A brilliant new release from the former Arab Strap vocalist!

Learn all about How To Get To Heaven here.

Wanna own an expanded limited edition version of the LP?

If so, then e-mail us ASAP!

A winner will be randomly selected on 4/20 @ NOON.

Visit Aidan Moffat at his official site.

MP3: Aidan Moffat - The Last Kiss

NME is reporting that at last night’s Mogwai gig, in accordance with the Summer Series of outdoor shows at London’s Somerset House, the Scottish post-rockers collaborated on stage with Aidan Moffat, formerly of Arab Strap!

Aidan sang the vocal for ‘Are U Still In 2 It?’ from the band’s debut, Young Team and it was reportedly amazing. For upcoming Mogwai tour dates check here.

MP3: Mogwai - Cody

Last night was Arab Strap’s final gig in Glasgow. I wasn’t there (bastards didn’t reply to my email begging to be allowed onto the list), but even without that, this morning I woke up feeling dirty and used. After 10 years of following the Strap and their curmudgeonly ways, I’m sorry to see them go, especially after the demise of fellow-Chemikal Underground act The Delgados; it’s a real shame, given that Aiden Moffat and Malcolm Middleton did much more than spread their own brand of debauched miserablism around the place, but were actually capable of some real moments of beauty. As well as singing about cocks and STDs.

Here’s to ya, guys, and success in whatever awaits!

Arab Strap - Where We’ve Left Our Love

Arab Strap - Xmas (Baby please come home)

Buy Arab Strap records from amazon.

*via Gimme Back My Head; cheers!

You know, I’ve just realised that I’ve liked an awful lot of records this year, and I might still be going at this in June. Still, I’ve started and I’m bloody well going to finish. We Skye-folk don’t know the meaning of ‘outstaying your welcome’, and I’m not about to learn it now…

Sigur Ros - Meo Blódnasir

I don’t think I really have to say much to introduce this band; we’ve written a fair amount about them here already (here and here, for example), and it is probably enough to say that they are pretty popular round these parts. This is one of the shorter tracks from Takk, but it is quite representative of the beauty of the whole. A fabulous record from a fabulous band.

Malcolm Middleton - No Modest Bear

On a completely different tack, and to be quite honest, on something of a different tack from his album Into the Woods, here’s Malcolm Middleton in thumping-drummed, electro-punk mode. Much of Into the Woods is of a similar kind of quiet, introspective material to that of the mighty Arab Strap, perhaps a little more upbeat. But this is the record of someone enjoying themselves, and while you still can’t dance to it, you might nonetheless be able to shoogle your bahookie about a bit.
Christmas bonus: Malcolm Middleton - Burst Noel

Goldfrapp - Fly Me Away

I really love Alison Goldfrapp. If I was slightly less well balanced, I’d probably be hiding in the bushes outside her house right now. Supernature was a great record, with some great dancin’ tunes (for me, Supernature’s bopfactor is only slightly lower than the first couple of tracks on Madonna’s new record and the entirety of Girls Aloud’s Chemistry). Ooh La La is a real highlight, but many of the other tracks on the record also stand out, and Fly Me Away is a lot of fun; well worth a listen (if you haven’t already).

Stellastarr* - Sweet Troubled Soul

Now I have to admit, that while I really like Harmonies for the Haunted, it isn’t one of my records of the year. This track, however - is flippin’ awesome. It came on in the office one day while I was listening to the album (and thinking that I wasn’t that hugely struck by it), and it just blew me away. Trying to decide whether it deserved to be posted, I listened to it on the way into work yesterday; by the time I’d reskipped to listen to it for the fourth time, and I knew that I’d be sticking it up here. It’s just that great.

I will be back; for I still have much work to do here.

Megaupload links:
Sigur Ros - Meo Blódnasir
Malcolm Middleton - No Modest Bear
Malcolm Middleton - Burst Noel
Goldfrapp - Fly Me Away
Stellastarr* - Sweet Troubled Soul

…not a reference to last week’s somewhat out of place Chrimbo tunes from the Fence Collective, but instead a line from Malcolm Middleton’s excellent new album, Into the Woods. Which I’ve been mentioning on here for ages without actually owning a copy. But now, lucky for me, and for you lucky people who get to hear what I think about it, I have actually shelled out some shiny golden beer tokens, and bought the damn thing.

I’ve been listening to Middleton with foul foil Aiden Moffat via the mighty Arab Strap (the band for whom Belle & Sebastian’s 1998 track and album ‘The Boy with the Arab Strap’ was named, fact fans; anyone fancy taking a pop at which t.v. show featured an instrumental version of the track as it’s theme?) for ages now, and have always been massively entertained/appalled by the sheer filth and misery that spew out of the Strap’s dark, dark mind. Broken relationships, seedy sexual shenanigans taking place in alleys, unfaithfulness (”It was the biggest cock you’d ever seen / But you’d no idea where that cock had been / You said you were careful, you never were with me / I heard you did it four times / But johnnies come in packs of three”, ‘Packs of Three’), tales all told in a downbeat tone and with often the barest of even-further-downbeat melodies; characters unable to commit to a relationship, or be committed to in return (the album title ‘Philophobia’ literally translating as ‘fear of love’). And yet, often uncovering a golden heart in everyday heartbreak, as an unnamed narrator describes to an ex the reasons he can’t go back to her for a one night stand, taking his own stand against easy infidelity; (”And you can’t remember how she kissed, and now you’ve got the chance to find out / but you have to remember there’s this other kiss / and she’s sitting at home, wondering where you are / and what you’re doing / and you worked hard on this kiss and you know it inside out, and it’s as much yours as it is hers / and it took a long time to get right / two months of practice and months of embarassment / and now you’ve got it perfect / and you’ve been looking forward to that kiss all week”, ‘New Birds’).

Yet even with other projects there remains a dark heart to Middleton and Moffat’s writing; guest spots on both Reindeer Section albums (led by Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol fame, but featuring members of practically every band on the planet) have seen a marriage of Lightbody’s lighter musical material with some equally depressive lyrics (”You crack a joke about a mid-life crisis / but realistically, I’m already half way gone / my eyes are wet when I’m watching the telly / I’m completely sober and I’m not even sure what’s on”, ‘Whodunnit’). Perhaps a solo career will bring with it a slightly cheerier mode of mind?

It might appear to with a first listen to ‘Into the Woods’, which brings some incredibly sunny pop (yes! pop!) style tunes; fantastically self-referential opener ‘Break my heart’ begins with an upbeat burst, sustained throughout the whole song, even if it doesn’t seem like that can be possible from the opening lines; “You’re gonna break my heart I know it / but if you don’t / you’re gonna break my run of unhappiness / destroy my career”. Yet while the song suggests that break up and heartbreak are the inevitable results of any relationship, it goes on to document the relationship’s strength; if the relationship is going to end, then it appears that it can only happen if Middleton himself ends it from sheer bloody mindedness.

And the album retains and builds on this happier foundation; going via a few darker spots, sure, but there’s nothing here as relentless as the misery found on the Arab Strap material. Middleton hasn’t lost his downhearted edge; “Last year I got knives at Christmas / Stayed at home and no-one missed us / lying on the bathroom floor / don’t wanna ho ho ho no more”, ‘Burst Noel’. But for any darkness, there’s twice, three times as much in the way of the lighter side of life; these aren’t easy relationships, it’s true, but Middleton expresses a warmth and a tenderness born from what, going by previous output, must have been a pretty huge amount of being a miserable bastard.

This is a record that suggests, both musically and lyrically, that there is relationship redemption for all, even including the most sceptical, bloody minded bastards out there. If going into the woods is a classic fairy tale beginning, suggestive of danger as well as adventure, here it seems that there just might also be the possibility of a happy ending (even if it might just not be forever…). As in all the best fairy tales, no risk, and no gain; for once Middleton seems to think that the risk was worth it.

The BBC reports on Tartanpodcast.co.uk, podcasting new Scottish music. Last week’s sleepy Sunday show features an overwhelming song from Northsouth, among others.

KT Tunstall’s fan forum hosts a number of live performances (including the excellent Edinburgh Liquid Rooms show from March 4th) - but you’ll need to Register.

Franz Ferdinand want fans to help them put together a new DVD (from NME.com).

I really want a copy of Sons & Daughters new album The Repulsion Box; I also want Malcolm from Arab Strap’s new solo (although featuring members of the now defunct and sorely missed Delgados) record, Into the Woods. For completeness’ sake, I want a deluxe boxed edition of Belle & Sebastian’s Push Barman To Open Old Wounds, despite having the singles already (including the Lazy Line Painter Jane box set. Ha!)

If anyone fancies buying these for me, I’d be really grateful.