SCOTTISH ALTERNATIVE MUSIC AWARDS 2015

The 6th Scottish Alternative Music Awards (SAMAs) take place on 8th October at The Garage in Glasgow. The SAMAs are a hugely important thing as they shine a light on Scotland's remarkably fertile music scene, exposing a whole number of bands to a wide audience and gaining them much justified publicity. Initially started by Richy Muirhead as an alternative to the usual industry nonsense of the BRITS etc, the SAMAs have taken on a life of their own and this year's ceremony features a string of excellent bands up for a number of awards. 

There are 8 categories in total which you can read through on the SAMAs page (links below), but for this blog I'm having at look at only one - Best Electronic. 

1. SEQUEL

There are six nominees competing in this category and I feel sorry for whoever has to choose the winner as the nominees are all superb. First up is SEQUEL (@sequelsoundx) who produces some of the crispest, loudest techno electronica type slices of noisey joy I've heard in ages. Brimming with the sheer joy of loud electronic music, tracks like Fear Party (below) and Rocky are just frankly brilliant and music that you HAVE to hear. Head to SEQUEL's Soundcloud page for more (https://soundcloud.com/sequelsoundx)

2. BDY_PARTS

Next up we have Bdy_Parts (@BDY_PRTS) who fuse guitars, electronics and a keen ear for pop melodies to give us something incredibly catchy and quite wonderful. Cold Shoulder (below) is a prime example, with the band's trademark sound taken in an R&B direction but still retaining the edge and feel of earlier tracks like IDLU.  Check out their Soundcloud page for more (https://soundcloud.com/bdy_prts/)

3. OUR FUTURE GLORY
Our Future Glory are the next nominee and regular readers will know that I'm already a huge fan (see http://almostpredictablealmost1.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/new-bands-2015-no-17-our-future-glory.html ). One listen to Battleheart (below) is going to convince you I'm right to be excited and, trust me, if you get a chance to see them live do it - absolutely incredible.




4. CRASH CLUB
Crash Club are one of the bands playing at the award show on the 8th and their brand of electronic rock is bound to impress on the night. My inevitably baised Depeche Mode tuned ears note hints of then Basildon boys darker moments in Crash Club's tracks and that is absolutely fine by me. Sometimes, this type of electronic music can sound a bit clunky, but not here. Crash Club produce something very fine indeed as you can hear on their Soundcloud page (https://soundcloud.com/crashclubmusic). Check out Jawbreaker  below for a hint of what they can do


5. DJ CLYDE ROUGE
DJ Clyde Rouge produces quite excellent stripped back house with teeth juddering bass at levels that will help even the shyest persons on earth dance. Sometimes all you need is music that you can dance to and DJ Clyde Rouge knows how to produce music for that very purpose. Have a list to the magical Too Hip (Preview) below for an idea of what's going on here, then head to the Soundcloud page (https://soundcloud.com/clyde-rouge) for much, much more

6. LOCKAH

Last but by no means least we have Lockah who produces house and R&B influenced electronics that give nods to the likes of classic era Human League, melting together a host of styles to produce  something quite superb. Almost every track is a winner and Lockah's recent It Gets More Cloudy album is a cracker. Head to http://www.lockah.net to listen then buy it - to help you out, here's the excellent Heate Legend

Like I said at the start, good luck to whoever has to judge this category. Choosing 6 bands alone from the immense amount of electronic music in Scotland just now is hard enough - choosing one from these six is nearly impossible. 

For the full run down on the SAMAs and to read about all 8 awards categories head to http://officialsama.tumblr.com and keep an eye on the SAMAs Twitter feed for all the information you need (@OfficialSAMA). Get yourself along to The Garage on the 8th of October to join in this celebration of al that is good about Scottish music and buy Richy a drink to say thanks to him too. He deserves it for his excellent work.