Duncan Marquiss releases a new single, ‘Drivenhalle’, which acts as a trailer for the former Phantom Band member’s debut solo album ‘Wires Turned Sideways In Time’, which is due for release on March 4th 2022, on the Basin Rock label.

“I enjoy trying to stretch the guitar as an instrument,” says Marquiss. “That reflects my playing style, always trying to make the guitar sound different, or create non-guitar like sounds.”

“I like it when music builds itself up in an organic fashion,” he adds. “When it just seems to emerge and almost writes itself.”

The album itself, which is available to pre-order now, is purely instrumental, and was recorded in Aberdeenshire in Marquiss’ parents’ garage. “Apart from the wind and the swallows nesting in the eaves there’s not many distractions around,” he says.

Marquiss created the video himself, perhaps unsurprisingly. “I used to use music in my art practice a lot,” he says. “Creating soundtracks for videos. I’d spend time analysing films to see how the music affected the image emotionally.”

He can also be seen making his solo live debut next year, on a tour supporting Steve Gunn:

3 February 2022 London, Earth
4 February 2022 Bristol, Strange Brew
5 February 2022 Manchester, YES – Pink Room
6 February 2022 Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
7 February 2022 Glasgow, Slay

Produced by Jason Shaw (Cambodian Space Project) and mastered by Mark Gardener from Ride, the new single from Astrid frontman Charlie Clark, ‘Blink of an Eye’, was recorded in Uig on the Isle of Lewis, alongside other sessions for Charlie Clark’s upcoming album: ‘Late Night Drinking’.

“I was getting overwhelmed with melancholy about relationships and mistakes I’d made and things I should and have not done etc,” Clark says, having recently returned home after many years living in LA.

“I was reflecting on more microcosmic internal issues…. I refer to my mind as radio K-F**k fairly often. Sometimes the best thing to do when you feel overwhelmed is nothing at all.”

The video was directed by Clark himself as he explains: “I wanted the video to be like a hallucination where you can feel the vibrations and rhythms of the most simple things.

“Where everything is still but incredibly vibrant. Like meditation… or good mushrooms”.

‘Blink of an Eye’ is out now – more at www.facebook.com/charlieclarkmusic.

‘Cherish the Words’ is the first new material from Glasgow-based act Ritterskamp since their third album ‘So Far‘, from 2016.

The duo – Paul Herbert and JJ Mills – are, as well as being part of Idlewild’s touring setup, are former members of Peeps Into Fairyland, who themselves recently put their entire back catalogue online.

The new track was recorded by Mills in 2020 before being mixed and mastered by Robert McCracken, and is part of a six-track EP which will appear once live dates can be arranged to coincide with its release.

‘Engineer Of Fear’ is the first track to come from an album ‘LŪP’, due out on One Little Independent Records from October 22nd.

The 11-track release from the soundscaper and member of Found, Lomond (aka Ziggy) Campbell was commissioned to build a custom tape-looper for prolific Fife-based independent singer-songwriter King Creosote.

Stemming from this process is the new 11 track album – originally available as a limited-edition cassette but now due for a wider release.

More on the project here, or visit www.lomondcampbell.com.

‘Cemetery Moon’ is the third single from the forthcoming album ‘Morninghairwater‘, due on the Takuroku label on July 30th.

It follows ‘Love For The Things Yr Not‘ and ‘Summer Daze‘ – both songs, like the album’s nine tracks, recorded during lockdown with ideas being passed between London and Glasgow.

Paper Birch was formed in May 2020 by Fergus Lawrie, best-known as founder member of Urusei Yatsura and Projekt A-ko, and Dee Sada, of NEUMES / An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump, as well as a multimedia artist and who directed the single’s video.

More at www.paperbirch.band.

‘Threnody For February Swallows’ is the second single from the forthcoming Adam Stafford album ‘Trophic Asynchrony‘, due out on Song, by Toad Records from July 9th (digital) and September (on vinyl).

It follows the first single from the album, ‘Ruptured Telecine‘ and is described as a “lament for the environment”, the album itself a mostly-instrumental seven track effort driven by the immediacy of the climate crisis.

The video is by Leo Bruges – DOP on Stafford’s award-winning film, the Alan Bissett-narrated The Shutdown). Bruges’ film is an edit of ‘Dr Wise On Influenza’ – from 1919, the only known British film known to be made at the height of the Spanish Flu epidemic.

Here’s the vid for ‘Glasgow Coma Scale’ – the track being lifted from the Edinburgh act’s recent EP Cracked Beyond Repair).

The shot-under-lockdown DIY effort features cameos from various acts related to the Edinburgh gig scene and Anti-Manifesto label including Jeff Rosenstock, Mike Park, Slingshot Dakota, The Murderburgers, Paper Rifles, Goodbye Blue Monday, the band being formed of members of Curators, Misled Youth, Robot Doctors, Elk Gang, Today We Fight, and Shields Up.

More at www.facebook.com/nelsonsavagetheband.

Vid for a live version of ‘The Rattler’, taken from ‘A Night in the Windy City’ – a live album recorded during the 30th anniversary year ‘Good Deeds and Dirty Rags’ album.

More live footage in the documentary DVD ‘Until The End of the Road‘ filmed the band’s 2019 recent Barrowland and Edinburgh gigs.

Vid for a new single by Glasgow-based der Mist which trails a self-titled debut album due out on February 5th.

The duo are Ali Whitty, previously of V2 signings Crash My Model Car, and Augusta Fireball – more at www.facebook.com/der.mist.music.

Vid for a new single from Alan McClure, ‘Something Good’.

It’s the lead song on an EP from the former Razorbills man, coming out on Lost Wasp Records in early 2021, and provisionally entitled ‘New Toys’ – more at www.alanmcclure.co.uk.