Last Night From Glasgow - The Ginger Quiff

Gates of Light – Gates of Light II – Album Review

February 17, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

If you enjoy the electro-clash synth sounds of Alison Goldfrapp you’re going to love the new album from Louise Quinn’s current project, Gates of Light. And when I say love, you better believe I mean luv, L-U-V…

Gates of Light II from the former A Band Called Quinn singer/songwriter is a compelling listen, at times the smooth electronic rhythms are soothingly hypnotic while later shifting gear into vibrant joy inducing driving beats.

Better Now is a case in point for the former, a blissed out synth driven feel good anthem, just close your eyes and allow yourself to be engulfed with the sonic soundscape and drift off into the ether as the soothing sounds medication to ease the worst of days, before you know it you have surrendered yourself and you are a willing captive to the sublime sounds of I Keep Reaching for the Sun, and despite the bitter cold outside you’re now lying back in the grass, the hazy summer sun forcing you to squint as you drift away into your subconscious.… Read the rest

f.o. machete – Mother of a Thousand – Album Review

February 12, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

After an extended hiatus of a dozen or so years, the mighty machete returned to the fray in style around this time last year with a live show supporting another legendary Scottish band who had also returned after too long out of the limelight. That show in Room 2 featuring The Hedrons and f.o. machete will live long in the memory, both bands at the top of their game, with The Hedrons celebrating the release of their long awaited sophomore album and f.o. machete quite obviously just stoked to be back playing live. Now it is f.o. machete’s turn to release a new album, their hotly anticipated follow up to My First Machete.… Read the rest

Exotica – Sleep and Release – EP Review

January 3, 2025 By neilho27@sky.com

Exotica is one of the most recents projects involving the talented Gregor Dick of Hyper Reel, Bela and the Lugosis and a host of others. I mention those two projects in particular to give a feel for the range of musical genres and styles he can lend his hand to, Sleep and Release is an entirely different prospect to the early 80s post punk of Hyper Reel or the Goth Glam of Bela.

Gregor is the brainchild of Exotica which also features the talents of trumpet player Ali Henry and producer Samual Joseph Smith. The four tracks on offer on this musical trip, and I say that with both meanings in mind, Sleep and Release is a sonic odyssey, one in which the textured woozy soundscapes take you to another plain, the aural equivalent of mind expanding drugs..… Read the rest

David Luximon – A Certain Frame of Reference

December 30, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

The previous album from Perthshire (my second home!) lad David Luximon, Duty of Care, was a long term fixture in my turntable, however, like happens so often, events arose to avoid me from writing about it. With the arrival of A Certain Frame of Reference I was damn sure I wouldn’t make the same omission this time around, so here it is, like many of my reviews this year, better mate than never.

Opening with a yearning and atmospheric fiddle, the craving longing at the heart of I’m Taking You For a Drive had me hooked from the off, the song is heartachingly beautiful, a sense of burning desire and love palpable in the sweet melody and adoring lyrics.… Read the rest

Scorpio Leisure – Audio Pleasure – Album review

July 7, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

The witching hour edges ever closer. The album launch gig (or should I say release gig – especially for Coco) for this majestic brooding masterpiece in Edinburgh’s Voodoo Rooms on 19th July looms large. I for one am expecting nothing less than a spectacular show from this singularity unconventional quartet who are currently one of Scotland’s most exciting music exports. To coin a phrase oft made by the bands manager “you should go”!

Audio Pleasure is a uniquely bewitching album from a band like no other, each member brings something different to the mix from their varied backgrounds in several Scottish bands from across the decades.… Read the rest

Autumn 1904 – Tales of Innocence – Album review

May 8, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

This album may have taken 40 odd years to come to fruition, with the band disbanding in 1985 having recorded a session for John Peel the previous year and come so close to signing a record deal, but despite the gap, Tales of Innocence is an absolute triumph, finally bringing together that 1984 Peel Session alongside two long-lost songs and four songs which the band wrote back in the early eighties but never recorded until now. The release of this stunning album finally closes out that circle that was started all those years ago, the story of a band who split before the promise of that coveted record deal was fulfilled, with five of their number departing, three of them going on to form The Crows, finally being told, and acting as a great tribute to one of their missing members, the late Indira Sharma.… Read the rest

Xan Tyler – Holding Up Half the Sky – album launch gig review, Panopticon, Glasgow.

May 5, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

All photos courtesy of Chris Hogge Photography

Holding Up Half the Sky is an extraordinary piece of work. An album of songs inspired by female empowerment, from Xan’s own experiences and those of inspirational women from history.

An extraordinary achievement needs to be launched in extraordinary surroundings. Where could be more unique and special than the world’s oldest surviving music hall, the place where a sixteen year old Stan Laurel first tread the boards.

This is an event that has been two years in the planning. I say event as it was much more than just a gig (a phenomenally special and emotional gig granted – not “just” a gig), this was Xan’s vision finally coming to fruition.… Read the rest

For Your Audio Pleasure – Scorpio Leisure Interview and gig review

April 18, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

Scorpio Leisure had me transfixed from the minute I first heard their music, this was courtesy of their bass player Coco sharing an enigmatic video clip of their hypnotic song Driving. The band had an air of mystery about them at the time, other than Coco, I had very little knowledge of the who was in the band. The one thing I knew was they had the potential to be one of my new musical obsessions.

And so it transpired, trying to see the band as often as life and work permits, having been wowed by the first time I saw them in The Rum Shack – even heading out East to catch gigs in Sneaky Pete’s and La Belle Angele, I don’t do that for just any band.… Read the rest

Scorpio Leisure – Apology E.P. review

March 7, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

2024 is set to be a bumper year for releases by some of the Scottish music scene’s rising talents. Not satisfied with the release of their self titled debut album later in the year, Edinburgh based post-punk supergroup Scorpio Leisure release their 4 track EP, Apology this month, a treat for those who have a voracious appetite for the band’s music and need an amuse-bouche to keep them going ahead of the main course.

The band is the coming together of like-minded friends and musicians from a variety of bands past and present, representing a cross section of the alternative music scene, all throwing their individual styles and influences into the melting pot and resulting in the serving up of an unconventionally unique and luscious offering in their own inimitable style.… Read the rest

The Filthy Tongues and Scorpio Leisure – Òran Mor, Glasgow

February 7, 2024 By neilho27@sky.com

All photos courtesy of Chris Hogge Photography Chris Hogge (@chrishoggephotography) • Instagram photos and videos

What a start to the gig year this has been. Already having been entertained by some of the country’s best rising talents in January, my February gigs dawned with a double header from two bands featuring legends of the Scottish alt music scene. Fire Engines, Win, Boots for Dancing and Gin Goblins amongst the bands featuing members of Scorpio Leisure while headliners The Filthy Tongues of course featuring the well-kent inimitable trio of Metcalfe, Kelly and Fin of Goodbye Mr MacKenzie fame, now more than embedding themselves in the story of Scottish music with these songs revealing their even darker more foreboding side… because of course Goodbye Mr MacKenzie songs were all bunny rabbits and flowers weren’t they…?… Read the rest