Singles In Your Area: March 2026
Our monthly round-up of superb Scottish singles continues, featuring tracks from Pippa Blundell, SHHE, Mackenzies, Haiver and more
Writing these round-ups every month underlines the vibrancy of Scotland’s music scene. While this country’s major summer festivals still favour denim-clad lads hammering guitars with the energy of a distracted tradesman, the local scene is awash with haunted folk, panoramic ambient, C86 jank-rock, twinkling melody-pop and roustabout indie. Hopefully a couple of the tunes below excite you.
If you’ve got a song you’d like to see featured in Singles In Your Area, let us know at [email protected].
Pippa Blundell
‘Ca' the yowes’
Dark, foreboding textures dominating Blundell’s latest foray into folk. Its witchy energy is distinctly Scottish; recorded in one go at a studio near Loch Winnoch, its lyrics come from a ballad penned by Robert Burns, who derived it from the original makar, fellow Ayrshire poet Isabel Pagan. Rain-soaked and atmospheric, you can imagine it soundtracking a particularly grim adaptation of Macbeth.
SHHE
‘Katávasi’
SHHE (AKA the Dundee-based artist Su Shaw) has always excelled at ambient work that perfectly renders specific times and places. This single is taken from her new album Thalassa, a six-part song cycle, that, according to her press release, ‘gives voice to the Mediterranean Sea at a moment of ecological, political, and existential crisis.’ A lurching build holds down this track, simmering in volume before opening up as though revealing a wide and untamed ocean. As with the best communes with nature, ‘Katávasi’ understands that the great deep is both beautiful and violent in equal measure.
Kerr Mercer
‘Love Me Twice’
Gospel-pop has been a hot ticket for lanky white lads since Hozier emoted his way onto the scene, and Kerr Mercer is hopping aboard that particular soul train with this number penned in collaboration with Mattman & Robin, the Grammy-gong-having Swedish duo behind global hits for artists including Ed Sheeran, Adele and Taylor Swift. His deep timbre has an undeniably seductive tone and, even though this ditty seems to wrap up before it’s even got started, Mercer’s pitch for Radio 1’s daytime playlist is convincing.
Haiver
‘The Ghost Dance’
Billy Kennedy of Frightened Rabbit is channelling the much-missed textures of his former band, in what seems to be an achingly vulnerable ode to Scott Hutchison. ‘Fear took to the reins/Blew a kiss from the wind/Stumbling forwards it pushed him in,’ laments Kennedy, whose voice bears a remarkable resemblance to Hutchison’s scratchy brogue.
Holly Powers
‘Girl’
Sweetness pervades this deceptively simple folk track, which soothes with a lilting acoustic guitar and Powers’ floating vocals. Powers records her songs with her dad, Andy, and cites Billie Marten, Nick Drake and Laura Marling as influences on her sound. Her EP, Sweetpea, is set for release on Wednesday 20 May, with a launch gig planned for Friday 22 May at Edinburgh’s Pianodrome Bruntsfield.
Mackenzies
‘The State I’m In’
There’s something shonky in the air: the C86 era is back with a bang, and even its original cohort are returning for another go-around in small venues. This second single from Mackenzies is a reworking of one of their early tracks from the mid-1980s, with a bulkier rhythm section and plenty of dub-influenced bells and whistles. It’s Happy Mondays meets A Certain Ratio, which is no bad thing. Amazingly, these lads have never released a debut album; that’ll be on its way in June, with the appropriately messy title A Dog’s Breakfast.
The Kaves
‘Somber’
Enjoy Ryan Adams but too grossed out by his perma-creepiness to actually listen to his albums? ‘Somber’ might tide you over with its mixture of Americana indie and winning vocals, and it features enough nods to Glasgow’s music scene to make this a smidge more than a guitar hero dream.
Diving Horse
‘I Can’t Sleep’
Cowbell lovers, time to get your freak on. The unmistakeable groove of LCD Soundsystem is shot through this Glasgow sextet’s sound, which mixes a jittery guitar hook with surprisingly morose lyrics from Gavin Marshall.
Mull Historical Society
‘Cattle Bells’ (Featuring Alexander McCall Smith)
That’s right, literary luminary Alexander McCall Smith (who’s perhaps best know for the No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series) contributed words on the latest project from Colin McIntyre. A melancholic nostalgia pervades, as Smith meditates on a photo of himself sitting on the top of a hill overlooking the surrounds of the Kalahari.
Besoliga
‘Turn The Other’
Like Aphex Twin popping bubble wrap, the mysterious, as-yet unidentified Besoliga’s latest is a moody, slippery drone piece, taken from their new album What’s Tomorrow Made Of. ‘This album examines the persistent internal dialogue inherent to the compositional process,’ states Besoliga, ‘wherein musical outcomes are fundamentally shaped by the interplay of procedural and conflicting forces.’ The description might be cerebral, but the music will quickly grab you with a primal, almost threatening grip.