NEW: MT. DOUBT - ASUNDER

Mt. Doubt are a band I've quickly grown to love having been converted to them following the release of their debut album My Past Is A Quiet Beast (review here). The band's powerful live performance at August's Scottish Fiction Presents gig only added to my enthusiasm for the band and, like I said in the review of that gig (here), Mt. Doubt are surely on the verge of something very special indeed.

Today, the band have released a new video for the track Asunder, a Radiohead meets The National tower of brooding melody that will grab you straight away and keep you coming back again and again. Have a look below

Head to Mt. Doubt's Soundcloud page to download Asunder and the rest of Mt. Doubt's catalogue - you won't regret it

Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/mtdoubt

NEW BANDS 2015 NO. 17 - OUR FUTURE GLORY

Our Future Glory have already played the T Break stage at this year's T In The Park, so once again this post is more of a new to me thing than anything else. I first saw them last Friday (4 September) supporting The Insomniac Project at Nice N Sleazy and their set was quite remarkable. The band are a three piece from Dundee and their take on alternative pop covers all bases from indiepop  to huge dancefloor dominating tracks. Perhaps the best starting point is their recent single Battleheart:

Soundwise, think Bloc Party had they not gone off the boil and instead continued their experiements with dance music. It's powerful stuff an the whole set they played on Friday was filled with equally superb tunes. Head to their soundcloud page to hear the rest (link below) and then try and catch them live - it's something well worth expeirencing. Definitely a band to keep an eye on.

Our Future Glory http://www.ourfutureglory.co.uk/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ourfutureglory?fref=ts
Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/ourfutureglory

LIVE REVIEW: THE INSOMNIAC PROJECT, NICE N SLEAZY GLASGOW 4 SEPTEMBER 2015

As you'll know from a recent post here, The Insomniac Project recently released their debut single, the superb In And Out (Of  My Head) and on Friday they played a lunch gig at Nice 'N' Sleazy, a gig that was quite superb. It was my first experience of the band live and it won't be my last - they have to be among one of the most exciting live bands in Glasgow at the moment.

The Insomniac Project live 4/9/15 - Photo courtesy of TV Eye Photography

The support act Our Future Glory kicked off the evening brilliantly with a set filled with superb indie electro tracks which impressed everyone around me and me too of course. More to come of them on here very soon. By the time The Insomniac Project came on stage, the room was full and the whole crowd was instantly into their dancefloor filling set. From the off they were on superb form with the LCD Soundsystem goes pop genius of Vacillation setting the tone for the gig. Songs that we familiar from their demo releases like Parallells and Breakaway were particular highlights, sounding more muscular and frankly, even funkier that their recorded versions. The band display a rare degree of confidence for a group at the stage they find themselves at and rightly so - the whole thing was hugely impressive and utterly, irrepressibly joyful. By the time the gig ended on In And Out (Of My Head  the whole room was grooving around in many and varied ways and there was no-one there who wouldn't have been delighted if The Insomniac Project played the whole gig again.

Ultimately, the most impressive thing about this gig was the sense you had that you were watching something very special indeed. The Insomniac Project may be in their early stages, but they have already worked out how to transfer the energy of their recorded tracks to the live stage and, surely, they are bound to attract larger and larger audiences and sooner rather than later. They are a band that you have to see live and I'd recommend you do that the next chance you get

NEW: SHARDS - AFTERWARDS

You might remember Shards' superb debut track Just To Get Something Started which I featured earlier this year and which also popped up on Volume 3 of Almost Scottish Fiction.  Well, the good news is that today they've released their second track, Afterwards, which you can download at no cost whatsoever below.

A more upbeat take on their trademark melancholitronica, Afterwards is a combination of darkly romantic lyrics and swirling electronica that is as instantly loveable as Just To Get Something Started and just as mesmerising. There's something very impressive about Shards and I can't wait until their next release.

Shards Facebook https://www.facebook.com/shardsmusic.band

NEW BANDS 2015 NO. 16 - SMASH WILLIAMS

So this is a very new band. As far as I can tell, Glasgow's Smash Williams haven't been going that long at all and, thus far, they only have one song up on Soundcloud. Fortunately, that song, A Splash Of Colour is an upbeat marvel: a riot of synths, guitars and melodies so lovely that you want to listen to it again, again and again. 

I was alerted to it by CHURCHES own Twitter feed and, let's face it, they know their way round glorious music. Have a listen below and keep an eye on Smash Williams. When I have more information and more tracks, I'll pass them on.

Smash Williams Twitter https://twitter.com/_smashwilliams

100,000 VIEWS AND COUNTING - THANK YOU

Today, views of the blog have passed 100,000. For something that started as a way for me to inflict my views on Depeche Mode's back catalogue on people other than my friends and my long suffering wife, the blog has grown into something I'm hugely proud of and something that I love. 100,000 views may not be a big thing for most blogs, but for me it's huge

I couldn't done any of this without any of you readers, so thank you very much. Thanks also to fellow blogs like Scottish Fiction, XS Noize, Podcart, Goldflake Paint and many more for inspiration and for sharing my stuff. I should say thank you to Depeche Mode themselves as they basically started this - give me a bell Martin. As well as them though, thanks to all the artists who have sent me music, granted me interviews and produced such great tunes - without you all this would only be the rantings of a seemingly deranged DM fan.

Finally, thanks to Pam x

We may as well end this on an appropriate note - have some ridiculously good music

NEW BANDS 2015 NO. 15 - HQFU

OK, strictly speaking this is a solo performer rather than a band per se, but it means I get to keep these new acts in a sequential order which will be important come the end of the year.

Anyway, the newest act to come across my radar is HQFU, the musical project of Glasgow based Sarah J Stanley. She produces quite marvellous eletronica that displays influences as diverse as straightforward synthpop, experimental electronica and even 90's dance music, an influence of Sarah's from tapes she used to nab from her brother. Here's the superb Dust & Dirt as a taster:

There are currently 4 tracks to have a listen to on the HQFU Soundcloud page (click). I'd particularly recommend Dust & Dirt and the excellent Sunburst which you can hear below.

HQFU's debut e.p. form which Dust & Dirt is taken will be released on 6 November. Catch HQFU live in Glasgow this Friday too at The Hug & Pint and keep an eye out for more dates via the links below. I'll have a review of the e.p. up here as soon as possible - I can't wait for this particular release.


HQFU official http://www.sarahjstanley.com/HQFU.html
HQFU Facebook https://www.facebook.com/HQFUHQFU?fref=nf