Johnstone, apart from being a musician, is an author (his books including ‘The Ossians’, a story of a failing indie band’s traipse around the highlands of Scotland).
That band were possibly based on Johnstone’s own Northern Alliance, the slacker-folk act from which he has gone solo and made his debut EP under his own name. Despite being a one-man effort, this is similar to the band sound, and that’s no bad thing – ‘Keep It Afloat’ is a lolloping strum with sentimental lyrics about his own son (we presume) punctuated by bursts of searing electric noise from his guitar.
The four songs here include ‘Bjork is Calling From the Wreckage’, heavy on wordplay (you can see the author’s influence), and the self-explanatory ‘I Used To Drum In A Rock’n’Roll Band’ and the just-for-a-bit-of-fun ‘Song For The End Of The Set’ which comes across like King Creosote fronting Husker Du. Johnstone, as a reviewer himself, would probably sneer at the clichéd description, but Johnstone the musician would probably appreciate the comparison.
dougjohnstone.bandcamp.com
