3

3 2.5

4.5LITTLE BOOTSNocturnes

ALISONMOYETTheMinutes

PATTYGRIFFINAmerican Kid

LADYANTEBELLUMGolden

BBC Sound of 2009 Victoria Hesketh,aka Little Boots, suffered the indignityof being not quite the Next Big Thing.Her hyped debut Hands was spar-

kly dance-pop but she was eclipsedby Lady Gaga and Florence.Nocturnes is sleeker and more pol-

ished, produced by Tim Goldswor-thy, whose influence can be heardon electro workout Shake. Standouttrack Motorway hasthe icy detachment ofSaint Etienne, butelsewhere too manytracks stray into Europop territory. JS

IN possession of an all-Americanwholesomeness, this country-poptrio are bound to be met with suspi-cion by your average cynical Brit.Their back catalogue mostly trun-

dles safely along, with the occasionaltrill of a mandolin or hollow shout of‘yee-haw!’ to confirm them as authen-tic country stars.Admittedly Golden has a couple of

guilty pleasures –Downtown and Ain’tPretty to be precise –but for the most partthese tracks aresamey and dull. PC

NEWMUSIC

THIS is Moyet’s eighth solo albumand comes at a stage in her careerwhen she could have rested on hercreative laurels rather than veering offinto the admirably unfamiliar.Producer Guy Sigsworth dips in

and out of a sprawling range of styleswith varying degrees of success.While pairing her deep voice with a

dubstep sub bass onApple Kisses was aclear mistake, redeem-ing moments in thismixed bagtracksinclude synth-pop bal-lad Filigree. PC

FEEL THELOVE . . .Rudimentalwere blownaway afterworking withEmeli, below

ALONG with Emmylou Harris andGillian Welch, Griffin is one of thequeens of alt-country. She’s also thenew flame of our own Robert Plant.Written in memory of her beloved

father, this gorgeous, understatedalbum finds her voice pure and trueand coming straight from the heart.She joined Plant in his Band Of

Joy and the Led Zep singer addsrich vocal texture tothree songs hereincluding delicatelypoised Ohio. Butthey’re just part of amagnificent whole.SC

Tijuana BiblesWHO: Tony Costello (vocals/gui-tar), James Brannigan (guitar),Behn Cross (bass), Mikey Dor-nan (drums)WHERE: GlasgowFOR FANS OF: The Black Keys,Black Rebel Motorcycle Club,The DoorsJIM SAYS: “Thought TijuanaBibles were amazing. Greatstage presence and some coolsongs. Remind me of BRMC.Ones to watch.”More often than not, 140 char-

acters aren’t enough to do aband justice, but I had to sharethose words on Twitter inMarch.I’d just seen Tijuana Bibles

live for the first time, supportinganother of my current favouritesThe Velveteen Saints.Their gritty indie rock ’n’ roll

does take its lead from BlackRebel Motorcycle Club, but ifmy character count had allowedI’d have chucked some othernames in.The Doors and Queens Of

The Stone Age maybe.I’d played the lead track from

their EP Wild River several timeson the radio so it was a delightto discover that they really arethe real deal.I now hear the recording in a

different context after havingseen them play. As I listen I canpicture the performance.The bearded pair, Behn and

James, either side of Tony, andMikey pounding the drums. All

the rock moves are there, but itcomes across in an organicway. It seems effortless.Tony said: “There are a lot of

bands we admire but we don’tparticularly concern ourselveswith what they are doing. We’revery much in our little bubble.“We recently moved into a flat

together to continue along thatroad and write as much as pos-sible. I suppose there can’t betoo many bands that are able toput up with each other everysecond of the day.”With the line-up completed

just six months ago, they’vecome bouncing out of the trapswith the debut EP.Mikey said: “We co-produced

it with Thomas McNeice at Rub-bergum Studios.“He produced Kassidy and

plays bass with Gang of Four sowe were really excited to workwith him. When we put togetherthe track listing for the EP wewere conscious of the fact thateach of the four songs sound dif-ferent from the others.“But we feel we’ve managed

to capture an atmosphere andenergy within the Wild River EPthat flows more like an albumrather than a showcase of fourseparate songs.”MORE: facebook.com/tijuanabiblesofficialJim will be playing Tijuana

Bibles on In:Demand Uncut thisSunday from 7pm on Clyde 1,Forth One, Northsound 1, RadioBorders, Tay FM, West FM &West Sound FM. indemandscotland.co.ukQ Photo credit Paul Wilkie

By CHRIS SWEENEY

EVERYONE and theiruncle seems to be afan of Emeli Sanderight now.But the chart-topping diva isalso a fan — of Hackney drum’n’ bass squad Rudimental.They even did two songstogether but both have been keptlow-key on purpose.One quarter of the gang, PiersAgget, said: “We were supportingMaverick Sabre at the BrixtonAcademy last year.“Emeli came down to see uswhich was quite a compliment.“She was saying how big a fanof our music she was — we toldher we were massive fans of herand it would be great to get inthe studio.“Then we managed to meet upat the Brit nominations, she wasup for like five and we gotBest Single.“Right after that, we allwent outside, got in a caband went straight to the stu-dio to make those twotracks.“It was a real magicalmoment, she’s such a greatsongwriter — we played thesongs to her and we co-wrotethem in a couple of hours.”The tracks are on the group’sdebut Home — currently sitting atnumber one.But they purposely didn’t usethem as singles to cash in onEmeli’s success — with her nowcurrently being the biggest sellingBritish act.

PumpingPiers said: “We always said,we’re not going to go for the obvi-ous pop stars. We didn’t want todo it for that.“In the case of Emeli, we reallydidn’t do it for any other reasonthan she sounds brilliant andsings great.“She’s a like-minded person ofsoulful music, that’s why we goton and made some good tracks.“If it sounds right, that’s whatmatters.”As well as crafting their sound,the lads also have a message tosend out.The guys — Piers, Kesi Dryden,Amir Amor and DJ Locksmith —want to tackle stereotypes.They know that Hackney inEast London is often portrayed asa tough, violent area.But Piers admitted he had theSAME view of Glasgow — beforehe came on tour recently.He said: “Before going to Glas-gow, I heard it was the stab capi-tal of the UK.“And it’s like, I go there, meetthe most amazing people and haveone of the best nights out I’veever had.“What we’re about is showingthere’s positivity in what peoplemight perceive as hopeless cases.“You have choices in life andluckily we had the support of ourfamilies to direct us and let usfulfil our dreams.“But a lot of young people don’tget that in Hackney or in othercities.“Growing up there, I’d walkdown the street, there’d be reggaepumping out of one window, Irishfolk at the next house, Indianmusic out of another then junglecoming out of my sister’s bed-room.“We constantly had different cul-tures and that’s what our album

is about — all those influences onus. It’s not necessarily just aboutHackney, it’s about there beinggood things in communities thatpeople at first think are bad.”The success of Home — whichbeat releases from heavyweightslike Michael Buble and Will.I.Am— was no fluke.The boys road-tested the trackslive — even recording some of itat gigs.Piers, 26, raved: “We’ve been liv-ing in the clouds for the pastcouple of weeks, just buzzing offthe success.“You definitely get a sense ofaccomplishment because weworked so hard to make thealbum the best it can be.“It’s so nice to know that peopleare buying into the band andthere’s more to us than hit sin-

gles. It’s an actual body of workwe’ve got and we’re here to stay.The album was a year and a halfin the making.“We would trial tracks live oncrowds. Then we’d work out newideas on stage.“We even recorded a lot of theparts for our single Waiting AllNight live at the gig in O2 inLondon.

Proper“It’s been a rollercoaster, weonly ever had a couple of days inthe studio each time.“At the same time, we wantedto make sure it was all soundingwicked.“Everything seemed to be wellreceived. We’re a proper bandplaying instruments, we ain’t got

the laptops on stage. It was moreabout working out structures andideas to make the songs better.“We’ve been touring all thismusic that no one had heard.“So sometimes they didn’t knowit but they never didn’t like it,you could tell they were feeling it.“That’s how we chose WaitingAll Night as the single, we wereon the Plan B tour and peoplestarted singing back the chorusafter the third time they heard it.”It’s hard to believe that they’venot even been doing gigs for ayear. In that time they’ve notchedup two No1 singles and an album.Right now they’re just finishingoff a UK tour before getting stuckinto festival season — including aslot at T in the Park — with moretouring to come later on in the

year. Peirs said: “This tour soldout quite early and we’ve hadpeople queuing outside venueslike they do for JLS or TakeThat. We’re normal guys fromHackney.“We didn’t plan to have peo-ple queue for us like that.“We got thrown in the deepend as our single Feel TheLove did well and went to num-ber one last year.

Amazing“Since then we’ve been buzz-ing off doing the live gigs — wehave a drummer now andanother vocalist, there’s nine ofus on this tour which startedup in Glasgow.That was an amazing night,it was sweaty and the crowd

were just nuts. But we onlystarted last summer, so we’veonly been doing live stuff fornot even a year — but we’re ina really good place.“For me, it’s been since Iwas 13 wanting to be a pro-ducer.“Never did I think I’d be anartist and in a band that canhave their own record.“We’re really into the Rudi-mental sound, we work welltogether as a team andbounce off each other.“There’s no bossesbetween the four of us.“It’s been our dreamto do this foryears.”

scotsfeats@the-sun.co.uk

By JIMGELLATLY

Friday, May 10, 2013 551S