Single: Rest and Be Thankful - The Recovery Club

The independent, Glasgow-based record label Antimatter today release the debut single by one of their most recent signings, The Recovery Club.

Rest and Be Thankful is a delicate yet wholly absorbing track. The enchanting vocals backed with beautiful harmonies make for a touching and heart-warming listen. The single is supported by two demo tracks, Weird Weather and DNA, and if these are anything to go by, The Recovery Club are destined for bigger and better things.

Overall, a stunning debut.

Work is already underway on the band's debut album, with another single set for release later in the year.

Join them tomorrow night at The Liquid Ship for their single launch where you can buy a copy of the three track, limited edition numbered CD. Free entry, so no excuses! If however you can't make it down to Great Western Road tomorrow, you can catch them at Bar Ten (located halfway down Mitchell Lane) on the 15th July.


Rest and Be Thankful is available now from Antimatter, iTunes and Amazon.




You can find The Recovery Club on Myspace and Antimatter.

Exhibition - We Sink Ships: Elements

For those of you who aren't familiar with the wonderful work of We Sink Ships, it's a collaboration between Heidi Kuisma, a Finnish born, Glasgow-based photographer and Neil Milton, a Warsaw based Scottish musician, photographer and record label owner who I featured in an Exposure article a while back on his musical project beneath us, the waves. As well as creating stunning online photo exhibitions they also present We Sink Ships Radio, a series of weekly music podcasts hosted on Radio Magnetic. All round, an incredibly talented pair.

Last night, I received an email from Heidi regarding an event she is organising as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival 2010. The event will feature a screening of We Sink Ships' short film, Elements and those attending will be treated to music from eagleowl and Conquering Animal Sound, two of my personal favourites. Heidi has summed the event up far better than I ever could so I'll let her explain the rest:

"We Sink Ships is delighted to announce the screening of “We Sink Ships: Elements” short film at Wee Red Bar on 31 July as part of Edinburgh Art Festival 2010, Scotland’s largest annual festival of visual art.

The screening will be accompanied by music from beautiful, atmospheric lo-fi folk ensemble eagleowl and Conquering Animal Sound whose unusual song structures and melodic beats and loops create awe-inspiring sounds.

The doors are at 7pm and entry costs £5.

'We Sink Ships: Elements' contains material from cross-disciplined body of work split across five separate exhibitions. Each exhibition is themed around one of the classical medieval elements and contains images created by layering photographs to create surreal, abstract and sometimes ethereal interpretations of the chosen element, a poem written by Rhys Baker from Wild Dogs in Winter and a piece of music written by Neil Milton.

The film is made by Sleepysoul, a Scottish independent filmmaker, using Elements materials together with his own and archive footage creating an evocative film with classical elements and technology at its core."

I'll be doing my best to make it through to Edinburgh at the end of July and I hope you will too. For more on all the artists featured and other information, just follow the links in the above text.

Tickets are priced at £5 and you can buy them here.

You can also find We Sink Ships on Twitter, Myspace, Facebook and Wordpress as well as their podcast on Radio Magnetic.

You can view Heidi's photography on Flickr as well as follow Heidi on Twitter where I'm sure she'll be more than happy to respond to any questions about the event.

As well as a Facebook page, Sleepysoul also has Twitter.

EP: 5 Songs of Summer - The Cinnamons

They say they began as a bedroom recording project but The Cinnamons have progressed far and beyond messing around in the front room of a house in Castlemilk. This is synth-pop at its finest complete with awesome hooks and catchy melodies, all of which provide the perfect soundtrack to Summer - and that's exactly what The Cinnamons will be providing.

The band will release five singles at various dates throughout Summer 2010 each of which will gradually form the band's next EP, 5 Songs of Summer, set for release in mid August. Interestingly, each song was performed, recorded, mixed and mastered by the band in a bedroom. No fancy studios or expensive sound producers involved in the making of this EP, yet you would never guess otherwise.

Each track will be available as a free download from the band's Bandcamp with the first, Welcome to the Business, available now. Here is a full list of the tracks and their release dates:

June 28th - Welcome to the Business

July 12th - Leave if you want to

July 26th - Where we're Going

August 9th - Soul for Sale

August 16th - Analog Man


I'll be posting reminders each time a new track is released, so don't worry about missing a date.

The end of Summer will see a Cinnamons hosted party and EP launch which, if you're fans of the band, you won't want to miss. So what are you waiting for? Get downloading!

The first of the five singles is available to download now from the bands Bandcamp.



You can also find The Cinnamons on MySpace, Facebook, LastFM, Twitter, and Youtube.

Introducing: Where We Lay Our Heads

I like to try and bring you fresh, new artists as often as I can and how much newer can you get than Where We Lay Our Heads?

Electronic-Folk and yes, it works beautifully. Heartfelt yet harsh lyrics tell enchanting stories with a delightful Scottish accent. The debut single My Major is Your Minor will be available for free download from Have Fun At Dinner in a few weeks but until then you'll have to make do with streaming the tracks from MySpace.

Definitely one to watch.

You can find Where We Lay Our Heads on MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

Exposure: Sefiros

In terms of modern day music, when I read the words "young", "electronica" and "Scottish" I fear another Unicorn Kid. Thankfully, this is not the case. Sefiros is the moniker of Bryan Henderson, a young electronica artist from North Lanarkshire. A hard-working individual with a burning passion for music and the talent to match.

There is something rather unnerving yet beautiful about Sefiros' music. Large orchestral sounds, ominous tones and beautiful compositions all with the trademark 8-bit bleeps make for a compelling and thought-provoking listen, something which makes it truly unique.

As to the inspiration behind his musical creations, Bryan explains further. "There are a few artists such as Aphex Twin, 65daysofstatic, Ólafur Arnalds, M83, and video game composers like Akira Yamaoka. Trent Reznor is probably my biggest influence though, although my material doesn't sound anything like his musically. I admire what he's done throughout the years, including all his post-label self release of free albums"

His music may not be an echo of Reznor but Bryan has definitely drawn inspiration in other ways. To date, Sefiros has produced various EPs and albums culminating in a total of nine releases, eight of which are free to download.

"I certainly don't think downloading has any sort of the same effect on the industry as the RIAA and co think. I know if I downloaded music by an artist I liked I'd be more likely to buy releases from them, see them live, buy merchandise, etc. We all know artists make more money from the merchandise and concerts than they do from their share of album sales anyway. As long as my music is being heard I don't mind how they get a hold of it. Although I do like money."

It's this positive attitude to music along with his effort and passion that have helped to create a respectable and impressive back catalogue - and he hasn't even turned 25 yet.

So what's a typical songwriting process like for Sefiros?

"I tend to write straight into FLStudio using several free virtual instruments, samples, and effects. Usually I'll start with a beat or a chord progression and just branch off of that. Sometimes I'll come up with ideas away from the computer, but most of my songs just flow onto the screen when I start writing."

If all this has whet your appetite to catch Sefiros performing near you then you may be waiting a while.

"I haven't played live yet, but I am toying with the idea. I recently bought a Novation Launchpad, but I think I'd need another couple of pieces of kit before I could do anything that people would find interesting. Otherwise I'd just be standing on stage pressing the play button." A very fair point I'm sure you will agree.

Being an independent Scottish musician, I wondered if there were any other unsigned Scottish artists out there whom he admires or would consider working with.

"I know of one artist - Gordon McNeil - who is trying to break into the video game industry with his music. We were both working on a rock opera concept album together for a while, but we never got around to finishing it."

So what does 2010 have in store for Sefiros?

"Since I've just released my first album into download stores, I think I'll be trying to promote that for a while. Then I'll probably start working on some more music. I used to release an album or two a year, but I've slowed down considerably since then."

Sefiros first commercially released album Stop Becoming is available now from iTunes, Amazon and the Sefiros official website.




As well as his website you can find Sefiros on MySpace, SoundCloud, LastFM, Facebook and Twitter. Phew.