BELIEFS - LEAPER

Toronto's Beliefs release their second album Leaper on 13 November on the ever impressive Hand Drawn Dracula label. Leaper is an album of shoegaze influenced indiepop that pays homage to the likes of The Pixies, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and even The Wedding Present, who are a personal favourite of mine, so all the signs point to something very good. What you ultimately get is an album that is as fresh as a daisy, full of fuzzy guitars, great washes of noise and superb melodies, leading to an album that is surely bound to make Beliefs pop up on many people's radars.

Opener Tidal Wave is as good an example of what's to come as anything. An opening feedback squall leads to an MBV like drone of distorted guitar and your attention is grabbed from the off.  I don;t know if it was deliberate or not, but the Dinosaur Jr referencing lyrics ("You're living all over me") are a nice touch. It's a superb start, yet it's trumped by the simply outstanding 1992 which is one of the best things I've heard in ages. Part Pixies, part joyous guitar pop, 1992 is a track you HAVE to hear and you can so below - you can't fail to love it.  Colour Of Your Name comes next sounding like The Wedding Present circa Seamonsters but having fun. It's a summery feeling track albeit one masked in wonderfully fuzzy guitars. Drown and the title track take the pace down a notch, focussing more in atmosphere albeit with added feedback and aggression in the latter which compliments the mood nicely before the excellent pop like Ghosts arrives, wrapping you up in its loveliness.

The album is basically a succession of impressive tracks that doesn't relent at all. Morning Light is another noise encased pop gem and it's followed by Go Ahead And Sleep which reminds you of Ride at their most intense before they let Andy Bell have too much influence. The penultimate Leave With You perhaps suffers by comparison to the breathless opening nine tracks of the album but, that said, it still impresses. The record then ends on the brilliantly titled Swooner which starts off quieter than you might expect but builds to a booming, echo laden climax that ends the album perfectly.

As I said at the outset, Beliefs are band you are bound to hear a lot about soon given the quality of Leaper. There is no harm at all in making a record that pays homage to your influences, as long as there is enough of you in the record itself. Beliefs more than achieve that with Leaper and it is an album that you really have to get your hands on.

Leaper by Beliefs is released on 13 November on Hand Drawn Dracula. It's available on download an a limited edition of 300 translucent green vinyl. I've managed to get one.

Beliefs Facebook https://www.facebook.com/weareBeliefs/?fref=ts
Hand Drawn Dracula Beliefs Artist Page http://handdrawndracula.com/artists/beliefs/

LIVE: MIRACLE STRIP, LE THUG, APACHE DARLING - KING TUTS, GLASGOW 21 JULY

Over two weeks in July, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut is hosting a series of gigs under the heading Summer Nights. Throughout the month, over 50 Scottish bands and DJ's are playing at the venue, showcasing the best new music Scotland has to offer. The full list of gigs is pretty impressive and can be viewed here - click

Last night, I went along to a show to see three of my favourite new bands. Unfortunately, I had to leave before AmatrArt came on which was a pity as I'd have love to have seen them too. Before I go on to the bands, I've got to say how much I enjoyed the Podcart DJ set betI cween bands too. Superb tracks including Bjork's Violently Happy which never fails to make me make me at least consider dancing. Nice work Halina

Miracle Strip (dodgy pics above and below my own) kicked off the night and started us off well. Their Miracle Milk  is something I've been playing a lot recently and it was really pleasing to see how well the songs came across live. Took A Running Jump was a highlight for me, mainly because it's one of the best tracks I've heard in a while but the whole set worked. The band's combination of New Order and early Cure like atmospherics with vocals that marvellously bring to mind The Magnetic Fields is a winner and tracks like Lemon Sorbet  and Girl Gang were just fantastic.

Le Thug followed Miracle Strip and their set was just as good as I hoped it would be. Their Place Is ep is a stunner and it's one that I've played over and over on my clear vinyl 12" copy. I have to mention that as clear vinyl is surely the coolest of the coloured vinyls. Anyway, their set featured most of the e.p.with Pals  and Basketball Land sounding just as menacing yet noisily beautiful as the do on record. Live, the band generate a quite mesmerising sound and it was a really powerful show that I couldn't take my eyes off. There's a shoegaze influence at play no doubt but more towards the louder end of Ride or My Bloody Valentine where noise meets melody and works incredibly well. Le Thug are a special band no doubt.

Next up were blog favourites and recent interviewees Apache Darling who, despite writing about a lot, I'd never managed to see live. Like Le Thug, Apache Darling's live show more than matched up to their releases and they gave the crowd half an hour of quite marvellous synthpop. Opening with the superb More Than Me the band grabbed the crowd's attention from the off and the whole set was excellent. More Than Me aside, one song that really stood out for me was Go which was almost Yazoo like and that can only ever be a good thing. The band have recently spent a good bit of time honing their live sound and that work has paid off. The combination of their crisp electropop with Stefanie's frankly brilliant voice is a winner and you really want to catch them live if you can. The fact Andrew manages to play three live synths with no backing tracks is no mean feat either. It was a great set and it really got the whole room going, 

As I said at the start, apologies to AmatrArt who I really wanted to see but couldn't stick around for. I gather their set was unsurprisingly great and I'll make sure I catch them next time. In the meantime, if you can, try and get along to one or two of the remaining King Tut's Summer Nights and enjoy what is clearly something of a golden age for Scottish music. Keep an eye on all the bands above too as you will want to see them live as soon as you can

Miracle Strip Facebook

Le Thug Facebook

Apache Darling Facebook

AmatrArt Facebook

WOZNIAK - AUSTER EP

Edinburgh's Wozniak, whose superb Five Star featured on the first Almost Scottish Fiction ep release their second ep. Auster tomorrow (June 29), the follow up to their superb debut e.p. Pikes Peak.  Auster represents a leap forward for the band as it takes their shoegaze  and post rock influenced sound and adds layers and layers to it producing a set of four songs that are brilliantly noisy but also multi layered and really quite clever.

Opener Snow Effect is a slice of Ride or Slowdive like fuzz noise with wonderfully whispered vocals that packs quite a sonic punch and ultimately is an outstanding track. Amongst the four excellent tracks here, Snow Effect is the standout for me. Next up we have Wings Of Pegasus which starts like My Bloody Valentine before a bassline Kim Deal would be proud of propels the song forward into a rush of shimmering guitars that's really quite marvellous. Gospel Of Infinity adds even more power to the mix with a track built around a crunching riff and an almost military drum beat that is reminiscent of Mogwai but has Wozniak's own stamp on it thorough. The e.p. then ends with the 8 minute beast that is Helder + Zelda. An initial slow build of bass and spiky, reverb laden guitars lead to a wall of noise that is quite breathtaking before the track returns to its beginnings, ending the e.p. perfectly.

As someone who is old enough to remember shoegaze the first time round, it's great to hear artists like Wozniak use the power and drama of that type of music as a basis for their own hugely impressive work. Auster  is an excellent e.p. and Wozniak clearly have something special about them.

Wozniak release the Auster ep on June 29th on iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon, select record shops and through their own Bandcamp page www.wozniak.bandcamp.com

Wozniak Facebook www.facebook.com/wozniakofficial

Wozniak Twitter @band_wozniak