You’ll Have Your Tea: Trampolining In Edinburgh

The first in a series of features by Helen Newbery on the music scene North of the (Scottish) Border. Read more

Meursault / Rob St John / Sparrow and the Workshop @ Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh 19.11.08

Without the band members he usually plays with, Neil Pennycook takes the stage alone, accompanied solely by his guitar. Read more

Youthmovies/Adam Knade - Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh 21.11.08

In a venue for which the term “intimate” could have been invented, Adam Gnade initially cuts an unobtrusive figure, as he begins speaking into his microphone, off-stage and in the midst of the audience. Read more

South - You Are Here

Having been around for fifteen years and clocked up three albums and a couple of EPs, this is the fourth album by London-based South. And with opener ‘Wasted’ they firmly tie their colours to the mast. It has a rather pleasing retro feel, bolstered by considerable chunks of brass. The track oozes ennui, typified by the lyrics, intoning how they are “tired of getting wasted”. Read more

Sleeping Dog - Polar Life

Sleeping Dog is the recording name of Belgium’s Chantal Acda, whose second album ‘Polar Life’ is released through Leeds-based Gizeh Records. Opening song ‘Prophets’ sets the scene for those which follow; its breathtakingly delicate vocals almost whispered over a sparse piano accompaniment with hints of xylophone. Read more

Ida Maria/VV Brown/Bird Pen @ Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh 8.11.08

With a punishingly early slot, Bird Pen have to work hard to grab the attention of those wandering into the Cabaret Voltaire and lingering at the bar. And work they do, managing to fill the space around them with their huge, atmospheric slabs of sound, which draw in the curious. Read more

Gallery 47 - [breakfast at the clinic]

I’m intrigued when a hand-sewn, initially rather anonymous-looking CD-shaped package arrives in the post. Closer inspection reveals it to be EP [breakfast at the clinic] by Gallery 47, the recording moniker of one Jack Peachey from Nottingham: “I really hope it didn’t get lost because I’ve hand sewn these ones and they took me ages, especially because I don’t really know how to sew and I don’t own a thimble.” My curiosity duly aroused, I was keen to find out whether this admirable attention to detail was reflected in the music. Read more

The Nightjars - Towards Light

“Towards Light” is the debut EP from Manchester-based The Nightjars. Although opener “You Set Me Reeling” is a pleasant enough jangly number, the lyrics are perhaps more prescient than the band realise, as singer Ollie intones “I’m nothing special”. As the EP progresses, it’s clear that it’s all a bit indie-by-numbers. Read more

Glissando/The French Quarter (Trampoline night) @ Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh 21.09.08

Hailing from the perhaps unlikely location of Tilicoultry, the six members of The French Quarter generate an assured wall of sound which reverberates around the red walls of Edinburgh’s Wee Red Bar. Read more

Retreat! festival, 4th – 24th August

Edinburgh in August can be a crazy place – it’s difficult to do an interpretative dance of swinging a cat without hitting someone on stilts trying to get you to see their play set on a bouncy castle (I’m actually not making this last bit up – there really is such a play). So the Retreat! festival, a new one to add to the Edinburgh collection, offers a welcome break from the madness. Read more

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