Tag: Glasgow Scotland UK

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Glasgow’s Cwfn Shares Stormy and Brooding “Bodies”

Over the course of the past 18 months Glasgow-based outfit Cwfn (pronounced coven) — Agnes Alder (vocals, rhythm guitar), Guy DeNuit (backing vocals, lead guitar), Rös Ranquinn (drums) and Mary Thomas Baker (bass) — have quickly built up a reputation as one of the region’s hottest, emerging doom bands. Their debut single, last October’s “Reliks” won over fans and critics, with the song landing on Kerrang‘s release of the week playlist.

Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the Scottish quartet’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, the Kevin Hare and band co-produced Sorrows is slated for a May 30, 2025 release. Recorded at Deep Storm Productions, Sorrows reportedly lives in the space around doom, where the weight of the materials riffs are matched by the weight in your chest — and with material where the lyrics and songwriting as equally as important as the music. The band intend to write material that’s big on riffs but even bigger on feeling; to create songs that you carry with you throughout your life. The album sees Cwfn’s Alder bearing her (proverbial) claws one minute, whispering and pleading the next while she and her bandmates craft a sound that’s like a brewing storm front.

“We never set out to write an album. We were just four friends making music we wanted to hear. But then Sorrows emerged, and when it did, it pulled us into its orbit. We couldn’t ignore it,” Cwfn’s Agnes Alder says.  “When we stopped trying to fit into any one space, what came out was this beautiful mix of dark and light. Something visceral and cathartic.”

The album will also feature long-anticipated reworkings of “Embers” and “Bodies,” their two self-recorded demos that are also fan favorites — and helped catapult them into the national and international scenes.

Sorrows latest single “Bodies” is a brewing and uneasy storm of a track, that features Alder’s guttural, almost crypt keeper-like delivery floating around swirling, churning and sludgy power chord-driven riffage, thunderous drumming and the band’s knack for enormous hooks. And at its core, the song expresses a deep-seated, seething rage that has built up to an all-consuming conflagration.

“Bodies was one of the first songs I’d written for Cwfen. I’d gone through a period of significant change in my life and had burned out to the point of caring a lot less about things that had previously been important to me when I was younger,” the band’s Alder explains. “As I was writing, I’d imagined this sort of vast, feminine cosmic horror. Sort of the opposite of what women are supposed to be. And I had this thought: what if, instead of being told to stay small and keep producing, a woman took up the biggest space possible and just… consumed? Almost a black-hole-sized matriarch hoovering up everything until there was nothing left. It was fun to think about this sort of monstrous feminine presence that can’t be stopped. So the song was sort of an exploration of those feelings, a catharsis of sorts. And permission to be terrifying.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Glasgow’s Akkiles82 Shares Cinematic “Streets of Neo-Yokohama”

Nick Thomson is a Glasgow-based electronic music producer and the creative mastermind of the solo recording project Akkiles82. Akkiles82 sees Thompson creating a sound that draws from cyberpunk, retrowave, and his history both playing bands and as an electronic music/dance music producer.

The Scottish-based producer’s Akkiles82 full-length debut, CybernNation will be released in two parts over the course of the next year. The album reportedly will tell a story of desperate survival, after an unknown cataclysm causes destruction in a futuristic cyberpunk-like city. The album’s track range from classic synthwave and EDM through breakbeat — with health doses of 80s cartoon and TV themes influences.

CyberNation‘s second and latest single “Streets of Neo-Yokohama,” is a slickly produced cinematic track that recalls a synthesis of Fragile-era Nine Inch Nails, John Carpenter soundtracks and 80s TV themes, anchored around dense layers of glistening, arpeggiated synths and tweeter and woofer rattling thump. A new Knight Rider, Transformers or Voltron theme perhaps?

“This track was inspired by the towering skyscrapers and street racing scenes of Tokyo and Yokohama, painting a picture of neon and rain soaked streets,” Thompson says.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Glasgow’s Theodosia’s Revenge Shares a Bruising Ripper

Theodosia’s Revenge is an emerging, Glasgow, Scotland, UK-based metal outfit. Their latest single “Walking with Fire” is a bruising and primal ripper with scorching riffage, raise your beer high-in-the-sky hooks and choruses and thunderous drumming that recalls early Metallica and the RidingEasy Records roster.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Deriving their name from a line in Better Oblivion Community Center‘s “Sleepwalkin,'” the emerging Glasgow-based indie outfit Bottle Rockets — Kenzi (vocals), John (guitar) and Sam (drums) — are deeply influenced by 80s New Wave acts like The Cure, Sioxsie and the Banshees, New Order and others.

The emerging Scottish act’s latest single “When I Tell You,” was recorded at 7 West Studio, a studio revered as a proving ground for their hometown’s fellow emerging artists. Interestingly, the new single finds the band attempting to push their sound beyond their influences, with the band pairing Kenzi’s expressive pop belter vocals with jangling guitars, thunderous drumming and a rousingly anthemic hook. The end result sonically — to my ears, at least — is a slick synthesis of The Pretenders and 120 Minutes era alt rock.

As the band explains “When I Tell You,” “. . . expresses the frustration of never having any luck on your side, when everything and anything seemingly goes against you. Perfect for those wanting to let everything out.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Luc Grindle is a Glasgow-based singer/songwriter, musician and sound engineer, best known for his work with local indie rock bands Dutch Wine, HEYUP and Moonsoup. Interestingly. Grindle stepped out into the limelight with his solo recording project Gunke, which finds the Glasgow-based artist aiming to bring out the brighter, more optimistic side of punk rock.

So far Grindle has released two singles “Mouse” and “Football” — with “Football” receiving attention across the blogosphere. Building upon the growing buzz surrounding him, the Glasgow-based artist released his latest single, the buoyantly anthemic “Mum.” Centered around jangling power chords, a persistent backbeat and a rollocking chorus that I can picture kids shouting and bouncing along to, “Mum” manages to bring 120 Minutes-era MTV to mind. To this critic’s ears, I hear a mix of Dinosaur Jr. and Flying Nun Records. Interestingly, underneath the rousingly anthemic hooks, the song has an ironically dark undercurrent with the song focusing on the dying embers of a rapidly fading romantic relationship. The song’s narrator goes through all the complicated emotions of a relationships’ end — longing, frustration, hatred, despair, the desire to escape it all and the recognition of his role in the relationship’s end. If you’re human, you’ve been there and have felt the same; I know I have.

“’Mum’ is all about finding yourself in a position you are unable to escape from and requiring to see difficult situations through to the end,” Grindle explains in press notes. “Despite the more pessimistic lyrical content, I wanted to create something more optimistic for the lyrics to sit on top of.”

Grindle adds. “‘Mum’ was a good release of energy to write during a frustrating and confusing time, it helped me understand what was going on in my life so became a very positive piece to create despite the less hopeful lyrics.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Union of Knives Release a Brooding and Feverish Visual for “There’s a River”

n‘s Peter Kelly (drums) — can trace their origins back to 2004: Founding members Chris Gordon and Dave McClean met at Glasgow’s Nice ‘n’ Sleazy Bar,where McClean was working as a sound engineer in the bar’s venue space and Gordon was a bartending, while producing and touring with other bands. Gordon and McLean initially started working together as producers and engineers on material for local acts — and on remixes of the work of Snow Patrol and others. 

McLean had met Aberdeen-born, Scotland-based singer/songwriter Craig Grant while doing sound for an acoustic night at Nice ‘n’ Sleazy. After meeting one night at the bar, Gordon and McLean invited Grant to work on some tracks they had started — and the early success of those sessions led to the formation of Union of Knives. With the release of their critically applauded full-length debut, 2006’s Violence and Birdsongquickly established a dark and brooding sound that references goth, industrial, trip hop and warped soul. The album also featured drum work from Peter Kelly, who later would join the band as a full-time member — and album single “Opposite Direction,” which appeared in episodes of The Vampire Diaries and Grey’s Anatomy. Their Atticus Ross co-produced sophomore album was recorded the following year and was shelved due to internal issues with their label.

Since then Gordon has been releasing material with other projects and continuing his production work with artists, Kelly went on to tour with The Kills and Ladyton while also becoming an acclaimed artist with his work being instrumental in the band’s visual aesthetic. Thomas eventually made his way to Scotland, becoming a member of Dope Sick Fly. Gordon produced some of Thomas’ work and after they realized an irresistible musical connection, Thomas officially joined the band last year. Over the course of last year, the newly constituted trio worked on their sophomore album Endless From The Start, which is slated for release through Three Hands Records later this year, ending the project’s 14 year hiatus. 

st moments. The Glasgow-based trio have released two singles to critical praise, “Like Butterflies” and “A Tall Tale,” which features Ladytron’s Helen Marnie. And building upon the growing buzz surrounding them, the album’s third and latest single “There’s A River” is a brooding and dystopian track centered around ambient synths, thumping industrial beats, reverb-drenched vocals, sampled Eastern-like vocals and a soaring hook. While sonically bearing a resemblance to Massive Attack, the track reveals the’s act carefully sculptured layered production style.

‘There’s a River’ is a song about going forward with clarity and pushing through the surrounding noise by simplifying the complex,” the band’s Anthony Thomaz says in press notes. The band’s Chris Gordon adds “If you like your dystopian soundscapes with a sprinkling of hope and a dream-like narrative then ‘There’s A River’ is the track for you.” 

The recently released video is shot in a gorgeous and cinematic black and white with the members of Union of Knives at the Scottish shore, near brooding storm clouds and crows — before slowly turning into a psychedelic fever dream

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Glasgow, Scotland-based electronic act Union of Knives — currently founding member Chris Gordon (multi-instrumentalist, vocals, production), Dope Sick Fly’s Baton Rouge, LA-born, Glasgow-based Ant Thomaz (vocals) and The Kills‘ and Ladytron‘s Peter Kelly (drums) — can trace their origins back to 2004: Founding members Chris Gordon and Dave McClean met at Glasgow’s Nice ‘n’ Sleazy Bar, where McClean was working as a sound engineer in the bar’s venue space and Gordon was a bartending, while producing and touring with other bands. Gordon and McLean initially started working together as producers and engineers on material for local acts — and on remixes of the work of Snow Patrol and others.

McLean had met Aberdeen-born, Scotland-based singer/songwriter Craig Grant while doing sound for an acoustic night at Nice ‘n’ Sleazy. After meeting one night at the bar, Gordon and McLean invited Grant to work on some tracks they had started — and the early success of those sessions led to the formation of Union of Knives. With the release of their critically applauded full-length debut, 2006’s Violence and Birdsong quickly established a dark and brooding sound that references goth, industrial, trip hop and warped soul. The album also featured drum work from Peter Kelly, who later would join the band as a full-time member — and album single “Opposite Direction,” which appeared in episodes of The Vampire Diaries and Grey’s Anatomy. Their Atticus Ross co-produced sophomore album was recorded the following year and was shelved due to internal issues with their label.

Since then Gordon has been releasing material with other projects and continuing his production work with artists, Kelly went on to tour with The Kills and Layton while also becoming an acclaimed artist with his work being instrumental in the band’s visual aesthetic. Thomas eventually made his way to Scotland, becoming a member of Dope Sick Fly. Gordon produced some of Thomas’ work and after they realized an irresistible musical connection, Thomas officially joined the band last year. Over the course of last year, the newly constituted trio worked on their sophomore album Endless From The Start, which is slated for release through Three Hands Records later this year, ending the project’s 14 year hiatus.

Endless From The Start reportedly finds the band further establishing their brooding and cinematic sound while revealing material that’s diverse yet uplifting — even in its darkest moments. The Glasgow-based trio have released two singles to critical praise, “Like Butterflies” and “A Tall Tale,” which features Ladytron’s Helen Marnie. And building upon the growing buzz surrounding them, the album’s third and latest single “There’s A River” is a brooding and dystopian track centered around ambient synths, thumping industrial beats, reverb-drenched vocals, sampled Eastern-like vocals and a soaring hook. While sonically bearing a resemblance to Massive Attack, the track reveals the’s act carefully sculptured layered production style.

“‘There’s a River’ is a song about going forward with clarity and pushing through the surrounding noise by simplifying the complex,” the band’s Anthony Thomaz says in press notes. The band’s Chris Gordon adds “If you like your dystopian soundscapes with a sprinkling of hope and a dream-like narrative then ‘There’s A River’ is the track for you.”

  .

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Quilter Releases a Playful Visual for “The Long Weekend”

Stuart Dougan is a Glasgow-born and-based singer/songwriter, who is best known in his native Scotland for fronting French Wives and Smash Williams. Dougan steps out into the limelight as a solo artist, writing and recording every single part of music on his own terms with his latest project The Quilter. 

Dougan’s The Quilter debut, Bolt The Door EP is a collection of bold, alt pop songs, som eo which were written and recorded before the pandemic with others written during the initial lockdown. Interestingly, the EP follows upon last year’s immersive and cinematic visual record Dark Cloud/Grey Area, which was equal parts documentary film, live concert and album.

Bolt The Door’s latest single “The Long Weekend,” is an anthemic bit of synth pop featuring shimmering synth arpeggios, a driving groove and a euphoria-inducing hooks and fueled by nostalgia for hook-driven New Order-like dance anthems and for the things we here in the States are slowly getting back — in particular, being in the company of other sweaty and joyful humans at a summer festival and for other mundane things we’ve been deprived of for the past 15 months or so. 

“This song was in part inspired by a viral clip I saw from the set of Uncut Gems where the crew had finished filming and were all dancing to ‘I Feel It Coming’ by The Weeknd.  It was just a short clip but I wanted to try and capture the palpable sense of joy that was clearly being felt at the time.  It was written during lockdown and is basically a love letter to my friends and daydreaming about getting to hang out and have fun in a post pandemic world.  I’m very aware that it’s bombastic and over the top in places but I wanted to purposely try and capture a sense of hopeful euphoria that one day, not too far from here, you’ll get to hug all your friends again.”

The main star of the recently released video for “The Long Weekend” is a park bench on a beautiful Spring afternoon — but this park bench happens to be the spot: starting with The Quilter’s Dougan, a series of locals including kids, couples and people just walking their dogs sit on the bench and listen to music. In some way, it’s all a bit of a welcomed escape from their days. Adding to the playfulness of the video, Dougan eventually joins these people for a few minutes. While centered around a rather simple concept, the video reminds all of us is that music — and our love of it — are the way that we can connect with others, and that it inspires us to be around others.

“The whole concept of the video was, by design, supposed to be very simple so that it would be logistically easy to shoot and edit,” Stuart Dougan explains. “That may not be exciting to hear, but sometimes that’s how the sausage is made (quickly).  Disaster struck however when the footage from the shoot got corrupted due to (redacted, unimportant technical issue).  Long story short, the only way to salvage the footage was to pivot to a stop motion animation concept that resulted in over 8,500ish screenshots being taken to make it work.  It was traumatic and outrageously laborious so whilst I may struggle to ever watch it again, I hope that folk enjoy it!’

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sister John Releases a Lush, Jangle Pop-like Anthem

Founded as a solo recording project centered around the songwriting of Glasgow-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Amanda McKeown, Sister John first caught the attention of Last Night From Glasgow through a Facebook DM accompanied by a link to an album’s worth of folk-leaning material, which highlighted a sparse yet melodic sensibility. The label signed the act, releasing their critically applauded full-length debut, 2017’s Returned from Sea, an album that also received airplay from BBC Radio 6.

The act’s 2019 self-titled sophomore album found the Scottish indie act further establishing their lush yet lo-fi sound. Building upon a growing profile, Sister John’s soon-to-be released third album I Am By Day finds McKeown collaborating with the members of labelmate act The Gracious Losers. The album’s material reportedly capitalizes on the increasingly unnoticeable changes in day-to-day life; but rather than providing a strategy to get through endless blursdays, digs deep and explores every nook and cranny.

Interestingly, I Am By Day’s second and latest single, the jangling “In My Place” sonically brings Tom Petty and The Pretenders to mind while prominently featuring McKeown’s expressive vocals, a steady groove, staccato organ bursts and a shimmering guitar solo. But underneath the breezy song craft, the song reveals itself as a quietly defiant feminist anthem.

The recently released video for “In My Place” follows an adorable young girl as she daydreams, struts and dances through the back alleys and of her native Glasgow while listening to her favorite band and favorite song on her Walkman. Of course, in this girl, you can see her as a little girl but throughout there are moments, where you begin to see the young woman, she’s about to become.

I Am By Day is slated for a May 21, 2021 release through Last Night From Glasgow.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Stuart Dougan is a Glasgow-born and-based singer/songwriter, who is best known in his native Scotland for fronting French Wives and Smash Williams. Dougan steps out into the limelight as a solo artist, writing and recording every single part of music on his own terms with his latest project The Quilter.

Dougan’s The Quilter debut, Bolt The Door EP is a collection of bold, alt pop songs, som eo which were written and recorded before the pandemic with others written during the initial lockdown. Interestingly, the EP follows upon last year’s immersive and cinematic visual record Dark Cloud/Grey Area, which was equal parts documentary film, live concert and album.

Bolt The Door’s latest single “The Long Weekend,” is an anthemic bit of synth pop featuring shimmering synth arpeggios, a driving groove and a euphoria-inducing hooks and fueled by nostalgia for hook-driven New Order-like dance anthems and for the things we here in the States are slowly getting back — in particular, being in the company of other sweaty and joyful humans at a summer festival and for other mundane things we’ve been deprived of for the past 15 months or so.

“This song was in part inspired by a viral clip I saw from the set of Uncut Gems where the crew had finished filming and were all dancing to ‘I Feel It Coming’ by The Weeknd.  It was just a short clip but I wanted to try and capture the palpable sense of joy that was clearly being felt at the time.  It was written during lockdown and is basically a love letter to my friends and daydreaming about getting to hang out and have fun in a post pandemic world.  I’m very aware that it’s bombastic and over the top in places but I wanted to purposely try and capture a sense of hopeful euphoria that one day, not too far from here, you’ll get to hug all your friends again.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Born to Welsh and Polish parents in Stoke-On-Trent, the rising British singer/songwriter and guitarist Benjamin Belinska relocated to Newcastle when he turned 17. He didn’t settle in Newcastle for very long; eventually he drifted around Europe, spending stints in Glasgow, Berlin, and Paris, supporting himself through a series of menial jobs, ranging from museum cleaner to estate gardener. During that period. he wrote music on borrowed guitars and stolen notebooks, garnering praise from the French press and the BBC along the way.

While in Paris, Belinska met E.A.R. and the duo started the band Paris, Texas, which released two Kramer-produced albums before deciding to relocate to Newcastle together. Two things happened to Belinksa, which may have altered the course of his life:

“Rushing to get a connection, I left a suitcase in York station. It was never recovered. Most of the early songs disappeared,” Belinska says in press notes. “Some months later, I was walking from home work and was randomly assaulted by a gang of four in broad daylight. During the recovery, I decided to stop drifting once and for all. As a first gesture, I would record a new album.”

The new album Belinska recorded, his solo, full-length debut Lost Illusions was released earlier this year, and the album’s first single, the Palace Winter-like “Young in Baltimore” reveals a songwriter, who can pair breezy and shimmering radio friendly soft rock, earnest, lived-in songwriting and an unerring knack for crafting an infectious, pop-leaning hook. But underneath the song’s breezy radio friendliness, is an achingly bittersweet lament evoking the inevitable and unstoppable passage of time, of nostalgia for seemingly simpler times, the uneasy compromises that every adult has to make and live with, the forced upon conformity to make a living and survive.

“The song is about regret, nostalgia and conformity,” Belinska said in an email. “It was inspired by Robert Frank’s photo-book The Americans and The Magnetic Fields. I played and recorded it myself and it was mixed and mastered by Giles Barrett and Simon Trought at Soup Studio, London.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Dead Pony · Everything Is Easy

In their relatively short time together, the up-and-coming Glasgow-based post-punk quartet Dead Pony — Anna Shields (vocals, guitar), Blair Crichton (guitar, backing vocals), Liam Adams (bass) and Aidan McAllister (drums) — have developed a reputation for a high-octane live set that has earned them opening slots for Courtney Barnett, Black Honey, and The Mysterines.

Centered around slashing power chords, thunderous drumming, blasts of jagged synth arpeggios and a rousingly anthemic hook, the Scottish quartet’s latest single “Everything Is Easy” is a bold and self-assured introduction to the band that manages to sound indebted to Elastica — “Connection” and “Car Song” in particular come to mind.

“‘Everything is Easy’ is a take on how simple childhood experiences can be soured as you grow older,” the band’s Anna Shields explains in press notes. “Lyrically, we tried to capture that feeling of betrayal you feel as a young, naïve child when you find out Santa isn’t real or that your conception wasn’t via your Dad finding a snotter on the wall and raising it to become you. We came up with this idea after having discussed how ridiculous the things were we believed as children.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Psychedelic Porn Crumpets Releases an Explosive and Trippy Visual Romp for “Hymn For A Droid”

Comprised of Jack McEwan, Luke Parish, Danny Caddy and Luke Reynolds, the Perth, Australia-based quartet Psychedelic Porn Crumpets quickly developed a reputation in their native Australia for crafting enormous riff-based psych rock. Earlier this year, the members of the Perth-based psych rock outfit made their Stateside debut — and they managed to kick ass and take names with a series of acclaimed SXSW sets.

Building upon a rapidly growing international profile, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets’ latest album And Now For The Whatchamacalit was released earlier this year, and the album which was recorded between Jack McEwan’s bedroom and Perth, Australia-based Tone City Studios finds the band with a huge, arena rock-like sound, which also manages to represent their loftier ambitions.  “The original concept was to take a 1930’s carnival that had been re-imagined for future generations, a collage of Punch and Judy, carousels and coconut shy’s that progresses in musical concepts and travels with the listener,” the band says of the album’s concept. “Then as we started traveling I was swept off into my own kind of circus, the odyssey of touring life. Large nights out, larger characters, drunken recollections of foreign cities and rabbit hole-ing into insanity.” 

The album’s latest single “Hymn For A Droid” will further cement the band’s growing reputation for crafting riff-based psych rock, as the song is centered around enormous, arena rock friendly, power chord riffs and a motorik groove within an expansive song structure. Play this one as loud as possible and rock the fuck out, y’all. 

“This track reminds me of a Rhino at full charge,” the band’s Jack McEwan explains in press notes. “I was absolutely cranking it while recording. Pretty sure my housemates didn’t get a lot of sleep the week this was being crafted. The lyrics were based on the end of a relationship, those months you’re questioning where your life will end up and if you’re making the right decisions. You’re almost robotic, ticking along like a drone that repeats the same lines over and over in your head, and then you go out with your mates for the first time in ages, take a bunch of thought juice and everything makes more sense. . I wanted the chorus to come out of nowhere like an instant realisation, confusing at first and then the next time you hear it all becomes way clearer.”

Directed by Ashley Rommelrath and Oliver Jones and filmed by Rommelrath and Gareth Goodlad, the recently released video for “Hymn For A Droid” was filmed during the band’s recent UK and European tour and features live footage from sets in Glasgow, Liverpool and All Points East Festival. And while being a display of a band that has become a force of nature that destroys stages and enraptures fans, it’s a lysergic romp, thanks to animation from Oliver Jones that turns guitars into beasts, moshing fans into skeletons and so on. Live shows can be a furious, sweaty and joyous endeavor and this video accurately captures that. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Up-and-Coming Scottish Indie Rock Act Sister John Releases a Self-Assured Classic Rock-Like Single

Led by Amanda McKeown, the up-and-coming Glasgow, Scotland-based indie rock act Sister John can trace its origins to when its members met while singing in The Parsonage Choir. McKeown cajoled her then-future bandmates into helping her perform some original material at a one-off event, and as the story goes, the members of the band immediately recognized an intrinsic simpatico that quickly made them inseparable.  

Quickly developing new material and their own sound, the Glasgow, Scotland indie rock act signed to Last Night From Glasgow Records in December 2016 with the label releasing their first single, “He Came Down,” an original, alternative Christmas song, which they followed up with a set at the LNFG/TeenCanteen Christmas Effect charity showcase. Their second single “Sweetest Moment” was released the following June and was named BBC Radio Scotland’s Single of the Week, while receiving airplay on the Roddy Hart Show. Within a year of signing to Last Night From Glasgow Records, Sister John wrote, recorded and released their critically full-length debut, Returned From Sea, which they followed up with a series of sold out shows across the UK, as well as a showcase at Glasgow’s winter music festival Celtic Connections. 

Building upon a growing profile and growing confidence from the positive reception of their full-length debut, the band released “Friends” in early 2018 before heading to the studio to begin work on their self-titled sophomore album, which is slated for release later this week. Reportedly, the soon-to-be released album finds the band squeezing more out of their sound on some tracks while filtering and minimizing on others — with some points, the material taking on a darker sound and vibe. Interestingly, the album’s first single “I’m The One” has been compared to post-Nico Velvet Underground — and that shouldn’t be surprising as the incredible self-assured its centered around a looping and twangy guitar line, a propulsive rhythm section and a sing-songy vocal delivery. The result is a song with a sleazy, bar room strut with a vulnerable, longing underbelly. 

Directed and filmed by Brian Sweeney and Fabio Rebelo, the recently released video features the band performing the song at a tiny, local club with the Whitburn Northern Soul Dancers dancing along. It’s a delightful and mischievously anachronistic visual. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Franz Ferdinand Releases Surreal and Mischievous Visuals for Re-worked Version of “Glimpse of Love”

Over the past few months, I’ve written quite a bit about the Glasgow, Scotland, UK-based indie rock/post punk act Franz Ferdinand, and as you may recall, the Scottish band, which is currently comprised of founding trio Alex Kapranos (lead vocals, guitar), Bob Hardy (bass) and Paul Thomson (drums, percussion and backing vocals), along with newest members Julian Corrie (keys, synths, guitar and backing band), who joined last year, replacing founding member Nick McCarthy and the recently added Dino Bardot (guitar) can trace their origins back to 2002. With the release of their first two singles “Darts of Pleasure” and “Take Me Out” the members of the Franz Ferdinand quickly saw commercial and critical success — with “Take Me Out,” becoming the band’s signature song, as it eventually peaked at #1 the UK Singles Chart, and earning a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance by Duo or Group with Vocal. Additionally, their eponymous, 2004 full-length debut received a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album and won the Mercury Prize, helping the Scottish indie rockers to establish themselves at the forefront of the early 2000s post-punk revival movement.

Their 2005 Rich Costey-produced sophomore effort, You Could Have It So Much Better was released to critical and commercial success with the album peaking within the Top Ten Charts in multiple countries, and as a result, the album received a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album with album single “Do You Want To” receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Performance by Duo or Group with Vocal. However, with 2009’s Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, the members of the Scottish indie act moved away from the post-punk sound that first won them international attention to a much more dance floor oriented sound — all while continuing an impressive run of commercial and critical success. They promptly followed that up with a remix album of Tonight, titled Blood, which was released that summer.

2013 saw the release of Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action but they managed to follow that effort up by teaming up with Sparks to form indie supergroup FFS, which released their self-tilted album in 2015. Franz Ferdinand’s fifth, full-length album Always Ascending was released earlier this year and with album singles “Feel The Love Go,” and “Lazy Boy,” the band continued forward with the quirky, disco-like take on  the Gang of Four-inspired sound that first won them international attention but with a loose, adventurous vibe; in fact, the album’s latest single “Glimpse of Love,” finds the band subtly nodding at house music, thanks to the use of twinkling and arpeggiated keys — but within an expansive, groove-friendly song structure. Interestingly, the version of the song that accompanies the recently released video is a re-working of the album track, re-corded as live and mixed by Serban Ghenea, who has worked with the likes of Rihanna and Lorde.

Directed by Alice Kunisue, the hilarious and surreal visuals for “Glimpse of Love” was shot just outside of Paris and features the members of the band primping, brooding and flat out being ridiculous.