Category: Music Feature

Buzz Cutz – April Albums Pt 1 – Broken Chanter, Brontës, Sports Frock & The Twilight Sad

May 18, 2026 By neilho27@sky.com

Still playing catch up with reviews of my favourite albums from 2026 so far, having had an extended absence from the blog and social media in general, and I know The Twilight Sad album was officially a March release…

Broken Chanter – This Could Be Us, You, Or Anybody Else

David McGregor’s latest masterpiece, This Could Be Us, You, Or Anybody Else is a protest album for the 21st Century, perfectly capturing a moment in time that highlights just how dystopian the days we are living in are with his astute observations of what it means to live on this spinning sphere where world leaders seem intent on hitting the self-destruct button and steering us on a crash course to oblivion.… Read the rest

Buzz Cutz – March Albums Pt 2 – The Dandy Warhols, The Darts US, The Deadlians

May 16, 2026 By neilho27@sky.com

The Dandy Warhols – Pin Ups

The Dandy Warhols take the lead from Bowie in releasing Pin Ups, a compilation of covers from across their illustrious career, some faithful to the originals, but many of them re-worked in The Dandy Warhols own inimitable style. There are seventeen tracks in total from 1960s Dylan, The Byrds and The Beatles, through seventies rock to punk and beyond into post punk, goth and alternative rock territory of the 80s and 90s.

Probably the main highlights are the songs they’ve re-worked, starting with the album’s opener Cherry Bomb flipping things around as they do on Kiss Off, with Courtney taking lead voval on the former and Zia on the latter.… Read the rest

Buzz Cutz – March Albums Pt 1- Elgin & the Marbles, Louise McCorkindale & Vitaliy Tkachuk, The Foot and Leg Clinic, The Rotations

May 14, 2026 By neilho27@sky.com

Elgin & the Marbles – The Sun Never Sets

2026 has been a magnificent year for lyrical storytelling so far, even just in the last month or so there have been new albums from Sloan Brothers and Heavenly that have had me both charmed and captivated by the microcosms of life encapsulated in their songs. Now I can add to that list The Sun Never Sets from Elgin and the Marbles, who have completely and utterly captivated me with this delightfully enchanting album. The songs have a beguiling elegant grace and beauty within which they deliver lyrical tales laced with provocative and politically charged messages delivered in a deftly astute manner.… Read the rest

Buzz Cutz – EP Reviews – February & March – Sister Madds, The Jackal IV, Clay Rings, Cowboy Hunters, The New Cut

May 13, 2026 By neilho27@sky.com

Sister Madds – Are You Hungry?

Released with a flourish at a celebratory sold out gig in King Tuts Wah Wah Hut one of Glasgow’s hottest properties Sister Madds unveiled their debut EP Are You Hungry? much to the delight of a devoted following in the heaving venue. The band never cease to impress on stage and in their recorded output, the four songs on this EP forming the latest chapter in the band’s story, a culmination of their hard work following a string of striking single releases. The band are living proof of the old work hard, play hard adage, putting their heart and soul into every live performance, and road testing their songs live before committing them to tape.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2026 – March

May 12, 2026 By neilho27@sky.com

The singles round up for March has more than it’s fair share of excellent singles from emerging Scottish talent from alt-rock right through to Gaelic rap (yes, you read it right), with debut singles from the likes of Honey, Close Control, Sports Frock and Quality Control and cracking singles from Tanzana, bottle rockets, Martha May and the Mondays, Stratus, Verse Metrics, Bandit Country, Dubinski, Doss, Subterranean, Brontes, Grow Up, Pearling. Arran Hopkins, Conscious Pilot, Limonead, Gichard, Mantel, Big Crunch, and braes, with some more established Scottish acts like Middle Class Guilt, Carla J Easton, The Countess of Fife, The Girobabies and Broken Chanter joining the party.… Read the rest

Buzz Cutz – February Albums – Sloan Brothers, Molly Vulpyne Band, The Screamin’ Kick, Heavenly

May 10, 2026 By neilho27@sky.com

Despite the best of intentions, 2026 hasn’t panned out the way I’d have wished and so, once again, the Ginger Quiff has taken a back seat. Here are some shorter than normal reviews of some of my favourite albums released in February

Sloan Brothers – Love and Other Diagnoses

I fell in love with the music of Sloan Brothers at the time of their 2022 System Update album, reviewed here, an album which came at me from leftfield and hit me for six. Sometimes you review a band or album and then maybe never listen to it again. System Update isn’t one of those albums, it is one which I revisit time and again, and I’m stoked that Love and Other Diagnoses has come along and does nothing to dampen my ardour for their music, if anything it re-ignites the flame and gives me another set of, sometimes heart-aching, charmingly honest songs to swoon over.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2026 – February – Part 2

May 9, 2026 By neilho27@sky.com

I’m not going to go into the reasons why this is so late, but I started this such a long time ago now, half of the bands have probably released more music or split up since but hey, as the saying goes, I’ve started, so I’ll finish…

February seems a long time ago and a lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then. And as you can see from this second part of the singles for the month, there was a lot to digest including a few new releases from bands who feature on the “You are Here – The New Sound of Scotland” CD (yes, I know… I’m awaiting delivery of said CD, once they are in my grubby mitts they’ll be unleashed on an unsuspecting public….)… Read the rest

Keeley – Girl on the Edge of the World – Album Review

February 17, 2026 By neilho27@sky.com

Keeley is a one in a million. An artist the likes of whom you could search the rest of your life for and never find anyone quite like her. She, and her band, is a once in a lifetime find, an artist with such integrity and dedication to her cause, she never strays from her path and is she is laser-focussed on her task at hand. A task in hand that is two-fold.

First and foremost Keeley is a music lover, and a musician’s musician, she has a passion for music that is second to none, with an encyclopaedic knowledge about the music and bands she loves.… Read the rest

Singles Round Up 2026 – February – Part 1

February 15, 2026 By neilho27@sky.com

When you take your eye off the ball for a second… I’ve been guilty of ignoring my inbox and my blog of late, I turn away for a couple of weeks and there is a plethora of fantastic new singles from a gamut of bands and styles… This is just the first part of February’s round up, beyond this initial collection, there is another burgeoning list of new singles for February and it is the usual smörgåsbord of sounds from across the globe, with a heavy dose of homegrown talent. Within that homegrown talent in Part 1 there is bona fide music legend Fay Fife in her Countess of Fife guise, and new singles from the likes of Broken Chanter through to newer kids in the block who are making quite an impression on the local scene in the guise of bands like heavyskint and Dallas Love Field.… Read the rest

Buzz Cutz – Amy Duncan, Hen Hoose Collective, M John Henry, The Cribs, The Jack Rubies – January Albums

February 15, 2026 By neilho27@sky.com

I don’t make New Years Resolutions, but I did kind if make a mental note that I would try to be kinder to myself in 2026, aim to have a better work/life balance and set aside more time to do the things I enjoy… best laid plans and all that…

You guessed it, despite the best of intentions and promising myself that better work/life balance and to be less critical of myself, it’s only February and already I’ve missed more gigs than I’ve been to, I’m constantly metaphorically self-flagellating and I’ve gone down several dark holes which I’m scrabbling to escape from,it feels a bit like those cartoons where you see the character stuck in a hole and as they start to climb the walls, something happens to knock them back down again.… Read the rest