Skinny Dipper - Masks EP

Earlier on in the year I featured an interview with Lloyd and Halina from Olive Grove Records; a lovely organic DIY label from Glasgow. The duo's enthusiasm for new music in the city is infectious and I always keep an eye and an ear out for the music that they are either releasing or talking about.

The name of Olive Grove's latest signings caught my attention - Skinny Dipper. Who or what is a skinny dipper and do they like to skinny dip?!

Answering two of those questions the band say they are 'almost a girl group'. There are 8 girls and 1 lucky boy with a healthy background in groups like Randolph's Leap, Aerials Up, Quickbeam and Trapped In Kansas. So they have been around enough to know what they are doing.

Skinny Dipper, before the skinny dip

Masks is a gorgeous EP, perfect for the sunny Autumn day when it first entered my life. The production (Stuart MacLeod) captures the harmonies, melodies and feel of the music perfectly.

The 5-track EP is coming out on 12-inch vinyl and as a download on 8th September.

Landing openings proceedings and vocal harmonies combine with beats, violin and keyboards in a beautiful manner. The bands ear for pop shines through with catchy backing vocals following the first instrumental section and the whole song flows along.

The vocals that introduce Hospital Bed are absolutely beautiful (beautiful is a word that may be used a lot in reviews for Skinny Dipper). The band highlight their skills superbly on this song, capable of bursts of flowing melodies from nowhere.

Gentle guitars usher in the superbly titled The Kids Are Moving On. A soulful trumpet and slow considered percussion kick in at just the right moment. Skinny Dipper are in no rush, they know they are capable of moments of beauty and they inject them at just the right moments in this song. The closing instrumental is glorious, life affirming.

So swing fast and swing hard

For what you want to hold in your hands

Cellphones is nothing other than atmospheric ambience underpinning someone talking about Cellphones in a paranoid fashion. I was quite disappointed on first listen that this didn't go anywhere.

There is no surprise that the band opt to close the EP with Son Of A Mitch. Yet again the band show that they can fly and flow with the best of them in the exquisite closing section. I do hope to catch them live in full flight at some point in the not too distant future. The band play with fellow Olive Grove band Call To Mind at Stereo in September.

Skinny Dipper create moments of wonder on their debut EP. Definitely worth a dip (groan).

Rick Redbeard/Adam Stafford split 7-inch, Gerry Loves Records

So I'd been home for an hour tonight before my wife said 'What have you been buying now?' before she handed a package over. The answer was a t-shirt from Gerry Loves Records and a split 7-inch package containing their most recent release (no.9) Rick Redbead & Adam Stafford and an earlier release that I don't have in my wee Gerry Loves collection by (no.2) Trapped In Kansas and Yahweh.

me breathing in!

Gerry Loves Records could be described as a boutique record label based in Edinburgh, specialising in bringing artists together for split 7-inch singles or 12-inch EP's. I can't remember how I discovered them but I bought their first release and I was then involved through Miaoux Miaoux in their third release, also buying their Paws/Lady North release.


So it is a busy and productive label and owner Andy Lobban clearly has excellent taste in music (Paws have signed to Fat Cat and Miaoux Miaoux to Chemikal for example) and art (the packaging is always fantastic).


I have mentioned Adam Stafford a few times on this blog and his offering of 'Vanishing Tanks' for this split 7-inch is one of the best things (or at least my favourite) I have heard from him. 


The guitar riff sounds pretty familiar and it is really bugging me as to what it sounds like. Adam lays down beats over the guitar and then layers his voice to great effect. The section/chorus/mantra 'won't let you walk away, won't let you walk away, out of here now' is glorious.


Adam is a prolific and talented artist, check out his Wiseblood Industries website to discover his back catalogue. I would highly recommend last years 'Build A Harbour Immediately' album to start with.

I had no idea who Rick Redbeard was when I bought this as I ordered it on the strength of Adam.    It turns out that Rick is the lead singer of The Phantom Band, who are a band I can appreciate but can't get into at all.


I didn't have any problems getting into 'Now We're Dancing' though. The guitar riff is softly picked out over some gentle percussion. Rick's voice is stunning, lifting the song at all the right times. This is one of the most beautiful lyrics of the year for me.

I would love to say your name, if only for the sound

Some bubbling electronica is spliced into the song in the perfect way, as is some melodica. This song just sounds timeless. It is ripe for a film.


If you order the 7-inch it comes with 2 bonus tracks as well! I haven't got to them yet as I keep playing the record!


The Yahweh and Trapped In Kansas 7-inch comes in a handmade fabric sleeve with polaroids stuck on by the bands themselves.

'Make Me Stop' by Yahweh is brilliant. It reminds me of acts like the Postal Service. The vocals are put through some kind of effects, the synths bubble, there is some gentle glockenspiel...its all quite psychedelic in a modern way. I love this. The vocal melody just flows superbly.


So there you go - some new music and a brilliant little label run by someone who, like me, is also madly in love with Teenage Fanclub. Check it all out via the links in this blog.



'Towerblock' by Trapped In Kansas is all chiming guitars and very Scottish sounding vocals. It takes a while to get going and when it does the hook is hammered home.

Fall down, this is like love and I feel lost

There are 2 bonus tracks available via download with this release as well, I'll leave them for you to check out yourself.


So there you go - some new music and a brilliant little label run by someone who, like me, is also madly in love with Teenage Fanclub. Check it all out via the links in this blog.

Lady North/Paws - Gerry Loves Records split single

If you google Gerry Loves Records the following blurb will appear on your screen;


A tiny DIY Label in Edinburgh, Scotland, producing quality musical artefacts. 


It is a pretty perfect description.


The first release on this tiny DIY label with a great name (a play on Teenage Fanclub's Gerry Love for any non-Fanclub fans) was a little over a year ago, in April 2010, another split single featuring Conquering Animal Sound and Debutant. Since then releases have also included music by; Trapped In Kansas, Yahweh, Japanese War Effort, Miaoux Miaoux, Wounded Knee and Fox Gut Daata. Now we arrive at LOVES005 with the release of a new 7-inch featuring Lady North and Paws.


Before I go on, it is worth going on to the Gerry Loves website where you get to listen to all the releases to date, hopefully before you buy one or two. 


Full credit to Gerry Loves Records for pouring their heart, soul and cash into Scottish independent music.

A split 7-inch single reminds me of my youth and Nirvana sharing vinyl space with Jesus Lizard. I still have the 7-inch, it is probably worth a decent amount.


The artwork (Gerry Loves Records like their artwork) is more simple than the previous split 12-inch that came out at the tail end of 2010. Lady North get one side and Paws the other in a hand silk screened cover.


Let's check out what is on offer on the vinyl that comes inside.


Lady North offer 'It's All About Gettin' that Claude Monet'. Their music is described as 'math rock'. Now I'm not quite sure what that means, what I get on listen is evidence of a band that are clearly shit hot and exceptionally tight. The recording sounds pretty live, perhaps because of the fact that it sounds like freeform jazz or a jam at times, really loose, yet they know what they are doing.


You can get lost in this, I imagine it would be brilliant live and I'm regretting not going to the launch night at Captain's Rest earlier this month. 


There is what could be considered a drum solo at times, the music veers from jazz to prog to what could also be considered heavy rock at times. 

Paws are up next with the track 'Lekker'. I caught them at Sneaky Petes in Edinburgh back in April and I really enjoyed their energetic set and guitar sounds.


If anything, they sound even more ferocious live with 'Lekker' than they did that night in Petes! 


'Lekker' is under two-and-a-half minutes of driving guitars and beats. The vocals are distoted to the extent where it is quite hard to make out the lyrics at times (along with the fact that they fly through the song) 

yeah we just started something new, but i am still pretty terrified of you

It is a pop punk, fierce love song and over before you know it with a catchy; 

'holy f**k I think I'm falling in love, with you, love uv uv uv, with you'.

Check an acoustic version below;

I look forward to the next release.