MUSIC | Records
ALBUM OF THE ISSUE
DOCUMENTARY SOUNDTRACK/ SPOKEN WORD SCOTT TWYNHOLM Alasdair Gray: A Life in Progress (De-Fence) ●●●●● De-Fence, the electronic offshoot of King Creosote’s Fence Records empire, helmed by sticksman OnTheFly (aka Gavin Brown), has a stellar back catalogue which counts rare vinyl releases from Malcolm Middleton,
River of Slime and Jon Hopkins among its number.
To this DIY treasure trove of tech-pop wonders, we can now add Alasdair Gray: A Life in Progress, which is Scott Twynholm’s soundtrack to Kevin Cameron’s excellent documentary of the same name. The record is as warm, entertaining and enlightening as Gray himself.
Gray is no stranger to the pop world. The writer, artist and Glasgow polymath painted the sleeve for De Rosa’s 2009 Prevention album and collaborated with former Delgado Alun Woodward on 2007’s Chemikal Underground LP, Ballads of the Book.
Woodward and Gray’s contribution to said album, ‘A Sentimental Song’ – with lyrics by Gray – is revisited and reinterpreted here by Twynholm (Biggi Hilmars provides vocals this time). Elsewhere, Gray’s recollections of life, literature, love and the city are recalled in his own distinctive voice, which is variously underscored by spectral guitar psalms (‘The Old School Clock’), chamber-pop vignettes (‘The Glasgow Where I Lived’), miniature piano dramas (‘Early Days’) and avant-electro soundscapes (‘Lanark’). Twynholm’s compositions are equally economic, yet engaging. The
TV and film composer, whose pop credentials include stints in Looper and Hoboken, has created not only a lovely album, but a colourful and affectionate portrait of this truly singular artist’s life. (Nicola Meighan)
ROCK IDLEWILD Everything Ever Written (Empty Words) ●●●●●
Ask the band and they’ll tell you this isn’t their comeback record, for how can you make a comeback if you’ve never really been away? Despite going on semi- official hiatus following 2009’s Post Electric Blues and their subsequent solo careers (singer Roddy Woomble with an ever more folk-leaning output, guitarist Rod Jones with his other project The Birthday Suit), Idlewild’s members have remained close. In the intervening period, they’ve been writing and recording this album, albeit in a less formal and pressured environment which might have a record company breathing down their neck with a deadline. The album title is a fitting one, as this looser process has yielded a record
which seems to integrate each facet of the band’s sound from various points in their history. Harking back to their earliest days, they make the kind of noise which Woomble hasn’t been involved with in a few years. In particular, the opener ‘Collect Yourself’ is a memorable statement of intent, a collision of Jones’ low-slung riffs (he variously sounds like he’s auditioning for the Stone Roses and Aerosmith), a beat with a faint hip-hop echo to it and Woomble’s typically questioning lyrics.
‘Young, but only for a moment in time / Younger, but only frozen in time,’ he asserts, as though coming to terms that this step into old shoes is the right thing to be doing. There’s similar urgency to ‘Come on Ghost’ and ‘Nothing I Can Do About It’, both stridently reminiscent of Big Country, and the punky, itchy-footed ‘On Another Planet’ whose lyric is one of Woomble’s most resonant.
Away from these poppy main roads, though, the album also explores Dylanesque backstreets like the rootsy ‘So Many Things to Decide’ and ‘All Things Different’, reserved sophisti-pop (‘Left Like Roses’) and fragile piano balladry (‘Utopia’). For fans of the group, this well-worked blend of misty- eyed maturity and careening vitality should go down well. (David Pollock) ■ Idlewild play the ABC, Glasgow, Sat 7 & Sun 8 Mar.
PUNK / POST-HARDCORE FAWN SPOTS From Safer Place (Fire Records) ●●●●● ELECTRONIC POP PURITY RING Another Eternity (4AD) ●●●●●
York trio Fawn Spots are riding on a post-hardcore crest which seems to have resurfaced again, earning them a comparison by comedian Stewart Lee to proto-frat indie stalwarts Guided by Voices and Minnesota’s finest pre-emo’s, Hüsker Dü - which seems somewhat generous. Their sound is probably more in tune with Dischord acolytes Rites of Spring
and Embrace (no, not the shan English one) or even Leicester’s the Copperpot Journals. A pitfall about this specific sub-genre is that you’ll always end up being compared to, well, Rites of Spring and Hüsker friggin’ Dü - without sounding a great deal like either. Fortunately Fawn Spots hold it down on opener and sensible single ‘New Sense’ which has the urgency to defibrillate even the most disillusioned of greebos. ‘Natural Vision’ has a crucial 90s screamo jangle embedded in a guitar run and shout-stop harmonised choruses, not that dissimilar to the likes of Yaphet Kotto and countless acts on the legendary Ebullition and Level Plane labels. Post- Slint-rock rears its awkward and pointy head in a slower instrumental groove ‘In Front of the Chestnut Tree’ – a nice but somewhat mismatched turn in an otherwise chorus-heavy release. Songwriter Johnathan Meager name drops the Situationists, TS Eliot and Sartre as influences, none of which seems that apparent on this collection of tunes. Catchy yes, but Nation of Ulysses this is NOT.
Purity Ring never quite had that crossover of a Lorde or a Chvrches despite using a similar pallet of buoyant but brooding electronic pop sounds. Their nevertheless well-regarded début Shrines failed to provide a killer hit (the kind of Spotify-hogging, Grammy-winning, YouTube-flogging mega-tune that elevates an artist into the sales stratosphere) and meant that the Canadian duo remained a little bit outside the ‘hallowed ground’ of ubiquitous radio playlists or appearing on The One Show as background music. So the duo of Megan James and Corin Roddick have been spared that
scrutiny and left to perfect their slick vocal pop for a second album. Another Eternity doesn’t really tinker with a solid formula of glossy synth swashes and ominous beats, with vocalist James’ childlike timbre just the right side of not irritating. Plus there’s a reassuring lack of pretence to Purity Ring, who go for the jugular with élan, mixing up synthpop, trap music, and hints of EDM into a heady brew that leaves little to the imagination during their ten three-minute exaltations.
At the heart of enjoying Purity Ring lies the question: can you tolerate something joyous but equally ephemeral? There is nothing profound about t heir synthetic earworms but there is an undeniable, cloying, giddy rush with opener ‘Heartsigh’, the Jamie xx-ish calypso of ‘Bodyache’, the stalkerish ‘Stranger Than Earth’ with its creepy refrain of ‘I wasn’t thinking of you . . . again, again, again’ and its Avicii-esque build-up that doesn’t quite tip off a cliff into EDM
If anything, this is a slightly up and down debut from the York trio salvaged by its first act, but choice chunks of this should work exceptionally well in the flesh. With a little honing, Fawn Spots could be contenders in a crucial sub-genre revival which feels unjustly forgotten about by most scene kids since the late 90s and early noughties. Not wholly original, but a welcoming blast in the right direction. (Nick Herd) ■ Fawn Spots play the Glad Café on Thu 5 Feb; facebook.com/ Fawn.Spots
mania.
Purity Ring, to their credit, have this impressive knack of cherry- picking some very gaudy pop tropes and just when you feel they are about to lose their way, lure you further with another shiny, audio bauble to coo at. Until the next one comes along shorty after. This kind of bait-and-switch pop won’t leave you rewarded for eternity but sometimes life is just too short to care. Purity Ring’s pleasures are fleeting, but at least they are plentiful. (Mark Keane) ■ purityringthing.com
72 THE LIST 5 Feb–2 Apr 2015