It can’t be the easiest task to entertain Edinburgers on a very cold Monday night in February. Tough gig on a school night. The HMV Picture House was far from capacity, and crowds dwindled further throughout the night as the three hailed Next Big Thing bands set up their stalls.
It was confirmed that The Dykeenies would not be making a miraculous appearance as days earlier having been rumoured that they had split. It fell to Bwani Junction to get us moving – the Queensferry lads keen to please their home crowd and by the looks of the kids around, most of them pals or relatives. They appeared at T in the Park last year and festivals are the way forward for these boys as their tunes will be enhanced by grass, sunshine and cider. They are feel good and danceable chaps who have a wee touch of the Friendly Fires, Mumford and Sons and a shout back to Big Country. Their manager handed out postcards depicting the doodles from friends and family of the band with the date and venue stamped on them. Nice touch. I shall be listening to their ‘Cocked Fully’ album for some summertime kinda vibes, as they kept my frozen toes shuffling.
If Bwani Junction were the youth team at school Laki Mera are the very cool art student 6th year types that for most of us were well out of reach. The Glaswegian quartet brought their trip-hop electronic sounds which are cleverly woven into electric and ambient songs. They could be described as ‘folktronic’ but are more than that. Laura Donnelly’s beautiful layered and looped up vocals are centre point to some very interesting tracks. Worth a watch/listen is Laura covering the magnificent Blue Nile’s beautiful ‘Tinsle Town in the Rain’ on Youtube for a hint of vocally what to expect from this super-talented lady. When the boys where left to play I overheard a comment that they were “cinematic …quite War of the Worlds” – ahem… See for yourself and treat your ears to their album ‘The Proximity Effect’. Well crafted clever music; I would see them again in a venue of their choosing with their own crowd and I reckon everything would be greatly enhanced.
On to the prefects, Field Music. It is the multi-instrumentalist Brewis brothers I confess which drew me off the couch and I was certainly not disappointed. They joked that they are far from the next big thing as they “have been around for a million years”. Their forth self-produced studio album ‘Plumb’ is released on the 16th of February and already gathering positive reviews. It’s available on purple vinyl for all you vinyl villains out there. It is a tricky one in determining their exact influences – could be a bit of Yes, XTC, Genesis, a wee sprinkling of Queen. It’s safe to say they do great line in prog-rock with a fusion of funk and a big dollop of new wave to boot. The two standout singles from Plumb were ‘New Town’ and ‘(I Keep Thinking About) A New Thing’ which really shone as tunes you will be listening to on any radio. All round good guys, tunesmiths and lovers of all types of music they won’t disappoint so get along to Stereo in Glasgow on 18th February to see them in a venue which I am sure will be a lot warmer in every way possible.