32
The
REMEMBER REMEMBER
‘Steve Reich on acid,’ is how one List critic described Graeme Ronald’s second album as Remember Remember, released this year. True, it has Reich’s trademark repetition – albeit combined with melodies that could only be Scottish – but Ronald (third from right) is unsure of that particular description. ‘I’ve never met Steve Reich when he’s been on acid,’ he laughs, ‘so I couldn’t say.’ The Quickening comprises eight tracks of joyful, wordless
music, that reach loftier highs even that Remember Remember’s self-titled 2008 debut. The difference is that, whereas that first release was a solo project, a full band now plays Ronald’s complex compositions. They are ‘musicians who I first and foremost liked personally,’ he explains – important given the amount of time he has to spend with them in a back of a van. The band have bought Ronald two placings in our end-of-year ‘best of’ lists: one for the album and one for their gig at Glasgow Science Centre’s Planetarium in October. Squeezed onto a tiny stage usually reserved for a single man with a laser pen, the band played in darkness as the stars revolved overhead. It was a magical and suitably spacey occasion, and ‘the closest we’ll ever get to being Pink Floyd,’ according to Ronald.
Though he probably deserved to reach a greater audience in 2011, having Ronald and co around to play tiny Science Centre gigs makes The List very happy. Though we, and the rest of his fans, did miss out on his annual 5 November birthday party show this year: ‘My girlfriend’s from Saint Louis in Missouri, so this year we went over to visit her family. Being away on my birthday was kind of weird, but I made up for it by buying $200 worth of really serious American fireworks and having an illicit fireworks display on the banks of the Mississippi.’ (JE)
EAT YOUR ART OUT 38 FOUND
36 MARK MILLAR SCOTLAND’S SUPERHERO HITS FACTORY
Machinedrum, EclairFifi, Konx-Om-Pax and others. To paraphrase their own website, really though, thanks for being around. (CS)
32 REMEMBER REMEMBER GOLDEN GRAEME
The busy Edinburgh art- pop trio released their third album factorycraft on Chemical Underground, released
Last year’s number one but it’s been a relatively quiet year with the comics (Ultimate Avengers, Superior) and
34 CONNELL & FLORENCE COMEDY WRITERS, PRODUCERS AND PROLIFIC TWEETERS
their ‘Anti-Climb Paint’ single as an edible, playable chocolate record pressed by Fife baker Fisher & Donaldson and played the List-curated RBS Lates event at the National Museum of Scotland. Coming in 2012: collaborations with Aidan Moffat and King Creosote. (DP)
CAPTAIN CRUNCH 37 GARY MCNAIR
We named him as one of our young theatre- makers to watch in March and we’ll stand by that after a year in which he’s written for the National Theatre of Scotland, directed a Douglas Maxwell number at Glasgow’s Southside Studios and, most memorably of all, shredded money and messed with our irony- detectors on the Edinburgh Free Fringe in Crunch. Just don’t lend him a tenner. (LE)
magazine (CliNT) work ticking over nicely, plus a role as ambassador for the Glasgow Film Festival. Though next year will be huge. Tony Scott has picked up Nemesis for a big screen adaptation and Matthew Vaughn is attached to Superior while Millar’s currently working on his own directorial debut Miracle Park – a very Glaswegian take on superheroes. (HN)
35 LUCKYME ART AND MUSIC COLLECTIVE
Another very big year for the record label and party-makers. Co- founder Hudson Mohawke and labelmate Rustie continued to pick up ever more heat worldwide; Montreal’s Ango released his bendy house and hip hop flavoured debut EP through them; Rustie and HudMo played at an NYC label showcase, plus there was an Edinburgh festival party with
Iain Connell and Robert Florence were busy in 2011 with a second series of Burnistoun on BBC 1. They also founded production company/comedy label Bold Yin with long-term comedy associate Joanne Daly, and Florence was on Twitter approximately 23 hours a day. (LM)
33 BREWDOG CONTROVERSIAL BREWERS WITH SOLID FOUNDATIONS
The Fraserburgh brewery has built a reputation for its bolshily- marketed ales ‘for punks’, but 2011 was the year their bar empire took off. New premises in Edinburgh and Glasgow joined the existing Aberdeen boozer, with more in Newcastle and Camden planned very imminently. (DP)
See panel (above).
31 SOMA 20 YEARS OF GLASGOW’S BEST DANCE LABEL
Scotland’s biggest and most consistently excellent record label reached its 20th anniversary this year. And Slam (otherwise known as Stuart MacMillan and Orde Meikle) weren’t about to
sit on their laurels – they turned it into a year-long bash, hosting birthday parties across Scotland (and the UK) plus issuing a career- encompassing three CD Soma Classics compilation (which included an unreleased Daft Punk track). Now we just can’t wait for their 30th. (HN)
15 Dec 2011–5 Jan 2012 THE LIST 33