I Watch You Dance Across The Room

I’d pretty much given up on Ash after their last couple of records. Underneath  its HM stylings, ‘Meltdown’ was a decent enough LP but not one which was up to the standards of their first three whilst their ‘final’ album, ‘Twilight of the Innocents’ seemed to lack any inspiration at all. I was vaguely aware…

Night Bats

I’ve said before but I periodically get emails of musical interest. A fair percentage of these seem come from Matthew at Song, By Toad Records. The most recent of these concerned Loch Lomond’s ‘Night Bats’ E.P. and having listened once to the sample track I immediately vowed to buy the CD. Then completely forgot about…

Scottish Fiction – MacLeod/Stross

I’ve just finished Ken MacLeod’s latest ‘The Restoration Game’ hard on the heels of ‘Halting State’ by Charles Stross. Coincidentally both books feature the concept of online games being used for real life purposes. Stross, of course,  isn’t Scottish but he now lives in Edinburgh and ‘Halting States’ is set in a post independence Edinburgh…

Don’t Be A Loser

The second re-issue I alluded to last week was R.E.M.‘s ‘Fables of the Reconstruction’. R.E.M.’s third LP is fittingly enough the third reissue in the current Deluxe (there’s that word again) series. But whereas the previous two in the series were complemented by the addition of a bonus live disc, the bonus disc this time…

Which One?

Not this one … There are a handful of LP which take a large degree of responsibility for ultimately creating this blog. Over the years I’ve gradually been adding a CD version of these records to my collection most recently with TV21’s ‘Snakes and Ladders’ compilation including their 1981 LP ‘A Thin Red Line’.  one ……

Look At Me I’m A Catherine Wheel

Manic Pop Thrills. There’s really no better way to describe Mitchell Museum debut LP ‘The Peters Port Memorial Service’. It’s the second great Scottish debut of the last few weeks although  it’s a different beast from Kid Canaveral’s ‘Shouting At Wildlife’ melody is crucial to both records. Mitchell Museum are a more exuberant proposition than…