Sound Of Scotland
Exciting album releases, live appearances and industry gatherings
Your columnist Lisa-Marie Ferla spotlights the latest gigs and new releases that are coming your way
THE second album from Catholic Action finds the Glasgow quartet looking outwards and offering, in their own words, an artist’s-eye-view of Scotland’s place in the UK and Europe.
Produced by frontman Chris Mccrory – fast becoming one of Scottish indie’s go-to producers – Celebrated By Strangers delivers 11 tracks of raucous, catchy, indie rock sloganeering, with the relentless single People Don’t Protest Enough an immediate standout. The band play a hometown show at Saint Luke’s, Glasgow, on May 8.
Weird Country, the second album by Glasgow’s Savage Mansion, also features a Mccrory production credit, and it’s out on April 3 on Lost Map Records. With his witty, observational lyrics and laconic vocal delivery, frontman Craig Angus is one of my favourite Scottish songwriters, and the album is packed with homages to the best and worst of contemporary and historical Scotland.
The band join Lost Map label founder Pictish Trail on his UK tour throughout April, with Scottish shows at the Tollbooth, Stirling on April 9, Dundee’s Beat Generator on April 10, Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall on April 11 and finally at Lemon Tree in Aberdeen on April 12.
Sci-fi dream pop duo L-space from Last Night From Glasgow Records are celebrating their third album Feed The Engines! by playing at Amersham Arms, London, on April 4 before jetsetting to Tokyo for gigs at the Sangenjaya Grapefruit Moon on April 22 and Uh-a on April 26. The album is a giddy, electropop rebellion against “late stage capitalism and being tired all the time” – to quote the band – and fans can order a custom seven-inch record featuring any two tracks in order to properly disconnect. They’ll be back in Glasgow next month, playing The Hug and Pint on May 8.
Guitar-wielding hard rock poet Anna Secret Poet is a well-kent face in Glasgow’s cabaret, comedy, drag and rock scenes. Her new album, No Brainer, features songs about anxiety, goth girls, missing socks and voyeurism, and is out on April 6. And 16-year-old Borders songwriter Evan Anderson released a new EP, There & Gone, at the end of March. She has cultivated a dual fanbase in the UK and Japan through social media posts in Japanese and English.
Bishopbriggs-based country singer-songwriter Katee Kross released Show Your Hand, her fourth album, in February, aged just 22. She and her band have a couple
of Scottish shows ahead of an appearance at Manchester’s Buckles and Boots country music festival in May. Catch them at the Cairndale
Hotel, Dumfries, on March 29 and Bridgehouse Village Hall, West Lothian, on April 25.
Emerging Edinburgh singer-songwriter Callum Beattie has booked a short Scottish tour in the run-up to the release of his debut album People Like Us in May. He’ll be at The Hunter S. Thompson, Dundee, on April 7; Cafe Drummond, Aberdeen on April 8; Caves, Edinburgh on April 9 and Glasgow’s King Tut’s on April 10.
Roddy Woomble’s Everyday Sun EP, released in February, marked a sonic departure for the Idlewild frontman with slow-motion poetry set to ambient electronics composed by bandmate Andrew Mitchell, known for his instrumental solo work as Andrew Wasylyk.
The pair are off on an extensive UK tour and Scottish dates include Webster Memorial Theatre, Arbroath, on March 28; Paisley Arts Centre on March 29; Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine, on April 10 and Catstrand Arts Centre, Castle Douglas, on April 11.
Budding musicians and singersongwriters – and even those who are simply interested in the music industry itself can’t miss Wide Days, Scotland’s biggest music convention this month. The industry conferences promises interesting debate, networking and showcase performances. It runs at venues across Edinburgh from April 23-25, with headline speakers Showcase Scotland organiser Lisa Whytock and electronic music entrepreneur Tom Ketley.
“Anxiety, goth girls, and missing socks”