list.co.uk/music Reviews | MUSIC
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BLUES/ROCK/ALT-FOLK ANDERSON MCGINTY WEBSTER WARD AND FISHER King Tut’s, Glasgow, Sat 12 Jan ●●●●● Five pillars of Dundee's music scene, rootsy acoustic collective AMWWF is a smart and fruitful exercise in songwriters and players combining strengths. With so many talents jostling for primacy, a more natural order needs to be found (and their solicitors-firm name improved upon). But this noisily-received sold-out show evidenced abundant personality and promise. Rotating an almost daft quantity of instruments – guitars, double-bass, banjo, harmonium, piano (the drummer whips out a trumpet too) – their musicianship is in little doubt. Nor is their songwriting nous and eclecticism, though the array of styles makes them a slippery proposition. ‘(Might as Well) Trust in Me’ is a blues- rock stomper reminiscent of beardy Scots peers Kassidy, ‘Little Brown Boy’ is Dylan-esque folk, while new stuff – some recorded the week prior at the rural Perthshire studio where their self-titled debut took shape – enters amped-up serious rock territory. ‘Pigeon Song’ points to their brightest possible future – rousing, soulful, all voices singing very much off the same hymn sheet. (Bruce White)
INDIE-ROCK FATHERSON & FRIENDS King Tut’s, Glasgow, Wed 16 Jan ●●●●●
Calling in a string quartet and horns is normally the preserve of bands entering the ‘mature’ middle- phase of their career, but young Kilmarnock quintet Fatherson already feel grown-up enough to dial orchestra, as a one-off for this Tut’s New Year’s Revolution acoustic show. It’s a fun and skilfully- executed little indulgence from the Scottish band most likely to ‘do a Frightened Rabbit’ soon with their similarly rousing strain of Celtic indie, though, despite a sell-out, the mood is curiously subdued relative to the full-throated mass singalongs the band’s gigs usually represent. Fatherson’s tunes have the melodic sophistication, and biblically-hirsute frontman Ross Leighton’s voice the tender warmth, to suit orchestral augmentation – ‘Waves’ is prettily embellished by Elbow-esque sweeping majesty. It's only a partly acoustic show, as electric guitars are parachuted-in at half-way. Fatherson air two impressive new songs, before letting voices collectively soar to fan-favourites ‘First Born’ and ‘Gone Fission’. Credit to them for using this show to try something different, where many might lazily pander to expectations. (Malcolm Jack)
PSYCH-FOLK MONOGANON Mono, Glasgow, Thu 10 Jan ●●●●● GUITAR POP TEENCANTEEN Noble’s Bar, Edinburgh, Sat 29 Dec ●●●●●
Wandering onstage to the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme, then spending ages tuning up, deliberately awkwardly, Monoganon are a glorious curveball. Gigs by the Glasgow-formed quartet are relatively
rare, as singer/songwriter John B McKenna lives in Malmö, Sweden. Under-rehearsed spontaneity only adds to their set, as he leads a merry wander through kaleidoscopic psych-folk meets slacker rock songs that eschew obvious structure. The rushing build-ups of ‘Eternal See You Soon’
– driven by dextrous open-string tuning guitar from Andrew Cowan and Colin Kearney’s furious drumming – could belong to Yo La Tengo. ‘Best Pals’ channels Pavement at their fuzzy best and ‘Anatomy’ has a chorus Radiohead would kill for if they still did choruses. With excellent second album FAMILY due later this year, there’s big things ahead for Monoganon, though here’s hoping it doesn’t cost them their ramshackle charm. Most musicians would be mortified if their guitar fell off mid-song; McKenna crumbles into laughter at his Larry David- worthy comedic misfortune, seemingly delighted by the beautiful chaos of it all. (Bruce White)
On the last Saturday of 2012, with Leithers gathering to get in training for Hogmanay in one of the area’s better locals, it's not the situation where you might expect to experience one of Edinburgh’s finer prospects. ‘I think that’s the first time someone’s been thrown out of one of our gigs,’ noted singer and sometime Futuristic Retro Champion Carla Easton as one hardy drinker was shown the door, her small group of devoted followers at the front outnumbered by nonplussed onlookers chatting away around the bar. Yet the all-female quartet won the room over,
and that’s surely triumph enough. Easton’s vocals are bubblegum sweet and sharp as a whip as they chastise one unfortunate for being ‘so analogue/cos you don’t even write a blog’ and another for deleting her from their Facebook. Their wry guitar pop nature is no surprise given they’ve collaborated with The Vaselines’ Eugene Kelly and BMX Bandits’ Duglas T Stewart, the Low-style Christmas song ‘When It’s Starting to Snow’ and a most unlikely cover of Kylie Minogue’s ‘All the Lovers’ indicating two more of their disparate influences. (David Pollock)
MINIMAL & AMBIENT ALEX SMOKE Oddio, Berkeley Suite, Glasgow, Sat 12 Jan ●●●●●
It’s unclear how many of the healthy crowd packed into the Berkeley Suite's underground art deco/ gothic black box of a basement know what they’re here to experience, with a small crowd of serious head-nodders congregating at the front and the rest just getting on with their Saturday night. At one point an older raver approaches The
List and voices his displeasure at what he’s hearing. It is, apparently, ‘fucking ketamine music’. We beg to differ. Glasgow producer Alex Smoke’s new live
show, premiering here in Scotland, is designed around his recently released album, Wraetlic. He plays the whole record in order, all 11 tracks, and is hardly visible, standing at dancefloor level in the front. Only a desk lamp uplighting him gives any clue where the sound is coming from – a bearded young guy in a white T-shirt. Although the dynamic is that of a live show, with changes in tone between tracks and breaks for applause and thank yous, it could probably only work so well in a club environment.
A large part of the effect is the visual installation created by Glasgow School of Art-educated artist Florence To, a coordinated work which is at once hard-edged and digital but blessed with a human warmth. Shards of strobing white light split the screen and coalesce into crystalline forms and a lump of liquid molten metal fountains pixels, while the speakers spit out a minimal bass thump and glitching, distorted noise breaks over the top. Smoke’s occasional, distorted vocals sound like the unintended reception of a murmured radio transmission, and as a wireframe planet burns onscreen, he creates a synthesised post- rock wind tunnel of noise as the event horizon approaches.
It’s uncertain whether the white diamond- shaped lumps of reflective material on the ceiling at the back are To’s work, but she can certainly be seen directing a final burst of smoke to thicken the air as the closing ‘The Watchful Eye’ builds and then ebbs away. It might not have been a show to please those who were here for a chest-thumping beat, but it did demonstrate that Smoke’s broadening his muse somewhat, taken us on a visual and sonic journey even as his music bumped most of the dancefloor into life. (David Pollock)
24 Jan–21 Feb 2013 THE LIST 75
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