Coastal Skid Spy Wok v13.0

In a chance to the scheduled notcast, you've got me again to babble my way through my new favourites on SoundCloud.  Next Sunday though, once the GoNess/RockNorth musical happenings are out of the way, we'll have that special guest notcaster.  Still, there's plenty of great tracks here to keep you entertained.  First up, a new track (with the longest, most-hyphenated title imaginable) from those lads in The Beautiful Lies recorded specially for Scottish Fiction. 

   The Pale King (The Ever-Declining Returns Of The Never-Ending Youth) by The Beautiful Lies

How's that to kick things off?!  Let's follow that up with a track from one of my favourite EPs of the year so far.   Will there be a more fun release this year than the debut from Edinburgh's Toy Machene?  Is that sentence even grammatically good?  Don't know, don't care.  Here's their eponymous tale of unrequited, possibly cougar-related, love.

   Toy Machine by Toy Machene

Right, here's another question... is there a better indie label in our fair land than Armellodie?  The answer is... maybe, possibly yes.  But if that is the case, our paths have not crossed yet.  With a series of gigs on the horizon, they'll be all like 'in your face' in the coming months.  Here's one of their finest rosterees with one of their finest tracks.

   This One's Not Waiting by Le Reno Amps (courtesy of Armellodie)

It's all been quite rocky so far.  So here's a wee breather for you.

   Tiger by Bronto Skylift

All relaxed?  Good stuff.  Here's the next one from Dirty Keys.  It's an unmastered version of one of the tracks from their upcoming album The End And The Exit.  I've heard it and it's gonna knock your socks off.  With any luck, there'll be more on that in due course!

   Urban Adventure Land (unmastered) by Dirty Keys

Penultimate one then.  Great to have some new material from Edinburgh School For The Deaf.  God help those little blighters, cos this is a delight to the ears.  I have absolutely no idea what she's saying though... 

   La Nostalgie De La Boue (demo) by Edinburgh School For The Deaf

And so, we come to the end.  Hope you've enjoyed this week's tracks.  Next week we will have that guest notcaster.  My lips are sealed as to who it shall be though.  Changing the subject quickly... here's one of Campfires In Winter's brilliant new tracks.  Enjoy!

   Twelve Thousand Drops by Campfires In Winter

Kowalskiy's Free Monthly 5-track Scottish EP #23

Oooft!  Hard to believe that these Kowalskiy EPs are 23 already.  How time flies!  Kowalskiy though, is a wee bit older than that unfortunately.  More so today, for 'tis my birthday.  Awww... look at him with his wee hat!  So, with that in mind, I spent the last month hand-picking five of my favourite Scottish artists to make this EP all the more special.  In one case, I had specialness thrust upon me as a band volunteered a belter of a track, and in another, my pestering led to me receiving a rare gem from one of Scottish music's gone-but-not-forgotten favourites....    

1.  Northern Alliance - Casiopolis (...and here is said favourites.  I'd urge anyone to hunt down their albums, as well as getting a hold of Doug Johnstone's own solo EP over here.)

"This is an old Northern Alliance instrumental that never seemed to fit on an album, but we kind of liked it. It's called 'Casiopolis' because it was recorded entirely using old Casiotone keyboards, putting them through guitar pedals and such like, I seem to recall. It sounds quite creepy and soundtracky, so when I came to make a trailer for my latest novel, Hit & Run, it was an obvious choice for the music. It was released on a Fence compilation as 'Xmas on the Ocean Floor', I think." - Doug Johnstone (Northern Alliance)

Speaking of Doug's new novel, you can download it over here on the Kindle Store.

2.  Fiction Faction - Turquoise Noise (I was convinced I'd featured Fiction Faction before for some reason.  So they got fed up waiting to be asked and sent me this brilliant taster from their upcoming album.)

"Turquoise Noise was recorded pretty quickly, everything was one take. It was only a b-side to our last single but already many folk have said its one of their favourite tracks of ours. Its picked up some radio play too by BBC Introducing and will be included on our debut album which is being recorded this summer. The song comes courtesy of Saraseto Records who released the some earlier in the year." - David Richards (Fiction Faction)

3.  Letters - Older Motion Pictures (acoustic for Fresh Air) (Letters, I had featured before.  But, since they're one of my favourite bands around, I managed to sweet talk them into parting with this acoustic version of the title track from their upcoming debut EP.)

"I chose this mainly so the rest of the band can laugh at me. We're quite strict with each other in practice and I'm always the first to throw my tuppence worth in when someone makes a mistake. As you'll note from the second line here, I fluff the words, much to everyone's amusement!  We're not really into the acoustic thing, but we think this sounds quite nice stripped down, it's a fairly simple song anyway so it lends itself well to this setting. The people at Fresh Air (Jude Dryden and Brian Pokora) were liking it so hopefully everyone else does." - Mikey Ferguson (Letters)

 

Letters are busy bees gearing up for the release of their absolutely stunning, mind-blowingly brilliant, superlative-dripping EP on the 19^th of May.

4.  Foxhunting - Damocles (EP version) (Here's a unsettlingly-talented young 'un from Aberdeen with a track from his early EP.  It was reworked for his brilliant debut album last year.)

"Damocles is probably the most consistently visceral song I've ever written. It's based on a hypothetical situation with young lovers not being able to express themselves for fear of persecution, but to be honest I wrote it because I liked the strumming patterns I came up with ;) It appears on Come On Sweetheart, Take My Hand, an album you can pour money onto over at foxhunting.bandcamp.com" - Joe Sutherland a.k.a. Foxhunting

5.  The Beautiful Lies - For Far Too Long (Only came across this Glasgow bunch recently, but already I'm finding it hard to stop listening to their demos online.  Here's one they re-recorded last week for this EP.)

"We've had this song for a while but we always keep coming back to it. Feels like the perfect song to close a gig, and we always seem to get completely lost in it whenever we play it live." - Paul Duncan (The Beautiful Lies)

And speaking of playing it live...  The Beautiful Lies will be playing The Berkeley Suite in Glasgow this very night, and The 13^th Note on the 6^th of June.

Let me just say a huge thank you to all 5 for contributing this month.   I really hope you all like it as much as I do.  All you have to do to get your free copy is to click on the artwork above, or here for that matter.  While you're there, help yourself to the other 22.   The next KEP will be out one month today.  As ever, if you wanna record a special version of something for me, or contribute something else you think might tickle my fancy, then you can send me a wee email (kowalskiy2@gmail.com) and we'll go from there.  I shall be pestering bands in due course though!

Coastal Skid Spy Wok v5.0

Happy Easter folks!  Hope you enjoyed the tracks chosen last week by the wonderful Mr. K. P. Son. Since I've had almost two weeks off from doing this notcast lark, there's been a load of new songs on SoundCloud that I'm itching to share with you. As has become the norm, here's half-a-dozen for you with some textual babble thrown in for good measure.

Kicking things off this week is a song which I've played on loop since it was uploaded. Like many Scottish bands, Edinburgh's Letters have been busy over the last few weeks uploading their trio of T Break entries. If they're not on the bill this summer on the back of their three tracks, then the world will have officially gone doolally! Here's one of them, the title track from their upcoming debut EP, Older Motion Pictures.

Older Motion Pictures by Letters

Now, don't tell me you're not impressed.  Seriously... don't!  This band is supoib!  It's funny how things turn out sometimes.  After I'd favourited that track, and said favouritation was sent around twitter, I got chatting to another band who, up 'til then, had flown under my radar.  But no more thanks to their impressive early demos.  A name to take note of folks... The Beautiful Lies.

    Youth Passing Through by The Beautiful Lies

And this next chap ain't half bad either.  Nice chap too.  All those months/years ago, Paul Kelly was one of the five artists I emailed asking if they'd like to road test an idea I had - to be on the first of my free monthly 5-track Scottish EPs.  He, or rather, The Martial Arts, said yes and kindly allowed me to help unleash the demo of Empty Out Here on the world.  Well, it's been almost 2 years but he's now got two more for us.  It's a toughie, but here's my favourite of the pair.  Both are free by the way!

   Nicechap (demo) by The Martial Arts

Right, not wanting to sound like a miserable bastard, but it's no coincidence that if you say T in the Park backwards, it kinda sound like Crap, innit?  The only reason you'd get me anywhere near Balado these days is for T Break.  Especially given one of the other sets I've been listening to.  I assume it's for T Break submission anyway.   Why Trapped Mice still fulfill the 'unsigned' criterion to enter is a fucking travesty!  Still, they are, so for now lets just be thankful that we're getting to hear their three new tracks.  You have no idea how tempted I was to finish off the notcast with all three, but I resisted.  

   Arthur's Seat by Trapped Mice

That's yer Trapped Mice lot!  The other two tracks can be heard over here.  Two more then that's your notcast lot for the week too.  I should probably stop favouriting tracks to be honest since it probably gives you an idea what I'm gonna include here.  So it may come as no surprise, but I love the latest single from Aerials Up.  The Old and the Innocent is out now and you can get your grubby mitts on it over here.   

   The Old and the Innocent by Aerials Up

Signing us off this week we have someone who just launched her new album last night in Edinburgh.  By all accounts, the night was pretty special, and so too is the album itself.  I am of course talking about The Seed by Plum a.k.a. Shona Maguire.  You can buy the album here.  To whet your appetite in the meantime, have a listen to the title track below.   'Til next week...

   The Seed by Plum