Kowalskiy's Free Monthly 5-track Scottish EP #13

The Second Year of Free EPs starts here... a half hour late!  Ah well, hopefully you'll agree it's worth the wait.  Once again, I've pestered five of the country's best up-and-coming bands for a track, and they've come up trumps again this month.  You know the drill by now, but if not, click the cover art to get your free download.  Here's the five brilliant bands on KEP#13... 

1. Echo Arcadia - Lucinda (Room Demo) (An exclusive bedroom recording of their debut EP track.  Prepare to be blown away!)

"Lucinda is a song that has rather deep personal meaning to me, it's about the moment I realised that I didn't need a religion to have faith. It forms part of our 'Broken Chapters' EP, with the songs on it carving a journey of events through my life." if that floats your boat, 'Broken Chapters' is available on iTunes etc" - Leigh Moyes (Echo Arcadia)

2. Verse Metrics - Oscillations (These guys have only gone and given me half of their upcoming single to give away!)

"This is one of the tracks from our second release, the double-A-side "Sleep &Wakefulness". The idea with these tracks was to layer several guitar parts and have them recurring on a loop for part of the song, as we did with Horoscopes on our first EP, then write everything else starting from the loop and see where it took us. I think Robin lost a few years of his life mixing it!   Official launch night is Tue 19th July where we're playing at King Tut's Summer Nights - should be a great night with Found, Bermuda and Cancel The Astronauts also on the bill." - Bob Dick (Verse Metrics)

3. Letters - Flash! Lights (demo) (The original demo to their amazing new, also free, single!)

"Just as a wee disclaimer, I don't like to think of myself as a whiner or some attention seeking faux manic depressive. But if I'm being completely honest, Flash! lights is about everything that's wrong with me. Anger management, impatience, drive, fear of under achievement, letting go of the past and feeling completely dwarfed by the possibilities of time. It's not exactly original source material but we always try to write things that have been said or done to death and put our own sound and lyrical style to it.   We recorded it with one of our good mates and producer extraordinaire Stephen Watkins in the presence of Tom Nicol and Fiona McNab (the other two brains of TAPE) up in Aviemore and the chorus reminds me of standing in front of a microphone that looked out through a massive bay window on to the Cairngorms. I was extremely hungover after hitting it HARD with Kerr the night before when we went to see 'The Last Battle', which is probably why the vocals are so husky.  The big sound we normally go for probably doesn't come through in this demo as much as it does in the mastered single version (available for free at www.wewriteletters.co.uk/music) but I remember the first time Stephen played the demo back to me and I had that oxymoronic feeling of being joyously sad when I heard the chorus the first time. Same feeling I got when Georgie played her cello line to the intro and that part of the song." - Mikey Ferguson (Letters)

4. Campfires In Winter - Before The Owl Will Fly (One of three new 'very, very rough demos' from Boab et al.)

"To put it simply, this song is about the death of someone close to you. However, the lyrics approach it in a more optimistic direction, looking to find the positives that came from knowing that person and the influence they had on you. It wasn't written specifically about any one person in my life, but it has been influenced by a few people I've known. My intention was to write something which pretty much anyone can listen to and apply to their own experiences. Hopefully people can connect to it in some way." - Boab Canavan (Campfires In Winter)

5. Daniel and the Lions - Of The Times (We'll end this month with a great wee demo from the man that brought us Dalyrimple Goes Wrong.)

"'Of the Times' is a demo from what's going to be an EP from my band - Daniel and the Lions. It's all still in the pipeline, but will be released eventually.  I'm pretty crappy at plugs, but I think as Matthew (Loch Awe) says, "Here is some music, I hope you like it. You can get more, for free, at www.dalyrimplegoeswrong.bandcamp.com..." - Daniel Parry (Daniel and the Lions)

Get your grubby mitts on the EP now for free over on my bandcamp page, along with all those from the last 12 months!

Next month there'll be more of the same, five great free tracks from Scotland's finest!  As always, if any bands out there who fancy making my life that wee bit easier and want to volunteer a track for one of these EPs, then send me a wee email too and see if it tickles my fancy.  Enjoy!

Kowalskiy (Belated) Belated Review #5

Verse Metrics - VM1
With all the recent festivities and my album of 2010 countdown, this Belated Review is pretty late even by my standards.  Originally released back in November, VM1 is the first release from Glasgow's post-rockers Verse Metrics.  One of the few bands the Scottish blogging community went weak at the knees for at the tail-end of 2010.  And quite rightly so, VM1 is an assured, impressive debut from a band who only started gigging 6 months ago.  Over the festive period, opening track Tired Lights has been the one song that's been stuck in my head, thanks to its dark, brooding chorus and repeated refrain.  Both beg to be sung back by scores of sweaty fans... something I think the band might just have to get used to in the future!  Each of the 5 songs on their debut mark Verse Metrics out as a band to keep an eye on this year, but it's closing track Sad Bones (live under beautiful bridges) which steals the show for me.  Sure, it might not be its chorus etched into my brain, but with its majestic opening alone, is it any wonder it stands out!   Mark my words... expect to hear a whole lot more from these guys!

Supermarionation - On The Fly EP
Was I the only one who heard the name Supermarionation and expected some geeky kid who'd locked himself in his bedroom, hooked his old SNES up to his laptop and set about recreating the Super Mario World soundtrack?  No, just me?  Well anyway, that couldn't be further from the truth here.  They're a 3-piece from Edinburgh who tow the fine line between pop-punk and hard-hitting, ballsy rock.  Their debut On The Fly EP is most certainly a grower.  At first, maybe because of my wrong preconception or my general indifference to the rock genre, I was a bit underwhelmed.  Now I've had a month or so to digest it, and taking 'belated' to new extremes in the process, I'm glad to say I appreciate it for what it is... a damn fine debut and I'd even go as far as to say, in places, its ter-riff-ic!  Those places are, more often than not, heard on the opening two tracks - the standout, rollicking opener Those Home Girls which (sticking with the computer game theme) could easily be a bonus stage on that heroic guitar-based game, and The Rising Tide.  With a combination of the great intro, pounding bassline, and the contrasting Nick Cave-esque vocals, the latter works a treat.  The punky The Ashes Of Love has its moments too and shows this trio have a few more strings to their bow.  A promising start from "Scotland's hottest up-and-coming new band" (The Metro).

Randolph's Leap - Battleships & Kettle Chips EP
Last but not least, quite the opposite in fact, it's the the mighty folk-pop ensemble Randolph's Leap with what is officially their debut EP.  Not just any ol' EP mind you... arguably the best EP of 2010.  I've been a fan of the band, led by unassuming frontman Adam Ross, for a while now thanks to his intelligent, quirky songwriting and their never-ending string of faultless, pop melodies.  There's 5 perfect examples on this EP.  From the slow-burning, shuffling folk epic Going Home, through the smart, verseless break-up tale Back To Square One, to the stupid-smile-inducing la-la-la's of Undergod, a what-if glimpse into Adam's self-deprecation and general (but accepted) weirdness.  The EP is the first release by Olive Grove Records.  You've sadly missed out on the Sooper Dooper CD Package, complete with hand-knitted sleeve and frisbee, but the EP can be downloaded over here.  Sticking my neck out now (not much though), but you will not be disappointed!