If the Ossians, the band documented in Doug Johnstone’s book of the same name, really had the potential to be indie legends then it’d be a shame if the fictional act never got round to recording. Thus, 7 tracks from a fictional act which existed entirely in the head of Johnstone, provide some sort of epitaph.
Happily for lovers of a happy ending, The Ossiands aren’t / weren’t that bad at all. Sounding like a bedsit all-electric version of occasional Fence Collective types Northern Alliance (unsurprisingly), opener ‘St Andrews Day’ – the theme of Scottishness and drink a familiar one in Johnstone’s regular band – rocks out nicely. As does ‘RLS’, like a Scottish Breeders perhaps. ‘My Evil Twin’ likewise has hints of NA’s lolloping electric country and the mix of Scots slacker indie and vaguely American, er, slacker indie. And slowcore, that typically American genre – think Pavement sounding turbocharged – is heavily represented and all these snippets of classic indie rock genres make for a very decent album. Whether we hear of the Ossians again is another matter but we know their legacy is in safe hands.
- Barry Adamson - 6 February 2025
- C81-C86-Go! – Creeping Bent at 30 - 3 February 2025
- Beautiful Cosmos - 27 January 2025