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.

ARBITRARY DEPECHE MODE THINGS NO. 2 - THE ALTERNATIVE PLAYING THE ANGEL TITLES

Depeche Mode's 2005 album Playing The Angel was the first one the band released when internet piracy was prevalent. 2001's Exciter might have attracted some attention piracy wise, but it was nowhere near as easy to get your hands on early leaks in 2001 as it was in 2005. Mindful of the risks of exposing the dark beauty of Playing The Angel too early, advance watermarked cd's were sent out to reviewers, pluggers and so on of an album called Dark Force by a mysterious band called Black Swarm. Some of these cds contained the 12 tracks we know as Playing The Angel but others contain a different beast altogether.

The other cds still say the album is Dark Force  by Black Swarm, but the tracklisting is:

1. Aggravated Condition

2. Sturm Und Drang

3. Maximum Sufferance

4. The Crucifixion Of The Sinners

5. The Night of The Damaged

6. Darkness At Zethanon

7. The Final Temptation Of Lucretia

8. Bloodied Soul, Crushed By The Monlith 

9. Sweet Blackness Of Night

10. Annihilation Of The Innocent

11. Pain And Suffering In Various Tempos

12. Final Redemption: Battle The Dark Forces

As you'll see, titles more suited to a Norwegian death metal band. I imagine that if you were a reviewer who liked that kind of music, hearing Precious instead of The Night Of The Damaged  or Macro instead of Darkness At Zethanon may have tipped you over the edge.

I'd love to know who chose the song titles...

MARTIN GORE - MG EP FULL DETAILS

Full details have been released of Martin Gore's new e.p. MG E.P.

It will be released on 9 October on double 12" and features five tracks including two new ones. The tracklisting is:

A: Europa Hymn (Andy Scott Remix)

B1: Brink (Virgil Enzinger Vinyl Edit)

B2: Pinking (Christoffer Berg Remix)

C: De Nada

D: Gifting

The e.p. can be pre-ordered from Mute here http://www.mutebank.co.uk/mutebank/mutebank/MG-EP/4VRU0000000

Now, you might remember from a previous piece on here (click) that Martin was running a competition for fans to submit a remix of Featherlight for inclusion on this release. As the keen eyed among you will see, there's no such remix on the double vinyl set. The winning remix by Mantra Of Machines might end up available digitally but there's no word on that yet. Have a listen to it below. On his Facebook page, Martin said that the task of choosing the winner had left him "on the verge of madness" - hopefully that means he had fun. 

Martin Gore Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MartinGore?fref=ts

FLETCH TO GO ON THE ROAD

Hot on the heels of Dave & Soulsavers' tour, Andy Fletcher is hitting the road with a series of DJ slots around Europe. Andy promises "a new and dynamic set" which he'll hopefully bring to the UK at some point.

Picture courtesy of depechemode.com

Fletch's DJ dates are celebratory affairs - little surprise given that Andy the most affable, fan facing member of Depeche Mode. Many people overlook Andy's role in the band and it deserves recognition that without him in the background, especially during the band's darker years, we probably wouldn't have the band as a going concern today. Let's face it, Andy has the job all us DM fans want - the band's biggest fan playing in the best band there is. No-one should have anything other than respect for Fletch.

Anyway, the DJ dates are:

October 3 - Stereo Plaza, Kiev

October 22 - Viennale International Film Festival, Viennna

October 23 - Ringlokschuppen, Bielefeld

October 31 - Warehouse Club, Rome

November 7 - KB3 Club, Copenhagen

November 27 - Taubchenthal, Leipzig

All ticket details here http://www.depechemode.com/news/

TURTLE - IT'S A GOOD THING

Hot on the heels of May's Colours E.P, Glasgow's Jon Cooper a.k.a Turtle has just released his debut album It's A Good Thing through Bandcamp. To these ears, it's a huge leap on from Turtle's previous releases, stripping the music back and going for a more minimal, lo-fi feel in places, which helps the raw emotions of certain songs shine through. Cooper's vocals are prominent which makes tracks like the superb Adverse Effect and Just A Test stand out, giving the songs a Thom Yorke like feel which is a delight. The latter track's instrumental last minute and a half is pure electronic heaven too.

Fans of Turtle will recognise all the elements that brought Turtle to so many people's attention from the off with clever electronics merging with genuine songwriting talent throughout. For a debut album though, there's an impressive degree of confidence here and justifiably so. Slower instrumentals like Point Of Change,  an Eno like piano led piece, merge happily with dancier tracks like Solar or Bruce Lee, and the album flows nicely from beginning to end. 14 tracks is maybe a track or two too many but that's a minor quibble - when there are hazy, gorgeous songs like Body and Daytime Television to lose yourself in, you can easily forgive that. All said and done, It's A Good Thing is an album that is bound to appeal to electronica fans of all types as there is an awful lot here to love. It's an album I'd highly recommend.

It's A Good Thing by Turtle is available now on Turtle's Bandcamp page at http://iamturtle.bandcamp.com/releases

ERASURE - 30TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS

If you like pop music, you should like Erasure. Vince Clarke and Andy Bell have been responsible for some of the greatest British pop music ever released with tracks like A Little Respect, Love To Hate You and Blue Savannah known to anyone who has listened to music since the late 1980's . This year the band are celebrating their 30th anniversary which, for someone who grew up loving them at high school, makes me feel very old indeed.

Anniversary celebrations are becoming more and more prevalent and whilst some seem a tad unnecessary, Erasure's celebration is more than warranted. To kick it off, the band are releasing Sometimes (2015)  on 23 October. It's a brand new remix by David Wrench and, as you can hear below, it's a superb take on Erasure's breakthrough single. Instead of mucking around with the song, Wrench has made a few subtle tweaks and beefed it up where it needs beefed up. Impressive stuff indeed.

The single is followed by a new best of collection, Always - The Very Best Of Erasure on 30 October. You might wonder whether another best of is needed as we've thus far had Pop! The First 20 Hits (which along with Pet Shop Boys' Discography is the definitive British pop singles album), Hits! The Very Best Of Erasure, Total Pop! The First 40 Hits, Pop 2! The Second 20 Hits and Essential. The alcum will be released on CD, download and deluxe 3cd/download and it's the latter that really grabs your attention. Yes, the single cd version contains what is basically the manual on how to write classic pop, but I'd be surprised if any Erasure fans didn't have all its songs in many different formats already. The two additional cd will be what the band's fans really want to get their hands on as they contain a number of classic and originally released only on limited edition 12" and cd single remixes, together with four brand new mixes. The tracklisting for the album is:

CD1: Who Needs Love Like That/Oh L'Amour/Sometimes/Victim Of Love/The Circus/Ship Of Fools/Chains Of Love/A Little Respect/Stop!/Drama!/Blue Savannah/Chorus/Love To Hate You/Take A Chance On Me/Always/Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer's Day)/Breathe/Be With You/Elevation/Sometimes (2015)

CD2: Who Needs Love Like That (Mexican Mix)/Oh L'Amour (PWL Funky Sisters Say "Ooh La La")/The Circus (Eternal Eraser Mix)/A Little Respect (Big Train Remix)/Stop! (Vince Clarke Sync 82 Remix)/Blue Savannah (Der Deutsche Mix II)/ Chorus (Vegan Mix)/Love To Hate You (LFO Modulated Filter Mix)/ Always (Microbots Inside Your Brain remix)/ Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer's Day) (Tin Tin Out Remix)/ Breathe (GRN Remix)/ Elevation (BT Remix)

CD3: Victim Of Love (Vixen Vitesse Remix)/ Chains Of Love (Vince Clarke Remix)/ Drama! (Krucial Remix)/ You Surround Me (Mark Saunders Remix)/ Star (Interstella Mix)/ Am I Right (The Grid Remix)/ Run To The Sun (Beatmasters' Galactic Remix)/ In My Arms (BBE Remix)/ Freedom (Mark Pichiotti Strumapella Remix)/ Be With You (Starshapes Remix)/ Sometimes (Erasure & Flood Mix)

There are so many classic Erasure remixes on there that you really should check out if you haven't already heard them. The likes of Drama! (Krucial Remix), Chorus (Vegan Mix) and A Little Respect (Big Train Remix) hark back to a time when remixes were proper remixes rather than just generic club nonsense. I'd highly recommend the 3CD verison of this release.

The band aren't stopping there either. 2016 will see a deluxe super box set reissue of the band's 1985 debut album Wonderland which will come stuffed to the gills with all manner of good things. A 180g vinyl reissue campaign of the band's first three albums, Wonderland, The Circus and The Innocents will kick off in February 2016 too. Here's hoping the reissues continue with a reissue of Chorus, which for me is the band's best work and one of the definitive electronic pop albums.

Until then however, dig into the new Best Of and start celebrating Erasure. They are one of the most important British pop acts of all time and equally one of the most important electronic acts of all time. It's time to fall in love with them again.

Sometimes (2015) is released on 23 October 2015 and Always - The Very Best Of Erasure on 30 October 2015 both on the home of great music Mute Records.

DAVE GAHAN & SOULSAVERS - ANGELS & GHOSTS

The Soulsvaers and Dave Gahan project The Light The Dead See was a real unexpected treat in the gap between Depeche Mode's Sounds Of The Universe and Delta Machine. Unlike Dave's previous solo work, which I didn't really find to my tastes, The Light The Dead See was a lovely album, filled with gloomy, dark yet uplifting songs that suited Dave's voice perfectly. Today, the now named Dave Gahan and Soulsavers (unlike just Soulsavers last time) have announced their new album Angels & Ghosts which comes out on cd, vinyl and download on 23 October.

The album features nine new tracks:

1. Shine

2. You Owe Me

3. Tempted

4. All Of This And Nothing

5. One Thing

6. Don't Cry

7. Lately

8. The Last Time

9. My Sun

Presumably track 1 isn't a cover of the Depeche track ;). A video for All Of This And Nothing has been released today and you can watch and listen below. I've taken to the track straightaway I must say. Dave is sounding superb which is a great thing in itself.

As well as all this news, Dave Gahan and Soulsavers will be playing a small tour with 6 dates which are:

19 October - The Theatre at Ace Hotel, Los Angeles

22 October - Town Hall, New York

26 October - Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

30 October - Tempodrom, Berlin

2 November - La Cigale, Paris

4 November - Fabrique, Milan

Tickets go on sale on 18 September. The gigs are certainly hugely tempting as the chance to see Dave perform in such small venues (compared to his usual stages at least) is something I really don't want to miss. Hearing both of the Dave and Soulsavers albums live will be pretty cool too.

Finally, Dave is being interviewed on BBC Radio 6 tomorrow, Friday 11 September. I don't know times or what show he'll be on yet but will put that up on Twitter (@davidjmcelroy and @almostprdalmost) when I know.

All in all, this sounds like a really interesting project. And just think - once that's done it'll soon be Depeche Mode time again.....