TONGUES - HEARTBEAT

Tongues return with Heartbeat, their first new release of 2016 and, as we've come to expect from Tongues, it's a track that you can't help but love. Balancing complex music which brings to mind the likes of Hot Chip and Radiohead in one of their better moods, with the band's trademark electropop and all topped off with a chorus that perfectly fits the currently summery feel of their hometown Glasgow, Heartbeat is a track you don't want to miss.

Grab the single at the following places and watch our for a new e.p. from Tongues very soon. You should also note that Heartbeat is the first release on Little Tiger, a brand new independent label run from the Riverside Music Complex in Busby. Keep an eye out for more from them too.

Hypem.com - hypem.com/track/2gmjs/Tongues.+-+Heartbeat
Spotify - play.spotify.com/album/2SIrnSrxFUrcHjZPONQ5hi
iTunes - itunes.apple.com/album/heartbeat-…8&ign-mpt=uo%3D1
Facebook - facebook.com/tonguesmusic

MT. DOUBT - MY PAST IS A QUIET BEAST

Mt. Doubt is a solo project by Edinburgh based musician Leo Bargery and his debut album My Past Is A Quiet Beast is something rather special. Mixing introspective lyrics with large scale sounds, think a mix of Radiohead, Arcade Fire and The National, My Past Is A Quiet Beast is a really impressive and confident debut with much promise.

Opener Beast is a slow building, brooding affair, with the phrase "My past is a quiet beast"  repeated throughout, building to a power ending that certainly sounds cathartic for Bargery. The next track Feathers is the opposite of Beast,  all pop and melody and really quite brilliant. It's my stand out track from the album and one you'll certainly want to hear (listen below). Slump displays the darker side of Mt Doubt again, before Bend Sinister lets some light back in albeit in the dark yet optimistic way The National handle their lighter moments. It's been said many times already by those who've heard Mt. Doubt, but there is definitely something of the Matt Berninger in the way Bergary delivers his vocals and that's of course no bad thing at all.

Fans of this blog and the Almost Scottish Fiction releases will already be familiar with the excellent Bend which featured on the third e.p. (here) and the track works beautifully when heard in its album setting. Dancing Phantoms and  I Break Spirit follow Bend and both are atmospheric slices of dark indie pop and they lead to the swirling, gripping Telmessos which, like many tracks here sounds like it would be comfortably at home in some pretty big venues. The influence of The National is again felt on another of the album's stand outs Soft Wrists, before we end on Asunder, a rousing, joyous finale to what has been a hugely enjoyable album.

My Past Is A Quiet Beast really is an intriguing and rather wonderful debut and it deserves as much attention as it can possibly get. Highly recommended.

Mt. Doubt play live at The Hug & Pint, Glasgow on Tuesday 4 August headlining the Scottish Fiction Presents... gig. Tickets are £5 and are available from www.hugandpint.com

My Past Is A Quiet Beast is out now and is available on Mt. Doubt's Soundcloud page and on cd here http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ByLandCollective

KILL THE WAVES - THE ONE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN

Kill The Waves are a Glasgow based six piece who first appeared on many people's radars this year with the release of the tracks Vow and Better Days on Soundcloud, both of which are storming tracks. Better Days is simply sublime and, if you do nothing else after reading this, go and grab that song free from the band's Soundcloud page as it will simply make your life better. Hot on the heels of that free download, the band have released their debut album The One That Could Have Been and, pleasingly, the album is a real triumph.

The band combine a mix of electronics and stirring Radiohead or Arcade Fire like power to produce a collection of tracks that grow and develop with each listen. Opener Oak Tree sets the scene perfectly; a brooding tale of love backed with some superbly flickery electronic percussive sounds that ploughs the same furrow Radiohead's Talk Show Host does. Mine follows, slapping you in the face with some quite magnificent electropop before the title track slows the pace and darkens the mood with distinct echoes of The Cure in places. It's followed by Vow which you should already know (see previous praise from me) which then leads into the driving Friends and Deadwave which has a lead synth line Vince Clarke would be proud of. That the song then turns into a gothic, rated vocal joy only adds to the enjoyment. Plastic Face is another slice of excellent synthpop before the once again Cure influenced Shadow enters, with its sound and feel redolent of that band's Disintegration high point , specifically Homesick, which can never be a bad thing can it? Up next is the genuinely brilliant Better Days. It would have been easy to kick the album off with this track as it is a incredibly striking song but I'm glad that easy path wasn't followed as it sits really well at this stage in the album and Oak Tree is an excellent opener. We round off with  Sun Song  and the initially playfully electro sound but all of a sudden guitar explosions of Part 2 which finishes the album off perfectly. 

The One That Could Have Been is a superb debut album that is brim full of top tunes and Kill The Waves are clearly a band full of confidence in their sound and rightly so. A hugely enjoyable debut release.

The One That Could Have Been is released on Bloc+ Music and can be purchased on ITunes, 7Digital, Amazon mp3 and many more digital retailers.

Kill The Waves Facebook https://www.facebook.com/killthewavesofficial?fref=ts

Kill The Waves Twitter https://twitter.com/killthewaves

Bloc+ Music http://blocmusic.org

NEW BANDS 2015 NO 4 - KILL THE WAVES

Glasgow sextet Kill The Waves are another band rightly garnering much praise with their mix of electronics and guitars, producing a sound not unlike Radiohead and Arcade Fire clashing together and combining their more melodic moments. Their first offering on soundcloud was the immense Better Days which you can hear below. 

The band have signed to Glasgow's ace label Bloc+Music and their debut album The One That Could Have Been, which I can't wait to hear, will be released on that label on 20 April 2015. To tide you over until then, head to their soundcloud pages to download new track Vow (listen below) and go to The Skinny's site to see the video (HERE)

There is surely an exciting future ahead for Kill The Waves and I can't wait to hear their album. Keep an eye out for any gigs they have coming up too as if they can translate their recorded sound to the live arena, it will be something well worth hearing.


Kill The Waves Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/killthewavesofficial?fref=ts
Bloc+Music Facebook https://www.facebook.com/blocmusicglasgow?fref=ts

REVIEW - MACHINES IN HEAVEN 10 May 2014, Electropolis at The Art School, Glasgow

Electropolis is a night that is regularly put on at the Art School in Glasgow that promises to showcase  the finest up and coming Scottish electronica nights and so it was inevitably a good thing that the Electropolis night on 10 May was headlined by blog favourites Machines In Heaven.

After some great support from the bands above plus special guest Loki, Machines took to the stage and played a set heavy on debut album bordersbreakdown, but one which delighted and surprised both with the way the album tracks sounded and with the way the new track, Taxpayers' Compass, showed a definite progression from the tracks everyone should already be familiar with.

Machines In Heaven, live at The Art School Glasgow 10 May 2014

The whole set was great and I was taken with the way the bordersbreakdown tracks have developed their own life live. On the album their electronic influence comes across, whilst live they develop a power of their own, reminiscent in places of the Pixies or My Bloody Valentine. There are moments of spine tingling majesty in songs like The Eternal Now or Remembrance that set this band above others on the live scene at the moment. Like I have said many times before, you owe it to yourself to check Machines out. When Taxpayers' Compass was played, I could easily have been back in the big top at the Radiohead gigs on Glasgow Green in 2001 - it's of that standard. This is impressive music. Keep an eye out for any Machines In Heaven gigs in your area. You MUST see them.

Setlist: We Fall/The National Monument/Parliament Is Made Of Rice Paper/Mumbo Jingo/Remembrance/The Eternal/Taxpayers' Compass/bordersbreakdown

Stream debut album bordersbreakdown here https://soundcloud.com/machinesinheaven/sets/bordersbreakdown

Machines In Heaven Facebook https://www.facebook.com/machinesinheaven