried to hone that, stripping back on the sprawl of some of our earlier music,” Slim Wrist’s Brian Pokora explains. “All the songs have a purpose and the album feels quite concise, whilst still having room to breathe.”  Fern Morris adds “It’s a bit of a calm after the storm reflection, both musically and lyrically. If you’re in the middle of a situation you’re not always able to lift your head and see things in perspective.  We wanted to have a sense of that and have that sense of space whilst maintaining that direct, poppy feel.”

“Milk Teeth,” Closer for Comforting‘s latest single pairs glistening synths, skittering industrial thump and link with Fern Morris’ ethereal cooing and the duo’s ability to craft an earworm of a hook. The end result is a song that sounds like a slickly produced and stunning synthesis of Portishead and Soft Metals.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Nye Todd, Adam Todd, Anna Cory and Niall McCamely, the Edinburgh, Scotland, UK-based indie pop act The Spook School derive their name from the famous Glasgow School of influential artists and designers that began to coalesce in the 1870s and flourished between 1890 to roughly 1910 or so. And within the The Glasgow School there were several groups responsible for creating the distinctive Glasgow Style — The Four (also known as The Spook School), which featured painter and glass artist Margaret MacDonald, acclaimed architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh (McDonald’s husband), MacDonald’s sister Frances Macdonald and Herbert MacNair — all of who made strides in the definition of Art Nouveau; the Glasgow Girls; and the Glasgow Boys. As for their modern counterparts, the members of the Glasgow-based indie pop act have developed a reputation for songs that lyrically explore gender, sexuality and queer issues while thematically focusing on gender fluidity and the lack of the gender binary.

The Spook School’s latest single “Someone to Spend Christmas With” is an incisive and anthemic, ambivalent Christmas song that features a rousing hook, soaring synths, shimmering guitar chords and propulsive drumming — and while sounding as though it simultaneously draws from 60s pop and 80s New Wave, as the band’s Anna Corey explains in press notes, “This is a song about figuring out how you want to conduct your own relationships when it feels like the world is full of conflicting advice about the ‘best’ way to do it, whether that be monogamy, polyamory, or something else entirely. The refrain relates to the ideal of having one important person in your life with whom you’ll always spend your special occasions.”

Along with the release of their new Christmastime single, the Scottish quartet announced an early 2018 North American tour, opening for Diet Cig that will include a March 1, 2018 stop at Brooklyn’s newest music venue Elsewhere. Interestingly, the tour will also coincide with the release of the band’s highly-anticipated third full-length effort Could It Be Different? on January 26, 2018 through Slumberland Records here in the States and Alcopop! Records in the UK. In the meantime, check out the tour dates below.

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR 2018

01/29 Buffalo, NY @ Mohawk Place # ^
01/30 Toronto, ON @ The Garrison # ^
01/31 Detroit, MI @ Marble Bar # ^
02/01 Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge # &
02/02 Madison, WI @ University of Wisconsin # &
02/03 Minneapolis, MN @ University of Minnesota # &
02/05 Lawrence, KS @ White Schoolhouse #
02/06 Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge & #
02/07 Denver, CO @ Lost Lake Lounge #
02/08 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court #
02/09 Boise, ID @ Neurolux # &
02/10 Vancouver, BC @ The Cobalt # &
02/11 Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey #
02/12 Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater #
02/14 San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop #
02/15 Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst # &
02/16 Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room #
02/17 San Diego, CA @ You Are Going To Hate This Fest 3 #
02/19 Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress # &
02/21 Austin, TX @ Sidewinder # &
02/22 Dallas, TX @ Three Links # &
02/23 New Orleans, LA @ Hi Ho Lounge # &
02/24 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade # &
02/25 Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight # &
02/26 Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre # &
02/27 Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle # &
02/28 Washington, DC @ Rock & Roll Hotel # &
03/01 Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere # &
03/02 Boston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall # &
03/03 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church # &

# = w/ Diet Cig
^ = w/ Lala Lala
& = w/ Great Grandpa

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Introducing Scotland’s Acrylic and Their Soaring and Anthemic Single “Coast”

Initially formed in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK and comprised of Andreas Christodoulidis, Ross Patrizio, Ruairidh Smith, Lewis Doig and Jack Lyall, the Glasgow-based indie rock quintet Acrylic specialize in an atmospheric and intricate psych rock — and with the release of singles like “Awake,” and “Overrun,” airplay on XFM Scotland, Amazing Radio and BBC Scotland and a sold-out, headline show at Glasgow’s Hug and Pint last month, the quintet have seen a rapidly growing national profile. And building upon the buzz that the band has been receiving, the band’s lated single “Coast,” produced by Paul Savage will further cement their burgeoning reputation for crafting brooding and atmospheric psych rock with anthemic hooks — although it possesses an unusual song structure in which there’s a short and dreamy introduction, a couple of short verses, a repeated refrain/chorus that brings in a series of dreamily atmospheric and soaring hooks in a fashion reminiscent to the likes of Foals and others.

Interestingly, as the band’s Ross Patrizio explains in press notes “‘Coast’ is Acrylic’s oldest song. We’ve had it in some form pretty much since the band started. Andreas [Christodoulidis] and I used to write songs separately, then bring them to the band, but this was the first we wore together, and so it’s always been on elf our favorites. It has a weird structure, and we don’t have any other songs like it. it’s definitely one of the most upbeat Acrylic song; it’s fun to play live.”

The recently released video begins with a man, presumably one of the band members bathing in one of the most gorgeous settings you can set your eyes in time elapsed footage, before cutting to the band performing the song in a studio/rehearsal space and ending with a time elapsed footage of the beach we were introduced to at the beginning of the video.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years, you’ve likely come across several posts on Blanck Mass, the solo side project of Fuck Buttons’ Benjamin John Power. 2015’s Dumb Flesh was written and recorded over the course of a year in several different locations  — Power’s Space Mountain Studios, a windowless attic space in Hatch End, North London and Power’s Edinburgh Scotland home. Reportedly, changing recording spaces influenced the album’s dark and sprawling compositions, which frequently meshed tense and abrasive industrial electronic music with sensual, hard hitting, deep house, along with punishing, tweeter and woofer rocking beats and shimmering synths bubbling from a hot, molten iron-like surface, and as a result it gives the material brief moments of stunning beauty bursting from a murky and uncertain mix. Thematically, the material focused on the inherent flaws and frailty of the human body — in some way, the album evoked the sensation that our flesh couldn’t protect us from what feels like certain catastrophe.

 

World Eater, Power’s third Blanck Mass album is slated for a March 3, 2017 release through renowned indie electronic label Sacred Bones Records and the material on the album was inspired by a year teeming with anger, violence, confusion, frustration and despair — and in some way, it evokes a wild, untamed beast chewing and gnawing at civilization, compassion, good, and progression. As Power explains in press notes, “The title is a reference to both the inner beast inside human beings that when grouped en-masse stops us from moving forward towards good.”

 

World Eater‘s latest single “Silent Treatment” builds on the idea of civilization being chewed apart and of impending doom as sonically the song consist of chopped up chorale and vocal samples, abrasive industrial clang and clatter, stuttering drum programming, twinkling arpeggio synths and enormous boom-bap beats — and although while managing to be a subtly more atmospheric, the song retains the tense and murky feel of Dumb Flesh; in fact, the song manages to emphasize the growing sense of impending doom, confusion, and destruction that many of us have felt over the past 10-15 days. Interestingly, as Power explains of the song “‘Silent Treatment’ is about the problems that arise when we don’t communicate. We often grow apart when we don’t understand each other. Being left int he dark can lead to fear.” May this song be a visceral warning — and may it remind us of all that we have at stake.