Another round-up of the most recent releases that don’t fit into the regular, more sensible formats (i.e. physical, or a download via Bandcamp)…

Lewis Ross releases a single, ‘This Town‘ – his first release since 2018 independently-released debut EP ‘Colder Days’, which has, we’re advised over 1,000,000 streams on Spotify all done independently.

Happily, you can skip the Spotify link and hear it here:

Broken Notions release their second single, ‘The Descender’. from

It’s the second single from the Edinburgh/Glasgow act, headed up by Kyle Cuthbert, and follows ‘The Warmth Of You‘ from last October.

The band are releasing a series of singles over the course of 2021 recorded at Post Electric Studio in Edinburgh and produced by Rod Jones (Idlewild). ‘The Descender is about “an inner conflict between an insatiable ego and an all consuming introversion.”

More on the band at brokennotions.com / www.facebook.com/brokennotions.

Glasgow-based three-piece The Dead Night release their debut single ‘Caramel’ as a stream. It’s “about the things we know are bad for us but are so seductive that we can’t stay away,” according to frontman Aidan Buhrmann, who adds: “Whether it’s a toxic relationship, behaviour or other addictions, everyone has these moments when we give into temptations”.

Along with bassist Callum Barret and Ian Simpson on drums/vocals, the trio recorded the track at NCL Studios with Alek McMillan & Hayley Grogan.

Posterboy – the alias of Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter and visual artist Rory Russell releases a lockdown-inspired streaming single ‘20X20′, on Posterboy Records.

It’s the eponymous lead single from his upcoming audio-visual project ‘20X20’, which will be released later in the year.

Of his pseudonym, he says: “I could never have been a blond bombshell like Electra Heart, nor could I have descended from another world like Ziggy Stardust. So, I wanted to create a persona that epitomises the average joe, our uninspired side, our human side and that is POSTERBOY.”

And another Dundee-born solo artist, but based in Glasgow, Jeshua releases a single ‘IDK’. Available to stream it comes in the wake of debut single ‘Feel-So-Alive’ and its follow-up ‘Waste Away’

Dundonian songwriter Sean Findlay‘s ‘Nightclubs in Heaven’ had 40,000 views in the five days following its release into the streamosphere. ICYMI

John Rush first single of 2021 with ‘Maybe It’s True (Darlin’ It’s You)’

Aside from his festive ‘Merry Christmas’, it’s his first new material since single ‘Sister‘ from 2020.

That followed the Glasgow-based solo singer-songwriter’s debut album ‘Beneath The Apple Tree’, from April 2019, since when he has played at Celtic Connections on the Danny Kyle Stage in Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, a set which was broadcast live and worldwide for Celtic Music Radio.

More at John Rush’s website or www.facebook.com/johnrushmusic.

Josephine Sillars releases another trailer from her forthcoming ‘Desperate Characters’ in streaming single “California’. It follows ‘Enemy‘, a proper release from January from the Leeds-based Highlander.

Laurence Murray Project release their debut single ‘Providence’. Led by the titular Edinburgh singer-songwriter and guitarist, and backed by David Hill (drums), Ben Lobban (keys), and Tom Dallas (bass), the band recorded the track at the UK’s most remote recording studio; Black Bay Studio on the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides. The track, available to stream, is taken from a forthcoming debut album, ‘Providence’.

Murray decided to pursue his own musical project again following a four year hiatus from original music during which he worked at sea as a musician for Disney Cruise Line – penning songs in his ship cabin along the way – and working as a teacher in refugee camps in the Middle East and which was a major influence on his recent songwriting, giving him as he says “a newfound perspective on life and liberty”.
More at www.facebook.com/laurencemurrayproject.

Serena Sophia released her debut single ‘Diary of Thoughts’ at the end of 2020 and the video is now available. It’s the work of 26-year-old Glasgow-based singer-songwriter Serena Weir, who gained a Masters in Musical Theatre at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
The single – available to stream – is actually based on diary entries, from 2018 which she describes as “an especially difficult year”. Following a toxic relationship and break up, the song describes the moment Weir “decided to finally take care of myself and control of my life and my own happiness.”

Falkirk quintet Artesan follow up their debut single ‘Feel Like Myself Again‘ released almost exactly a year ago, with new track ‘Lifesaver’. The band The band is headed up by lead vocalist Ronnie Bissett and features his son Bryce on lead guitar. Dickson Telfer (Vulture Party / L Space) is on bass with the lineup completed by guitarist Will Treeby and Stuart Blackwood on drums. Stream it here, or here:

Penny Mob release a new single ‘Revolution’.
The trio originally formed in London by Scottish singer-songwriter Jamie Quinn and Lincolnshire-born drummer Andrew Mullan. They say of the track: “If you’re gonna write a song called ‘Revolution’, then you better have something to say, and mean it. So we said it. And we mean it. It’s four chords and the truth.

Super French releases a 4 song E.P. later in March – the Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter, aka Ross King, grew up mostly in France but came to Scotland to study as his mother hails from Stirling (hence the pseudonym we guess) and he is now based here. You can hear a stream of his previous track from February single, ’Saturday Night’.

Riley – purveyor of “Nashville-inspired country-pop” releases her ‘Go-Getter’ single. The 21-year-old singer-songwriter from Glasgow – as Scotland’s own “Wild Rose” – said of the track: It’s about leaving self-doubt behind in exchange for finding true happiness within ourselves. It’s a song I hope people will sing along to in the car, dance around their living room to and, eventually, which I will be able to perform live – maybe even in Nashville!”
More – including streaming links – here.

Edinburgh four-piece Sintide release their debut single, ‘Pending’, as a stream.

Consisting of four twenty-year-olds from Edinburgh’s Napier University – Calum Anderson on vocals and guitar, John Dicks on drums, Benjamin Counsell on bass and Craig Nixon on guitar – the band self-released the track, produced by Mark Morrow.

Lead vocalist, Calum Anderson, said: “Pending is about when the boundaries of a friendship or a casual encounter become blurred. You develop feelings for someone that you know cannot be reciprocated, but you can’t stop from having them.”

More at www.facebook.com/sintideofficial

Felix Saunders releases an EP, ‘I Guess This Is Progress‘.

Originally from the Western Isles, Saunders’ debut solo single ‘This Old Town’ gained national radio play including BBC Rapal and received over 80,000 streams on Spotify. The new tracks were recorded at Black Bay Studios in the Outer Hebrides and was produced by Pete Fletcher, who also played guitars and keys along with Isle of Lewis act Mother Night (‘The Shaman‘) who provided backing vocals.

He says of the EP: “To sum it up… it’s the sum of my mental health, failed relationships, trying to survive on jobs that barely pay you, and feeling isolated from the world”.

Annoyingly, we seem to be stuck with giving you a lyric video in lieu of anything any better…

The Rhubarb release a single ‘Part Time Suicide‘ taken from their current EP, ‘Black Sun’.

The Glasgow quartet – Sean Maguire, Michael McConville, Hannah White, and Jack Donnelly – formed in 2015 and have played live with the likes of Black Moth, Lord Dying, Mantis Toboggan, Skandal, and Juniper Grave to Strauss at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Nice ‘N’ Sleazy, The Garage, and G2. More here.

Finally, Club Beirut https://www.facebook.com/clubbeirut/ follow up single ‘Something New‘ from March 2020 with ‘Eyes Wide Open’. The mysterious Fife duo are Fraser and Craig (that’s all we’ve got and the latter says of the track: “Writing the song was actually a beautiful accident – I was actually writing a completely different song and at the time I couldn’t finish it. I got quite annoyed at myself and angrily thrashed out three totally random chords and instantly I heard the melody of the chorus.”