Some fleeting fluttery music reviews

Since finding myself on the press list for the marvellous post rock and electronica label Fluttery Records (and if you’ve not yet listened to Ana Never’s Small Years, stop reading this and go have a listen), I’ve enjoyed receiving their occasional updates about recent releases. Given I’m getting the music for free, I feel somewhat…

New post rock discoveries

I hate it when you get spam emails you don’t want. Particularly from mailing lists which somehow you’ve found yourself on, don’t remember signing up for, and to unsubsribe from can often be fiddly. Such irritation was to the fore again the other day when I received an email from a record company called Fluttery…

Fields in motion

You know you’re in a unique place when you’re watching an exploration of gay experiences of spirituality told through the mediums of poetry and dance, and where one of the poems has the quite magnificent title of: “The visit of the Queen of the Lesbians to the gay men’s prayer group in West Belfast”. Not…

Solas Festival

I’m thoroughly chuffed to announce that I’m going to be appearing at the Solas Festival later this month. If you’ve not heard of Solas before, it’s a wide-ranging annual arts festival based in Biggar, South Lanarkshire, and it features music, talks, performing arts, literature and a wide range of family-friendly activities.  This year it will…

The Last Projectionist

MinionTV, about whom I’ve blogged before, will be releasing a new album in July.  I’m a big fan of their music, and absolutely love their first, self-titled, album and their magnificent EP Arecibo. Called The Last Projectionist, it’s something of a departure for them.  The Liverpool-based purveyors of beautful, arty post-rock have produced their first…

Calamateur house concert

I was at a gig tonight. Well, last night, as you’re probably reading this tomorrow. I’m writing this tonight but it’s just turned into tomorrow, which will be today for you. As it is for me too, come to think about it. Anyway, I was at a gig. Not just any gig, but a house…

Calamateur: The Quiet in the Land

I blogged last year about Calamateur’s album Each Dirty Letter, and it barely seems like five minutes later that he’s produced another album – The Quiet in the Land.  I mentioned in Each Dirty Letter’s review Calamateur’s vocal versatility, comparing his voice to Thom York.  Such is his versatility, though, that I am going to…

Arecibo – a review

You may remember me raving some time back about the self-titled debut album by Liverpool post-rock outfit MinionTV.  The album was my favourite listen of last year, I think, and its opening track, We Are Ghosts, a magnificent piece of music that remains one of my most-listened tracks of late.  You can listen to it…

The end of The Side

I think it comes from being a over a hundred miles away from any place of a similar size and thus being in no other city’s shadow, but there is a great confidence to Inverness. No more so is this true than in the city’s music scene. Half-decent (or, indeed, full-decent) bands can crop up…

The Echelon Effect

Twitter is a great way of discovering great examples of the sorts of stuff you’re into, not least music. When you tweet about a certain topic, you will often find yourself being followed by someone who has searched for that same topic.  The downside to that is the huge amount of spam on the go…

Photos from the deep south

I’ve uploaded some photos from my trip to Edinburgh last weekend, including the Explosions in the Sky gig and the day’s exploring of Edinburgh I wrote about here. The gig was excellent, and EITS were on top form, delivering a show that was powerful, gripping and beautiful.  I was really glad I made it down…

Calamateur: Each Dirty Letter

A while back I had the privilege through a mutual friend of meeting Andrew Howie, otherwise known as singer-songwriter Calamateur. Based in the highlands, Calamateur has churned out an impressive array of songs over the years, and I was lucky enough to be paying attention when it was announced recently that his entire back catalogue…