RANDOLPH’S LEAP - KNOT 
THEIR FULL-LENGTH DEBUT ALBUM 
VINYL + CD/DOWNLOAD 
APR 7, 2014  

On April 7, 2014, Randolph’s Leap will become the first artist in 2014 to release an album on Scotland’s newest micro-indie Lost Map Records, and just the second artist to release an album on the label in its short history to date, with the arrival of their long-gestating, thoroughly invigorating, well-worth-the-wait(ing) full-length debut set Clumsy Knot. They’ll mark this special occasion in suitably rambunctious style with a launch show at Kinning Park Complex, Glasgow on Saturday, April 5. Consider yourself invited.  
Those familiar with Randolph’s Leap’s already extensive oeuvre – which spans several mini albums, compilations and EPs, many of them self-released yet generating such a buzz as to make the band one of the most blogged-about of 2012 according to The Hype Machine and see them invited to perform two BBC 6Music live sessions for Marc Riley – will perhaps question what qualifies Clumsy Knot as their “arrival proper”. Newcomers to the Leap’s bountiful charms meanwhile may ponder: “how come sometimes they’re eight people, and other times they’re just a guy?”, not to mention, “which one's Randolph”? So many questions, and we will endeavour to answer them all in due course.  
Begun on the fringes of a college music course in Ayr circa 2006, the now Glasgow-based Randolph’s Leap is/are Nairn born-and-raised singer, songwriter and home-recording boffin extraordinaire Adam Ross – as sometimes aided and abetted live and on record by a seven-piece band that includes Vicki Cole (bass), Andrew MacLellan (cello, guitar), Iain Taylor (drums, guitar), Heather Thikey (violin), Ali Hendry (trumpet), Fraser Gibson (trombone) and formerly Gareth Perrie (keyboards, vocals, guitar). When not working in a cafe at a wind-farm, Adam ponders in song all from the neurosis of self-doubt to the simple joy of a sax-solo, the difference between barristers and baristas, the appeal of running away to the woods to live like a recluse and the idealistic romanticism of island life (maybe he ponders these things while working in a cafe at a wind farm too, we haven’t asked). These wistful tableaux are most often committed to tape in the confines of his humble Partick abode by combination of acoustic guitar, cheap keyboards and basic drum-loops, with a profligacy that belies their increasing sonic sophistication, which has improved exponentially from the delightfully scratchy, hissy lo-fi stuff of 2012’s The Curse of The Haunted Headphones through to last year’s Olive Grove Records mini-album Real Anymore to come to bear at least a passing familiarity with what might be termed “slickness”. Just over half of the songs on Clumsy Knot are home-recordings. However, don’t be surprised to sometimes see the lesser-spotted Randolphs recording as a gang in such environs as producer/engineer Pete MacDonald’s house (formerly a Polish Embassy and home to Teenage Fanclub), and (whisper it) even proper studios – with the exuberantly joyful ‘Hermit’ proving just what they're capable of unleashed upon pro gear (that is, knowingly-dodgy lyrical puns to the tune of “living like a hermit/ hermit the frog”).  
Tying together all these many disparate strands of the band in a comprehensive if not always necessarily elegant way – and you understand the title, Clumsy Knot now – Randolph’s Leap’s utterly delightful debut album is the strongest single statement yet as to just why this band are one of the most loveable new forces in folksome indie- pop. For the way it surveys everything the band are about, Adam describes Clumsy Knot as "my favourite album we’ve made," and we don't disagree. You'll hear shades of vintage Belle & Sebastian in the lush 'Weatherman' and 'Isle of Love', or hints of The Magnetic Fields in the dour boom-box indie-tronica of 'Light Of The Moon'. And yet throughout Clumsy Knot, there's also something indefinably, uncategoriseably Randolphs going on, hinging on the idiosyncratic vision of a laugh-out-loud funny songwriter who revels in lyric writing as word-puzzles and the daft pleasure of a rhyme-that-doesn't-quite-rhyme ("If I spoke Dutch would that help me much?", Adam ponders ponderously on 'Foolishness of Youth'), and yet who can also stop you dead in your tracks with a moment of heartfelt loveliness (see the beautifully simple 'Black and Blue' or the shivering 'Cold'). All of which beats a direct path to your affections faster than any such unwieldy, 32-limbed creature has a right to. As to the identity of the mysterious Randolph? Look him up at 57.53284,-3.667676. 

RANDOLPH’S LEAP PRESS QUOTES:  
“They are ace” – MARC RILEY, BBC 6MUSIC "Great, concise, clever… and funny" – CLASH "Folk infused majesty" – THE FLY "Equal measures Woody Guthrie and Woody Allen" – THE HERALD "Amazing" – THE DAILY RECORD “Nonsense of the best kind” – THE SCOTSMAN “Odd ear-worms of joy” – THE SKINNY "In a league of their own" – THE LIST  

CLUMSY KNOT TRACKLISTING
A:  
1. Unnatural 2. Foolishness of Youth 3. News 4. Hermit 5. Gina 6. Light of the Moon 7. Weatherman  
B:  
8. Black & Blue 9. Isle of Love 10. Microcosm 11. Saxophone 12. Cold 13. I Can’t Dance to This Music Anymore 

RANDOLPH’S LEAP LIVE IN 2014:  

Mar 7 @ The Tunnels, Aberdeen (w/ Kid Canaveral) 
Mar 8  @ The Beat Generator, Dundee (w/ Kid Canaveral)
Mar 9 @ The Lexington, London (w/ Kid Canaveral)  
Mar 14 @ The Glad Cafe, Glasgow (Adam solo show)
Mar 15 @ Twa Tams, Perth
Mar 31 @ Hidden Door Edinburgh (Lost Map night)
Apr 5 - CLUMSY KNOT ALBUM LAUNCH @ Kinning Park Complex, Glasgow 
Apr 18 @ Wales Goes Pop, Cardiff 
Apr 19 @ Stockton Calling, Stockton 
May 3 @ Brew at the Bog, Inverness 
Jun 20-22 @ Solas Festival, Perth
Jul 18-20 @ Lost Map's Howlin' Fling, Isle of Eigg
Aug 1 @ Cloudspotting Festival, Blackburn
Aug 8-9 @ Belladrum Festival, Inverness

11 Saxophone

David from Kid Canaveral will be joining us at the Bowler's Bar for our first ever “I Can’t Dance To This Music” event.


Kid Canaveral - I Cant Dance To This Music Anymore (cover)

Furtive Glances is an EP of home recordings compiled by Adam. As EP also includes a compilation featuring some old unreleased material.



Track Listing

1. Counting Sheep (alternative version)

2. The Foolishness of Youth

3. Black and Blue

4. Gina

5. Cold

6. Light of the Moon

Bonus downloads

7. As I Lie In The Mud (demo)

8. Crisps (demo)

9. Hip Hip Hooray (demo)

10. Home Alone (demo)

11. If We Fall In Love (demo)

12. Listen To The Silence (demo)

13. Louse (demo)

14. Man, I Feel Rough (demo)

15. The Never Knowns (demo)

16. Two Minutes (demo)

17. Undergod (demo)

Randolph's Leap

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