Music
PREVIEW INDIE THE TEMPER TRAP King Tut’s, Glasgow, Sat 26 Sep
Australia’s The Temper Trap have been rapidly gaining momentum in the UK of late, having based themselves in London to effectively have a decent crack at breaking into the conscience of the general populace. Thus far, things are going very much according to plan; lead single ‘Sweet Disposition’ is riding high at the right end of the top 20 and, as well as being played heavily as the incidental music to endless Sky Sports traillers and montages, the song is also featured on the soundtrack for indie rom- com movie (500) Days Of Summer.
The bands debut album Conditions has been making its way across the world one continent at a time, making the top ten in native Australia, before sweeping into the top 40 in the UK, fuelling anticipation for the US release in October. The boys attracted the attention of Jim Abiss, the producer who has worked with the likes of Kasabian and the Arctic Monkeys, who flew over to Australia to get involved with the recording process. Singer and guitarist Dougy Mandagi recently told Clash magazine ‘It was an honour to have someone of that calibre even wanting to work with us to begin with. We’re just some no-name band all the way out here in Australia, so why would he want to come all the way out here?’
The answer will no doubt be on display during their headlining UK tour
this month. (Mark Petrie)
62 THE LIST 24 Sep–8 Oct 2009
PREVIEW AMERICANA BLUEFLINT Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Wed 30 Sep
Sometimes the path less travelled isn’t as peculiar as you might think. Admittedly on paper, Blueflint’s story isn’t an entirely conventional one, but the result is something wholly engaging to anyone’s ears: great songs.
‘Clare [Louise Neilson] and I were friends in our teens but lost contact’, begins Deborah Arnott, the other founding half of the Edinburgh band. ‘By bizarre coincidence, years later, I found out that she was learning to play the banjo and so was I. We got back in touch and I was expecting her to be playing trad Scots style but it turned out she was into the whole old time country and bluegrass thing that I was. We met up, had a few bottles of wine and plucked up the courage to play for each other and have been together ever since.’
The pair share the songwriting duties
of a now expanded Blueflint which includes upright bass, percussion and fiddle, broadening out their sound in glorious fashion, taking them beyond any bluegrass pigeonholes.
‘Americana is a useful word as it
draws in a million different influences,’ says Arnott. ‘It can encompass us as well as people like Bonnie Prince Billy or Iron and Wine.’ What is essentially the band’s debut
album proper High Bright Morning arrives this month and conveys the magic of their writing in ten emotive, often dark tales. Their sound enjoys sonic conventions from the past that only a band driven by two banjo players could, but the songs have a special atmosphere all of their own. (Mark Robertson)
PREVIEW JAZZ BEST OF BRITISH JAZZ SHOWCASE Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Thu 24 Sep; Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Fri 25–Sat 26 Sep
The Europe Jazz Network is an association of producers and presenters of contemporary jazz and improvised music from all across Europe. It has gone through significant changes since it was first launched in 1987, but is now thriving, with Nod Knowles – a former head of the music department at the Scottish Arts Council – as its current president. The EJN has chosen Glasgow for its annual General Assembly this month, and Jill Rodger and her team at the Glasgow Jazz Festival have joined forces with Jazz Services in London to mount a Best of British Jazz Showcase, a series of bargain-priced concerts over three nights in the Strathclyde Suite and Old Fruitmarket.
‘The jazz community in Scotland is
delighted that the Europe Jazz Network have chosen to come here for their Assembly,’ says Jill, ‘and while they were here we wanted to treat them – and the public – to a fantastic showcase of the very best in Scottish and British jazz’.
Each concert features a number of different artists, including a Glasgow debut for Phil Bancroft’s Home, Small As the World project, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra’s acclaimed Rhapsody in Blue, and sets from Stu Brown’s Raymond Scott Project, the Ryan Quigley Sextet, Neon with Stan Sulzmann, the Tomorrow’s Warriors offshoot Rhythmica and Paul Towndrow’s Neology, among others. The Oshi Restaurant at the Park Inn Hotel will host a late club on all three nights, adding to the mini-festival feel. (Kenny Mathieson)
PREVIEW ELECTRONICA/HIP HOP MASSIVE ATTACK O2 Academy, Glasgow, Mon 28 & Tue 29 Sep
‘If a thing’s worth doing,’ declares the latest status update on Massive Attack’s MySpace page, ‘it’s worth doing slowly’. There’s your nine-word excuse, then, for the gap between 2003’s 100th Window album and their much-anticipated fifth record. Rumoured to be called either Weather Underground or simply LP5, the album’s tentatively scheduled for release in 2010. Don’t hold your breath, though – it’s been on its way for a while now.
Following five years of film soundtracks, the contractually obligatory Collected and various abortive and almost completed collaborations with well-known artists, Bristolian hip hop (neé trip hop) pioneers Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja and Grant ‘Daddy G’ Marshall are at last going to be releasing something new under the Massive Attack brand name. The Splitting the Atom EP is out this fortnight, and features TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, Elbow’s Guy Garvey, Martina Topley-Bird and long time MA collaborator Horace Andy. Garvey’s co-written ‘Bulletproof Love’ has already been revealed online and is a somnambulant, street lit mantra with a touch of Walter Carlos about it, a rich evocation of the band’s long, laboured shuffle towards getting the job done. Other rumoured collaborators on the album include Damon Albarn and Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval; expect at least a few fragments of new material to be heard at the Academy. (David Pollock)