ARM12
Released: Monday 10th May 2010
CD / DL

Every mother is a teacher and every father is a preacher...from forth the loins of these two professions, a quartet of star-crossed musicians take their life, spread up and down the east coast of Scotland like marmite where they lay their scene. Armellodie is delighted to present the debut EP from Scotland’s most subterranean, ecclesiastical rock band, The Scottish Enlightenment.

The Scottish Enlightenment are quiet, but like a falling bomb is quiet, like an embryo is quiet, like the sibilant steam drifting ominously above a silent culdera. They hummmmmm melodiously like a microwave, slowly incubating their songs with the full time dedication and care of a placenta.  Having debuted in 2007 with the single ‘Eyes’ - the promo video for which was picked up by MTV and played across the world on VH1, MTV2 and MTV Europe - the band then retreated into the wilderness of the provincial Scottish town of Dunfermline and are only now returning to light up our stereos.

The band is built around the dense and persuasive song-writing of David Moyes, we’ll let him explain the band’s chosen moniker, “I know all about the philosophy of The Scottish Enlightenment period through studying at Aberdeen University for 6 years and working for a Scottish philosophy history centre up there. But I really just chose it because I thought it sounded weird for a band. But I like to prance around gobbing off about it being a mix of the local and the universal, the corporeal and the conceptual, the blah and the blah. It’s just because it sounded weird.”

‘Pascal’ opens the proceedings with a tender radiance. Moyes sings over a sparse and simple arrangement, “Though I came without I will raise you”, to illustrate a leap of faith taken at the end of the line, when you can’t see anything else to do. It’s delicate and it’s fractured. A comforting place to be - to know that there is nothing else that you could have done. Peddling a concoction of sleepy rock and star-gazing guitars Pascal is gentle, subtle, and fragile, epitomising what The Scottish Enlightenment are all about.

‘If You Would Just Try a Bit Harder’ continues in a similar understated fashion, with dreamy guitars and hypnotic rhythm. Depicting an argument between an atheist and a theist, both of whom believe that the other is being deliberately sloppy in their thinking. Moyes explains, “I like to talk with people who used to believe certain things, but aren’t so sure anymore. Those people know you can totally believe something false, and doubt something true”. This imagery spills over into ‘Riverbed’, with running piano arpeggios providing the backdrop for streams of guilt to flow.

Continuing to wield that repetitive and addictive guitar line trick, ‘All Homemade Things’ is the most buoyant effort on the EP. “I woke up and I looked outside, a new car in my drive, a big house and a hot wife” sings Moyes. Everyone gets to an age where they start making their own rule, and this song is a lament for all the parental inheritance that should never be lost.

‘To The Dogs’ closes the EP in all its downbeat glory. Arguments are so often settled by scurrilous means, and sometimes when that’s what’s happening you should just walk away. The song closes with clattering drums and the beautiful sound of the Clarsach, which is a little harp.

The Scottish Enlightenment is both Scottish, ie local, corporeal, and Enlightenment, ie universal, abstract. It unites those disparate elements only the union of which can bring a real new Scottish enlightenment. Epic without ever trying to sound anthemic, the organic build of genuine emotion will bring about the desired crescendo every time.  ‘Pascal’ is taken from the forthcoming album, a trailer if you will, as we await the arrival of ‘St. Thomas’.

THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT - Pascal

Thirty Pounds of Bone sings Chris T-T on an EP of cover versions released on Woodland Recordings. Songs by The Electric Soft Parade, Mary Hampton, The Great Park, Something Beginning With L, Le Reno Amps and Dive Dive also feature on this beautifully quiet and affectionate collection.
Available on limited CD at http://www.woodlandrecordings.com/RELEASES/WR046.html
More from Thirty Ponds of Bone at http://www.thirtypoundsofbone.bandcamp.com

WR046 - Thirty Pounds of Bone 'Ankles (Chris T-T)'

<p class="sideheader2">FIT ABOOT IT?</p>


Armellodie is a tiny wee independent label, stable, collective, R.O.C.K consortium, based in but not exclusive to Glasgow, Scotland.

To describe it neopolitan style, it's a chocolate slab of leftfield rock, a strawberry layer of ice-cold indie and a vanilla scoop of the avant garde. 

Armellodie’s position is missionary, we always finish on top. Only the finest chops musically, lyrically and egotistically will satisfy Armellodie’s strict A+R policy. 

Success doesn’t drive us; we thrive on our underdog status.

If you wanna get in touch then <a href="mailto:info@armellodie.com">drop us an e-mail</a>.



THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT - Pascal

Armellodie

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