Coastal Skid Spy Wok v1.0

Here at Kowalskiy, we don't do podcasts.  But we do love SoundCloud.   I say "we" like there's some sort of office full of musical geeks trawling the net for the best up-and-coming Scottish bands.  There's not.  It's just me, on my lonesome.  Anyhoo, this is my first not-podcast.  A 'notcast' is you like, which will mainly consist of me sharing with you some of my favourite tracks, maybe even some free ones, currently doing the SoundCloud rounds with some textual babble in between.  After all, you don't want to hear my dulcet, Glaswegian tones cutting off the bands mid-song... 

First up we have a band I owe an apology... The Machine Room.  Over a month now I've had their words-cannot-describe-how-brilliant-it-really-is Love From A Distance EP to review.  It's out tomorrow (available here), yet my review is still... not!  Soon though, soon.  Until then, here's the opener Cost Of Progress to kick us off.

   Cost Of Progress by The Machine Room

If you don't like that, please leave now!  Still here?  Good, let's move onto something every bit as brilliant.  Staying the other side of the M8, here's Edinburgh Uni medical student (and all-round impressive guy) Fran O'Hanlon and his exquisite alter-ego Ajimal.  His debut single Footnote To Love [Part One] is out on March 19^th but you can pre-order it here!

   Footnote to Love [Part One] by Ajimal

Now that's as polished a track as you're likely to hear all year!  This next one, not so much.  But I love it all the same.  The man we have to thank, Mr. Jamie Orr a.k.a. Descant Hawk, is in an as-of-yet-unnamed band.  Going on these "ideas" he's sharing with us, he should get his finger out and get this band recording, because most of these "ideas" are a wee bit special already!

   Black Teeth by Descant Hawk

I could keep this up for aggggges.  There's loads of tracks I've come across on SoundCloud that have tickled my fancy in recent weeks.  But I'll go for three more.  I reckon any more would be pushing it.  OK, so next up we have something for all you '80s kids out there.  This (again!) Edinburgh band are a bunch of 'mavericks' if truth be told...

   Tom Cruise: Action Hero/Sex Submissive? by Toy Machine

We all got big cheesy grins now?  The thought of spanking Tom is something I'm sure we've all thought of at one time or another so it was about time someone just came out and said it.  Thank goodness for Toy Machine.  Let me just reiterate what the guys said, if anyone knows Tom, just pass that on eh?!  They're busy putting together their follow-up to their Council Flat Sessions EP available here for free.

This next one is still a wee bit of a mystery to me.  I've featured Salute Mary a few times on ye ol' blog.  Well, they'd gone a wee bit quiet as of late until this cracker appeared online.  Is it some long-awaited new material?  Is 'The Fourth Wall' some kind of side-project?  No idea!  What I do know though, is that it's a great, slow-burning, brooding beast of a tune.  Feast your ears!

   Weight Of Centuries (The Fourth Wall) by Salute Mary

I did say six, didn't I?  So time I got to the last one.  I may do another of these.  I've rather enjoyed it even if it's just a copy-and-paste job with very little originality.  In fact, that's pretty much why I like it.  Gotta love minimal effort!  Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed these six tracks.  Be sure to check out the half-dozen bands and mind to click the download arrows!  One or two of these are FREE!  Right, last one from The Son(s).  I'll let all those comments, and the song itself, do the talking!

   Underneath The Arbor by The Son(s)

...Toy Machine!

Another week, another great new Scottish band to introduce you all too.  I'm in danger of making this a regular, weekly thing.  It won't last though, I promise you!  Today, it's the turn of a rather fine Edinburgh trio, Toy Machine.  Before we hear from them, here's the first track from their FREE debut EP for you to have a wee listen to.  It's a home-recorded effort entitled Council Flat Sessions.  Does exactly what it says on the...

   I Feel Low by Toy Machine

Kowalskiy:  Who Are Toy Machine?
Leo: We are Toy Machine.

Graeme: We're not so much a band, more a way of life.

Dan: ... three strangers on the same path to enlightement through noise and sweat and sexy things.

Kowalskiy:  How would you describe 'your sound'?

Dan: Alice beating the white rabbit to death with her electric guitar.

Leo: Way to sell it Dan. Sure, if you like to get down and dirty and like to rock out then you’ll like it. We just released an EP for free on the good old world wide web so you can hear for yourself what awesome sounds like. Those songs were recorded a couple of weeks after we got together and seeing a live show now is a different experience: we’re so into making it exciting and urgent for the audience that we’re always pushing the sounds and the songs onwards.

Graeme: The songs have depth and variation: our live shows don't confront you with a wall of noise. Each instrument brings it's own food to the table, which ultimately makes for a tasty treat. See us live and you'll dance, you'll kiss, you'll jump about. But we're not into following the trend, there's no ukeles on stage.

Leo: That's for sure. Bands that play shows where they mope about on stage, playing their record note for note are so god damn boring it makes me die a little. You need a fire inside you if you want to stay alive and our sound is about that.

Kowalskiy:  PLUG AWAY!!!

Leo: Toy Machine should be huge, the songs and live shows speak for themselves: we like free shows and we like free beer so we try to bring those ideals to our shows when we can, you should come along and experience.

Dan: Absolutely. We will keep it fresh, evolving and surprising: eccentric, eclectic and electric.

Graeme: In our live shows, there's always that heightened sense of energy and the unexpected.

Kowalskiy:  What can we expect from Toy Machine in the future?

Leo: Raucous musical adventure played far and wide, the creation of a legion of super mice trained to do our bidding, endless overblown pronouncements on our imminent but not yet realised multinational success…

Dan: More records, gigs and sublime artwork.

Graeme: Mugs, t-shirts, tweets, podcasts and stage invasions. I also like the idea of having our own Toy Machine soup, although the EU will probably demand we change the name of it as I suspect it'll contain neither Toys or Machines (sigh).

   Come On, Get Better by Toy Machine

Their great Council Flat Sessions is out now for free over here and features that above gem which could've been lifted straight off Lou Reed's Transformer.  More of the same please guys! If you fancy seeing the guys live, they'll be headlining the Love Music Hate Racism weekend at The Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh College of Art on Sunday 27^th November