PREVIEW FOLK
JOHN MCCUSKER’S UNDER ONE SKY Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Tue 25 Nov; Music Hall, Perth, Fri 28 Nov; Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Mon 8 Dec
John McCusker’s head has been in the clouds a lot lately - flying all over Europe and the Americas in a private jet, courtesy of Mark Knopfler. ‘Yes, 97 gigs,’ he says, ‘in six months.’ With the drummer and keyboard player from Dire Straits and three top US musos, McCusker played fiddle, cittern and some whistle in the band and, guess what, loved every minute of it.
‘It was an amazing experience,’ he enthuses,’ Usually we would stay in a hotel, say in Paris, for a week or so, and every day fly out to a gig in the South, or Belgium, or somewhere else; then at the end of the night we’d get off stage, get straight into the limos, head off to the airport and fly back to the Paris hotel. We had one day off a week.’
Wasn’t that wearing? I asked. ‘Yes, a bit of an endurance test,’ he admitted, ‘But the level of being looked after was excellent — and I learned a lot, especially from Mark. Just to be yourself. Not try to
as
overplay. He would take out anything in the music not absolutely needed.’
That’s the lesson McCusker takes into his latest album project, Under One Sky. A dozen musicians from Scotland and England share the stage, playing music written or co-written by him, and original songs written by Roddy Woomble, Julie Fowlis and John Tams. ‘It’s a big band, ‘ McCusker notes, ‘and we can make a massive sound, but we don’t have to play all the time. Less is more, and we try to make every note count’
Also on stage are Blur’s Graham Coxon, Jim Causley, folk virtuosi Andy Cutting and Ian Carr and Scotland’s Emma Reid on fiddle, piper lain MacDonald, and Capercaillie’s rhythm section, bringing English and Scottish musical sensibilities together — something the Bothwell boy feels strongly about and wants to change. ‘You rarely hear Scottish musicians playing English tunes,’ he says. ‘We don’t know, or care much about the musical traditions on the other side of the Border, and that works in both directions. Yet we share the same island, the same sky.’ (Norman Chalmers)
PORTICO QUARTET The Arches, Glasgow, Mon 24 Nov
The Portico Quartet '3 debut album Knee Deep in the North Sea was attracting considerable attention even before it was included among this year's Mercury Prize nominations. including a prestigious award as Time Out's Jazz. Folk and World Music album of 2007.
The band fit well into the diverse spread implied by the latter award. Their groove-based music is not conventional jazz. and bass player Milo Fitzpatrick was happy to acknowledge that they do not think of themselves as specifically jazz musicians.
‘Our music is more instrumental. We do have the sax and double bass which are iconic jazz instruments. but our music mirrors rock music. African music, new classical music. I'd say our sound is jazzy. but also classical and film somdtrack-like.’
At the centre of the band's distinctive sound is the unusual percussion instrument which has brought them a lot of quizzical attention, the hang. It was a chance purchase of the instrument (which has been said to resemble an inverted wok) by percussionist Duncan Bellamy at a music festival that inspired them to start up the band.
They initially funded and recorded the album themselves. Six months later, Babel Music approached them after a gig at the Vortex in London. and they went back and tweaked the tapes. The rest. as they say, is history. and with the Mercury nomination boosting sales even further, they will be under a bit of pressure when they do get down to that difficult second album.
(Kenny Mathieson)
PREV ROCK VIC GODARD AND THE SUBWAY SECT IT HE SEXUAL OBJECTS Citrus, Edinburgh, Fri 14 Nov; Stereo, Glasgow, Sat 15 Nov If Subway Sect hadn't supported The Clash at the Edinburgh Playhouse on 7 May 1977, it‘s unlikely Postcard Records, Fast Product and Fire Engines would have happened. Thirty-one years on, Vic Godard's latest Subway Sect, is sharing a bill with Henderson's new incarnation as The Sexual Objects. For Douglas McIntyre. boss of the Fast/Postcard- styled Creeping Bent label and in the thick of the original Sound of Young Scotland since year zero. these two dates (Glasgow also features The Leopards. whose guitarist Mick Slaven recently guested with ex Josef K front-man Paul Haig) are a match made in rock‘n'roll heaven. “To me Vic Godard is undoubtedly the best writer to come out of the whole post—punk movement.‘ says McIntyre. ‘I remember the words on the back cover of the single 'Ambition' blowing my mind. It was full of literary references, and you knew there was something mysterious going on. Then later. seeing Fire Engines play two 15- minute sets. it was incredible. These people had ideas.’
With a lineage that can be heard in everything from Belle and Sebastian to Franz Ferdinand and beyond, Godard's Scots links strengthened when an album produced by Edwyn Collins was released on a reactivated Postcard label. The Sexual Objects. meanwhile. have thus far released a trio of 7in singles. The last of these. the boogie—friendly ‘Here Come The Rubber Cops‘. was produced by Boards of Canada.
‘lt's like Sun Ba.‘ McIntyre says of these rapid-fire releases. ‘He'd just record this doo-wop from outer space and put it out. That's the spirit we want. Abstract and immediate.‘ (Neil Cooper)
13—27 Nov 2008 THE LIST 59