Conquering Animal Sound

Jamie Scott and Anneke Kampman return with the follow-up to the stunning debut, Kammerspiel. On Floating Bodies is out on Mon 18 Mar on Chemikal Underground – who will also be releasing albums from Holy Mountain, RM Hubbert and Emma Pollock later in the year.

Braw Gigs

Now onboard with the music programming at Summerhall, as well as booking gigs in the usual mix of scuzzy and unusual venues, the Scottish DIY music promoter Braw Gigs begins the year with a performance from the Pan-signed, Helm, aka Luke Younger – a sound artist and experimental musician based in London. Expect ‘glacial drone meditations, reconfigured gamelan clusters, and howling walls of organized feedback, all coalesced in a post-industrial fashion’.
Helm, Sat 19 Jan, Summerhall, Edinburgh; High Wolf + guests, Tue 29 Jan, Summerhall, Edinburgh; The Pheromoans, Sat 23 Feb, Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh.

Frightened Rabbit

Building on their critically-acclaimed, grandiose EP ‘State Hospital’, Frightened Rabbit finish up their 2013 headline UK tour with dates in Edinburgh and Glasgow. With the follow-up to 2010’s The Winter of Mixed Drinks (out on Mon 4 Feb on Atlantic Records, see a review in the next issue), the Selkirk quintet’s fourth album should build on the more mature sound they’ve found since debut Sing The Greys, with a flurry of heartfelt and ruminating tracks. To their fans (and they are nothing if not devoted) Frightened Rabbit not only contribute to the modern epic-folk movement inhabited by Fleet Foxes and more recently, Mumford & Sons, but blow it out the water in a smoky haze of snarling and brooding confidence.
Picturehouse, Edinburgh, Tue 26 Feb; Barrowlands, Glasgow, Thu 28 Feb.    

Glasgow Music and Film Festival

Ever watched 1929’s The Woman in the Moon and thought ‘What this really needs is more of a techno vibe?’ Detroit techno master Jeff Mills will do exactly that with his new live score for the Fritz Lang classic at the GM&FF. The festival also features a premiere of Souvenirs of Serge – Jane Birkin’s candid film on her relationship with Gainsbourg, plus Birkin will perform ‘Songs for Serge’.
Glasgow Music and Film Festival, various venues, Thu 14–Sun 24 Feb, www.glasgowfilm.org

Yo La Tengo

After a behemoth career spanning 28 years, Yo La Tengo’s upcoming 13th album Fade has ambitions of being the New Jersey band’s brightest and most heartening long-player so far. A European tour beckons with a Glasgow date confirmed. Expectations are high and topping last year’s ‘Wheel Spin’ tour – where the content of the first half of each gig was governed by the spin of a giant wheel – could prove problematic. However, after performing at the world’s best venues, doing a Simpsons theme, playing The Velvet Underground in a film and donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity, where do you go next?
Fade is out Mon 14 Jan on Matador; and YLT play the 02 ABC, Glasgow, Fri 22 Mar.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

’Well, if I were to use that threadbare metaphor of albums being like children, then Push The Sky Away is the ghost-baby’. So reads Nick Cave’s explanation of the upcoming NC&TBS album. Cave’s brilliantly haughty and dark presence is always a pleasure to welcome back. Forget the latest synth-pop-grind-core-whatever fad and reintroduce yourself to music with daring. NC&TBS aren’t a polite prod in the back at what cool rock sounds like – they are a furious smack in the face.
Push the Sky Away is out on Mon 18 Feb on Bad Seed Ltd.

The Pictish Trail

Johnny Lynch, aka The Pictish Trail, from the Fence Collective, takes you on what he’s calling ‘The Predictish Trail’ for the year ahead.

‘As I gaze upon my glowing crystal balls, I see that 2013 is going to be a busy one. The mists are clearing, and I sense a new Pictish Trail album twitching in my pipeline. Yes, yes, it’s Secret Soundz Vol 2, descending from the heavens above. Now I can see an attractive bearded man in a golden jacket going up and down the length and breadth of the country in January and February? I can almost see new Fence albums from Kid Canaveral, eagleowl, Randolph’s Leap and King Creosote … but, in actual fact, I think 2013 will be the year the VAT man, HMRC, Health & Safety, Fife Council and Leveson finally expose the music industry for the corporate whoring, tax-dodging moonshiners that we are.’

The Pictish Trail plays Mono, Glasgow, Mon 31 Dec; The Art Club, Glasgow, Thu 24 Jan, as part of Celtic Connections, and The Caves, Edinburgh, Thu 21 Feb. See www.thepictishtrail.com for full tour info, and www.fencerecords.com for releases and gig info.

Dan Deacon

This Baltimorean’s live gigs are now legendary for their audience involvement and collaboration – leading to ecstatic air punching and life-affirming euphoria when he hits the spot. Dan Deacon’s impossibly complicated, frenetically paced tracks are often mind-bogglingly bonkers, yet also beautifully infectious.
Stereo, Glasgow, Mon 11 Feb.

Albums in the pipeline

Also, look out for new albums from Golden Grrls (the debut album from the Glasgow trio is released on Night School, Mon 25 Feb); Ducktails, (Matt Mondanile will release The Flower Lane, Domino, Mon 28 Jan); Atoms for Peace (Amok, the debut album from Thom Yorke and cohorts’ project, on XL Records, Mon 25 Feb) and Pissed Jeans. Honeys comes out on Sub Pop, Mon 11 Feb).

My Bloody Valentine

The shoegaze heroes are only doing three UK dates, and Glasgow gets a visit. This one should be an ear-ringing, Barrowland shaking, extended wig-out – if we’re lucky.
Barrowland, Glasgow, Sat 9 Mar.