Navigating their way to Glasgow from Iceland, America and, um, Cornwall, tonight’s line up is an international exhibition of the diverse guitar music being created in the world today; all with their compasses pointed directly at The Captain’s Rest.
First up however, we have Glasgow home lads Dupec, flying the Saltire for what is going on up here in Scotland six string wise. And with the amount of guitar styles rammed into their set tonight, it seems their Saltire should have more than one cross on it with the amount of interweaving lines bounding throughout their set. With shouty lyrics about relationships in the Glasgow voice made very familiar by recent breakthrough bands, it’s this guitar work that is the second most fun and interesting about the band, blending Arctic Monkey-like hooks with the heavy grooves the like Queens of the Stoneage master. If you wanted to send a postcard of what guitar music as a whole looked like this year, you might send Dupec. However, if you’re looking for first fun and interesting thing in this act, be amazed at the thunderously tight drumming from Jamie Steel, with chipped sticks and smashed skins everywhere. Best drummer in Scotland? Possibly.
After a ferociously loud introduction, For A Minor Reflection’s guitarist asks the sound man to UP his guitar level. Well, they certainly seem determined not to get beaten by Dupec in the loudness stakes anyway. With the glacial sized guitar loops, it is no surprise this band hail from Iceland; creating mammoth sound-scapes using chains of FX pedals, and beautiful arrpegiated sections that sound like volcanic ash descending from the sky. Behind all these special effects and musical box guitars though, the heavily repeated chord patterns tend to repeat a little to often, and at what at first was beautiful and inspirational soon becomes a little over done. With some variation, they could become a prog Titan to rival Sigor Ros as Iceland’s most popular export after marine produce and aluminium.
Riding a wave up from Cornwall [one of the UK’s most popular watersports spots] Tall Ships start out with some very surfy guitars, showing the influence of their home town. They are obviously influenced by a lot more than that though, making their guitars sound like Gameboys, fairgrounds and snow all in one set. Add to this more instrument swapping than you’ve ever seen [at one point the bassist has two guitars round him!], large amounts of synth shredding, looped drums, complicated arrpegios on synth and guitar and chord patterns to blow a music theorist’s mind, you have a math-rock-surf-band battling for Battles crown as most complex yet listenable band on the planet. Finishing up on a Gabriel era Genesis era sea shanty number really throws things askew too. Tall Ships: you’ll wonder what the hell you just heard, but you’ll know you liked it.
Bringing things back down to the ground are the rootsy American headliners Maps & Atlases. Keeping to the theme of the night however, the guitars are still exciting and new and don’t just tread steady known paths. Lead singer Dave Davison’s vocals are the main appeal of the band, with a very distinctive, almost but-not-quite nasal voice. With other instruments like glockenspiels, lots of extra percussion and keyboard, they stand out from the Xeroxed “New British Folk” wave of bands around at the moment, making them a must see for those interested in folk revival, but a bit bored of what they’ve heard already.
In a world where the charts are dominated by faceless electro mega producers churning out Euro synth backing tracks for ladies with little clothes on, it’s very nice for a night like tonight to prove the guitar is still alive and well.