REVIEW: OVER THE WALL - THIS IS HOW WE DID IT ep

Another day, another great new Glasgow music scene discovery. During one of my many bored hours at work yesterday I was looking through Twitter and read about Over The Wall who proclaim themselves "A Pop band from Glasgow." That's clearly good enough for me. As ever I'm coming to the band late as they've recently played an ep release show at the Glad Cafe round the corner from me AND played at the Mogwai CCA show which I forgot to get tickets for. To make up for it I made a quick trip to their Bandcamp page (click me) and I'd grabbed the Over The Wall ep which really is something you must hear.

The e.p. kicks off with the brilliant Radiator, the stand out track here. With its mix of almost lo-fi electronics and guitar and strong pop melodies the track is a joy. The lyrics are superb too. Leave Gaps and Forget takes the pace down a notch or two but really grabs the attention and again features some beautiful lyrics. Track 3 is Cast Your Stone sweeps along on a bed of acoustic guitar and one of those piano lines that you will not be able to remove from your head before we end on Action Man with its' brazen attempt at an R&B or even Gospel feel in the main verses (or at least that's what I'm hearing). A brilliant end to a brilliant ep

After hearing this I've already gone to the band's Facebook page and bought more of their back catalogue which I can't wait to get into. Listen to this ep and you'll do the same.

Over The Wall - Twitter Facebook Bandcamp

REVIEW - ATOM TREE & MACHINES IN HEAVEN, CCA 19 OCTOBER 2013

As part of Document the International Human Rights Film Festival, Atom Tree and Machines In Heaven played a free show at the CCA on Sauchiehall Street last night. It was my first time seeing both bands live and they both played outstanding sets.

Atom Tree opened up and instantly caught the imagination. There's genuinely something special about this band and I'm convinced that they're going to be huge. Sometimes electronic music doesn't translate to the live arena and can sound a bit flat however Atom Tree showed what can be done and they did it bloody well. The set included a full play of recently released Tide of Thorns ep (review here) including a glorious Desired Effects with Fergus from Discopolis on vocals. My personal favourite PS sounded amazing live too.

Atom Tree live at CCA 19 October 2013

As the people I was texting and emailing post gig will attest, I was blown away by this set. It's hard to perhaps pin down comparisons or obvious influences to give you an idea of the Atom Tree sound as I hear so many different elements at play. My notes from Saturday night mention Radiohead's Kid A at several points and that's not a bad comparison. The atmospheric electronics certainly do bring that album to mind but that's really only part of the story. My best advice would be to check them out yourself as you will not be disappointed. Next up for them is a support with Ghostpoet at the CCA on 22 October, a gig at Cookies in Berlin on 30 November and a showcase show at Catch in London on 4 October .

Blog favourites Machines In Heaven were next up. I've contrived to miss most of their recent shows so it was great to finally get a chance to seem them live. The band gave us a 6 song set containing the three tracks from the Glasgow Jihad ep (links and review here ) and three others including a fantastic (and fantastically named) Parliament Is Made of Rice Paper

Machines In Heaven live CCA 19 October 2013

I've go on and on about Machines In Heaven before and having seen the live show I'm going to keep going on until everyone listens. As with Atom Tree the songs really work live and have an extra punch to them. the set closing bordersbreakdown was a perfect example of that. It's an ambitious track which sounds great on the ep and happily the band perform an excellent version live which seems to have a bit more kick to it. Highly recommended. The band are currently busy remixing for a few people and have just finished their debut album. There are also more gigs in the pipeline which I'll keep you informed about.

Overall then it was a great gig. It's so refreshing to see such vibrant live electronic scene and especially pleasing personally when two bands I keep banging on about sound so good. Thanks to Shaun, Graham, Greg, Connor and Clair for chatting on Saturday - look forward to doing it all again soon.

Atom Tree Facebook
Machines In Heaven Facebook