The state they're inone might say, paraphrasing the song from which Belle And Sebastian's entire career began. That there are – and how could it be otherwise? – in this playlist that tries to take stock of what the ever-bubbling Scottish scene is giving birth to in recent years.
The “state of things”, therefore, is a zigzag path between well-known but not very well-known names (did someone say Franz Ferdinand? Well, we have deliberately excluded those) such as Arab Strap, the aforementioned Belle And Sebastian and Mogwai, young promises known to a much more limited segment of the public, hidden gems that are there just asking to be “discovered”.
We don't deny the satisfaction in putting on the – virtual – plate old foxes such as Emma Pollock, who after Delgados occasionally releases great albums under her own name, or Steve Mason, who seems to have found himself better off in his second artistic life compared to the stormy times of the Beta Band. And then yes, there's no point in trying to deny it, Arab Strap are one and three in this playlist, because Aidan Moffat and Malcom Middleton are included in their solo versions.
But for those who love Scottish culture, or even for those who simply want to venture through the streets of Glasgow or the windswept Highlands, there is also much more to discover here. There is the psychedelic folk of King Creosote, the more “standard” folk of Rick Redbeard, the metaphysical, almost ancestral folk of Modern Studies. There is the style still to be blossomed by Laurie Cameron and the consolidated one by James Yorkston and Alasdair Roberts.
There is the scratchy rock of Spinning Coin, there are the very recent experiments of Duncan Marquiss – The Phantom Band – and there is the high class expressed in different meanings by the trio formed by C Duncan, Trembling Bells and Snowgoose. Finally, there is the supernatural magic of a pure talent such as Andrew Wasylyk who ideally closes the curtain on a scene that never ceases to amaze.
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
