☕ Programming

The new album by Adam Stafford, out on Song, by Toad Records in June. 

Get a copy here: http://songbytoadrecords.bandcamp.com

Buy on vinyl

Adam Stafford - Threnody For February Swallows

Adam Stafford returns this spring with 'Ruptured Telecine', a hypnagogic brew of off-planet electropop inspired by polarisation and conspiracy.

Described by The Skinny as “one of Scotland's most vital live performers”, Stafford unveils the single ahead of the release of his extraordinary new climate crisis album Trophic Asynchrony.

Written and recorded during lockdown, the predominantly instrumental record refines the Falkirk-based composer's taste for vivid imagery and neoclassical experimentation while retaining an acute wit and knack for a tune.

'Ruptured Telecine' – one of the few Trophic Asynchrony tracks to feature vocals – is at once an escape from the unrelenting chaos of our times as well as being shaped by it.

Obscured beneath watery distortions and an almost psychedelic tone of transcendence are lyrics about the divisive effect of social media on politics, where differences of opinion have hardened into barriers to dialogue, dividing families, breaking up friendships and even threatening democracy itself.

“The song is basically about the extreme polarisation of opinions and politics we see across social media and how it has spilled into our real-life relationships,” says Stafford. “It's about the fixed reality tunnels people find themselves utterly trapped in and about the way in which some people will not climb down from an argument, opinion or ideology they know is ridiculous.”

“I gave it the name 'Ruptured Telecine', which basically means broken film,” he continues, “because the slightly detuned synths put me in mind of old educational films from the 1970s and 1980s.”

In Leo Bruges's accompanying video, Stafford stars as something of a modern-day cult leader, an ambiguous figure apparently offering empathy and answers at a time of heightened anxiety and confusion.

“Do you spend your nights on the internet?” he asks via a daubed placard, a psychic 'third eye' scratched in biro between his brows.

Stafford says: “Leo and I discussed in length a video of repurposed footage with flashing slogans in the style of Adam Curtis documentaries. Out of that idea morphed one where we would send-up and satirise online cults and conspiracy groups such as QAnon. The character is bemused but happy to go along with the directions he is receiving off-screen. I think that people enveloped by these collectives know in their heart of hearts that the ideas that they endorse are silly and bogus, but, like society and capitalism, once you have invested in an ideology, it's hard to remove yourself from it.”

'Ruptured Telecine' is out 9th April 2021

Adam Stafford - Ruptured Telecine

“an uncommon grasp of adroit, heartfelt songcraft that sets Rooney on track to follow the likes of Bill Callahan and David Berman into the pantheon of awkward, visionary American outsiders. Essential.” The Herald
“a joy to discover the excellent Virgin of the Birds” - Dani Charlton, Amazing Radio
“Rooney has a facility with language that would give Lou Reed or Bill Callahan a run for their money although he sounds like neither. An understated gem of a record.” Whisperin & Hollerin
“nothing is overdone, but it has everything it needs, and manages all that in a little over 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Love it!” Fresh on the Net
“I’d thought I was bored with this sort of thing. But it turns out I’m definitely not when it’s done this well.”  SoundsXP

Secret Kids is Jon Rooney’s third album as Virgin of the Birds and his second with us, and it’s coming out on 12” vinyl on the 17th September on Song, by Toad Records over here and Abandoned Love Records in the US. 

I don’t like to use too many quotes in a press release because really, who cares. As I writer I listen and I make my own decisions, who cares what George Clooney or Optimus Prime think about something.

But those quotes above express what I love about Jon’s stuff really nicely. The style is a sort of literate pop - urbane lounge, I call it, because I am crap at genres - and it sounds really plain on first listen. Almost too simple, maybe.

But as straightforward and uncomplicated as it is, there’s so much to love. The lyrics, for starters, are genuinely great. Not ostentatiously deep or profound, but in turns clever, obscure, poignant and wry, and always immensely satisfying. And musically it’s just catchy. Minimal, most of the time, but all that is needed and no more.

Virgin of the Birds - Victor Bockris

The Fragile

Just Like You Imagined

TRON: Legacy

Solar Sailer (From "TRON: Legacy"/Score)

TRON: Legacy Reconfigured

End of Line (Remixed by Photek)

Well Mark from Woodpigeon saw the names of Viking Moses and Supermoon when I posted the artwork for Split 12" Vol.4, who happen to be great friends of his, and basically made the throwaway comment on the FB post 'when do I get to be on one of these?' 

We've been pals for a long time, and I pretty much said 'fuck it, why not help me put together the next one'. So right off the bat Mark suggested FOONYAP who he had no idea I already loved, and LT Leif, whose album I had just bought because of his recommendation a week or so ago on social media, so those were two really easy ones to settle on immediately. 

Initially everything flowed smoothly, people came in and recorded and we were chugging along just fine. It looked like we would be finished, well, probably a year or so ago really. 

Then the fourth artist we had lined up dropped out. That was fine, of course, these records aren’t going to make anyone famous so it really only makes sense to do it if you think it will be fun. We’ve had people drop out before too, and it’s no hassle, but given the three acts already recorded were Canadian, it made beautiful sense when I found another Canadian act who I thought would fit perfectly on this record. 

I’m half-Canadian myself too. You’d never know it to hear me speak, but my Dad was born and raised in Montreal, so making an all-Canadian Split 12” just seemed too appealing to shy away from. 

When I was a kid we’d go and visit the Canadian side of the family, and my dad and I would always go into a music shop to buy something new for the inevitably epic long-distance drives and I remember being fascinated by the fact that in Canada all Canadian releases had a wee red maple leaf sticker in the top corner so you’d know they were local. 

That was how I first found bands like 54-40, The Cowboy Junkies and The Tragically Hip, and the idea of having a release of our own with that wee maple leaf in the corner is really nice to think about. I almost imagine ten-year-old me looking at it in a shop when faced with a 14 hour car journey, thinking ‘what the fuck is this, then?’ 

The only problem, of course, is that Canada is a really long fucking way away. The logistics of sorting out that one, final recording session proved to be an absolute pain, and it ended up taking a year and a half between the first band recording their tunes and the last one. 

Still, it was worth it. After all that, when I finally got to put all these songs together and the finished record started to emerge, it was a wonderful moment of vindication. Whatever it’s taken to make this record was worth it, as the combination of artists is absolutely perfect, the songs work beautifully together, and I am absolutely delighted with it. 

But I’ll tell you what, I think I might make the next one in a month or two, just to remind myself what these Split 12”s are really supposed to be about: simple! Quick! Spontaneous! Ah well, whatever.

Song, by Toad Split 12" Vol.7

Woodpigeon - The City is Mine

FOONYAP - Yes/No

LT Leif - White Birds

Released on double gatefold vinyl in May 2018, Fire Behind the Curtain is Adam Stafford's monumental compositional L.P. written over 8 years while fighting crippling depression. 

Choirs yelp and screech, mindflaying beatboxing courses through cosmic k-holes, guitars sound like saxophones trapped deep in the wasp-machine and Pete Harvey's string arrangements haven't sounded this unsettling outwith Jonny Greenwood's soundtrack work.

Fire Behind the Curtain

River Search into the Night

The second of two albums Fair Mothers' Kevin Allan recorded at The Happiness Hotel in 2018/9, this one is the more experimental of the two, but still awash with lush beauty.

With collaborators Faith Eliott, Dana Gavanski (both vox), Esther Swift (harp), Sam Mallalieu (drums), Pete Harvey (cello) and a guest appearance from Johnny 'Pictish Trail' Lynch on Birds and Bees, the album was recorded and mixed by Matthew Young, and produced by Matthew and Kevin Allan.

This album is a companion piece to previous record 'Separate Lives' and will be out soon on Song, by Toad Records.

Fair Mothers - Monochrome

Release date: Friday 24th January 2020.

'Separate Lives is the first of two albums Fair Mothers' Kevin Allan recorded at The Happiness Hotel in 2018/9.

With collaborators Faith Eliott, Dana Gavanski (both vox), Sam Mallalieu (drums), and Pete Harvey (cello), the album was recorded and mixed by Matthew Young, and produced by Matthew and Kevin Allan.

This album is a companion piece to previous record 'In Monochrome' which will be out later in the year on Song, by Toad Records.

Radio Bangers

Fair Mothers - Rainfall, Canada

Shop Merch: http://store.kavinsky.com
From "Nightcall EP" and "OutRun", available in vinyl: https://kavinsky.bandcamp.com

Follow Kavinsky:
http://instagram.com/Kavinsky
http://facebook.com/KavinskyOfficial
http://twitter.com/Kavinsky
http://tiktok.com/@kavinsky

Kavinsky - Nightcall (feat. Lovefoxxx)
Produced by Kavinsky & Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (Daft Punk), and mixed by SebastiAn

#RecordMakers
http://recordmakers.com
http://facebook.com/RecordMakers
http://instagram.com/recordmakers
http://twitter.com/RecordMakers
http://soundcloud.com/RecordMakers
Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/1dd3pnN

Kavinsky - Nightcall

Scottish musician and filmmaker Adam Stafford announces new LP ‘Diamonds of a Horse Famine’, out on deceased record label Song, by Toad Records on the 16th October 2020.

For many of us, the predicament of lockdown and isolation has made way for new creative exploits, be it in the rekindling of old hobbies or the birth of fresh projects. With time and space to reflect, Falkirk polymath Adam Stafford’s experience of lockdown has been one of renewal, revolving around the discovery of a little red book hidden beneath some tupperware in a cardboard box.

Full of old lyrics and memories, this book was a snapshot of a past life, providing an opportunity for reassessment, wholly embraced by Stafford as the world collectively paused to take a breath. Armed with a box full of demo cassette tapes, he decided to re-learn some songs, take fragmented ideas from the past ten years and chop, re-write and re-sculpt until an entirely new album was born. As he explains, ‘I decided to revisit and refurbish them, like a detective looking over an old case.’

Diamonds of a Horse Famine is the result, and in nine songs, Stafford cements his reputation as one of Scotland’s finest arrangers of cinematic soundscapes, tied together, as ever, with versatile instrumentation and cathartic, affecting vocals. ‘People complained that I'd stopped singing when they came to see me live,’ he says of his choice to place his voice front and centre, ‘so this was an opportunity to flex the vocal muscles again and say, "Hiya, remember when I used to write lyrics and songs?". I recorded piecemeal for two hours each morning and did vocal takes in my shed at night.’

‘Thirty Years of Bad Road’ opens the album with a lilting guitar line that swings back and forth in unison with Stafford’s delicate vocal melody, the repetition driving its themes of addiction and inertia. Embodying his honest portrayal of mental illness, ‘Erotic Thistle’ also appeals to his dark sense of humour, with the track’s lyrical ingenuity working in sync with its explicit emotion.

This new record is ultimately a step towards nostalgia; the unearthing of forgotten stories and past mistakes told from differing perspectives, its focus on introspection certifying it as the quintessential lockdown soundtrack. ‘It was an attempt,’ Stafford continues, ‘to strip all of the artifice and return to just voice and minimal instrumentation a la Nick Drake's Pink Moon, Sparklehorse's Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, Cody Chesnutt’s The Headphone Masterpiece and Ry Cooder's Paris, Texas soundtrack.’

‘History of Longest Days’ casts fond memories on existing in perpetual poverty but still being happy, while ‘Summer on Elm Wood’ follows a suicidal child, living next to a wasteland that contains a derelict, haunted factory. A tribute to Skip James' ‘Little Cow And Calf Is Gonna Die Blues’, ‘Calf and Cow Blues’ paints a vivid picture of a disquiet rural setting with cows crying across the fields waiting to be milked in the morning. 

Elsewhere on the album, ‘Slave’ suffers the pain of toxic, controlling relationships; ‘House is a Hospice’ takes an unflinching look at prostitution and poverty; and ‘What Kind of Man’ explores ageing and loss of sex appeal – the restraint in all three exhibiting a depth and darkness that stirs your soul. 

If lockdown truly has given us all a rare moment of reflection in our otherwise chaotic lives, Diamonds of a Horse Famine can be seen as the epitome of retrospection as progress and of creative rebirth. For many of us, this period has been fruitful yet humdrum, noteworthy yet simultaneously monotonous; time seeming to stand still yet disappear just as quickly. Perhaps we’ve all been longing to find our very own little red book hidden beneath some tupperware in a cardboard box.

Adam Stafford - Diamonds of a Horse Famine

Adam Stafford - Erotic Thistle

A music blog, record label, video channel and podcast show based in Edinburgh.  With lots of gin and swearing.

If you want to submit music to the blog or the label, please don't send me a message on Soundcloud itself as I do not check them.  A Soundcloud link is great, but please email the link to toad at songbytoad.com.

Virgin of the Birds - Victor Bockris

Song, by Toad

Related tracks