The Bathers

★★★★ Sunpowder MARINA. CD/DL/LP

Remastered CD and vinyl debut for cult hero’s mid’90s chamber-folk beauty.

A gleaming – though now largely forgotten – facet of Scotland’s ’80s guitar-pop goldrush, Glasgow group Friends Again were victims of major label cluelessness. After one album, frontman Chris Thomson formed The Bathers, a floating collective of chamber-folk artisans. Over time, Thomson’s vocal dropped a couple of octaves to suit a mood-board that evolved away from pop-soul toward ’70s Tom Waits and ’80s Van Morrison with increasingly James Joyce-like word tangles. By the time he reached Lagoon Blues (1993),

Sunpowder (1995) and Kelvingrove Baby (1997) – all three now reissued – Thomson was making the best work of his life. There’s little variation between them, but newbies should start with Sunpowder, for the orchestrated For Saskia alone, but also secret weapon Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins), who gilds Danger In Love, The Angel On Ruskin and The Night Is Young with her trademark angelic fluttering.