I’ve been listening to Cameo Colours tonight, a four-piece rock outfit from Edinburgh. They’ve just released their debut EP; as of yesterday you can get your copy on their BandCamp page with an honesty box payment. You can listen to the whole EP right here, right now by clicking play.
This review is a few days late but the memories of three excellent performances have lost none of their potency.
Wee Red Bar, again late. Black marker scrawled on my right palm; the guy manning the ticket stall has a flair for cartography. Miasma are first on the bill, and proceed to deliver their set to about ten people; by the time they are in fifth gear* the room is full and their guitars are loud, they play almost like The Hush Sound but louder. Anyway, I picked up a copy of their new album Feathered Feet so there will be a review of that forthcoming.
Maydays were the wildcard of the evening: they literally look my age (but cooler) and in the lexicon of my former schoolmates, proceed to ‘smash it’. Punchy indie rock with swagger to boot, sort of like Mae but non-emo.
Run/Lucky/Free – whom I came to see, effortlessly capture the audience. I spoke to Guitarist Dan and Bassist Sam before the gig starts and they tell me that the band started out of each of the member’s respective music degrees at Napier. That would go some way to explaining RLF’s easy well-worked style, the way they fall into place and play a completely professional gig without breaking even the semblance of a sweat. This performance was the last of their recent Scotland-wide tour but their single The Factory is available all over the place.
I’ve been listening to the latest single from Run/Lucky/Free and was really pleasantly surprised. Not because I thought it would be crap or anything, just because the email I got from the band telling me about the single was pretty modest and unassuming, so I didn’t form any expectations about the music before I clicked play on the SoundCloud player.
The Factory kicks off with a fairly low key guitar melody, perhaps a little reminiscent of Modest Mouse or Wilco, but then! Then this gorgeous wavering ghostlike voice just floats free of the guitar and bass – which complement it perfectly – and captures the whole song. The singer, Rachael Cormack, told me “we are based in Edinburgh but are from all around Scotland – I’m from Skye, the drummer Fergus is from Glasgow, bassist Sam is from Edinburgh and our guitarist Dan is from Aberdeen” –but after listening to a few of their other songs (I especially loved Colours, which is the track embedded above) I’m starting to feel they’re being a little too modest
The b-side, Life Into Dust is just as good a vintage, with a faster pace that shows a bit more range. Run/Lucky/Free sound somewhat like Come On Gang!, but with less punk and more of a soul/indie feel to them – so maybe a Mark Knopfler-ised Noisettes.
The single is out October 3, and they’re touring around that time in Skye, Inverness, Dundee, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. I would genuinely be psyched to see them live.
