Linton Kwesi Johnson – Bass Culture
John Scott makes the most of the sunshine (well, it was shining when he started to write this) and listens to Linton Kwesi Johnson’s 1980 reggae classic.
Music News
Fraser Anderson – Under The Cover Of Lightness
Fraser Anderson has been a father, a son, a brother and a husband. All of these relationships inform his songs as he sings about love, loss and loyalty. The ties that stretch and fray as they bind us to others. Anderson was born in Edinburgh and cut his musical teeth as a drummer in hip […]
John Martyn – Solid Air (Half Speed Master)
According to Howard Massey in his excellent book “The Great British Studios”, half speed mastering originally came about when John Lennon arrived in the Apple cutting room to master his new 45 “Power To The People” and wanted it “loud”. As a result the engineers came up with the ingenious idea of cutting the disc […]
Close To The Noisefloor – Formative UK Electronica 1975-1984
I’ve had this album on MP3 promo for a good while now and it’s a great piece of historical documentation of the underground, DIY electronic movement that took place between 75 and 84. It’s a sprawling four CD set with 61tracks and around 9000 words of sleevenotes by Dave Henderson of MOJO. You’ll know some […]
Nikki Lane – The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh
Nikki Lane’s 2014 album All Or Nothin’ fused country songwriting with Spectoresque Be My Baby drums, glam rock handclaps and Muscle Shoals electric piano. Tonight, there are no drums, no piano; just Nikki and her Fender acoustic with back up from special guest Jonathan Tyler on guitar and harmonica but Lane’s rock and roll attitude […]
Sign O The Times – Prince
Following the recent tragic demise of Prince, John Scott takes a look at what he considers The Artist Formerly Known As’ masterpiece, Sign O The Times.
Madeline Bell – Blessed With Your Love (STS Digital, Reel to Reel)
There’s a bit of a buzz around reel to reel recordings at the moment and the number of audiophiles and music lovers taking up the format is clearly on the rise…and in response there are a growing number of companies offering up reel to reel recordings to cater to their needs. Step up to the […]
Paul Roland – In The Opium Den : The Early Recordings 1980-1987 (Cherry Red)
This dropped on my desk a couple of months ago and I really wasn’t expecting much of it. It’s from a period of music that wasn’t great in my opinion and from an artist I admit I’d heard nothing of previously. And so it stayed in its protective covering for longer than it really should. […]
Tangerine Dream – The Official Bootleg Series: Volume II (Reactive)
I like Tangerine Dream a lot and it’s fair to say they are probably the first music that wasn’t mainstream pop that I was exposed to in my early teens. I used to babysit for my cousin and her Father (my Uncle) Keith had an interesting record collection that I used to dip into whenever […]
Jimmy Somerville – Club Homage (Cherry Red)
Club Homage, out on the 29th April, follows on from Somerville’s (yes, he of Bronski Beat and The Communards fame) disco album of last year called “Homage”. Now I’m a bit of a sucker for disco and love some of the people who are involved in remixing some of the tracks from Homage for Club […]
Alan Davey – Sputnik Stan Vol.1: A Fistful Of Junk
Most readers who have heard the name Alan Davey will naturally associate him as the bass player for space-rock stalwarts Hawkwind where he manned the bass from 1984 to 1996 and the again between 2001 and 2007. But he’s had loads of other projects away from Hawkwind including Bedouin, Ace Of Spades, Gunslinger, Eclectic Devils […]
Tim Hecker – Love Streams (4AD Records)
If you’re lucky enough to be living on a remote tropical island, then it’s likely that you’ve never heard of Tim Hecker. Admittedly, I was a late starter myself, picking up on Tim’s work only after he’d released his sixth album, the ground-breaking “Ravedeath, 1972”, much of which was recorded on a church organ. Tim’s […]
Ray Lamontagne – Ouroboros
Ray Lamontagne first came to my attention with his 2004 Trouble album which was rooted in the Americana movement and was influenced by Tupelo Honey-era Van Morrison. It was a very enjoyable album as was its follow up Till The Sun Turns Black. After that though, Lamontagne disappeared from my radar and I failed to […]
Los Lobos – Gates Of Gold (Proper Records)
Way back in 1984 – was it really 31 years ago? – Los Lobos’ album How Will The Wolf Survive? quickly became one of my favourites and has remained so over the years. Despite that, although I have a smattering of other records by the band in my collection, I’m guilty of not having paid […]
Rumours of Fleetwood Mac – The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh
It is not unusual for a band to start off as one thing and end up being an entirely different beast. The Beatles went from lovable mop tops to hairy psychedelicists , and don’t we love them for it. When Steve Hackett left Genesis, it seemed unlikely that massive queues of people would line up […]
Aphex Twin – Syro (WARP)
Released in 2014 Syro is certainly not a new album and it came 11 years after the previous Aphex Twin record, which is a long time to wait for any die-hard fan or follower. I remember his previous album entitled ‘Druqks’ received mixed reviews, mainly due to the inconsistency of decent full length tracks. As a strange […]