This was actually the first time I’d been in Oran Mor despite it easily being the nearest venue to my house. It’s quite badly designed for this kind of gig as it was very easy for everyone to stand way way back and leave the poor bands technically playing to five people. The sound was pretty rubbish as well. Anyway, first up were The Needles who I’d been astonished to hear were still going after them being Aberdeen’s highest hopes quite a number of years ago. Worryingly they still looked and sounded exactly the same as I remember. They’re still highly entertaining to watch but they just don’t have the tunes to justify their performance meaning they ended up looking a little silly (in my eyes at least). It’s the sort of thing that endears you to a bunch of naive teenagers playing for the first time but not a well-established band. Shame though, with some actual tunes they’d really be on to
something.

Next up were Beat Trap – a crap band masquerading as a good band. Initially seeming to fit somewhere in the Rapture/Faint axis of dodgy greatness they soon showed themselves up as just being dodgy new wave. I almost started to warm to them when Alasdair started making ridiculous guesses of their stupid-sounding lyrics until we realised those actually were the lyrics. Then I started to hate them. It’s a while since I’ve been shouting for a band to please, no, don’t play another song, just GO, NOW but they weren’t listening anyway. I can’t deny sniggering when they messed up the end of their last song and had to shuffle off like losers. Entertaining in the wrong way.

Hurrah and hurrah, now it was time for Data Panik. Sound problems abounded and so we were treated to Stroppy Data Panik, giggling and fuming in equal measures. Things did sound a little awry but their melodies are so strong and their enthusiasm so great that they just about carried it off. At the end of their shortened set (a tremendous Cubis, owner of the burbliest bassline in history) Steven got so mad he threw his malfunctioning mic off the stage closely followed by the monitor. The sound man tutted loudly and shook his head.

Lucky Luke headlined and I’d heard good things about them but I wasn’t really feeling it. It was too much of a change of pace, especially for the end of the night. With their folky tinges and multitude of odd instruments they reminded me at times of the underrated Suckle but lacking their poise and sadness. I’m sure I’d like them better on a more sympathetic bill, or on record.

The Plan B all day party was ace fun and I really can’t add much to Alistair
Fitchett’s review (and nice photos) as he’s pretty much spot on. I thought Jens Lekman was adorable but his songs were so cute and heartfelt that I had to leave fairly early before I melted into a puddle of goo. I had enormous amounts of fun and these things should happen more often, even just for getting a bunch of fantastic people in one place at the same time with sensibly volumed excellent tunes playing so you can just talk.

Thanks Mogwai for rescheduling your Glasgow ABC show and not telling me. Luckily a friend mentioned it two days beforehand so I didn’t waste my ticket (which I had to RUN across town for previously).

Anyway, my first time in the new ABC. I was never in it when it was a cinema – although the ABC in Aberdeen was the shockingest awful cinema ever with a certain run-down, £2.50 a film charm – and I like it. Well, I liked it when it was half full. I liked it less when I’d been standing in it for 3 hours peering round tall people. Mostly I liked the disco ball the size of THE MOON. I’m almost not exaggerating as this is the biggest disco ball I have ever seen in my life – truly about 10ft tall and capable of killing many people should it ever fall before hurtling its way down the twisty stairwells crushing hundreds of indie kids under its massive bulk. We afforded it the respect it deserved and gave it numerous looks of awe throughout the evening. I dearly hope this is the zenith of Mogwai’s disco ball collecting career although, if so, I think they’ll have to split up now as there’s no topping that.

The infamous Trout opened proceedings and were fun in an indie punk pop way though their banter was indecipherable. Were they ever signed to Guided Missile? They should have been. That’s a compliment by the way.

“WE’RE AIRWOLF!” mumbled the next band. “WHAT?” we said. I soon figured out they were actually ERRORS mainly through the application of logic + bands connected to Mogwai. Errors are my new favourite band. They were awesome, hella awesome. Imagine The Faint if they weren’t eighties goths. Or if they were eighties goths in a good way. Proper nasty squelchy synths, clattering beats, guitar and vo-co-der. I’m going to pester them.

So, Mogwai. I spent the time beforehand trying to count how many times I’ve seen them live but got stuck at 11 after being unable to remember seeing Mogwai in any Glasgow venue other than the Barras. It’s been at least a year though, hasn’t it? Maybe even two! They always still make me sigh and laugh and break my heart and this was no different. I felt spoiled by the wealth of old, nostalgic tunes (Tracy! Summer with the xylophone bit!) and stupidly happy with the first few shots of RARR noise. By half way through I was listing to myself all the reasons Mogwai are my favourite band (yes, I’m that fickle. Sorry Errors) and Rock Action my favourite Mogwai album (that during a phenomenal 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong) but by ye olde Mogwai Fear Satan I was dead on my feet and yawning throughout and silently wishing for them not to do an encore. They deserved it but how much do I wish they’d played a short quiet song to finish up. Come on, Mogwai. Don’t give them what they want – finish a set without the feedback and then I’ll still be standing there bewitched by the disco lighting instead of edging my way out of the room while the feedback fades so I can beat the crowd down the stairs and on to the bus. I’m old, I know.

(I just checked on Bright Light and this was my 13th Mogwai gig! And I haven’t seen them play any Glasgow venue other than the Barras unless you count their 15 minute set at the ChemU birthday party)

I don’t normally self-publicise (ahem) but the upcoming Plan B alldayer in Glasgow on August 28th is shaping up to be awesome and not because of my involvement. Not only will there be some great bands and DJs but the first part is FREE and you’ll get to see me on the panel of the B Your Own Boss discussion along with Stephen Pastel and people from Plan B and Rock Action. Come along and ask some (easy) questions.

Remix projects are always a bit odd, especially those that try to bridge the gap between indie and dance. I’m not too familiar with Zea, a Dutch electro pop duo, but this is some line up of remixers, a quadruple A side 12″ of international talent. The 1-Speed Bike remix is massive breakneck jittery glitch techno with one of the nastiest and catchiest basslines I’ve heard in a while. In all honesty this would have been better with less of the indie vocals. Surprising for a sometime member of Godspeed but marvellously so. Similarly surprising are Melt-Banana with an out of character, delicately restrained piece that seems to build on the original rather than remove and replace. On the other side Jason Forrest aka Donna Summer feeds things through some banging techno with hints of sweetness peering through breaks in the madness. Felix Kubin finishes things on a downbeat note with beats and brass before going a bit nutso with weirdy electro and distorted vocals. So, I loved this but it’ll be 1-Speed Bike and Felix Kubin I’m excited to hear more from before some Zea originals. Probably not the intended result.

Transformed Dreams

This is the most fun I’ve had (online) in ages. Cut and Splice is an online exhibition of sound art over at the BBC Radio 3 website. It comprises mostly of pieces acting as “a visual music system, which allows users to compose new pieces of music”. In reality this means beautiful Flash/Shockwave screens which you can interact with by drawing shapes, moving stuff or just dragging your mouse around randomly to create your own unique piece of music. I’m particularly taken with rechord‘s Cubop which makes rather soothing electronica out of something I do often enough – draw rectangles with my mouse – and tinhoko‘s rhapsody where pixellated container ships and bizarre octopi enlarge and change while you scatter coloured squares around making music as you go. Don’t bother unless you have a spare half hour and some speakers. I took some photos while I was doing this – see them on my Flickr.

The flipside of Dave’s excellent post below is this new article, For The Music, on The Morning News about The Stone, a DIY venue in New York run by avant-gardist John Zorn. A venue about music and performers and not about alcohol revenue or promotion? It’s sad how revolutionary that is these days.

“Zizz, buzz, trill, click, whizz, plop, flutter, splash; and all the time everywhere whisper, whisper, whisper, lap, chuckle and sigh” (The River at Green Knowe)

Some music is made for exploring. I took this album out one sunny Sunday afternoon meaning to walk one of my usual routes and instead was enticed down side streets to discover hidden wonders minutes from my door. A little-used viewing platform decorated with thickly layered ovals of glass with the river twinkling far below through the trees; a hidden corner garden full of oddly shaped tree trunk sculptures; leaf shapes silhouetted against the bluest of skies; peeks of a circular private park through the gaps in the railings; swathes of golden yellow buttercups; finally, truly, the Pink Japanese Robot Bear of our dreams sitting in a shop window; a garden gate the perfect colour of green; midges circling in shafts of sunlight. Blinded by the sun, moments from my door, I banged my face on the scaffolding and the tears seeped out while I stood in shocked surprise.

I love this album. Two Japanese girls coaxing the sounds of nature out of electronics with childlike vocals cooing and sighing throughout. Every time I listen to it I see something new.

By the sounds of this someone has finally invented robots that can play guitars! What’s more these are some fucked up robots that have installed both Rock version 2.0 and Pop version 7.5.5 from pirated software creating all manner of internal errors. They race through XXX Robot out of control on fizzy idiocy, their circuits electrified and vocoders rendering their words of robot rebellion incomprehensible to humans. On this evidence I welcome the day we are taken over by robots. All hail our new robot overlords.

Risc Records

This has got some of the most scarifying artwork I’ve seen in a long time. Think Pop Will Eat Itself gone Acid House. Because of this I was expecting some kind of kerrazy electro pop but instead we get join the dots indie over the three tracks. The cheapo drum machine beats, Hooky bass and mournful vocals of Unshakeable come across as a bedroom Joy Division interspersed with Mark E Smith shouty chorus and somehow carries it off as a ramshackle mess of fun. Recommended has that loping Loaded bassline, laconic Bobby Gillespie vocals and stupid organ and sounds like a bad Primal Scream outtake while Recycle It takes all the bad things about the Happy Mondays and matches them up with some amusingly stupid sound effects. Ironically, for a band named the Decider, they seem to be unsure about what they’re actually doing unless they’re trying to record an entire Indie Top 20 album by themselves. Which would be a brilliant idea, incidentally.

Topplers