SNACK...IN August 2020

AUGUST 2020

AUGUST 2020

KIRSTIN INNES | EVERYTHING EVERYTHING | RACHEL AGGS | MARTHA FFION MUSIC | FILM | FOOD & DRINK | LGBT+ | BOOKS | REVIEW | GAMING | WORDS

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CONTENTS EVENTS EVERYTHING EVERYTHING, RACHEL AGGS, MARTHA FFION, KIRSTIN INNES BOOKS | P54 EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL FILM | P60 GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL, BLAXPLOITATION LGBT+ | P70 I MAY DESTROY YOU, DISCLOSURE, THE (NOT) GAY MOVIE CLUB FOOD & DRINK | P98 SCOTTISH MORNING ROLLS, TATTIE SCONES, SUMMER WINE, BBQ BEER TOURIST IN YOUR GLASGOW EDINBURGH OWN CITY | P122 REVIEW | P136 BDRMM, DANIEL AVERY, WUH OH, MARTHA FFION, MARGO PRICE, FAIR MOTHERS, MADISON FIORENZA, FONTAINES D.C., DEAD PONY, CARLA J. EASTON, PELTS, BETA WAVES, TOM GILLESPIE, GHOST OF TSUSHIMA, THE LAST OF US PART 2, BAD EDUCATION, CLEMENCY WORDS | P176 I GREW UP HERE WHAT'S ON | P10 INTERVIEWS | P20

CREDITS E: hello@snackpublising.com Editor/Sales: Kenny Lavelle Sub Editor: Leona Skene Food and Drink Editors: Emma Mykytyn and Mark Murphy LGBT+ Editor: Jonny Stone Designer/Illustrator: Fionnlagh Ballantine

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Hello, Welcome to Issue 4 of SNACK...IN. As the day to day world starts getting back to some sort of normality, I’m left considering the future of our digital lockdown project SNACK...IN. I know that we’ve been privileged, and I count us lucky that we’ve been able to continue the magazine throughout lockdown, especially in the light of so many of our peers recently being forced to cease publishing for good. Equally I know that (not so) deep down the print magazine is really where our heart and future lies. So, with any luck, this will be the final issue of the lockdown project that has kept the SNACK team sane and allowed us to continue supporting the best of Scotland’s arts and culture throughout the last few months.

If this does end up being the last of the lockdown batch then I’m delighted that we’re concluding this chapter of our history with such a strong issue. On our cover this month we have Scottish author of the moment Kirsten Innes. Inside she talks to Alistair Braidwood about her fantastic, and already much loved, new novel Scabby Queen. We speak to Rachel Aggs about her tremendous new album, created in one week on the Isle of Eigg as part of Lost Map’s Visitations project. You’ll also find we’ve massively expanded our review section and, for the first time, we’re covering video games. Elsewhere, Foodie Explorers have pulled together simple recipes for a couple of Scottish food classics, Morning Rolls and Tattie Scones – perfect for the weekend. Isla gives us her top BBQ beers, for the summer that will absolutely definitely happen.

As for the rest, I’m sure you’ll find your way around.

Kenny Lavelle Editor

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WHAT'S ON Back to Contents

FESTIVAL VILLAGE Candleriggs Merchant City – 23rd July till 31st August 11am till 10pm From the organisers behind Edinburgh’s Festival Village (Pop Up Pros) comes an outdoor pop-up market situated in the very heart of the Merchant City, the 300 capacity sitting area has a pretty wide variety of food and drink options including Pizza Geeks, burgers from The Butcher Boy and a whole host of cheesy goodness from Say Cheese. Drink options include several of the city’s most well known breweries, ranging from West, Drygate and Tennent’s and of course for gin lovers GlasweGin. In what is an incredibly exciting development for the reawakening city it’s open everyday and patrons can expect to be served on a first come first served basis. There’s also an additional autism friendly area, and any charitable donations collected will be donated to Scottish Autism.

Check out the Glasgow Festival Village Facebook page for more information.

What’s on By Gregg Kelly Page 11

ARTHUR SMITH’S SOCIALLY DISTANCED WALKING TOUR Pleasance Courtyard Edinburgh – 8th August till 15th August Although the Edinburgh Fringe is on hiatus until 2021, there are still a few resolute performers offering guests the chance to experience an essence of the world famous festival. Comedian Arthur Smith has decided to embrace the current reality and is offering fans the chance to join him on a (socially distanced) tour of Edinburgh. The comedian, TV star (BBC 2’s Grumpy Old Men), radio star (Excess Baggage) and four time playwright (An Evening With Gary Lineker e.g), tells the history of Edinburgh through poetry, jokes and surprises. The audience is encouraged to wear suitably eccentric PPE for the tour.

ANY MINUTE NOW Every Friday till 28th August Hosted by Live Music Scotland, this stream features some of the most talented live acts from across the country, continuing their live events throughout August, the weekly streams are free to view but organisers are encouraging anyone wishing to contribute to do so through Black Lives Matter. July’s musical performers included Jane Blanchard, Pocket Knife, Clara Day, Gus Harrower, and Mollie Nelson Music. Check the Live Music Scotland Facebook page for up to date music listings.

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STIRLING GIN – LOCKDOWN VIRTUAL TOUR AND TASTING till April 2021 From the comfort of your own home, Stirling Gin invites you into their distillery for their special virtual to, hosted by head distillers Cameron and June McCann, the tour will take you on a journey covering gin, its history, and the intertwined legacy with the famous town from the creation of Stirling Gin to the modern renaissance of the entire industry. Educational and fun, the tour also provides those touring from home with a package that includes gin minis, Fever Tree tonics, dried orange and a variety of other goodies.

Make your way to the Stirling Gin website for more info.

A LOVE LETTER TO GLASGOW till 24th December 2020 Originally planned as a celebration of Glasgow through the prism of painting, local artist Lee Robertson had grand plans to unveil his art show at the Saltmarket but, for obvious reasons, had to postpone. Instead the talented former Glasgow School of Art moved his entire show online, where he unveiled his interpretation of what makes the city such a fantastic place to live.

From a painting of a Blade Runner inspired neon lit, rain soaked Mitchell Lane to a packed, strobe light engulfed SWG3. Each incredible painting (of which there are a few) really captures the beating heart of the city.

Visit the A Love Letter to Glasgow website to take a look at the art show.

What’s on By Gregg Kelly Page 13

ONLINE EDINBURGH FRINGE FESTIVAL August The Edinburgh Fringe has risen like a phoenix and gone online, the creative minds, performers, and stars that collaborate to create the festival are bringing versions of their performances direct to your home in digital format. Aiming to at least capture the unique spirit of the festival, thousands of Fringe artists and venues will be taking part in the online venture, while the Fringe Society will be guiding audiences thanks to an online central listing service. There will also be digital interactive activities, live stream performances, heaps of nostalgic throwbacks and much more.

Keep up to date at EdFringe.com for full listings in the coming weeks.

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EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL ONLINE 15th August till 31st August Edinburgh’s world famous book festival faced an uncertain future this year after it was cancelled following the pandemic, however organisers decided to move the entire celebration of literature online. This year’s virtual festival has more than 100 free events featuring some of the most well known writers in the industry. Authors scheduled to appear include names from the world of film, music, tv and of course literature. With the full listings available at the end of July, stay connected on the website to find out who’s set to appear at this very special edition of the festival. Previous attendants have included TV news journalist George Allagiah, McFly musician & children’s author Tom Fletcher, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and countless more.

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RENFREWSHIRE LEISURE VIRTUAL 5K SUMMER SERIES 10th August till 16th August ‘Running’ until the middle of August, the Virtual Summer Series is encouraging everyone to ‘go the distance’, the distance being 5K, whether it be on foot, treadmill or even wheelbarrow all entrants are accepted. Competitors are given the full week to run 5k and at the end of it, you can log your best time, and best of all it’s completely free of charge, with any donations given to partner charity Erskine.

Check out the Renfrew Leisure website for more information.

What’s on By Gregg Kelly Page 17

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Daily tours every 30 minutes between 1000 and 1630 from 07 to 30 August.

Advanced booking is highly recommended.

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INTERVIEWS

EVERYTHING EVERYTHING RACHEL AGGS MARTHA FFION KIRSTIN INNES

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Bringing us more of their lyrically captivating and continuously inventive music, Everything Everything are back with their fifth album Re-Animator, out on 11th September.

‘Arch Enemy’, their recently released single, is a poignant commentary on real-world humanitarian issues. The lucid ‘other’ world captured in the 3D animated music video brings the darkness of the lyrics to life.

We chatted with band guitarist Alex Robertshaw about everything Re-Animator, releasing work without being able to tour it, and the problem of human nature.

Do you feel it’s going to be a different experience, releasing Re-Animator, than with previous albums?

It’s already been very different in terms of the way it’s come out.

Only existing online...it’s a strange way to release a record. For the last year Jon and I were basically hermits, writing the record. It feels like the longest year ever. Usually we would be on the road supporting it. It’s different, but I’m not particularly disheartened or anything. I’ve really enjoyed how I’ve been lucky enough to spend more time with my child.

I was watching your new videos for ‘Arch-enemy’, ‘Planets’ and ‘In Birdsong’. Were you involved in the animation side of things?

No, Jon did all that. When it looked like we weren’t going to be able to get together to do anything, Jon just decided that now is the time to get into animation [laughs]. We’ve got a group of friends that helped in the making. We just managed to get together and do a music video not too long ago, which was sort of a strange experience since we hadn’t seen each other in so long. I think with animation you can actually say a lot more than you could ever Music By Beth Cook Page 23

say in a performance video. There is definitely a light shone on the lyrics in that sense.

I was reading that you streamlined the creative process by focusing on harmonies and melodies over synths and programming. Did you find it easy to stick to this new way of working?

I mean, it’s as easy as you want it to be. I wanted to write songs that I could just get the acoustic out and play and Jon could sing.

I was listening to a lot of The Beatles and all these bands that probably wrote songs in more of a singer and songwriter way before finding a way of presenting it that’s more interesting. I think in the past we’ve done wild things before the song is finished, and then we’re having to find our way around the song with all this crazy production stuff. It’s not a bad way of working, it’s just one way of working. This time around we wanted to do something that was a more classic way of writing. I really enjoyed it. There was a lot of pushing myself to write stuff that was musically a bit trickier. It was about trying to be playful in the writing rather than in the production. All the production stuff happened anyway, it just started from the point of view of me sitting with an acoustic or electric guitar and playing. So it was a very bare bones starting point.

I read that a lot of the inspiration behind the album comes from [pioneering American psychologist] Julian Jaynes’ Bicameral Mind Theory. I could definitely hear this split brain theme run throughout the entire album. Was this the intention?

Yeah. Jon wrote an email to the band quite early on in the process, being like ‘this is what I really want to do, this is what I Back to Contents

Music By Beth Cook Page 25

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want to write about.’ At one point he wanted to make a double album where each album would represent a half of the brain. So he’s really into it. You know, you have to sing about something you really believe in or something you’re interested in. It’s nice when Jon is passionate about stuff...you have to continue learning and finding new things, to keep it interesting and to improve yourself.

It’s apparent that much of the focus of Re-Animator is on human connection with nature. Like in ‘Violent Sun’, ‘the wild wave comes and we’re swept away’. Do you feel that, in the current situation, you’ve been able to reconnect with nature?

Since lockdown happened we’ve all managed to reconnect with nature a little bit. I’m actually not really looking forward to planes being in the sky again [laughs]. Losing all that fresh air, walking around the countryside. It’s nice, there was a time when there were literally no cars on the street. It’s been quite incredible, to be honest.

I watched an Instagram Live with [band members] Jon Higgs and Jeremy Pritchard, and how they responded to a question about the name of the album. They defined ReAnimator as ‘one of those moments that makes you wake up and come alive’ - forcing you out of routine and such.

Have you had any Re-Animator moments recently?

I think the last big change in my life was having my child.

That completely changed the way I live my life, really. Now I’m essentially just here for my daughter; she’s awake, I’m awake.

It’s definitely changed my outlook. I think as a band, musically it relates to that. We’ve gone back to our roots in terms of writing music, trying to get back to square one and learning a bit more.

We got a new label, so a lot of things are new on this record. It just Music By Beth Cook Page 27

felt like the right time to try and be fresh.

Are you able to prepare for a tour yet?

We’re in a situation now where it’s quite tricky. We’ve never played any of the songs before together, we’ve just recorded it and everyone has played their own parts. So we don’t know yet what it’s going to be like to play this live together, there’s a lot of stuff to work out. We’ve done these sort of live stream things to play together but it’s just not the same. I just don’t know what’s going to happen. I feel like there won’t be any tours until next year. Hopefully we’ll be back on the road and we’ll be able to rehearse for this soon. Right now, every couple of weeks we’re just talking about it and trying to predict something.

Have you found it difficult not being able to play ReAnimator to a live audience?

Yeah, I mean it will happen next year. But playing a gig is a total luxury. It’s not essential for anyone to come and see a gig or for us to play gigs, there’s much more important things going on. Eventually we’ll be back out. The idea of being out and there still being a place where we can play is actually more exciting than the prospect of playing.

Do you think that enough has been done to support the music industry during this time?

From what I understand they’ve released some money for small venues, but it didn’t amount to very much. I don’t think music’s at the top of the list, even though it does bring in a lot of money. I think everyone’s been hit pretty hard. As soon as things start to improve in the world then everyone will start rebuilding. It’s going to be a big shame if we lose some of these smaller venues.

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Photography: Phil Jenkins

Music By Beth Cook Page 29

HUMAN NATURE IS A PROBLEM IN ITSELF; WE REALLY NEED TO LOOK AT OURSELVES

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Photography: Jez Pennington

What has it been like releasing your music now, in terms of things like social media and how it’s used for interacting with fans?

It’s very strange, because I generally avoid social media at all costs. I just don’t have enough time in the day. It’s been quite nice to release a single, then the same night we’ll have these Q and As. It’s nice to talk to people. Usually we play a show and then we talk to people afterwards...that’s a fairly natural and nice way to meet each other. Meeting people face to face is always going to be better. At least online I can have a conversation with someone in Mexico, so there is a positive in that sense.

I think it’s interesting that the lyrics that have been written and recorded before the pandemic now take on a new meaning and could be interpreted differently.

It’s a bit of a problem. We were worried people would do exactly that. The lyrics are more about climate change though, which conveys the bigger picture of the whole thing. I’d hate for people to think any of our lyrics were insensitive towards what’s going on right now. As soon as Get To Heaven came out Trump came into power and Nigel Farage was around... it’s nuts.

You mentioned the theme of climate change: do you feel this is something that as a band you aim to speak out on?

We care about the environment and we think it’s a good idea to recycle and look after the environment. We’re not total activists. Jon is really talking about humans being greedy and not realising how much damage they’re doing just by being humans. Human nature is a problem in itself; we really need to look at ourselves.

Re-Animator, will be released on 11th September Music By Beth Cook Page 31

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Photography: Stephanie Gibson

Lost Map’s Visitations project sees artists invited to spend one week in solitude in a bothy on the Isle of Eigg, located in the inner Hebrides of Scotland. Lost Map provides recording equipment and instruments, and artists bring with them whatever they want.

The idea is that there’s no specific remit – just the freedom to experiment and create the music they fancy making. Rachel Aggs (Sacred Paws, Trash Kit, Shopping) spent her week on the island in late summer 2019, creating her entry to the series Visitations 02 02.

What was it about the Visitations project that attracted you to it?

I really love the Isle of Eigg, I’d been there for [Pictish Trail] Johnny’s festival, Howlin’ Fling, and I think it was partly an excuse to go back [laughs]. I think it was also a challenge, having never made a record by myself that I could go there and have a product, have a record at the end of it, that I would have a certain amount of pressure that would challenge me.

Were you surprised about how much of yourself was still there when you were on your own and not collaborating?

I was. I think, like most artists, I daydreamed about making completely different music. I had spent a lot of time working on albums with my other bands and I’d been on tour a lot the year before that; I had been working quite hard on the bands. In the back of my mind I had the idea that I would get to this island and I’m going to be making a completely ‘other’ kind of music. What I ended up with, ended up being quite song based and ended up sounding quite a lot like me, which was kind of interesting because I didn’t intend to do that. I wasn’t trying to get in touch with myself or whatever cause I really didn’t think I had that. So I think what

came out was an interesting representation of what’s left when I’m on my own, I guess.

Putting the track ‘Aaah’, which is quite formless and experimental – in a way, as the first track, was that drawing a line under that experimental bug and moving on?

Johnny did the tracklist so I didn’t have much to do with the order of the tracks. I just gave him the fourteen tracks. I wasn’t sure of what I had done, if it was any good or not.

Have you listened to it a lot since you’ve had it back?

I haven’t listened to it at all. I’d spent so much time with it when I was mixing it. Also, not having to play it live... Also, I was very much doing songs as one take and it’s difficult to listen back to the mistakes.

The mistakes I guess are part of it as well, part of that one take thing when you’ve got a limited window of time to work on things?

There weren’t any rules about what the finished thing could be, so I guess I could have chosen four songs, or something, and really worked on those – I could have gone down that route. But I think me and Johnny, we’re both quite drawn to weird home recordings and stuff. We were talking about that quite a bit when we were sitting having a cup of tea together. He was saying how he really likes recordings that are like voice memos. I was like ‘Yeah, so do I actually’ but I think it’s easier to love that kind of stuff when it’s not your stuff – because it’s very raw or something. I really wasn’t trying to think about that

too much when I was there, I was just in the process. So the fact that I came up with so much music, Johnny was quite pleased about that and was like ‘Let’s put it all on the record’. I mean, we didn’t actually put it all on, there were maybe two songs that didn’t get on the record, and there was one that I just hated. We wanted to go on the fact that I had been manically productive in that week, that was kinda cool. We were just like ‘Let’s just put it all on and let’s not mess with it too much’.

You took a drum machine, guitar, fiddle, and a synth with you to the island, is that right?

I actually didn’t have a synth at the time. I love using the Korg Minilogue, I used that for basslines, that was Johnny’s and that was there when I got there. He also sent me a list of what he had. I had to go over on the boat so I didn’t want to bring too much.

How was the experience of being on the island?

I had a great time. I was a little apprehensive before I went, I was thinking ‘It’s going to be scary, it’s going to be lonely’ but I think overall I just had such a nice time because it was so relaxing. I enjoyed being by myself.

And also,I found being in nature incredible and really inspiring. It was really fun to go out into nature and go straight back into the studio in the bothy. I really enjoyed working that way. It was kind of paradise for me.

It gave me the confidence of being in the moment. It’s quite easy for me to know when I feel something is good because it’s fun to do or it feels good. That was what I was feeling and that was helpful in that moment to process

the feeling of being alone on an island, and missing my partner, missing people. So I was trying to do deal with those thoughts or feelings through a song. As soon as you stop being in that moment, that’s when the critical brain kicks in and I think that a lot of music making is trying to avoid ever reaching that critical point. It’s maybe easier when you have band members to intervene or even just absolve that feeling of responsibility of ownership or responsibility if it’s not working. If you have an idea that you think is kind of alright and somebody adds a bass part that you think is incredible then you’re like ‘Cool! I can get that this is a song now’.

‘Thrill Seeker’ has the guts of a proper pop song, it sounds like Whigfield’s ‘Saturday Night’.

Yeah, that was towards the end. It was Thursday or something and I was kind of losing my mind. It was the first night where I watched TV on my computer. I was watching Derry Girls and there was a scene where they went to a party. That song was playing, it just filled me with a feeling of weird sadness, but it was also really comforting. I thought I’d cheer myself up by making a stupid pop song. It was really late at night and it was completely pitch black outside.

I couldn’t really sleep cause I was in this weird mood. I lost my mind a bit and made that weird Whigfield rip-off. I think it’s stupid, that song, but I liked it at the same time.

Rachel Aggs’ Visitations 02 02 is out now on Limitededition vinyl and digital download as part of the Lost Map Visitations subscription. lostmap.com/visitations

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Photography: Beth Chalmers

Glasgow, and Scotland, thrives and prospers with the help of others. The local music scene is so vibrant because it contains many accents, voices, opinions and world-views.

We’ve claimed many artists who have settled here as our own, and shared them with the world.

Martha Ffion is a fine example of this. Although her voice and song-writing talent might well have flourished anywhere, it found its home here.

SNACK caught up with Martha before the launch of her second album, Nights to Forget, to talk songs, summer, protests, and binge-worthy TV. It’s five years since you released your debut single ‘No Applause’ – how’s the journey been since then?

It’s hard to believe it is five years. Obviously I’ve done a bit of label-hopping since then. I was working with a Welsh label, and that led to some cool opportunities and exciting stuff. I feel like a very different artist since then. But in some ways it’s like no time has passed at all.

It seems a laid-back and unrushed album – does that fit with the making of the record?

Totally. It definitely was the most laid-back experience I’ve had in making any music. All the demos were made by myself. For the first time ever, I didn’t flesh out arrangements with a band. I took GarageBand to the park or in my bedroom. Everything had so much time spent on it, but not in an obsessive way. Everything had so much time to breathe.

When I started working with producer Dave [Frazer] on making the real album, we were working in his flat or in the studio for a few days. It was very laid-back, to the extent that we had to give Music By Andy Reilly Page 41

ourselves a kick up the arse to finish it.

You didn’t have a label at the time of making the record – did that influence the sound?

Yes, totally. In terms of songs, I had written all of them within three months of the first album coming out. It’s weird that happened without the pressure of a label looking for the second album. I know some people tense up under that pressure and get really bad writer’s block.

I don’t know whether a deadline would have helped or not – it could have gone either way.

There’s been a shift in lyrical focus between your albums.

Was that deliberate?

I don’t think it was necessarily deliberate, it was more just where my head was at. I had a lot of time on my hands. I was only working one day a week. I was maybe in a self-indulgent place!

The only part of it I think was more deliberate is the poppier sound.

Pop music lends itself more to these themes. I have a new-found respect for outright popstars and how they make things pithy.

In a way, it’s easier to write folk songs, when you are story-telling, than when you have big emotions and a pop format. The real-deal pop stars are not given enough credit for that. It’s hard to make something that’s universal, but which is also catchy and snappy.

You’ve said opening track ‘Someone Who Cares’ is your attempt to ‘make sense of right-wing mentality’. You wrote the song two years ago; did you think the right would become even more prominent now than they were then?

It is extremely worrying. The internet is a frightening place that has enabled and strengthened that side. It’s the misinformation that frightens me the most.

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Music By Andy Reilly Page 43

on some credible materials. But when there’s misinformation being spread which leads to people forming opinions and to discrimination, that’s really upsetting.

It’s hard to see when that is going to come tumbling down. It’s very extreme right now.

The key themes on the album sound as though they could have been written this week. Do you feel you’ve a duty to write about these troubling times, or was that just what came out?

I’m really conscious of not wanting to take away the voice of someone who is more enlightened on a matter or has more call to be speaking about it. I don’t want to influence anybody; I don’t think I ever provide any answers. For me, when I write songs, it’s about asking questions, not about answers or guidance.

I do feel at times that I should be doing more, when you think about the artists in the 60s or 70s who drew attention to matters. However, it has to be real, and an issue that is close to your heart, that you have at least a bit of authority on.

At a time when artists are rightly concerned about income, you’re donating half of the sales profits from your new album to organisations ackling injustice and challenging discrimination in Ireland and Scotland. Do you feel artists have a duty to support good causes?

No-one should feel obliged to do it if they aren’t in a position to do it. I have a day job, and if I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t be in a position to do it. I would hope that no one would judge me if that was the case. It’s something I’m interested in and I have worked with individuals with these experiences, which is why I wanted to make donations to support these charities.

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IT’S AMAZING WHEN ANYONE WHO ISN’T YOUR MUM LISTENS TO YOUR MUSIC Back to Contents

It’s hard not to get annoyed at the Westminster government for their lack of concern for these causes. It’s not something I feel musicians need to be doing, but it is something politicians and people with money in their pocket should do something about.

How do you go about promoting an album at a time like this?

To be honest, it’s not been all that different. The only difference is the lack of touring or live shows. With the last campaign so much was about trying to get press and radio play, and that’s different from touring. S for me sitting at home, it hasn’t been that much different.

However, what will be weird will be the week the album comes out. I should be playing in a sweaty basement somewhere! That’s one thing I haven’t decided yet: should I do a livestream gig, or hold my nerve a bit and see what can happen later in the year?

This album is less about the live show, as it is less informed by a live band. When I pictured people listening to this album, it was more sitting in a park or going for a walk. It’s funny because everyone who I let listen to early versions asked how I was going to do it live! I can push that question back for a few months.

So that’s the only real difference, but I do miss playing live. I’m lucky that my band consists of friends who I love, and I’ve missed the whole culture around it. But yeah, thanks to the birth of the internet, promoting an album hasn’t changed too much.

What’s been your thoughts about online gigs – a necessity, or something which is helpful?

A mix of both. If you take someone like Stina [Tweeddale from Honeyblood], she has been doing that for a long time, and it’s something her fans love. She’s such a great entertainer and is great at it.

Music By Andy Reilly Page 47

Most people I think prefer the real live experience, but online shows have been a lifeline in recent months. A few friends have said they prefer the online shows, as they feel as though they can interact more with artists they like. I definitely see benefits, especially for people with little kids or who can’t make gigs. There are certain aspects which are good.

Laura Marling did one from Union Chapel. It was a slick affair, five cameramen and a proper sound system. Part of me thought, she doesn’t often tour in Scotland, and that was something I’d have been interested in seeing regardless of the situation.

There are benefits we should keep, but I think most gig-goers are getting withdrawal symptoms right now.

You’ve shared a good few TV recommendations on Twitter.

Have you been into anything new during lockdown?

So much stuff. Succession, have you seen it? I’ve got a reputation for being a TV-watching couch potato. I binge-watched Succession, it’s so good and so funny.

I’ve also watched a lot of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown. That ticks two boxes that are otherwise unfulfilled: travel and eating in restaurants. It doesn’t feel trashy – you can binge-watch it and feel as though you’ve learned something.

I also watched Tiger King, because you couldn’t not watch that during the first bit of lockdown.

Why should people listen to Nights To Forget?

I would like people to listen to it if they liked Sunday Best so I can see if they still like me, and they are willing to see what happens next.

I’m just grateful that anyone listens to my music. It’s so amazing when anyone who isn’t your mum or your friends listen!

Nights To Forget is released on 14th August on Lost Map Records Back to Contents

I SHOULD BE PLAYING IN A SWEATY BASEMENT SOMEWHERE

Photography: Beth Chalmers

Music By Andy Reilly Page 49

Among the most eagerly awaited novels of 2020 is Kirstin Innes’s Scabby Queen, the follow up to her 2015 Not The Booker winning novel Fishnet. Her latest seems a more substantial undertaking in every way, and SNACK caught up with Kirstin to talk to her about it.

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Photography: Becky Duncan

Let’s start off with a decidedly straightforward question, what can you tell us about Scabby Queen? [laughs] It’s an absolute beast of a book! It’s twice the size of the one that I wrote before. It’s structured like the card game ‘Scabby Queen’: the idea being that you can’t be left holding the queen. You have to try and hand her on to the other players. So, stretching that a wee bit, you have the story of one woman’s life told by lots of people who knew her along the way. I was interested in a person who had really short, intense, volatile relationships and friendships throughout her life, and how if you strung all those people’s accounts together, what sort of picture you would build up of that person.

There’s a terrible event at the beginning of the book. Was that always going to be your opening?

This was one of the initial ideas. Somebody I knew did take their own life and left their body for their flatmate to find. And that stuck with me, so I decided to go completely fictional to try and work it all out in my head. It’s specifically the act of leaving your body knowing that there is only one other person who will find it. What would that say about the person who died, and what would that relationship have been like? That was the initial nugget, and from there everything else panned out. I was thinking about it a lot in 2016, and there were an unprecedented amount of celebrity deaths that year, so it started to make sense that she would be well-known. I didn’t want her to be mega-famous – I don’t actually think that’s interesting. But Z-list famous I thought would be an interesting angle to take.

You use flashbacks to specific times, places, and events. In some ways it’s a historical novel, just of very recent history. Is that a fair way of looking at it?

Yeah, it’s the last 50 years or so. But the way the world is moving so quickly now, with so much news all the time, I think things that happened a comparatively short time ago feel much more distant than they might have done. I suppose it's Books By Alistair Braidwood Page 51

technically a historical novel. I had to do some research – Clio, the lead character, is about 12 years older than me, so I was a child through a lot of the things she lives through. I love a research project anyway, and I did a lot of reading around people’s accounts of those times and events.

A major theme of the book centres around what growing up, and growing older, actually means. The expectations of adulthood, if you like. It made me reflect, reading it. Did you find the same thing when writing it?

Not really. To be honest, I wrote it around having a baby. The last bit was written in a desperate race to complete it before my second child was born, and I finished it with two weeks in hand. So themes like that are probably indicative of where my state of mind was while I was writing it initially. Since I wrote my last book my life has changed. I’m living in the country, working from home part-time, having kids, getting involved helping and organising community and grassroots projects – that sort of thing. When I wrote Fishnet I was living in and going out in town, so I guess those sorts of themes were inevitable. But I’m interested in how you tell somebody’s story across the whole of their life, and the way that an individual is not the same at one point as they are at another. Our DNA renews itself every seven years. So what actually constitutes a person? With Clio I could come down to the fact that she had a shock of red hair and her red lipstick. I could make her recognisable throughout the decades, as she’d got a thing that she clung to, but I think it’s inevitable such ideas arise when you are writing about someone’s life over five decades.

There’s a lot written about people in their twenties, but these days I’m much more interested in the whole of a life.

Kirstin Innes’s Scabby Queen is published by 4th Estate Back to Contents

OUR DNA RENEWS ITSELF EVERY SEVEN YEARS. SO WHAT ACTUALLY CONSTITUTES A PERSON? Books By Alistair Braidwood Page 53

BOOKS

EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL

Minna Salami Back to Contents

Of course, this year nothing is quite as it was, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival is no exception. Unable to put on their usual physical events in their tented village in Edinburgh’s Charlotte Square, they’re encouraging authors and all of us to ‘Keep the Conversation Going’. They’ve curated a special online edition of the Festival that you can enjoy at home, wherever you are in the world – best of all, all events are free!

One of the great things about the Edinburgh Book Festival in normal years has been the gentle hubbub (compared with the incessant throng of the city outside) and the relaxed atmosphere of the courtyard, which encouraged Festival-goers to mill about between events. They’re recreating this, in a way, creating a digital space so you’ll be able to chat with fellow Festival-goers via digital chatrooms and take part in Q&A sessions. You’ll even be able to meet the author and get your books signed, at selected events.

As always, they’ll have some of the literary world’s biggest names.

Double Booker Prize Winner Hilary Mantel will discuss her concluding novel in her trilogy on Thomas Cromwell, The Mirror and the Light; Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things joins the festival from India to discuss Azadi, her new collection of essays, which explores the implications of the global pandemic and challenges us to reflect on the meaning of freedom in a world of growing authoritarianism; David Mitchell will explore the musical inspiration behind his fictional Prog Rock band biography Utopia Avenue with folk musician Sam Amidon – Sam will also treat the audience to some of his most recent music.

The Made in Scotland strand, celebrating the brilliant work of our own authors, writers and trailblazers is sure to be popular, with some of the country’s finest taking part. Ian Rankin will discuss his upcoming Rebus novel A Song for the Dark Times with Ruth Wishart – there’ll be Books By Kenny Lavelle Page 57

a good dose of chat about recent ‘lost thriller’ Westwind too. Scottish author of the moment Kirstin Innes will talk to Heather Parry about her latest novel Scabby Queen, getting to the heart of the question: who is Clio Campbell?

In the Hear Her Roar: Fighting for Feminism strand, you can hear from some of the most influential voices fighting on the front-line for feminism across the world. Bernardine Evaristo’s character- rich Girl, Woman, Other recently became the first novel by a Black British woman to top the UK paperback fiction chart. In this live event with Q&A, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will chat to the author about her work and ideas. MsAfropolitan founder Minna Salami, a powerhouse of feminist thinking and organisation whose first book of essays Sensuous Knowledge: A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone positions Black feminism as the prism through which we can all better understand the world. In this live Q&A, Salami, Jade Bentil and Lola Olufemi discuss the big ideas around empowerment, inclusion and activism and how (in Salami’s words) ‘we see ourselves, our history, and our world’.

Other themes in this year’s programme include: Africa: A Balance of Stories, America: Truth, Lies, Power and Division, Drawing Stories (This year’s Baillie Gifford Children’s Programme), Making Climate Change Personal, and Young, Fierce and Proud.

All events are free to watch on the festival website, and a selection of the events will be BSL interpreted, with some also being captioned.

Take some time to dig into the programme, ‘save your place’ for the events that catch your eye and you’ll get an email reminder just before the event.

The 2020 Edinburgh International Book Festival will take place from 15th till 31st August. edbookfest.co.uk Back to Contents

Arundhati Roy

Bernadine Evaristo

David Mitchell

Hilary Mantel

Ian Rankin

Kirsten Innes

FILM

GLASGOW SHORT FILM FESTIVAL BLAXPLOITATION

Glasgow Short Film Festival 2020 – The 12th and a Half Edition Like most scheduled events this year, the 2020 Glasgow Short Film Festival will look a bit different this time around. The cheekily renamed 12th and a half edition of the festival (they’ve had to cut a significant portion of the original programme) will be held entirely online and will focus on the two competitions held through the event: The Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film and The Scottish Short Film Competition.

Despite the massive change in plans brought on by Covid-19, Glasgow Short Film Festival Director Matt Lloyd says there are definite benefits to the online format. Lloyd explains that not only does holding the event online ‘open [GSSF] up to an audience across the UK’ but also ‘to a whole new audience who wouldn’t Back to Contents

Image: In the Company of Insects – Duncan Cowles

come along to a weird, niche, arty film festival in Glasgow.’

Lloyd also points out that the online format allows for a unique amount of flexibility that could allow those who are new to short film a great opportunity to become acquainted with the form.

As he explains: ‘It’s a funny situation where some of us are very time-rich at the moment and some of us, particularly those of us with kids, are very very time-poor… [And] short film can kind of fit those different needs. You can either watch a five-minute film or you can watch a carefully curated programme of works that speak to one another.’ Moreover, Lloyd hopes that people are generally feeling a bit more flexible themselves, saying ‘I suppose after however many months it’s been, everyone’s perhaps a bit more willing to take a punt on strange things on the internet.’

While the Glasgow Short Film Festival has never had a specific overarching theme guiding the programme, a common thread emerging from this year’s selection of films is the politics of place, landscape and cityscape. The relevance of this, given that we have all been confined to one space for months during lockdown, is not lost on festival organisers. Lloyd explains that special politics as a quasi-theme ‘seems quite timely when we’re all starting to reemerge from our houses and repopulate our city centres.’

One such example is Urban Palimpsets, a series of films that explores how people and communities reclaim urban spaces taken over by capitalism and the commodification of communal space. Featuring films by Austrian collective Total Refusal, artist Ana Vaz, and Brazil-based duo Bábara Wagna and Benhamin de Burca, the films in this selection will take the viewer through diverse visions of cityscapes.

Another event held as part of GSSFF is Black Spatial Film by Abbey McGugan Page 63

Imaginaries, a selection of films looking at how Black people are excluded or included within spaces, and how this relates to their identities. Curated by Natasha Ruwona, Black Spatial Imaginaries feels strikingly timely and necessary, given the prominence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the ways in which communities of colour have been disproportionately affected by Covid-19. Since moving online, the event has expanded to include two more films

by Glasgow-based artist Alberta Whittle, and will conclude with a live performance by DJ and producer Nova Scotia the Truth.

The Glasgow Short Film Festival Opening will also include the UK premier of In the Company of Insects, the latest film

by Scottish filmmaker Duncan Cowles. Made after the death of Cowles’ grandfather, the film focuses on the insects in the filmmaker’s back garden as he contemplates the death of his father. Lloyd describes it as the ‘quintessential lockdown film, in that he’s focusing on the micro, on this small area, and reflecting on the macro, and big questions of life and death’.

If you’re looking for a more general introduction to short film, Lloyd suggests The Skinny: Best of the Decade, a selection of film writer Jamie Dunn’s favourite Scottish shorts from the last ten years. As Lloyd explains: ‘It’s got fiction, it’s got documentary, it’s got slightly more experimental work, it’s got some great animation. It’s a real range of interesting work that shows off the short form in its best light.’

Catch the 2020 Glasgow Short Film Festival by tuning in online from 17th till 23rd August at glasgowshort. org/online.

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URBAN PALIMPSETS, A SERIES OF FILMS THAT EXPLORES HOW PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES RECLAIM URBAN SPACES TAKEN OVER BY CAPITALISM

Image: Pripyat Piano – Eliska Cilkova

Film by Abbey McGugan Page 65

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The early 70s saw an explosion of the independent and exploitation film scene, with many of these works pushing the envelope when it came to depictions of sex and violence onscreen. In a way these excesses were hyped-up to compensate for a lack of budget, but they also served to reflect the darkness of the times, when the peace-loving hippie dream had imploded and the Vietnam war was still raging. Into this came the watershed Blaxploitation film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, an anomaly of a film that signalled the beginning of the movement.

Much more experimental than the works that followed, and with a clear message of rebellion and independence from the constraints of society, the film is arguably one of the most radical in American film history. Featuring apparently unsimulated sex scenes, disturbing violence and even more unsettling visuals, it’s a tough watch. I’d recommend it only to those with both a strong stomach and a strong desire to see a film of great importance to the genre.

Many other film-makers then took up the reins of this new approach, and Blaxploitation movies developed into a huge part of the 70s American experience.. What I love so much about these films is that the majority were made in order to celebrate Black American culture, and they did so with bucketloads of humour and style. Underneath the fun lie serious themes of racism and oppression, reflected in some more prominently than others. Here are a few of my favourites.

For sheer, unadulterated entertainment, it’s hard to match the classic that is Truck Turner. Starring soul music legend Isaac Hayes as the eponymous bounty hunter, the film just sparkles with crazy amounts of fun. Turner is tasked with taking down arch criminal pimp Harvard Blue, played by Yaphet Kotto, encountering many Film by Martin Sandison Page 67

weird and wonderful characters on the way. Both actors are stone cold, with Kotto bringing serious acting chops to his role. The action, surprisingly for 1974, still holds up, and stunts and gunplay are tightly filmed with joyous abandon.

No article on Blaxploitation movies would be complete without a mention of Pam Grier, an icon of the genre and one of the most badass heroines in film history. The double whammy of Coffy and Foxy Brown secured that place for her; both are raw, violent slices of 70s cinema, where Grier dominates the screen with her style, expressivity, and charm.

A film which has generated much debate about its place in the genre since its release in 1972, Across 110th Street is arguably the most important in the cycle.

It’s a taut, serious, incredibly complex thriller, which lays bare the devastation of systemic racism’s effects on the Black community, so stark that you would think the civil rights movement had never happened. This depiction is still more than relevant today, as we have witnessed with the recent rise of the Black Lives

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Image: Foxy Brown

Image: Across 110th Street

Matter movement. Anthony Quinn and Yaphet Kotto star as two cops, one white, one black, trying to take down the perpetrators of a series of drug-related crimes. Across 110th Street achieves a lot for such a low budget thriller, and the film works on many levels to increase our understanding of these issues, as well as entertain.

The Blaxploitation film everyone remembers is of course Shaft, which won Isaac Hayes an Oscar for best soundtrack. Personally I prefer Truck Turner, a similar type of film. Then there’s Superfly, whose soundtrack by Curtis Mayfield I love. And further down the line, in recent times the genre has seen a revival of sorts and is being celebrated, with films like Black Dynamite breathing fresh and invigorating life into the 70s style. Also worthy of consideration is Dolemite is My Name, which stars Eddie Murphy as filmmaker and hip-hop grandaddy Rudy Ray Moore. The movie provides a wonderfully hilarious and informative look at the way Blaxploitation movies evolved and were made. So, to sum up: expand your horizons and give these movies some love. They’re so much more than low budget curios; they are vital, politically and culturally important films which gave a voice to 1970s Black America, and they deserve to reach a much wider audience.

Film by Martin Sandison Page 69

LGBT+

I MAY DESTROY YOU DISCLOSURE THE (NOT) GAY MOVIE CLUB

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When I think of classic gay cinema, it strikes me that the films I adore the most are not always explicitly LGBTQ+ themed. Our new monthly movie club presents underrated classics that have captured the hearts of queer audiences for decades, even if they don’t appear on movie publications’ ‘quintessential queer cinema’ lists. Whether or not it was the intention of the filmmakers, there are some titles which are, simply put, gay. There are so many variables that contribute towards a film earning such status: ice skating sequences, vengeful cheerleaders, outrageous costumes, characters being adjacent to Bette Midler, melodrama, camp… One of the notable criteria is the story of a glamorous diva, someone who overcomes adversity and embodies the strength, glamour and wit we ourselves long to possess.

And that’s where the 1958 classic Auntie Mame fits the bill perfectly.

The appeal of Auntie Mame lies in so many separate components, not least the stellar performance of the woefully overlooked Rosalind Russell. A Golden Globe and Tony winner (and five-time Oscar nominee), Russell delivers a bravura performance as Mame. Having played the role on Broadway, she imbues the character with a relentless, contagious energy. The audience is always on her side, even when the world turns against her. Tilda Swinton has frequently been touted to portray Mame in a remake. She would nail the performance, but I fear she would lack the inherent warmth Russell brings to Mame.

The plot, in summary, is as follows: a young orphan, Patrick, is placed in the care of his aunt Mame Dennis, an outrageous socialist and former Broadway star who delights in entertaining LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 73

the city’s most eccentric, Bohemian characters. We meet her friends – such as the functioning alcoholic Vera, and Acacius, the headteacher of a nudist school – and she begins to introduce Patrick to a world of travel, curiosity and fun. Upon their first meeting, during one of her famous wild parties, Mame instructs Patrick to “Take this piece of paper, and every time you hear a word you don’t understand, just write it down.” He is exposed to theatre, travel, parties, fashion – in other words, I am furious she isn’t my aunt.

Conflict emerges when the executor of Patrick’s estate disapproves of Mame’s lifestyle and lobbies to send him to a prestigious boarding school. What follows is a tumultuous, endlessly charming journey that sees Mame survive the stock market crash, marriages, horse-riding shenanigans and personal attacks, some from within her own family. At its heart, Auntie Mame is the story of an eccentric woman remaining authentic to herself in the face of conservatives objecting to her autonomous, frivolous lifestyle.

Aside from the heart-warming plot and the chemistry between Mame and Patrick, the production value makes the film a visual feast. Mame’s impossibly stunning Manhattan townhouse, for one, is a character in itself. It is the epicentre for her outrageous parties, hosting stuffy in-laws and nursing hangovers, but its décor changes constantly throughout the film. The audience never sees the same set design in too many scenes, often reflecting a significant change in Mame’s Back to Contents

HE IS EXPOSED TO THEATRE, TRAVEL, PARTIES, FASHION – IN OTHER WORDS, I AM FURIOUS SHE ISN’T MY AUNT

LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 75

SEEING MAME THRIVE IN SPITE OF EVERY HARD-NOSED CONSERVATIVE IN HER LIFE ALLOWS US TO CONNECT WITH HER ON A LARGER, MORE FABULOUS SCALE Back to Contents

Film by Ross Wilcock Page 76

life: everything is transient. And Orry-Kelly, one of Hollywood’s most distinguishable and successful costume designers, created Mame’s outrageously glamorous costumes. This film was made during the peak of Hollywood’s Golden Age, where the costumes and product design were staggeringly lavish. When it comes to Mame’s wardrobe, think Bianca del Rio on steroids. From the endless variety of her gowns to the wearable souvenirs from her travels, Orry-Kelly (the genius behind the costumes in Some Like It Hot, Casablanca and An American in Paris) creates such a vivid world through Mame’s outfits that you’ll be heading to Etsy straight away to nab a fascinator and (faux) mink stole of your very own.

What is it about Auntie Mame that resonates so much with queer audiences? On a base level, our hero lives the opulent, self-determined lifestyle that so many of us crave. And think about the timeframe: being gay in 1958 wasn’t exactly a bed of roses. Perhaps seeing Mame thrive in spite of every hard-nosed conservative in her life allows us to connect with her on a larger, more fabulous scale. There are a handful of LGBTQ+ characters (mostly friends of Mame’s seen at her parties), but remember when the film was made. There were never going to be openly gay, well-rounded queer characters in Auntie Mame. That isn’t to say the film is inherently straight: it tiptoes around otherness sufficiently for a film made in 1958, and Mame actively surrounds herself with people who reject societal LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 77

norms, pride themselves on being alternative and are, in some cases, clearly queer. A film that does so, in this era, deserves more credit for portraying otherness (or at least embracing a liberal, open-minded lifestyle) and celebrating what makes each of us unique.

Then there’s Mame herself. The character is so perfectly written: witty and urbane, with the dichotomy of steeling herself against criticism as well as being sensitive and surprisingly vulnerable. Like every gay icon, Mame strikes the balance between strength and vulnerability.

Of course, she takes Patrick under her wing and introduces him to the finer things that the other, stiffer adults in his life consider frivolous, distracting or even degenerate: Mame is the ultimate cultural wing-woman.

Every LGBTQ+ person deserves that one person who grabs them by the arm and assures them that “I’m going to open doors for you, doors you never even dreamed existed.” We envy her lifestyle, her clothes, her wit, but more than anything we adore Mame herself, and we can hazard a guess that the feeling would be mutual.

Auntie Mame possesses everything a queer classic needs: camp, humour, vulnerability, and heart (with the bonus of a glamorous leading lady). You may not have had an Auntie Mame, but perhaps you could be one, guiding the next generation of queer youth to celebrate their heritage and the pop culture that has shaped the LGBTQ+ pioneers who came before them. And to end on Mame’s own motto: ‘Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!’

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LIKE EVERY GAY ICON, MAME STRIKES THE BALANCE BETWEEN STRENGTH AND VULNERABILITY LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 79

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Images: I May Destroy You

This feature discusses sexual assault.

Michaela Coel has struck gold once again with her BBC series I May Destroy You. The BAFTA-winner is at the helm of the show, writing, producing, and directing a story loosely based on her own experience of sexual assault. I May Destroy You is the non-linear story of Arabella, a social media influencer-turnedwriter who has been sexually assaulted, as she embarks on a journey of recovery, justice, and selfawareness. She becomes a voice in the fight against sexual assault, integrates with a community of other victims of sexual exploitation, and navigates how her personal relationships have changed since her first attack. Through Arabella and the lives of those around her, Coel explores, unflinchingly: sexual consent, drug use, race, and cultural identity. And as well as these other crucial themes, the programme takes a nuanced look at misogyny; how it affects its victims and those entrusted to support them. For the unfamiliar, there will be spoilers from here on out.

The show develops its supporting characters thoroughly, especially Arabella’s best friends Terry and Kwame. The latter, played by the amazing Paapa Essiedu, is a Black gay man and frequently uses dating apps to hook up.

At the start of the series, Kwame functions as a major source of support for Arabella, but by the fourth episode he himself becomes a victim of sexual assault. During a visit to the flat of a Grindr date, after consensual sex, the man assaults Kwame by forcefully continuing without his LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 81

consent. Suddenly Kwame – who is forced to process his own assault while being an emotional anchor for Arabella – and his attack become a separate exploration of the pervasive nature of rape culture and misogyny.

It is vital to see male sexual assault and issues regarding consent in a non-heterosexual context discussed on TV. This is by no means the first time male sexual trauma has been portrayed on-screen: it is an unfortunate trope in many LGBTQ+ themed TV shows and films to see characters sexually assaulted or murdered. But the way Coel weaves Kwame’s story alongside Arabella’s allows the audience to consider misogyny and rape culture, especially in the context of the characters’ race, from a different angle.

We see Arabella’s rape dealt with by two female officers, who adopt an empathetic, carefully pragmatic approach.

When Kwame is ready to come forward with his own story, to a male officer, the story couldn’t be more different, and the ineptitude of the police is hard to forget.

The officer handling Kwame’s statement on the assault finds it impossible to speak to Kwame – a young gay Black man – about the attack in a frank manner, erring on the side of blaming him for something the officer isn’t sure constitutes an attack in the first place. One could potentially feel pity for the officer: he is evidently out of his depth and is most likely uncomfortable discussing sexual assault, as many men are. But the overriding concern is that rape victims of any gender are subjected to clumsy, insensitive treatment when reporting a crime against them, providing of course that they are believed in the first place. The officer seems Back to Contents

IT IS VITAL TO SEE MALE SEXUAL ASSAULT AND ISSUES REGARDING CONSENT IN A NONHETEROSEXUAL CONTEXT DISCUSSED ON TV

LGBT+ Film bybyRoss Jonny Wilcock Stone Page 83

...ALMOST ONE IN FIVE TRIALS FOR RAPE OR ATTEMPTED RAPE RESULT IN A ‘NOT PROVEN’ VERDICT Back to Contents

confused, too, by the nature of Kwame and his attackers’ relationship, unable to understand how Kwame could not know the assailant’s real name. There’s also the implication that, because Kwame had contacted his attacker through a dating app, that there was a blanket consent. This clueless police officer conforms to the persistent stereotype that men who have sex with men are promiscuous, forfeit autonomy of their bodies when they pursue casual sex, and should accept the consequences of their assault. These attitudes influence the decision to disclose an attack, which leads to fewer prosecutions and ultimately contributes to rape culture at large.

And the problem is as pervasive as one may assume.

According to NHS Scotland’s 2019 report ‘Gender Based Violence: Rape and Sexual Assault’, one in 50 men have been raped since the age of 13, while one in ten LGBTQ+ people reported that hate crimes they experienced involved some form of sexual violence (9%). These figures, of course, don’t factor in those who have not disclosed their attack to the authorities. It’s likely that the true number is much higher, but harmful stereotypes such as men being able to ‘resist’ male sexual assault, or internalised homophobia, can lead to stigma and victim blaming.

But disclosing such crimes doesn’t necessarily guarantee justice. The Scottish Government revealed in January 2019 that almost one in five trials for rape or attempted rape result in a ‘Not Proven’ verdict, while the Rape Inspection Report conducted by the HM Crown Prosecution Service in December 2019 contended not only that rape convictions LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 85

are being delayed by the justice system, but that, with a fall of 23%, fewer rape cases are being referred to prosecutors by police services.

The outcome for Kwame? He withdraws his statement and swiftly exits the police station, deprived of the support offered to Arabella – a therapist, for one, and the active pursuit of her assailants – that may allow him to process the trauma. But Kwame’s story is hardly unique. He is by far not the only Black gay man to be raped and subsequently silenced by a judicial system that discounts his experience.

I May Destroy You is primarily Arabella’s story, but the systemic misogyny that causes her such anguish is the same that affects Kwame’s. It is frustrating that it takes a criticallyacclaimed TV show to remind mainstream audiences how misogyny and rape impact people’s lives, both in the likelihood of assault for specific groups – women of colour, cisgender and transgender alike – and the stigma that prevents male victims from coming forward. However, the programme is a pertinent example of diverse storytelling at its finest: written, produced, and performed by the people for whom these themes resonate the most. If powerhouses like Coel continue to create such dynamic, authentic content, these conversations will continue to inform and impel audiences to make positive changes. Long may it continue.

Support is always at hand if you have been affected by any issues explored in I May Destroy You. Visit rapecrisisscotland.org.uk, glasgowwomensaid.org.uk or ramh.org for further support.

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HE IS BY FAR NOT THE ONLY BLACK GAY MAN TO BE RAPED AND SUBSEQUENTLY SILENCED BY A JUDICIAL SYSTEM THAT DISCOUNTS HIS EXPERIENCE LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 87

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Images: Stills - Disclosure trailer, Netflix

This feature discusses transphobia and transphobic hate crime.

Do you know that feeling when you’re sitting in a movie theatre and everyone’s laughing at something, and you just don’t get it?

Nomi Marks - a trans character played by a trans actress - asks her girlfriend this question in the groundbreaking sci-fi series Sense8. The sentiment captures the experiences many viewers in the LGBTQ+ community feel when watching adverts, television and movies. But despite the strides that have been made in portraying LGB stories onscreen, the transgender community disproportionately faces a portrayal of their lives that feels inauthentic, is offensive or undermines the fight for trans rights. Disclosure, directed

by Sam Feder and available on Netflix, is an extensive exploration of Hollywood’s depiction of transgender people and the impact of those stories on transgender lives. As a white cisgender ally, watching Disclosure provides frank, essential insight into the significance of trans representation in the media and its power in promoting and preserving the trans community. There have been a handful of excellent documentaries celebrating similarly important milestones – The Out List, The Celluloid Closet – but none take such an extensive look at trans representation across the media, and these films often minimise the journey trans performers have made. And, promisingly, so much progress has been made since The Out List was released in 2013 that audiences need a refresher on what has been achieved and how things need to change. After watching Disclosure, you’ll see that this is a LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 89

long to-do list.

Most notable in Disclosure is the exclusive contribution of trans actors and activists to telling their own stories. There is major star power in Disclosure: important figures such as Candis Cayne, Trace Lycette, Alexandra Billings, Brian Michael Smith, Chaz Bono articulate their stories with such power. Bianca Leigh discusses the radar trans people possess to identify when they are part of the joke or are the joke, while Laverne Cox regales us with personal anecdotes of facing laughter for her very existence on the New York subway, to highlight how Black trans femininity is often considered. The list of diverse trans talent is staggering, and the fact that these performers have become such recognisable (and bankable) stars is a promising indication of how the glass ceiling is starting to chip away. However, we become privy to the century-long discrimination these performers have endured and continue to face. The film answers a pertinent question: why is media exposure so important?

Disclosure informs us that 80% of Americans don’t personally know a trans person, meaning the only exposure they receive is from the TV and films they watch, the music they listen to, and the adverts they see on billboards. When so few people have access to a diverse range of trans stories, authentic depictions are essential. And superficial inclusion won’t suffice: stories produced, written and performed by cisgender artists inauthentically convey the issues trans people face, as well as depriving trans artists of work. Dallas Buyers Club saw Jared Leto play a trans woman whose role’s sole function is to facilitate the growth of a straight white Back to Contents

DISCLOSURE INFORMS US THAT 80% OF AMERICANS DON’T PERSONALLY KNOW A TRANS PERSON LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 91

TRANSPHOBIA CONTINUES TO BE AN INSIDIOUS PRESENCE IN SOCIETY DESPITE THE STRIDES THE COMMUNITY HAS MADE Back to Contents

man, before herself dying of AIDS. Leto happily accepted an Academy Award for this portrayal, and in his acceptance speech made no sufficient acknowledgement of the struggle real trans women face. That passivity is unacceptable.

And transphobia continues to be an insidious presence in society despite the strides the community has made. One need only glance under Munroe Bergdorf’s Twitter account to witness the vitriol, ridicule and physical threats she receives for living authentically as a Black trans woman. Trans people continue to be attacked – and murdered – disproportionately.

Stonewall reported in 2018 that two in five trans people (41%) and three in ten non-binary people (31%) throughout the UK have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity in the previous 12 months; and as always, we should remember that victims often don’t come forward to disclose their attacks. It feels like political powers and media outlets are capitalising on and sensationalising transphobia to push their agenda or deter people from addressing the issues that currently affect marginalised groups. And herein lies the power of authentic representation. Writer, actor and activist Jen Richards contends that trans characters still incite anger among ignorant viewers, but they can’t take out this vitriol on the characters themselves: they attack real trans people on the streets. They vote against trans-inclusive laws and for candidates who endorse conversion therapy and oppose supporting trans children. They take to social media to support notable public figures who capitalise on anti-trans rhetoric, while basking in their (typically white) cisgender privilege. And the dangerous cycle continues.

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The film powerfully examines the idea of ‘passing’ and the pressure trans actors have faced to adhere to gender roles and codes. It sheds light on the experience of Sandra Caldwell, a veteran actress with over 51 credits to her name.

She reveals that she only came out as trans when auditioning for the role of Mama Darleena Andrews in the 2017 Broadway play Charm. It was her first time auditioning as an openly transgender woman, having connected so deeply with the character she was destined to play. And there are moments in Disclosure that leave the audience shocked by how insensitive and offensive filmmakers and producers have been to trans performers. Take Silence of the Lambs and the gross ignorance on display in the character of Buffalo Bill.

I remember watching Dirty Sexy Money when it first came out in 2007, and Candis Cayne became the first trans actor to play a recurring trans character in a primetime TV show.

This is a major milestone in trans representation on television, but there was a detail I was not aware of at the time that Disclosure brings to light: when Cayne’s character Carmelita first speaks, the producers lowered her voice two octaves in post-production to signify to the audience immediately that she is a trans woman.

The moment that hit me the hardest, however, came when Jen Richards was discussing Call Me Cait, Caitlyn Jenner’s controversial docuseries on her transition journey. The show received criticism given Jenner’s Republican politics and her white, privileged experience, but Richards contends that good ultimately came from it. She mentions a scene featuring an inspiring dad who appreciates his trans child ‘being so Back to Contents

THERE ARE MOMENTS IN DISCLOSURE THAT LEAVE THE AUDIENCE SHOCKED

BY HOW INSENSITIVE AND OFFENSIVE FILMMAKERS AND PRODUCERS HAVE BEEN TO TRANS PERFORMERS LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 95

I HAD TO BE OKAY WITH MY MOM SAYING 'I WILL NEVER CALL YOU JEN BECAUSE JEN MURDERED MY SON' Back to Contents

close to themselves’ and contending how special and unique trans kids are. Richards had a moment of realisation: ‘It hurt because I had to be okay with my mom saying “I will never call you Jen because Jen murdered my son. I had to be okay with that in order to survive myself… And when I saw that father go so much further than I even thought was possible, it hurt…why couldn’t my mom be like him? And see the value in my experience? But the person who’s most responsible for failing to have that kind of vision is me. I’ve never seen myself the way that father saw his own child…I had to see it. And now that I’ve seen it, I want that.”’ Cisgender queer people may identify with this sentiment on some level, but Richards articulates an emotion I feel is unique to the trans experience and creates perhaps the most emotionally resonant moment of the film.

Disclosure is a sublime study in trans representation over the last century, sharing stories told by those this experience affects directly. But the film is most effective in exposing the uncomfortable moments cisgender audiences have been complicit in and the work we need to do to promote trans representation. Lesbians, gays and bisexuals must show unfaltering support to the trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming communities in whatever way we can: read trans authors, follow trans artists on social media, and watch TV and movies with trans actors, made by trans filmmakers. It shouldn’t take a blistering documentary to remind us of what needs to change to bolster a marginalised community, but hearing this diverse range of voices will hopefully lead to positive change.

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FOOD &

DRINK

RECIPES

SCOTTISH MORNING ROLLS TATTIE SCONES

SUMMER WINE BBQ BEER

Looking forward to a crispy morning roll at the weekend? Now imagine that it’s Saturday, your bread bin is empty, and your wee local shop has ‘nae rolls’. Whit...nae rolls? What do you do? Well don’t panic, for one, because morning rolls are surprisingly easy and fast to make at home.

Follow these steps to create rolls which are fluffy but also chewy, perfect for encapsulating bacon, a square slice, tattie scone, or any other desirable filling. They are quick and simple to make, and a lot less stressful than trying to make sourdough. Depending on how warm your house is, you can have fresh rolls out of the oven within the hour.

INGREDIENTS 500g strong white flour 7g yeast 2 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar Back to Contents

100ml whole milk 200ml water 3 tbsp olive oil Semolina or polenta

METHOD Combine the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a bowl.

Add the lukewarm water and milk.

Add oil.

Knead for 5 minutes using the dough hook attachment on a food mixer, or for 10 minutes by hand if you don’t have one. If you fancy working out those arm muscles that went south during lockdown, this is your chance.

The dough mixture is ready when the dough has come together into a smooth ball. If using a food mixer you’ll probably have to do a final couple of kneads by hand.

Cover with clingfilm, a tea towel or a shower cap. Let the dough rest for an hour. As long as your kitchen isn’t freezing cold, leaving it on the counter will do.

By this time the dough should be puffed up to around double its size. If not, your kitchen could be a bit too cold (around 20°C is optimum) – in this case, leave it for a bit longer. On the other hand, if you have a warm kitchen or it’s a Food and Drink by Mark & Emma, Foodie Explorers Page 101

hot day, the dough will rise more quickly.

If you leave the dough for too long then there is a risk of overproving. This is when you poke the dough and it doesn’t spring back.

Don’t worry if this does happen – it can be rescued. Reshape your dough by kneading again for a couple of minutes and let it re-prove, keeping a closer eye on your creation. Conversely, if you poke your dough and it springs back without any indentation, then it needs more time to prove.

Pre-heat the oven to 230°C/210°C fan/Gas Mark 8.

Next, knead the dough for another few minutes to remove excess air. It should look just as it did earlier, only now it should be pliable enough to divide into rolls.

Divide into 6-8 pieces and shape into rolls.

Dust a baking tray with semolina or polenta, or line with a sheet of baking paper. Place your rolls on the tray. If you want to recreate that classic Morton’s roll edge, then let the rolls touch.

Brush each roll with milk and then dust with more semolina or polenta.

Bake in the oven until golden brown, which should take around 15-20 minutes.

So now you know how to make a Scottish morning roll. We’ll be the first to admit that these aren’t as great as those made by baking gods and roll experts, Morton’s. They aren’t quite as light, but unless we all chip in for a steam oven this is the closest we think we will get. Chewy and moreish, you can bet that the whole tray will be demolished in no time. Which is just as well, because they won’t keep very long, due to being home-baked and not full of preservatives and whatnot. These little beauties will soon have you thinking of getting up that bit earlier at the weekend to make a batch. Or two.

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YOU CAN BET THAT THE WHOLE TRAY WILL BE DEMOLISHED IN NO TIME

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Tattie scones are a traditional Scottish staple. They’re easy to make and they’re also great for using up excess potatoes, especially if they are past their best – as long as they aren’t green. So don’t throw them out. Instead, add this handy recipe to your repertoire.

We are big fans of tattie scones. They have just the right balance of carbs – well, they are fully carbed! Have them fried with your full Sunday breakfast or grill them and slather them in butter for a more ‘dainty’ snack.

If you don’t plan on frying the scones right away, then you can refrigerate them for a few days at least. We’re unsure how long they can be stored in the fridge, as they’ve never stayed in the container long enough! They can be frozen, but will stick together very easily, so it’s best to use wax sheets to separate them.

INGREDIENTS 450g cooked and peeled potatoes 110g self-raising flour 55g butter Salt and pepper Back to Contents

METHOD If you don’t have leftover cooked potatoes handy, you need to cut your raw potatoes into quarters and place them into cold, salted water. Cover with lid and simmer until tender (about 20 minutes).

Mash your potatoes with the flour, butter and your preferred amount of seasoning. Mix until a stiff dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface.

Knead the dough lightly and roll out to about 1/2-inch thick.

Use a scone cutter or a mug to cut out shapes, or work freehand if you are artistically inclined. There are no limits to the shape a tattie scone can be. The sky is the limit.

Heat a lightly greased griddle or frying pan over a medium-high heat.

Working in batches, depending on how many can fit comfortably in your pan, cook your scones. This should take around 4-5 mins for each side, or until they are golden brown.

How do you like your tattie scones? Alongside a full breakfast? In a roll? (soft or crispy?) or on sliced white bread? Then we can start on the whole ketchup or brown sauce discussion. Who knew that a humble potatobased breakfast item could be so versatile?

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Although the pubs are open(ing) again, it’s not quite the same as it once was, with mandatory bookings, enforced table service, and limited table time. Sadly, many people have also come out of lockdown worse off, possibly without a job to return to, so regular trips to the pub may no longer be financially viable. There are also those of us who are still isolating, of course. So, what do you do if you want a few drinks, something more exciting than the usual brand names but also want to support local independent business? Well, we might have some answers. We’ve done some digging and (mostly) steered away from the supermarkets and big names, finding lots of good alternatives – each able to provide contact-free delivery to your door. And, because they typically sell to restaurants, you can source stuff you won’t ever come across in the supermarkets. We’ll start with wine, since that’s what we’ve been guzzling the most during lockdown.

WINE LINE SCOTLAND Alexander Wines are a family-run wine merchant based in Glasgow, who have been supplying many of Scotland’s top restaurants since 1981. As a result they have a wide selection of reds, whites, roses and sparkling wines from across the globe and now, you can buy directly from their new service, Wine Line Scotland. You don’t need to buy a full case of a single wine; you can pick individual bottles or choose from a selection of mixed cases, e.g. red, sparkling, premium, each listing the 6 bottles that you’ll receive. If you like surprises they also have a mystery selection and there’s a mixed case of vegan wines to save the hassle of asking or looking them up individually.

In our mystery case we received a couple of Romanian wines Food and Drink by Mark & Emma, Foodie Explorers Page 107

– having spent some time travelling around Romania, we already knew that their wines provide great value for money. We had a Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio, both from Paparuda in western Romania. Paparuda refers to a pagan ritual, a sort of Balkan rain dance, so what better wine to drink in Scotland in summer!? The Pinot Noir was as expected, a light red, low on tannins but high on fruit and sweetness, while the Pinot Grigio had pear and apple aromas with a light citrus taste. Our favourite in the case was the French Horgelus blend of Colombard and Sauvignon Blanc.

Again, big on peach and apple aromas but with some pineapple and freshly-cut grass, and a refreshing lemon and lime taste. winelinescotland.co.uk

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MIA VINO Mia Vino is a wine merchant based in Wishaw, who, as the name implies, have a particular fondness for Italian wines. Again, these are bottles that you aren’t going to find in the supermarket. In addition to vino, they also stock Italian coffee, pasta, tomatoes and oil, so you can order your dinner as well. Interestingly, they sell beer from experimental Glasgow brewery Ride (bonus: all their beers are vegan-friendly) and Colonel Anne cider from the Hamilton Cider Company, which is difficult to find elsewhere. So ordering from here is a great way to keep local suppliers going during these difficult times.

But back to the wine. The main brand they sell is Matronae, who are a family-run business based just outside Naples at the foot of Vesuvius – Europe’s only active mainland volcano. We’d never seen these wines before but they have PGI (IGP in Italian) status, which guarantees that at least one of the stages of production, processing, or preparation takes place in the area. You’ll find common grape varieties – Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Merlot – but also lesser-known varieties like Falanghina and Aglianico as well. The bottle labels are unusual in that each is stylised in the manner of a famous artwork, e.g. The Kiss, The Scream, The Mona Lisa, which makes them a bit collectible, like Pokémon: gotta quaff them all.

We sampled a selection of these arty wines, including the Pinot Grigio, one of Italy’s most famous grape varieties. This was light and quaffable with refreshing pineapple, apple, and apricot flavours. We also had a Pinot Grigio blush – wait, if Pinot Grigio is a white wine, how come you can make a rosé? Well, although white wine is typically made from Pinot Grigio, the grapes are Back to Contents

actually blue-grey coloured, hence the French name for the same grape: Pinot Gris. So this was a bit different for us, but the wine still had everything a rosé should be, it was light, summery, and refreshing. Our final Matronae wine was the Aglianico, a red grape variety that again we weren’t familiar with at all. This wine has a mixed red fruit taste and a little bit of spice.

Order from miavino.com. Their product list changes monthly so keep checking back for new stock.

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THE BEVY STORE The Bevy Store is based in Glasgow and stocks a mixed selection of wine, beer and spirits, with the added attraction of cocktails courtesy of a number of Glasgow-based cocktail bars who have banded together to create the Glasgow Cocktail Collective. They can even deliver ice, which we always seem to forget to freeze enough of. We were a bit apprehensive about ordering cocktails online, but actually they arrived well-packaged with the allimportant ice, and were certainly boozy. We found that we could authentically recreate the expected flavours at home without the mess and the need to buy multiple bottles.

Of course we also ordered wine: a William Cole Pinot Noir from Chile, which had bags of cherry flavour and an Il Colle Prosecco Conegliano Superiore DOCG – this is the crème de la creme of prosecco, with tiny bubbles, an aroma of pear and citrus, an apple taste and a notable dry finish. thebevystore.online

THE BEER TOWN The Beer Town - Dunns Food and Drinks have launched a service specifically for beer and cider, stocking bottles and cans from all over the world with an emphasis on Belgian, German and Scottish brews. You do need to buy a case, but mixed cases are available, coming in boxes of 12, 20, and 24. You can stock up on famous names such as Hoegaarden, Erdinger, and Chimay, or lesser-known brands like Tegernseer, Flensburger, and Rodenbach. If like us you love fruit beers, then you can stock up on Lindemans, Timmermans, Bacchus, Mongozo and Fruli – all of these are vegan-friendly. Also available are cases of craft Back to Contents

cans from the likes of Magic Rock, Camden, and Beavertown – most of these are vegan-friendly. Prices can work out as low as £1.37 per bottle and £1.54 per can. Also, if you’re looking for low-alcohol beer they have a pretty decent selection. The Beer Town deliver all over Scotland for free if your order is over £60. Check their website to see when they’re in your area. thebeertown.co.uk

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LIDL If, however, you are content with supermarket shopping or it’s just easier for you, Lidl offers great value-for-money. Their booze selection has come a long way since their stores first opened, and nowadays some well-respected breweries and distilleries are producing exclusive beer and gin just for them. Wine-wise you can find a worldly assortment of award-winning bottles, not just cheap old-school German plonk - though that’s still a good place to start. Liebfraumilch, one of the world’s most popular white wines, has historically not had the most upmarket reputation. But cast your doubts to one side for a minute - something so popular must have some merit, right? From our own ‘research’ into a number of bottles (and boxes) of this sweet wine from Lidl, Morrisons, Tesco, and wherever else, we haven’t really found a bad one yet. Lidl’s Lieblich Liebfraumilch 2019 comes in at a bargain £4.29 and follows that trend. It’s what you would call no-frills basic table wine, but it does the job. It’s pretty sweet, with no ‘difficult’ aromas or tastes, so a good one to share with anyone who thinks they don’t like wine.

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Rosé makes us think of summer (it is summer, right?) and one of our favourite red grape varieties is pinot noir. We had already purchased a bottle of the Maison Francois Dubessy Pinot Noir red from here and enjoyed it, so we looked forward to trying the MFD Pinot Noir Rosé 2018 (£5.49). Salmon pink in colour, it’s a bit more complex than your typical rosé, with aromas of strawberry, grapefruit, petrol and earthy vegetal notes, which reminded us of tomato plants. Refreshing and fairly acidic with a dry finish, it tastes like it would make a good match for seafood, or could even be used to cook mussels.

Baturrica Gran Reserva 2013 from Tarragona, Spain (£4.99) is a bold dark purple wine with oaky aromas like vanilla, leather, and tobacco. Very dry and tannic but also smooth and fruity (cherry, blackberry, plum jam), making this extremely moreish.

Excellent value for under a fiver - this is one that is worth stocking up on while it is so cheap and available. Pair with rich dishes, meaty stews, or cheese.

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As soon as there’s a glimmer of sun in the sky, my heart leaps. Partly because it’s such a rare occurrence here, but mostly because it means BBQs. If the sun is shining, it’s near impossible to want to eat anything else, because EVERYTHING tastes better if it’s been grilled outside. BBQs are also a very good excuse to crack open a beer or two, so I’ve curated some of my favourite tipples to have whilst wielding tongs and cremating meat and vegetables.

OATMEAL PALE – CROSS BORDERS Now I always say you shouldn’t buy a beer just because of the label…but you can’t say no to a bright, cheery yellow when looking for a sunny BBQ beer, and the bonus is that what’s under the label is great too. Oatmeal Pale is a limited edition by Dalkeith-based Cross Borders, and it’s a lovely, summery session pale. When you first open the can, a waft of Um Bongo hits you ,which is backed up by delicious sweet peaches and a slightly sharp not-quiteripe-yet mango. The oats used in the grain bill give a beautifully smooth mouthfeel which adds to the drinkability of this pale ale.

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HAPPY CHAPPY – CROMARTY BREWING COMPANY Based up on the tip of the Black Isle, Cromarty Brewing Company have been on the go since 2011. In that time, Happy Chappy has become a regular on the cask pumps of pubs throughout Scotland. The colour of this is like golden, liquid sunshine and the smell is sweet and floral honeysuckle. You’re immediately transported to a beautiful garden with bees buzzing and the faint sound of a lawnmower. Taste-wise, this is very balanced and easy-drinking. A subtle bitterness, floral/ citrussy hops and a mellow sweetness come together nicely in this lovely summer sipper.

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VIENNA PALE - PILOT Vienna Pale is based on a Vienna lager style, so uses more roasted malts than your typical pale ale. The result is an earthy, roasted edge which is quite unusual for a pale ale, but I love it. It also means it’s ideal for a BBQ as that ever so slightly burnt flavour will go brilliantly with the charring on BBQ food. An abundance of juicy hops is also used to inject a tropical, orange zestiness, which balances beautifully, like a grilled pineapple! This has all the sweet, juicy and charred flavours you want from a BBQ wrapped up in one little can. Beautiful stuff.

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PORTER – TARTAN SHARK Tartan Shark is a very new brewery based in Edinburgh and Sean delivers all the beers he brews himself by bike. I wanted to include a dark beer in my round-up, as I love stouts and porters. I personally think their flavour profile goes perfectly with BBQ food. Porters are generally sweeter and less bitter than stouts and this example by Tartan Shark is a beauty. The addition of wheat gives it a luxurious mouthfeel and there’s a good balance of sweet and bitter coffee beans that add a bit of decadence to the affair.

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RAUCHBIER URBOCK - SCHLENKERLA My final option isn’t for the faint-hearted. This is for the SERIOUS BBQer. If you love peaty whisky, bacon Frazzles and the smell of your clothes after soaking up smoke from a wood fire…then this is for you. Schlenkerla Marzen is one of my personal favourite beers and I always cite it as ‘the beer that got me into beer’ but here I’ve picked the Urbock as it’s even more intense.I really urge anyone who hasn’t tried it already to give it a go, but I’ll warn you, it’s definitely a Marmite situation - you’ll love it or you’ll hate it! This German brewery abides by the German Purity Law or Reinheitsgebot, which dictates that beer can only contain four ingredients – water, hops, yeast and barley, so they have to achieve this distinctive smoky flavour without any additives. They malt their own barley, and when doing so, add beechwood to the kiln, resulting in this extreme BBQ flavour. I’d do a full tasting note, but really, ‘BBQ’ succinctly hits the nail on the head. Go try it and see for yourself.

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EDINBURGH GLASGOW

No matter how long you live somewhere, it can take some time for you to explore it and discover all of its secrets and wonders. I’ve lived in Edinburgh for seven years now, and there are many places I’ve yet to see.

Usually in August I spend a few days doing the Festival and taking in a few shows, until I feel like I’ve had enough of the leaflets and the shouting. I become more and more frustrated at the tourists blocking my way, assembling like herds of goats as I desperately try to get to work.

Eventually, I jump on a plane and depart for somewhere a bit quieter.

Festivity can only last so long.

This August, it’ll be as if my city exists in some kind of parallel universe: the Edinburgh it would have been, had it not been selected some 70 years ago to host the Festival. I’m re-exploring all the places I usually steer clear of in the August summer haze and challenging myself to do all the things I’ve always meant to do.

I’m hoping for sunshine and planning for showers, and in my plant-based plundering you may spot me with a pot of hummus and a pitta at some of the city’s best viewing spots.

(NOT THE) FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS.

MEADOWS

Head to the Meadows for a quiet, sunny picnic, or grab the barbeque and socially distance with some friends. Bonus points for spreading out Back to Contents

THIS AUGUST, IT’LL BE AS IF MY CITY EXISTS IN SOME KIND OF PARALLEL UNIVERSE: THE EDINBURGH IT WOULD HAVE BEEN, HAD IT NOT BEEN SELECTED SOME 70 YEARS AGO TO HOST THE FESTIVAL.

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I TOOK A WALK TEN MILES FROM HOME, UPHILL FOR TWO OF THEM ON ALLERMUIR AND CASTLELAW HILL. AND I CAN TELL YOU, THIS CITY IS BREATHTAKING.

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where the great big tent usually lies. For added festivity, challenge your mates to bring along their best jokes, funniest tales, and cabaret inspired party tricks - you’ll hardly know it’s any different. For added joy, order an afternoon tea from Black Rabbit on Brougham. And if your day creeps into the evening, head to Sora Lella a few doors down for some vegan Italian food.

ROYAL MILE Take a run down the Royal Mile: in a standard Edinburgh August you’d never make it down here unscathed. Grab a massive baked tattie from The Baked Potato Shop at the top of Cockburn Street and march up the castle esplanade, enjoying the view uninhibited by steel seating. With all those fortifying carbs you’ll then be set to walk up Arthur’s Seat, usually avoided in the 8th month by anyone local.

GEORGE SQUARE GARDENS: The perfect location for a thought-provoking discussion. Last year I saw Akala give a talk at a nearby venue, and afterwards I’d have loved a peaceful garden to sit and reflect in. This year you can have just that.

Exchange your most challenging books with a friend and head here for a debate over a can of something chilled.

UNDISCOVERED EDINBURGH: PENTLAND HILLS

Although I’ve lived in Edinburgh for seven years, I’ve never made it up even one of its peaks - which is awful, considering I regularly sip my coffee while looking out at them. To prepare for this article, I took a walk ten miles from home, uphill for two of them on Allermuir and Castlelaw Hill. And I can tell you, this city is breathtaking. I’m kicking myself for not doing it before. There are lots of different walks to try, so I’ll definitely be up there again soon.

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CAMMO ESTATE AND RIVER ALMOND WALK CRAMOND BRIG Until recently, I had never heard of the River Almond Walk, and I had no idea that Cammo Estate, with its glamorous ruins and muddy pools, existed. It’s next on my list for an adventure, and I will be marking it off this August for sure.

STOCKBRIDGE DUCK POND AND NEIGHBOURGOOD MARKET I have been to the duck pond before, but I’ve never taken the time to come here with a good book. On my way, I’ll be sure to stop by Neighbourgood, Edinburgh’s first socially distanced and contactless market. Featuring many of our favourite food stalls and businesses, Neighbourgood can be found near The Grande Club in Stockbridge until the end of August. I’ve yet to visit and see what vegan delights I might find.

INNOCENT RAILWAY PATH On a late summer day, take a stroll or a cycle along the Innocent Railway, a former horse-drawn railway line. The path begins in Newington, passes Holyrood Park via Duddingston and Craigmillar, and ends in Brunstane in the east. Have a go and see if you can make it to Portobello for ice cream. And if it’s near the end of the month, look out for blackberries to forage.

This year, my considerably less festive city feels as if it’s been set aside just for the locals. So make it your time to walk, run, cycle, and enjoy it. It could be the most peaceful August you’ll ever experience.

For myself, I’m going to lay in the grass and be grateful for the break, whilst also looking forward to next year and the return of Edinburgh’s unique brand of ‘normal’.

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THIS YEAR, MY CONSIDERABLY LESS FESTIVE CITY FEELS AS IF IT’S BEEN SET ASIDE JUST FOR THE LOCALS. SO MAKE IT YOUR TIME TO WALK, RUN, CYCLE, AND ENJOY IT. IT COULD BE THE MOST PEACEFUL AUGUST YOU’LL EVER EXPERIENCE.

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It’s been a bumpy ride, with many of us at a loss on how to spend our time. We found solace in our one walk a day.

We lost the excuse of not having the time to go sightseeing around Glasgow’s treasures, which we’d be so proud to show off to friends who visit our beautiful city. Cyclist Sarah Bentley once said ‘You are only one ride away from a good mood’. I think this is true of a good walk too - there’s nothing to lift the spirits like a wander in nature. The world is opening up again, slowly but surely. So what better time to get out there and explore our cities? Here are a few top spots to be found in Glasgow, all no more than an hour by bike from George Square. Take an afternoon (or two) for yourself and discover some of Glasgow’s treasures.

I spent a lot of my lockdown cycling to parks I hadn’t visited in my twelve years in the city: Tollcross, Elder Park and even a venture to a quarry in Baillieston (the less said about that last one the better).

My exploration of Glasgow’s countless parks is something I’m keen to keep up once we get back to ‘normality’ - hopefully I can inspire you to investigate a bit more of Glasgow too.

Glasgow Green is always a great place to start. The Doulton Fountain and the soon to be renovated Winter Gardens are definitely worth a look. I followed the Clyde Walkway east, heading for Cuningar Loop, a forty minute walk or a tiny twelve minute cycle away. The path itself is relatively flat, well-managed and very easy to follow. Cuningar Loop is a woodland activity park, boasting Scotland’s first outdoor bouldering rocks, woodland workout equipment and bike skills tracks. On your way back to the city centre,The Clyde Smartbridge is also a great spot to catch the sunset, around 9pm this time of year. If you fancy exploring a

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little further there are some great graffiti spots and paths down to the riverbank a little past Cuningar Loop, perfect for catching up on some reading or just hiding away from the hectic city.

Next stop is the Southside. In Queen’s Park a sound came to me, almost like a distant echo...live music. Can it be? Why, yes it can. It was Dennis Smalley and his band The Glasgow Blues Family, who have come together to ‘relieve lockdown blues’ as the first band to play Glasgow Parks since the restrictions were relaxed. So far they’ve played in both Queen’s Park and Glasgow Green, and you can keep up to date with their schedule on Dennis’ Facebook page. Or you could wing it and experience the joy of coming across a full band playing in the park just by chance. Gigs are generally around 3pm on Saturdays, and are of course weatherdependent.

The West End is home to the classic Glasgow afternoon walk: the Kelvin Walkway, part of the Clyde Walkway. A stroll along here is guaranteed to clear the mind. A mix of nature, architecture, and a healthy dose of graffiti in parts. Colour Ways’ Glasgow graffiti guide (see Instagram and YouTube) is largely focused around the west of the city and is a great resource for walking tours of graffiti.

If you’re looking for a more modern and creative look at the West End’s beautiful riverbank, check it out on YouTube and Instagram.

Of all the new places I discovered, Linn Park was the standout for me. Having lived in Glasgow for twelve years and never previously visited, I now can’t recommend it strongly enough. From Glasgow Green it took around half an hour by bike, so around an hour and a half on foot, to bring me to one of Glasgow’s most interesting places. Linn Park has a waterfall, horses, and we even managed to pick some fresh raspberries. It has a good mix of Back to Contents

by Lynsey Cameron Page 133

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woodland and open spaces, with a great wildlife trail linked by QR code to friendsoflinnpark.com which will give you information on the themed fairy doors and wildlife present in the area. There is even an unexplained collection of Volkswagen Beetles lining one side of the park. Sometimes it’s better not to ask.

Glasgow has always been known as the Dear Green Place, and it was great to get on my bike and really discover why. This article has focused on the parks which are a short cycle or walk away from the city centre, but there is so much more green space to discover - and they’re all available without spending a penny.

Everywhere I’ve suggested is merely a starting point, connected very easily by cycle routes and nearby train stations, if you feel comfortable using them. Viewing Glasgow purely as a walker and cyclist, with the focus away from the bars and urban culture we are famed for, has really allowed me to love the city all over again. Hopefully you will too.

by Lynsey Cameron Page 135

REVIEW

BDRMM DANIEL AVERY WUH OH MARTHA FFION MARGO PRICE FAIR MOTHERS MADISON FIORENZA FONTAINES D.C. DEAD PONY CARLA J. EASTON PELTS BETA WAVES TOM GILLESPIE GHOST OF TSUSHIMA THE LAST OF US PART 2 BAD EDUCATION CLEMENCY

TRACK BY TRACK: BEDROOM

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Photography: Sam Joyce

It is rare for a debut LP to maintain a thematic soundscape without it stumbling into sounding samey, but somehow, vowelly-challenged Yorkshire quintet bdrmm have delivered it. Bedroom is 40-odd minutes of massive, shifting noise that builds and intertwines songs without drowning them.

Formed by songwriter Ryan Smith, originally as a solo project, the band includes Ryan’s brother Jordan on bass, Joe Vickers on guitar, Danny Hull on synths and drummer Luke Irvin.

Their delay-drenched dreampop had already been making waves when they released their debut EP If Not, When? on Sonic Cathedral last year, with their single ‘A Reason To Celebrate’ remixed by Ride’s Andy Bell. Bedroom feels less like a first album and more like an emphatic confirmation of shy, whispered promise.

Review By Stephen McColgan Page 139

Opening instrumental ‘Momo’ skips straight into the pairing of panning synths and twangy, single-coil guitar lines that form the frontage of bdrmm’s wall of noise. Thankfully, it doesn’t invoke the memory of the 2019 meme of the same name that scared Facebook Maws across the globe into sharing pictures of a scary doll in order to avoid the influence of scary dolls. Not sonically, at least.

The crossfade from ‘Momo’ into ‘Push / Pull’ recalls MBV’s genre-defining Loveless, and the track itself unashamedly flaunts its influences like a football scarf made of peacock feathers. There are prominent echoes of The Cure and Slowdive, as the track pounds through its snare-dependent intro and continues with a yelp of yearning and regret.

Recent single ‘A Reason to Celebrate’ moves smoothly from the chopping, clean guitar in the intro to its dizzying, swelling verses and a swaying anthemic chorus that repeats without outstaying its welcome. Of all the songs on this album, this is perhaps the one that would work best on its own in a playlist rather than as part of the larger whole.

The guitar line in the verses of ‘Gush’, resplendent with reverb and overlapping delay effects, deservedly occupies the middle of the mix in an eighties-tinged track that recalls The Chameleons. Lyrically, simple phrases expressing regret and remorse grab the attention and eventually hang, wounded, in the mouth of those singing along to themselves.

Uptempo, if not entirely upbeat, ‘Happy’ hangs on a simple and bewitching hook. It’s easy to imagine someone thrashing around an empty room to this, all flailing arms, earnest facial expressions and private abandonment.

‘Happy’ was originally meant to segue into its sister track ‘(Un)Happy’, with the instrumental that was supposed to bridge the two becoming ‘(The Silence)’.

This latter starts with a descending, tremolo guitar and sounds like it lives inside a piece of factory machinery, albeit the most organic piece of factory machinery since the semi-human paper shredder, something that doesn’t exist but about which I once had a particularly vivid nightmare.

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Review By Stephen McColgan Page 141

BEDROOM IS THE SOUND OF BDRMM IN 2020, AND IT’LL BE THE PLATINUM STANDARD THEIR FUTURE WORK IS MEASURED AGAINST

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‘(Un)Happy’ is a masterful, moody instrumental with heavy Mogwai hints.

Its plodding tempo and move from relative quiet to swirling layers of noise are all topped off with a semi-buried sample of a Megabus driver.

Despite the album very much sounding like one fluid piece of work rather than a collection of songs strung together, that’s not at the expense of the craft of the individual tracks. And, although I’ve been merrily playing every old guy’s favourite game of Spot-The-Influence, bdrmm have really managed to make the record’s sonic palette entirely their own.

‘If….’ introduces a fuzz guitar tone which is noticeably rougher than elsewhere on the record, making the quieter vocal parts of the song all the more affecting. Lyrically, the song is essentially one extended sentence spread across almost five minutes, and that just accentuates the song’s organicseeming structure.

‘Is That What You Wanted to Hear?’ features a shiny, repeating guitar line with the simplicity and directness of a nursery rhyme. This gives way to squalls of noise filling the mix, with the intensity of a teased demon being let out of a box to get its fill of general demonry before being shut away again with minimal fuss.

Closing track ‘Forget the Credits’ anchors itself to a suitably stuttering low BPM and reaches levels of guitar reverb usually reserved for episodes of the last series of Twin Peaks. It’s a slightly disorientating end to a journey of noisy, emotional expression, but it pulls down a figurative curtain so tangible that you can almost feel its swaying crushed velvet.

I’m very likely to play this record to death. It’s short on gimmicks and postmodern knowingness and full to the brim of wide-eyed honesty, cascading soundscapes and raw, open emotion. I suspect their second album will probably move into differing musical territories but Bedroom is the sound of bdrmm in 2020, and it’ll be the platinum standard their future work is measured against.

Review By Stephen McColgan Page 143

TRACK BY TRACK: LOVE + LIGHT

AVERY, “MUSIC HAS ALWAYS BEEN A SOURCE OF PERSONAL STRENGTH FOR ME, YET I REMAIN FASCINATED BY THE POWER IT CAN POSSESS OF ITS OWN VOLITION.”

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Photography: Vincent Arbella

Not one for fanfare, Daniel Avery has surprised music fans by releasing an album two weeks after the final note was recorded.

His third record in the space of two years, Love + Light follows on from albums Song for Alpha and Illusion of Time - the latter being a collaboration with Alessandro Cortini of Nine Inch Nails.

Recorded during the lockdown and consisting of two halves, the album depended on the two separate parts. Avery said, ‘It was apparent that the album would be split into two distinct halves but halves that were inexorably tied together. One could not have existed without the other’.

Disc One opener ‘London Island’ looms into view as if emerging from mist. Distant foghorns call out to anyone who will listen, and fade into the ambience like a ship disappearing over the horizon. It’s a cut of tension-laden distortion, fitting for these turbulent times. I imagine this track used to re-score the opening scene of Shutter Island, the Scorcese masterpiece acclaimed for its tense eeriness.

After the ghostly opener, ‘Dusting for Smoke’ hits like a cold bucket of water to the face. The beat and bassline are firmly in the realm of techno, with the eerie discordance of pads that reinforce the dystopian vibe.

‘Dream Distortion’ has a big warehouse techno sound with the reverb cranked up to 11. Heavily distorted keys and off-beat cymbals are interwoven with hi-hats that pan throughout. The dizzying force of the main hook, and the variance in its distortion, bring life to the grand and shadowy space that this energy emanates from.

Moving on, ‘Katana’ provides a moment of calm. A harp is rhythmically plucked and strummed with poignant delicacy, as digital waves of dreamlike half-notes bob to the surface of your consciousness.

‘Darlinnn’ is my personal highlight of the album: a pulsing, building, energetic masterpiece in techno production. A bobbing key rhythm Review by Donald Shields Page 145

builds to create a complex drum pattern, in conjunction with the heavyhitting kick drum. Playing with the prominence of the mid to high-end keys and synths of the track, like the peaks and troughs of a sine wave in the electrical networks that bind us, Avery has created something beautiful in its simplicity, so much so you forget the classic 4/4 beat renders no snare drum.

‘Depth Wish’ naturally reads as a play on ‘death wish’, and in keeping with these dark connotations, this piece is sparse. The strongest impression I can give is what can only be described as a rusty electronic scythe moving back and forth in a disused factory, as if swung by the Grim Reaper himself.

‘Searing Light, Forward Motion’ has an intense drum & bass style beat which grabs the album by the balls and ups the BPM considerably. On top of that, we’re hit with a mix of acid and Avery’s signature dissonant synths, to intensify your disillusionment with the new normal. It should be noted that if your disillusionment needs work, you’re a breezier sort than I am.

Enjoyable, especially if your current mental state is slightly... askew.

In ‘Infinite Future’ we have a modernistic dubstep track. A downtempo piece with a deep sub-bass lulls you into a false sense of calm, before the gradual onset of ominous synths swarms in like robotic killer bees, keeping you on the edge of comfort.

Disc Two is decidedly more laidback, and in parts sounds a bit like a love letter to Scottish electronic duo Boards of Canada. Intro track ‘After the Fire’ is a powerful, grandiose piece of music that has a finale feel to it, but instead fades and gives way to ‘Into The Arms of Stillness’ - my favourite of the downtempo and ambient works on the album.

This track has a vulnerable, ethereal sound, with a breakbeat and the trademark Avery distortion, but without the eerie, dissonant synths Back to Contents

THE PEAKS AND TROUGHS OF A SINE WAVE IN THE ELECTRICAL NETWORKS THAT BIND US Photography: Keffer

Review by Donald Shields Page 147

A CUT OF TENSION-LADEN DISTORTION Back to Contents

Photography: Steve Gullick

evident throughout the first disc. It has an almost childlike quality in its sound and sentiment, in contrast with a title that conjures images of morbid finality.

‘Fuzzwar’ sounds like a pioneering electronic track from the 80s.

Floating, soft synths pleasantly bop to and fro on this journey, with tittering hi-hats for company.

‘Pure Life’ is hauntingly beautiful. It carries a distortion, a constant digital fuzz forming waves of sound, while the same simple keys are played again and again, growing in clarity and volume. The soundtrack of a teary farewell to a loved one.

‘A Story in E5’ is an antidote to the feelings of menace so prominent in some of the previous tracks. Sweeping synths with soft, welcoming pads twinkle a melody, with a chilled breakbeat to generate a gentle head-nod. A welcome dose of chilled-out positivity.

The final track of the album, ‘One More Morning’, has birdsong playing throughout, articulating an early morning rise of reverb that makes the intricate beat seem produced from the depths of an empty music hall. The track sounds like it came to Avery in a dream.

The qualities Avery possesses as a musician enable him to capture and express these emotionally intimate feelings of duality. This album sees him combine raw energetic life-force and celestial calm, and at times it’s as if he acts purely as a conduit for the music. As Avery himself says, ‘Music has always been a source of personal strength for me, yet I remain fascinated by the power it can possess of its own volition.

Releasing the record in this way, just a couple of weeks after the final note had fallen, felt like a decision made by an outside force, yet one I agreed with entirely. Stay safe, friends, and I’ll see you on the other side soon.’’

Review by Donald Shields Page 149

SINGLE: SOFTSTYLE If you’re dreaming of being poolside or eagerly awaiting the re-opening of the clubs this summer, Wuh Oh’s ‘Softstyle’ could be just what you need to bring those vibes to wherever you are. The Glasgow-based composer, producer, and performer’s new single is a futuristic electro-dance track with Chemical Brothersesque vocals, bright piano and soaring synths you’ll want on repeat for days.

The University of Glasgow alumnus’ newest offering has been championed by Vic Galloway and Pete Tong, and is the perfect ‘in’ to explore his experimental back catalogue, including ‘Zita’, released in April this year.

With ‘Softstyle’’s catchy lyrics and bass drop, it’s easy to imagine yourself dancing along in a crowd somewhere sunny. While that may not be possible this year, the single sounds just as good played loud in the kitchen or the car.

2020 was set to be a big year of live shows for Wuh Oh, already known for his high-energy sets, with performances scheduled at Glastonbury, Wireless, and Reading & Leeds among others. Due to the current situation some have been postponed, but he’s definitely one to watch at future festivals.

‘Softstyle’ is out now.

By Lily Black

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ALBUM: NIGHTS TO FORGET There’s no confusing Mount Florida with Orlando, Florida. But the hazy Glasgow summer of 2018 was all the inspiration Martha Ffion needed to conjure up a gloriously perceptive and mellow sunshine record.

These are tough times, and while Martha has created a lush-sounding record, the lyrical themes are tailor-made for today. With topics such as the rise of rightwing thinking, nostalgia, depression, and grim politics, you’d be forgiven for thinking the artist came up with these songs in the past week.

There are hints of Talking Heads at their tropical finest, and no doubt plenty of other acts too young or too hip for this writer to reel off. However, let’s not worry about who the record has been sun-kissed by; Martha Ffion is enough of a local talent (yes, we’re claiming Martha as part of the Scottish scene) for us all to bask in its glory. Cheers!

Nights To Forget is released on 14th August on Lost Map Records

By Andrew Reilly

Photography: Beth Chalmers

ALBUM: THAT'S HOW RUMORS GET STARTED You may be familiar with Margo Price as a country singer, but this is not a country album. There would be nothing wrong with that, but That’s How Rumors Get Started is so much bigger, wider, deeper, funkier, and richer than whatever you probably perceive country to be.

‘Letting Me Down’ is magical, like the first rays of sunshine after an all-nighter, like your favourite supercharged 70s laidback rockers finally kicking their show into gear. That’s just the second track; ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ and ‘Heartless Mind’ take this feel further.

The melodies are similar to where Margo has tread before, but the music is looser, and it’s having a whole lot of fun.

When later the tempo and swagger fades, it’s no less compelling. ‘Hey Child’ and ‘What Happened To Our Love’ are made for belting out in the wee small hours. Like many of the best artists, she writes personally, but makes it feel as though she has tapped into your mind to spill your stories.

One of the most enduring (and possibly mocked) descriptions of country music is that ‘all you need to write a country song is three chords and the truth’, a comment attributed Back to Contents

Photography: Bobbi Rich

to songwriter Harlan Howard. It’s become a cliché. But with Margo, the phrase doesn’t begin to do her justice.

Bursting onto the scene with ‘Hands of Time’, which featured on her debut Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, its lyrics laid Margo’s life bare, and left the listener hoping the tales were embellished, such was the hurt the singer was recalling. On learning more about Margo, you get the feeling the lyrics weren’t the half of it!

When Margo sings ‘Prisoner of The Highway’ and ‘I’d Die For You’ you know she means it. The closing one-two punch lifts you higher than most records of the modern era, climbing to scrape the sky, and leaving you a touch bereft when the music stops.

Price has always been an artist with authenticity written all over her. This remains the case with this collection of songs that sizzle with energy, bouncing from style to style, yet still retaining a cohesive sound. With psych, gospel, 70s rock, 80s synth, ballads and country on offer, it’s an era-crossing compilation from one artist.

If any act signifies what Nashville really has to offer, it’s Margo Price. There’s something for everyone, but it’s a world away from the honky-tonks and tourist traps. If you’re willing to look further, maybe even get your hands dirty, you’ll uncover a gem. That’s what we have with That’s How Rumours Get Started.

It’s not just a country album; it’s a record which glides by effortlessly. It’s a tremendous album, which is the only genre that counts.

That’s How Rumors Get Started is out now on Loma Vista Recordings.

By Andrew Reilly Email: review@snackmag.co.uk Page 153

ALBUM: IN MONOCHROME An awakening, a searing clarity, epiphany – for Kevin Allan, aka Fair Mothers, these were the effects of reading classic novel The Stranger by Albert Camus. Camus was a Nobel prizewinning French author who pioneered Absurdism - the philosophy which deals with the conflict in the human tendency to seek value and meaning in life in a contrarily chaotic universe. Fair Mother’s newest offering, In Monochrome, pretty much bleeds Camus.

The album is the artist’s second this year. Symbiotically linked to its predecessor Separate Lives, In Monochrome is the weirder, more distant, and moodier brother of the two.

Capturing an existential lushness in its overarching sound, the album throughout maintains an ambience that leaves us feeling slightly off-kilter. As much as the feeling of disillusionment is a factor of Allan’s music, the poignant references to his family or to the future of the human race bring home a familiarity to the listener. Allan is undoubtedly a talented musician and lyricist, and now I’m wondering: why haven’t I listened to his music before?

Simple guitar riffs and familiar chords, from what has the feel of a cherished and dusty piano, are put to eloquent use.

Quite the believer in community and working together to better something, his collaborators on the album are Faith Eliott, Dana Gavanski (both vocals), Esther Swift (harp), Sam Mallalieu (drums), Pete Harvey (cello), and a guest Back to Contents

THE POWERFUL STRINGS THROUGHOUT CARRY THE SAME VIBE AS WATCHING A GOODBYE SCENE FROM AN OLD BLACK-ANDWHITE MOVIE

Email: review@snackmag.co.uk Page 155

appearance from Johnny Lynch aka Pictish Trail, on ‘Birds & Bees & Tiny Fleas’.

‘Birds & Bees & Tiny Fleas’ is just shy of 10 minutes and sounds like it could have been faxed from Neil Young’s seminal On The Beach album. The track is understated and simplistic, yet bursting with lamenting emotion. With its wah-wah guitar, an old piano playing away with beleaguered intent, and a strange wee bongo drum that seems happy just to be taking part, it’s really fuckin’ good. The powerful strings throughout carry the same vibe as watching a goodbye scene from an old black-and-white movie.

‘Monochrome’ was born from an intense argument with Allan’s wife, and the song carries the gravitas that comes with someone who has lived what he sings. It doesn’t necessarily have the intensity you’d imagine would come with a fierce argument, but instead provides reflection.

Final track ‘16:39’ is my personal favourite. It meanders along, with ideas that simmer away until the sound clears for Allan’s vulnerable voice: ‘The halo has slipped, it’s covering your eyes’.

At its core a simple acoustic guitar strums, augmented by delicate piano, and the song builds organically with a weaving mix of heavily distorted electric guitar giving way to sublime cello. And then, that coda...bliss.

In Monochrome feels like a deeply personal piece of work, like it’s Allan’s surrender to the chaotic universe: a submission of his bare naked soul. All we have to do is enjoy the privilege of listening in.

In Monochrome will be released 7th August via Song, by Toad Records.

By Donald Shields Back to Contents

SINGLE: FEVER DREAM

Just because something seems instantly familiar, it doesn’t mean it offers nothing new. A touch of musical nostalgia is often welcome.

There are a few nods to ‘Seven Nation Army’ here, but not the section you would expect. Which will please or disappoint you accordingly, but that instantly recognisable element helps the rest of the song step into your consciousness.

It’s a brooding little number, and it’s achingly cool. Fiorenza’s soft-yet-heavy vocals hint at a jaded persona, slightly bored with these times. Aren’t we all?

The music backing neatly underplays the vocals, stabbing intermittently through, jolting you to a more receptive state.

You want a debut single to introduce the artist, hint at promise to come, but hold enough in store to ensure you can be surprised at a later date. ‘Fever Dream’ is a pleasant listen, but I’ve a niggling feeling there is more to come from Madison.

'Fever Dream' is out now on Electric Eye.

By Andrew Reilly

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ALBUM: A HERO’S DEATH From the title alone, you sense A Hero’s Death will see Fontaines D.C. reevaluating themselves and the world around them. Featuring a few choice references to soldiers and conflict, never taken lightly by those with a grasp of Irish history, the album evinces the band’s growth under the pressures of fame and tour demands.

The title track encapsulates everything your mind would piece together when creating your perfect Fontaines D.C. track. Razor-sharp lyrics, a rattling rhythm and Pop Muzik backing vocals. The album goes elsewhere, though, and it’s for the better.

This isn’t a second album quickly churned out to capitalise on a debut’s success; there’s a development of thought, sound, and processes here. There’s joy and reflection in equal measure. You can join the dots to their influences, but why not marvel at where they’ve gone on their own?

They said it themselves on their first album, but now you really should believe it: Fontaines D.C. are gonna be big.

A Hero’s Death is out now on Partisan Records.

Photography: Ellius Grace

By Andrew Reilly

SINGLE: SHARP TONGUES If you’re going to call a song 'Sharp Tongues', you better deliver nasty barbs and insults that cut to the bone. Dead Pony don’t let you down here, as they continue their journey to wider musical awareness.

The guitar intro belongs to a different time and era of new-wave angsty guitars, but the biting attitude is as fresh and relevant today as it has been since the 70s and 80s. Hey, no matter the era, Governments are shit and kids are disenfranchised.

The song is a powerful volley, assaulting your senses as much as the recipient of the lyrical focus. Anna Shields grabs all the attention, with words and threatening delivery, but Dead Pony have done more than enough to warrant your attention.; and they won’t waste your time by overstaying their welcome.

'Sharp Tongues' is a strong follow-up to “Everything Is Easy”, so let’s hope they keep them coming.

'Sharp Tongues' is out now

By Andrew Reilly

LIVING IN YOUR HEAD, PUTTING IT UP FOR RENT Back to Contents

Photography: Daniel Blake

ALBUM: WEIRDO The minute you realise there is something a bit different about you, and that it’s a strength, is when you move forward. Anthems for outsiders have long been a pop staple. Carla J Easton knows her musical history inside out, and Weirdo wears its beaming, gleaming heart on its brightly coloured sleeve.

It’s still pop, but with a harder edge; it’s a more robust record than Carla’s previous albums. Part of this might be down to the influence of Scott Paterson of Sons & Daughters and The Kills fame, but mostly it’s down Carla’s growing confidence.

She’s not alone, ably assisted by Solareye from Stanley Odd and Stina Tweeddale from Honeyblood. The former spits at high-tempo, the latter ensures the title track soars that little bit higher with shimmery backing vocals.

Weirdo should see Carla become a mainstay of the indie-pop landscape.

Which is where she deserves to reign.

Weirdo is released on 28th August on Olive Grove Records

By Andrew Reilly

Photography: Austin Temby

Email: review@snackmag.co.uk Page 161

ALBUM: A LITTLE LESS LOST A Little Less Lost, an album title that sums up perfectly how I felt after sitting back and listening to the new eight track album from Pelts. It also reminded me how much I long for the return to watching exciting bands playing new material live.

Pelts started back in 2014 with their debut single ‘Footage’, and have been in the studio perfecting this debut album for the last two years. A Little Less Lost is an orchestra of fuzzily warm melodies, powerful lyrics, and perfectly judged harmonies (oh! the delight of natural accents) that call on musical inspirations ranging from (wild guessing here) The Magic Numbers, The Delgados, Belle and Sebastian, Arcade Fire, and perhaps even The Carpenters. Throughout, Graham Carey’s vocal carries a warmth in its low range that comforts and conjures the scent of a warm packet of tobacco.

Natasha Radmehr’s voice nestles as comfortably on top of the airy distortion in the incredible ‘Who Could Love Me Now’, as it does on the stripped back, soul bearing ‘Haunted’. When both Radmehr and Carey combine to harmonise, it adds that extra emotional tug that beckons you deeper into their world.

It’s abundantly clear that each of the tracks are laced with memories; some warm and blissful, but others painful and tear-stained. It’s like tracing your way backwards through a photo album and embracing the emotions that unravel along the way.

New single ‘Throwing Sticks’ will be out on 21st August with A Little Less Lost releasing 18th September, via Iffy Folk Records.

By Gregg Kelly Back to Contents

EP: EP1 From the moment the drum bus filter opens and the sharp claps and rim shots pan on EP1 opener ‘UDH2’ you feel you’re in for a treat. It’s a sweet electropop tune in the vein of Hot Chip doing New Order. Sweet tinkling notes furnish its bed of burbling arpeggiated synths. Its simple chorus is a proper earworm which should happily rattle about your brain for days. Ends.

‘Come on over’ starts innocuous enough before opening out into a M83 style chorus – all wide eyes and John Hughes film feels. The sweetly sung echos of Alexis Taylor’s singing style are more pronounced than in ‘UDH2’. It tingles like the first week of a new relationship.

After a strong start the EP sags a little in the middle with ‘Ad Lib’. It’s the least ambitious of the collection with its mid-90s mid-pop feel. Things then pick up again with ‘Hideaway’. After a slightly lukewarm start it gathers momentum and truly comes alive when the funk bass slips in on the minute mark.

‘I Had You Wrong’ is the antithesis of ‘Ad Lib’. It’s the longest track on the EP but never outstays its welcome, from the intro’s Tame Impala homage guitar hook to the lengthy tech-y workout coda. The sweet movement about halfway through where it simply gets its groove on before the previously bouncy bassline turns tough and menacing is a joy. Play on repeat.

EP1 sees Beta Waves picking about trying to find their sound. It’s a collection of tracks that rarely sounds the same minute to minute, never mind track to track, but on repeat listens you’ll find a core that’s clearly ‘them’. It’ll be interesting to see where the Dundee/London duo go from here.

Listen to EP1 now via Spotify, Apple, Tidal, and most other streaming platforms.

By Kenny Lavelle Email: review@snackmag.co.uk Page 163

BOOK: THE STRANGE BOOK OF JACOB BOYCE Scottish literature has a long and distinguished history of combining the psychological with the supernatural. From 19th century classics by James Hogg and Robert Louis Stevenson, through to modern iterations such as Graeme Macrae Burnet’s 2016 Booker shortlisted His Bloody Project, there’s a wealth of this genre to choose from. So you might be forgiven for thinking there’s little more to say. However, just when you think you’ve got it covered, a book like Tom Gillespie’s The Strange Book of Jacob Boyce appears: a work that prompts us to question everything we regard as certain.

It’s a novel that examines grief and guilt through the twin facets of art and obsession.

Protagonist Dr Jacob Boyce, an Earth Sciences lecturer, spends his days in front of a baroque painting in a Glasgow gallery, taking meticulous notes and measurements and trying to unravel what he perceives as its geometric riddles. His obsession soon develops into paranoia and a raft of conspiracy theories, and he’s never entirely sure who to trust and what to believe. With a missing wife, a coterie of mysterious strangers, mathematical conundrums, and philosophical musings, The Strange Book of Jacob Boyce is the smartest thriller you’ll read this year. It’s one of those rare novels that feed the mind and soul in equal measure.

Tom Gillespie’s The Strange Book of Jacob Boyce is published by Vine Leaves Press ByAlistair Braidwood

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GAME: GHOST OF TSUSHIMA When I first saw footage of Ghost of Tsushima, the last big Playstation 4 title before the PS5 launches later this year, I was awestruck. An open world, Red Dead Redemption-style game but with cowboys replaced by Samurai in feudal Japan? I’m in, I thought. I’ve played enough of the game to give a rounded opinion by now, and boy does it mesmerise you. Visually, this is the most beautiful game I’ve ever played. From golden Autumn leaves framing a temple, to cliffsides looking on to the red rays of sunset streaming over the ocean, this is the creation of one beautiful world.

You play as protagonist Jin, a Samurai warrior who has survived a deadly battle with Mongol invaders circa 1274. Your mission is to save your captured uncle from the clutches of a Mongol warlord. You pick up combat skills and techniques as the game goes on, and the in-depth approach to this is very rewarding. The sword combat, like many elements of the game, makes you feel like you’re in an old Samurai film. The mechanics of the game and its two-button approach make it pretty easy to pick up. There’s even an option to change the action to black-and-white, named ‘Kurosawa Mode’ after the great director.

Some aspects are a little disappointing, such as the cut-and-paste design of some houses and environments, and approaches to missions that are nothing new for this type of game. But riding around its landscape is nothing short of enrapturing, and will provide you with hours of blissful entertainment.

By Martin Sandison

The Last Of Us: Part 2 was released in June this year, to immediate critical acclaim. The game was highly praised for its storytelling, action, and characterisation. However, with some issues regarding its depictions of violence and its player agency, has Naughty Dog’s sequel missed the mark?

The Last Of Us, released in 2013, was quickly inducted into the annals of video game classics, with a 95 score from critics and a 9.2 user rating on review aggregator Metacritic [not that we pay much attention to scores, cause they’re reductive and stuff – Ed]. The post apocalyptic sequel has deviated considerably from the original, with a larger reliance on stealth and a metric tonne of extra gore, as well as a greater range of more fully realised characters.

The Last Of Us: Part 2 picks up five years after the events of the first game, with Ellie now living in Jackson, separately from over-protective father figure, Joel. Following their return from St. Mary’s Hospital, Ellie has made a life for herself in this old-West type of town, patrolling the surrounding areas on horseback with friends Jessie and Dina. While the previous game dealt with Joel’s selfishness and his need to keep his people safe no matter the cost, the sequel is a character study of Ellie, as well as other members of the principal cast, as they navigate this new fungus-filled world.

As with the first game, the sequel opens with a flashback — the first of many. While flashbacks, when implemented poorly, can seem cheap and lazy, they work here to great effect, expanding Back to Contents

on story and characters and adding subtlety and dimension missing from the first game.

Five years later, Ellie is more sure of herself, but is dealing with her deteriorating relationship with Joel, as well as facing homophobia from a member of the community. As the story develops, Ellie then embarks on a cross country revenge-athon, where it becomes immediately apparent that her time spent roaming with Joel has led her to be as selfish as he. Joel’s influence is seen again, with Ellie’s combat scenes displaying a similar ferocity to his in the original.

Ellie’s style of combat is markedly different from Joel’s; she is more reliant on stealth, and considerably more manoeuverable thanks to the inclusion of a jump button. While the crafting, stealth, and infected encounters remain more or less unchanged from the first time around, encounters with human enemies have been greatly improved. The updated AI brings to life enemies that now actively attempt to outflank, flush out, or snipe you, meaning that each combat encounter in the game can be played in multiple different ways.

There are, however, issues in the implementation of the combat: most of your kills result in the victim’s name being desperately called out by their allies, and in some cases, an owner will even call out their dog’s name. This may sound emotionally affecting, and at first, it is! But by the time you’re almost finished the game?

This mechanic has lost all of its teeth, and is trying to chomp down on your soul with bare gums, becoming comedic – further desensitising the player to the experience.

Linked to this, the game’s main issue is that the violence is so consistently grim that it eventually loses its impact – the player is Gaming by Dominic V. Cassidy Page 167

able to commit extreme acts of violence upon easy command.

Scenes which should communicate the growing trauma in Ellie are flanked by slick calculated brutality, akin to a John Wick simulator, with Ellie sliding over car bonnets and jumping through windows to silently take down, eviscerate with a shotgun shell, or immolate with a molotov cocktail. I found a growing unease with the narrative, which holds that violence begets violence and ‘is bad’, while the characters themselves go full Rambo.

This dissonance means that while the story is beautifully delivered and performed, the message is muddied. It’s a missed opportunity for a game which is executed with direction, acting, and writing most blockbusters would be jealous of. While there are ways to sneak past encounters with humans, the story’s implications and needs demand blood sacrifice. As the game goes on, and more and more enemies fill the screen, acting peacefully becomes nigh impossible, removing the element of choice for many players.

There are sections which inspire player choice: one section, early on in the game, presents Ellie with a small sandbox area where she is free to wander and find loot and weapons, before moving on. In this section there is a choice of what to do and in which order. This is missing from other parts of the game – many of which are wholly cinematic in execution. You are moving from A to B, with little room for manoeuvre. Being given a message and choosing whether not to adhere to it would be compelling, and importantly, give the game replayability. Being given a message which the game then forces you to act against? It’s uncomfortable.

The gaming world hasn’t historically been a particularly hospitable place for those with access needs, and I’m happy to report that this is something that Naughty Dog have made positive steps to change.

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I FOUND A GROWING UNEASE WITH BEING TOLD VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE

Gaming by Dominic V. Cassidy Page 169

A STORY WHICH GRIPS YOU LIKE A CLICKER AND JUST WON’T LET GO

There are options for alternative controls, as well as an option to completely customise them, and an option to change the style of input used to control Ellie’s guitar playing. Instead of holding buttons down (difficult for those with grip problems) the game allows the player to press to toggle instead.

Those with limited sight or hearing will find the game willing to lend a hand. This includes navigational assistance, as well as traversal assistance to better allow players to easily find their way from A to B. There’s also a range of text-to-speech and audio cues that many will find helpful.

Access to combat has been well thought out too, with an option to stop hostages escaping (when Ellie grapples a wounded enemy, she has the option to grab them, removing the chance of the meat-shield getting away and giving players more time to line up shots). The chance to reduce weapon sway completely will be a boon to those with limited sight or motor skills. With these tweaks, The Last Of Us: Part 2 is still not an overly easy game to master or complete, but giving players with access needs the ability to at least experience the base game should be commended. The gaming world’s mantra of ‘git good’ is now looking extremely dated. It entirely misses the point: difficulty doesn’t add anything if it prevents people from being able to enjoy the action.

Ultimately, that’s what it’s all about: enjoyment. The Last Of Us: Part 2 is a fantastically enjoyable game. It develops ideas touched on in the original, changing just enough from its predecessor to feel like progression without losing that ‘The Last Of Us’ essence. It has spectacular set pieces and a story which grips you like a clicker and just won’t let go. It definitely has problems with its meshing of storyline and gameplay, but as one of PS4’s swan songs, it’s truly unmissable.

Gaming by Dominic V. Cassidy Page 171

FILM: BAD EDUCATION This astute and morally complex true-life drama takes a satirical look at the insidiousness of the financial corruption which continues to seep into every aspect of modern society.

Based on the shocking real-life embezzlement scandal of the early 2000s, Bad Education stars Hugh Jackman as Frank Tassone, beloved superintendent of Roslyn School District in Long Island, New York. He and his staff are proud that their district is considered one of the best in the country, and they’re well on their way to becoming number one.

When Frank’s long-time friend and colleague Pam (Allison Janney) is implicated in the embezzlement of funds from the school system, following an investigation by student reporter Rachel (Geraldine Viswanathan), he goes into panic mode.

Any drop in the school’s standing would mean local property values would plummet. But, as the spotlight is shone brighter upon the educational kingdom reigned over by Frank, his carefully crafted veneer of upstanding authority begins to peel away.

In a career-topping performance, Jackman completely embodies the flawed and fascinating central figure. There are lovely, inspired little details in the way he carries and presents himself to the outside world, and how he preens in the mirror to make sure his appearance is as immaculate as his public persona. His performance is one of lived-in nuance, transcending what could easily have veered into caricature.

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Director Cory Finley has followed up his disquieting debut Thoroughbreds with a mature, multi-layered drama which, much like the man it examines, is beautifully constructed. The delicate ebb and flow of the action works skilfully to blur the lines of truth, and unveils information which makes us reflect differently on what we’ve just seen. Working with a sharp script by Mike Makowsky, Finley manages to conjure a near-perfect tone which captures the absurd anxiety boiling and building under the story. He plays up the more jaw-dropping moments of this sometimes unbelievable true story, to the point where it has shades of a horror film. But at the same time it’s never allowed to slip over into any sort of glib parody, marrying righteous suspicion about the characters’ actions with empathy towards them as people.

However, the real key to why Bad Education works so well is that it never portrays Frank as a one-dimensional villain – he clearly cares about his students, and about making his district the best that it can be. Watching those values becoming twisted by insidious self-interest and blindness to wrongdoing is absolutely fascinating. The compelling drama here lives in those morally ambiguous shades of grey.

Bad Education is available now on Sky Cinema.

By Ross Miller

Email: review@snackmag.co.uk Page 173

Following in the footsteps of the recent Just Mercy, the sobering and austere Clemency poses some fresh and pertinent questions about the diffcult subject of the death penalty. The film examines the multi-faceted human cost of the process, including the effect on those who implement it.

Lead character Bernadine, astonishingly played by veteran character actress Alfre Woodard, is the warden of a death row prison whose role in the system is eating away at her day-by-day. Things come to a head for her as she faces the imminent execution of convicted cop killer Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge, seen recently in The Invisible Man), whose innocence is protested daily outside the prison. This compounds her long-time marital issues with her increasingly Back to Contents

weary teacher husband Jonathan (The Wire’s Wendell Pierce) and throws into question whether she can continue in her position.

It’s a deliberately-paced, intentionally uncomfortable piece of drama, but this restrained quality leaves plenty of room for the characters to exist as living, breathing people. Writer-director Chinonye Chukwu spent years researching the topic, evidenced by a mature, meaningful narrative that stays with you. Her film is anything but surface level.

For example, during a particularly powerful scene which features an execution, Chukwu holds steady on a shot of Bernadine’s reaction for more than two minutes. It’s a remarkable moment which encapsulates the horror, fear, sadness, confusion, and burdened responsibility that the actress brings to the role. The fact that Woodard wasn’t nominated at the Oscars earlier in the year is, quite frankly, ridiculous. Although the supporting cast are similarly excellent – not least Hodge’s impassioned inmate with the weight of his state-sanctioned death weighing heavy on his shoulders – it’s Woodard’s film, and she shines.

What gives Clemency its power is that it focuses as much, if not more, on the emotional toll on the people caught up in the system as it does on the system itself. Its examination of the fact that African American males are disproportionately incarcerated in the US prison system is given extra relevance in light of the recent Black Lives Matter movement. The film takes a vehemently anti-death penalty stance, but that point of view is expressed without resorting to the cheap manipulation of a swelling score or big awards-bait speeches. It exerts a restrained power that really resonates.

By Ross Miller Email: review@snackmag.co.uk Page 175

WORDS

I GREW UP HERE

I GREW UP HERE On school led nature trails we broke away and hid in amongst trees and all of their fallen branches, we followed streams like survivors, dipped our toes into all of the river life and returned older, bolder, by ourselves and together, basked in the sun and played games we could never be too old for, not really – we lost and found and lost and found and tricked and laughed and leapt over roots deep and onto little islands we declared our own, our findings and years later I came back grown when all of the getting bigger and wiser was no longer mines to do, I did with that what I could and ended up me – but I saw a child, young and fierce, dive headfirst into water I always thought would be too shallow, his head emerged from the ripples and he was fresh and unhurt and ready to jump again and I knew then that I hadn’t learned everything I could.

By Holly Flemming

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