Newsbits: End o' Findo, Fanclub return, Astros freebie, Swimmer One album
[Findo Gask at T in the Park '09 - photo by Su Anderson]
Findo Gask call it a day
We heard a rumour about this from one of our Glasgow writers a few weeks ago but we didn't want to believe it. Alas, it turns out to be true: Findo Gask, purveyors of perfect electro-pop, have turned off their synths for the last time. A blog on their MySpace reads: "It has come to an end, or at least it will have done pretty soon. The tyres were shot out a while ago, the engine is kaput, and we're slowly coasting to a stand still. Before that happens, we will finish the album we should have finished ages ago." Findo were real highlights at Homegame recently (twice), so it's surprising and sad to see them go. Awrabest.
Fannies plot their return
They might have outgrown their own name, but perennial indie favourites Teenage Fanclub have announced details and tracklisting of their long-awaited ninth album. It's called Shadows and is released on 31 May. A preview of the track 'Baby Lee' is streaming on their official website. Let us know what you think below...
Astronauts re-launch Fanclub EP
Fresh from their showing at yesterday’s Haddow Fest, indie-urchins Cancel The Astronauts have announced that last year’s superlative-inducing EP, I Am The President Of Your Fanclub (And Last Night I Followed You Home) is available as a free download. The band’s joyful philanthropy whets our already eager palate in anticipation of their soon to be released follow-up EP, which if recent shows are anything to go by is bound to be a another glorious slab of hip-swivelling pop-picking. Get your paws on said EP here.
Swimmer One front crawl into fore
Esoteric synth-poppers Swimmer One are set to return with a new record, the chirpily titled Dead Orchestras. The follow-up to 2008’s persuasive Regional Variations – a record one UtR hack described as “captivating to the point of hypnosis” - is released through local label Biophonic Records and enters the musical stratosphere on 31May. According to the press release it’s an album that “finds room for both a 12-minute, three-part pop symphony and a simple, two-minute acoustic lament. It is even a concept album, of sorts, a collection of songs about the things we leave behind when we're gone - as parents, as lovers, and as a species". Now that's what we call avant-garde.
And finally...
Last week we forewarned you of some news of our own. Check back here tomorrow and all will be revealed.
Got news for us? Let us know at utr.scotsman@gmail.com or tweet us @under_the_radar
Labels: cancel the astronauts, findo gask, newsflash, swimmer one, teenage fanclub
It was looking like it might never happen, but finally we have recorded our first podcast of 2010.
Having spent the last few days trying to make a podcast out of Scottish hip hop acts, we realised how little there were around worth playing. This makes the Ordinary Allstars all the more remarkable, as this track can hold its own in any company. With raspy vocals and slick production, MC Hasta and the troops have pulled off something rare – quality Scottish hip hop.
The trouble with iTunes (oh, insert your computer-based music management system of choice) is that you have a tendency to add tracks and forget all about them until they pop up in shuffle mode one day. It took me a long time to place this slice of summery guitar-pop, because the last time I came across Roddy Hart he was playing a weekly acoustic Americana session in a Glasgow pub. If 'Dead of the Night' is anything to go by, second album 
A couple of weeks ago an album by a duo called Money Can't Buy Music winged its way onto the UtR desk. Whether the name is a knowing stab at the heart of the record industry or an attempt to put music on some kind of artistic pedestal is anyone's guess, but what is noteworthy here is that one half of MCBM is Gordon McIntrye of Edinburgh indie veterans ballboy. The album is a gentle thrum of autumnal soundscapes and brittle drums, while McIntyre - joined by Swedish singer Maja Mångård - observes Edinburgh life from his own detatched but curious stance.
They may not be Scottish but I was lucky enough to catch Belfast-based math-rock juggernaut And So I Watch You From Afar at Sneaky Pete's in Edinburgh last weekend and was utterly blown away. The studio version of 'Set Guitars to Kill' doesn't nearly do justice to ASIWYFA's jaw-dropping live performance but it's still an absolute belter of a track.
Some weeks were made for The Foundling Wheel - this was most definitely one of them. With its pulsing drum undercurrent and peel of melting chimes, 'Mixed Minds and Missteps' catered for every vicissitude in the wayard roller coaster that was the last seven days. Played loud, it’s one of the most furious, grey-matter gnawing booms to emerge from Edinburgh in the last few years. But, de-volumised, a delicate tapestry of melody emerges that tugs heart strings and dampens tear ducts. Climaxing with a cacophonous flush of keys and beats, its one of those cuts that just makes everything better.
Sunday’s opening act on the BBC Introducing stage is a sight for sore eyes and a sound for cold ears. Led to the fore by luminously attired frontman Gerard Black, Findo Gask’s melody-stained motifs brilliantly shake away the day’s rain-sopped inception.
Every year there is one T Break band who do the pre-show legwork to ensure they're not playing to a wind-whipped, half-empty tent. Judging by the discarded flyers that litter the ground, the makeshift banners held aloft and the fans clad in branded t-shirts, this year that band is Tango in the Attic.
It's slightly ironic that the sun breaks out over Balado and the rain finally stops as The Twilight Sad begin their show at the BBC's Introducing stage. The hyped Kilsyth band make the kind of brooding rock that's more apt to soundtrack rolling thunderclouds than blazing sunrays.
Scotland's most ridiculously named band need little introduction to native audiences after blazing a path across the country with their anarchic gigs over the past few years. But to anyone stumbling across them for the first time, this was a fitting first encounter.
