WRAPPING UP 2012 with The Douglas Firs

For their second full-length release “The Furious Sound” (see yesterday’s post), Edinburgh’s The Douglas Firs apply accident as much as design. Their excellent ‘gloom-pop’ album inspired by the East Lothian witch trials of 1590 was recorded in locations related to the persecution: South Leith Church, the parish of David Lindsay, who led the witch hunt on behalf of James I & IV as well as the church at Old Kirk Green, North Berwick and the dungeons at Tantallon Castle, East Lothian where the witches practised their sermons. However: “many parts of the record were improvised, inspired by the locations used. No fortuitous sounds leaking onto the tracks were excluded.”

Despite there being a spate of witch trial related music this year (and all of it excellent), The Douglas Firs are originals not followers: “The Douglas Firs are a band fearlessly doing their own thing, with as much 1960s psychedelia as 21st-century indie-folk, as many post-rock episodes as ambient soundscapes. Perhaps only The Phantom Band are pushing genre envelopes in quite the same way” says The Herald; “Belle and Sebastian on a spirit-quest” says The List. Or maybe the best of this bunch of comparators is from Subba-Cultcha “...like Midlake on a bad trip rather than chirping merrily about cedars and Aunt Roseline”.

Aberdonian Neil Insh, now living and making music in Edinburgh, is the driving force behind The Douglas Firs and answered some questions on his year (very promptly and well ahead of schedule) at the end of last month.

What I will remember most about 2012 is...
That Zlatan overhead kick was pretty memorable, from last week.

What should be forgotten about 2012...
Coming from someone who hates memories, this is a tough one. I'm going to have to say The Weeknd. and I don't even mean, 'the weekend'. I mean the dreadful artiste, The Weeknd. I had a disturbing streaming experience with his music a few weeks ago.



The best gig we played was...
We played two gigs this year. I'll opt for our gig with Michael Anguish and Iliop, at Old St Paul's.

The best gig I saw was...
I haven't seen any gigs this year, so by default I'll have to opt for Michael Anguish and Iliop, at Old St Paul's.

A record from 2012 that will be still be played in 10 years time?
He hasn't actually released his second album, yet, but Green Gerry has leaked out some teasers. I've been listening to everything else he has done for over 2 years, so that's pretty good going. a quarter of the way there.

Overlooked in 2012?
Green Gerry.

And what can we look forward to in 2013 from The Douglas Firs?
I want to record an album in as small a space as possible, but maximise the amount of people involved. So far, I have 8 people interested. And in my head, it sounds like the Velvet Underground playing spectral samba.

Sounds amazing. And more of that accident and design at play. But as evidenced by both “Happy As A Windless Flag” or “The Furious Sound”, The Douglas Firs are more than capable of pulling off ambitious plans. Bring on the spectral samba.

The third (I think) and final gig for The Douglas Firs is this Friday at Augustine United Church when they play live to launch the new album supported by Snake Until Listen, Lamplighter and Something Beginning With L.

THE DOUGLAS FIRS The Furious Sound

Most of the first half of the second album from orchestral alt-folk ensemble The Douglas Firs is propelled by the heavy insistent beat of multiple sets of drums. Not intricate soft-brushed patterns or jovial rolls and fills but an ominous, repetitive heavy thud. It’s taken a step further on ‘ Fortress’ where the combined throb of drums, electric bass and hammered piano sound intimidating, like the metallic pounding on the gate to said citadel.

If the first album “Happy As A Windless Flag” often recalled the angular alt-rock volatility of Deerhunter, the propulsive menace of this one recalls the baroque intensity of These New Puritan on "Hidden" – only with less roto-toms and (slightly) less martial belligerence and more liturgical chant alongside Neil Insh’s Zach Condon-like airy croon. The oppressive sense of doom for the first six songs does subside but the dark mood lingers and feels entirely appropriate for an album loosely based around the East Lothian witch trials of 1590 at which seventy people were tortured, tried and burned to death. And if that sounds jolly, “The Furious Sound” goes further and seeks to become “an investigation into outsiders, madness, extreme internal states, physical degradation and the brevity of human life”.



There is no easily discernible narrative thread despite these theme(s) and song titles like ‘Vastations’ or ‘Firelight Acolyte Diorama’ lend the album an arcane aura, but there is a tighter musical focus to “The Furious Sound” than its predecessor. Its thirteen tracks - recorded in churches, dungeons and forests – move from the pounding opening of ‘The Great Generations’ to ethereal, post-rock abstraction (‘Black Forest’), haunting monastic shimmer and chill (‘Firelight Acolyte Diorama’) and angelic orchestral elegies (‘The Possessed’ and ‘Monument’). I love the dark atmospherics, the sense of menace and doom mixed with orchestral delicacy and the sweetness of Insh’s voice but it can feel (intentionally I suspect) unrelentingly oppressive. The sprawling randomness of “Happy As A Windless Flag” in comparison does appear a virtue to change and lighten the mood. So far this record is still in the shadow of that predecessor for me but there’s no denying its compelling dark and original powers.

The Douglas Firs - Backroads by Armellodie

The Douglas Firs The Furious Sound [BUY]

CUDDLY SHARK Body Mass Index

There’s a pacy brevity to this release by Glasgow-based Cuddly Shark: six songs in eleven minutes with only two tracks over two minutes, and one – the dislocated heavy riffing and pained yelps of ‘PolitiCol’ – only just stretching beyond 40 seconds. However there’s no shortness of ideas, snappy fun or lyrical bite here. The trio - Colin Reid on guitar and vocals, Jason Sinclair on drums and Ruth Forsyth on bass – deliver brakes-off melodic pop-punk with transatlantic reference points; from the delirious abandon and sarcastic observations of Art Brut in the title track to the anthemic wordless harmonies and hearts-in-the-right-place churning positivity of Weezer in ‘Skewiff’.

The title – and best - track is the tale of a creepy, predatory male “attractive in the wrong direction” being repeatedly re-buffed by the ladies (“FYI it’s your BMI”). But in a rattling two minutes and five seconds, Cuddly Shark manage to pack in a semi-spoken word intro over walking bass line, pummelling rock ‘n’ roll, comical screeching, personal doubt, desperate pleading plus an angular art-rock bridge - all with sleek, likeable humour. Punchy not paunchy.

It would be easy for a band to stick in this high gear particularly with such truncated tracks. And although ‘Overpriced’ provides more clean-cut power-trio bludgeon - this time with hand-claps - other tracks move up and down the gear box . ‘Losing The Room’ delivers standing-start-to-sixty-miles-per-hour acceleration into screaming straight-edge angst and heaviness like a comic-book Fugazi - in complete contrast to the tender piano and slow tempo acoustic reflections of ‘The Man You Want’.



The band’s name perfectly encapsulates their combination of synthetic soft-toy appeal with cartoon-like brawn and menace. The polished shortness of the songs means their espresso-shot feistiness never outstays its welcome and the melodic hooks, particularly of the title track, last much longer than that initial caffeinated hit. This is-it-an-EP, released next week on Armellodie, is the trailer for the band’s sophomore long-player ‘The Road To Ugly’ due in January next year.



Cuddly Shark Body Mass Index [BUY]