The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Twin Atlantic
Fat Sams, Dundee, March 6
Scottish pop-rock heroes Twin Atlantic are set for a quickfire Dundee return.
The festival favourites were in blistering form at Beat Generator last month and there’s a second chance next Friday to hear them play staples such as Free, Heart And Soul and No Sleep alongside material from their latest album Power, the Glasgow band’s first since parting company with long-time mentors Red Bull Records.
The self-produced offering is the fifth in a line that started with 2009’s Vivarium. Beating off competition from the likes of Peat And Diesel, Pet Shop Boys, Vukovi and Wire, it shot straight to the top of the Scottish charts earlier this month, also hitting 11 UK-wide.
Twin Atlantic bassist and keys exponent Ross McNae, who co-penned Power with frontman Sam McTrusty, credits heritage label Virgin EMI for allowing the trio complete freedom in the band’s new studio. “We always appreciated how lucky we were to get the opportunities Red Bull gave us, but there was always a kind of nagging thing in our heads,” he says.
“That was the idea of working with something new and untested in a time when the music industry was collapsing. We’ve always wondered what our band would be like put through the old school machine that all our favourite bands have been through over the years, and the idea that we’d like to try it was just something we couldn’t get away from.
“It’s funny, because most people at this point are moving away from the old model – especially when they’ve been a band for as long as we have – and starting to think about having a different type of set-up based on distribution instead of having a classic label. There might be more money to be made, but for us it’s not really about that. It’s about giving it the best shot that we can and seeing where we can take it.”
The initial inspiration for the tracks on Twin Atlantic’s first three albums came solely from McTrusty, but Ross, 32, devised a number of the songs on 2016’s GLA.
Those altered dynamics have helped point the way for Power, with the pair plus drummer Craig Kneale revelling in a more synth-based aesthetic influenced by such electro pioneers as Depeche Mode and LCD Soundsystem.
“There’s an analogue element of using a drum kit, as well as guitars and electronic instruments all blended together, so it kind of fills the whole spectrum,” Ross declares.
“We actually all love music ranging from Dylan-style acoustic songwriters to guys who play a drum machine for four hours, and everything in between.
“But it really hits home to us when those two things are combined, and those two bands do it perfectly,” he says.