SNACK Magazine: December 2021 – Issue 34

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CONTENTS WHAT'S ON

P8

All I Want For Christmas – Wasps Makers Market – A Christmas Carol Queer Theory – Geoff Uglow – Boobs & Baubles & Beer!

INTERVIEWS

P14

Courtney Barnett – Kobi Onyame Annie Booth – Frightened Rabbit – Catriona Child

GIFT GUIDE / FOOD & DRINK

P28

Food & Drink News – Vegan Wellington

LGBT+ P34 LGBT+ Moments 2021 – The (Not) Gay Movie Club

REVIEW P38 Rebecca Solnit – J.David Simons – Raveloe – Courtney Barnett Kobi Onyame – Walt Disco – Silicone Soul – DVR – Sergio Corbucci

SNACK SINGLE OF THE YEAR P48 WORDS P52

CREDITS Editor: Kenny Lavelle Sales: Philip Campbell Sub Editor: Leona Skene Food and Drink Editors: Emma Mykytyn and Mark Murphy LGBT+ Editor: Jonny Stone Design: Julia Szekeres Cover photo credit: Mia Mala McDonald Spine text in memory of Beldina Odenyo Onassis To advertise in SNACK hello@snackpublishing.com 0141 632 4641 SNACK is a supporter of the global Keychange movement.

Disclaimer: Snack Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.

Reproduction of this magazine in part or in whole is forbidden without the explicit written consent of the publishers. Every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the content of this magazine but we cannot guarantee it is complete and up to date. Snack Publishing Ltd. is not responsible for your use of the information contained herein.

Hello and welcome to issue 34 of SNACK, As you’ll have seen from the cover, this month we’re delighted to bring you our interview with the ever-brilliant Courtney Barnett. Her new album, Things Take Time, Take Time, was recorded during lockdown and she discusses the importance of finding joy, the scariness of opening up, and taking the time to experiment and make mistakes.

Elsewhere we chat about the beautiful new Frightened Rabbit lyric and illustration book The Work, with Grant Hutchison and longtime Frabbits art collaborator Dave Thomas.

On the spine of this month’s magazine we pay tribute to Beldina Odenyo Onassis (Heir of the Cursed), who passed away earlier this month. The words ‘I only want to know about love’ echo those written by the artist and captured by photographer Simon Murphy.

This issue also features our first ever SNACK Single of the Year List. We’d a great time digging through the archives to pull it together. We hope you enjoy it too.

As for the rest of this month’s magazine? You’ll find your way around.

See you in the New Year.

Kenny Lavelle Editor

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WHAT’S ON GUIDE ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS

Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling: 4th till 24th December The magic of Christmas abounds at Macrobert Arts Centre, as it throws open the doors to its main house for live performance again for the first time in 20 months. All I Want For Christmas is all about celebrating all that is great about getting together for Christmas. Directed by Julie Ellen and Johnny McKnight, the performance features popular seasonal songs to put audiences in the festive spirit, with tales to tickle and warm hearts. Central to the show are the stories of two people, whether friends or family, and the thrills and spills of their Christmas gatherings, with a different duo entertaining each week. Director and writer Johnny McKnight has worked with the duos to reveal the secrets of what the festive period means to them, to create a musical feast which features everyone’s favourite tunes.

All I Want For Christmas

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WASPS MAKERS MARKET The Briggait, Glasgow : 11th-12th December Two days of festivities showcasing artists and makers from across Scotland, with 85 stall holders under the beautiful canopy of the Briggait 1873 Hall. You’ll be certain to find something you love.

Do your Christmas shopping whilst supporting artists, makers and independent businesses.

All work will be for sale, bought directly from the creators, ranging from fine art to jewellery, homeware and crafts.

Refreshments available and free entry for all. waspsstudios.org.uk/events

Wasps Makers Market

A CHRISTMAS CAROL Dundee Rep Theatre : 27th November till Friday 31st December Dundee Rep is back to spread Christmas cheer this holiday season with a reimagining of A Christmas Carol. Following on from the successes of Oor Wullie and The Snow Queen, Dundee Rep has once again teamed up with celebrated musical theatre writers Noisemaker to bring an exhilarating, festive musical production to the people of Dundee. A cast of 11 actor-musicians will bring a brand-new score to life featuring everyone’s favourite characters – from Tiny Tim and Jacob Marley to the Ghost of Christmas Past. This wonderfully witty re-telling of Dickens’ tale of redemption is filled with ghostly thrills and even gets the audience involved to help tell the story. dundeerep.co.uk/whats-on

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QUEER THEORY

BOOBS & BAUBLES & BEER!

Nice n Sleazy, Glasgow 16th December Glasgow cabaret and club night Queer Theory’s December event, entitled ‘God Is Gay’ will feature a DJ set from queen of Scottish comedy Karen Dunbar. The lineup also features performance artist/comedian Theo Seddon as host, live music from Lionadh (the project of award winning spoken word artist Sean Lionadh) and L.T.Leif, comedy from Derek Mcluckie & Kat Ennis, drag from Purina Alpha and SXSZ, and performance art from Femme Castratrice. After 11pm the afterparty will take over, featuring DJ sets from TAMTAM and legendary lesbian icon Karen Dunbar. The event will be fundraising for MindOut, a mental health charity for LGBTQ people.

QMU, Glasgow 6pm, 3rd December GU Feminist Society are hosting this Boobs and Beer crafting night in the QMU, with half of all raised proceeds going to Coppafeel – a non-profit organisation designed to spread breast cancer awareness. They have invited speakers from the Glasgow Uni Boob Team, who will be educating us on how to routinely and accurately check our boobs. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to craft your very own clay boobs. Spread a little body positivity: clay is finicky, and not every boob is the same, so get along to make your own little boob display, or even boob baubles right in time for the festive season.

GEOFF UGLOW The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 6th till 29th January Award-winning artist Geoff Uglow will take over the main floor of Edinburgh’s The Scottish Gallery this January. This exciting new exhibition, The Ploughman, showcases Uglow’s monumental and heavily impasto paintings that reference the seasons of rural life and his upbringing on a farm in Cornwall. The show also marks the start of The Scottish Gallery’s 180th anniversary programme.

The Ploughman will be shown alongside the 2022 edition of Modern Masters, which has become known as the perfect vehicle to celebrate the gallery’s history, rediscover artists and highlight current talent.

Geoff Uglow The Scottish Gallery Beaufort Lundy, oil on board, 15 x 17 cm

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DECK THE HALLS SWG3, Glasgow 2nd till 24th December SWG3 will host this brand new exhibition, consisting of 34 exclusive works that recognise skateboards as unique and limitless sites for design. The exhibition will take place in their urban arts gallery, Yard Life, which opened in summer. Yard Life artist James Klinge has cocurated the show with Marianne Vosloo. Inspired by the sport itself and the endless capabilities and creative opportunities it provides, from building communities to shaping fashion, Deck The Halls is a space where art and skateboard culture collide.

An original work from London-based Fanakapan, who is renowned for his eye-tricking hyper-realistic style of street art, will appear alongside some of the most exciting names from Glasgow’s flourishing local scene: Molly Hankinson; Paisley-based graffiti artist King Listy; illustrator Ursula Kam Ling Cheng; and Edinburgh-based graphic designer and graffiti artist ElphOne.

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Image Credit: Ian Laidlaw

COURTNEY BARNETT

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In recent years, the release of new music has stalled in November, with the industry firmly focusing on festive sales. Of course, we’re hardly living in standard times, and there are still excellent albums being released at this time of year. One of the best of this year is by Courtney Barnett, with her third album set to introduce her to a larger and even more welcoming audience.

Things Take Time, Take Time is set to be Courtney’s most beautiful-sounding album yet, an album filled with thoughtfulness and joy. SNACK caught up with Courtney to discuss evolution, the subconscious, and stadium rock!

Hi Courtney – are you ready to get back to work?

Yeah, yeah. I am! I’m looking forward to touring again.

You’ve got a big American tour stretching till February – are you preparing your setlist yet?

I’ve been working on it – it’s fun to dive back into it. It's fun with an extra album's worth of songs. I don’t know what to play and when!

Any of the new songs standing out as one you are desperate to play live?

This is the problem, I guess: they’re all so new and exciting to me. I think ‘Turning Green’ will be especially fun to play live, and there’s a lot of good options.

Do you like looking back on how songs evolve after you play them live?

Yeah, that’s one of my favourite things about music; seeing where a song starts, where it is when it is recorded, and how it grows over the years. I like seeing how it changes.

Are you tempted to make a live recording to have a record of the changes?

Yeah, definitely. I record a lot of my shows, so I have a lot of copies, and over the years we’ve released some random live recordings. I’d love to do more of that.

While the pandemic has been terrible for everyone, did it possibly come at the right time for you, allowing you to reset and recharge?

It’s a strange thing, isn’t it? I was, like everybody else, forced to slow down, and I had extra time. I kept working, but I was working in a different way. Personally, I think it was good for my brain.

Music by Andrew Reilly Page 15

Was there anything new in the recording process that you’ll keep?

Probably lots of things. I took my time and experimented a lot. I gave myself the freedom to experiment, try new things and make mistakes. I think that’s a really important part of the process.

How was it working with your friend [the album’s producer and Warpaint drummer] Stella Mozgawa?

Yeah, it was such a great process. It was really inspiring. Any collaboration is a little bit scary – you’re being vulnerable and opening yourself up to another person. I think that’s a big part of it, being embarrassed and making mistakes.

Working with Stella was incredible. She's so talented, and I enjoy her philosophy on music making.

You’ve said you felt more vulnerable and open for this record. Was that a conscious decision, or perhaps something which evolved from working with a friend?

A combination of everything. With time passing and experience, it’s where I was at personally in life when I was writing the album. It’s a mix of conscious and subconscious. Seeing patterns in myself which I might not have noticed the month before, and trying to change them, and seeing the things I cannot change, and knowing it’s going to happen anyway. So, a combination of all that junk!

It’s a beautiful-sounding record, one that people can immerse themselves in. Did you change much from the initial demos?

A little bit. I wrote the songs by myself with an acoustic guitar and drum machine. The songs were simple, and they came to life in the studio. I wanted to work with Stella because I wanted the way she makes music to inspire and shape the songs.

In the studio, when we started working together, the tracks went off on a different tangent.

Everyone will now recognise the Zoom chat routine of ‘Take It Day by Day’. It was new for me: was that a new way for you to chat during the pandemic, or is that part of a touring musician’s life?

It was new for me. I do lots of phone calls for work and on the road, but I always shied away from that. For me, video calls were for lovers, being able to connect with someone you spend a lot of time with. I didn’t do much FaceTime before, even with family.

Some of the guitar parts, say on ‘Write a List of Things to Look Forward To’ or ‘Before You Gotta Go’ are joyous – are parts like that fun to play, or is it a case of getting things done?

Nah, it’s so fun. That’s important to me, and for this album. It's joyous and I want it to come through in the listening, and it comes through in the playing, for sure.

Image credit: Marathon Artists

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You covered ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ for the recent Velvet Underground tribute record. Are you a big fan of the band, and did you have a choice in the song you covered?

Yeah, I’m a fan, and I did choose the song. They invited me to be part of the project, and I was so happy. They suggested a few songs, but I came back with that one –that’s the one I really relate to.

I just really love that song; it’s so beautiful.

You’re next back in the UK supporting Foo Fighters. Are you looking forward to playing stadiums?

Oh yeah, I’ve never done that, I think it’ll be really fun, really exciting. It’s mad. I’m so happy they asked me.

Nothing has been announced yet, but it’s safe to say there’ll be a UK tour at some point in 2022?

Yeah, we’re still finalising it, but I’m really looking forward to that as well.

What are your hopes for the year ahead?

I think things are starting to get a little bit more…I don’t want to say normal. I just hope things get easier for everyone.

Photo credit: Mia Mala McDonald

Things Take Time, Take Time was released on 12th November on Marathon Artists

Music by Andrew Reilly Page 17

KOBI ONYAME We caught up with critically acclaimed Ghanaian hip hop and afrobeats artist Kobi Onyame (Kwame Barfour-Osei), a longtime resident of Scotland who is currently based in South Africa, about his upcoming fifth and final album, Don’t Drink the Poison.

You wrote and recorded Don’t Drink the Poison under not just the circumstances of an international pandemic, but also while becoming a husband and a father. How did these affect the process of creating DDTP? I mean how did it not, bro? I can only write or produce an album when I have something to say. The pandemic gave me time to just stay at home and think. I became deeper in my thoughts. I think the state of the world has become more obvious to us. All of that influenced my writing. I changed the album twice. I started recording in the summer of 2019. I changed direction in March 2020, because at that point, I realised, no: I’ve got a lot to say. It's social commentary based on who I am as a person, through my viewpoint, through my lens.

On this project you worked with some notable artists from the African continent, not limited to Worlasi from Ghana and SheSaidSo from South Africa. How did all these collaborations from thousands of miles away come about?

I’ve always been inspired by and tried to develop relationships with artists from all around the world. Being Ghanian, I have a very close relationship with the country, which brought about the collaboration with Worlasi. George Kalakusha, who is on the track ‘Malawi’, I met when I was playing the Lagos Stars festival in Malawi in 2018! snackmag.co.uk

What was it about your upbringing, musically, which led you to the sound you are creating now?

The sound I’m creating now is very afrobeat and highlife influenced. The album carries a lot of those textures on it. It hasn’t always been like that – my first album was very boom bap, I came from that hip hop era in Scotland. Kanye West is one of, if not my biggest, production influence and my music has always had that kind of boom bap sample-based core. Over the years, every album I’d put out, one or two songs carried that highlife, afro influence, but I’ve never done a full album like this.

I realised as an artist, what I was doing, especially on one of my albums, Green Green Grasses, was chasing the popular sound. I didn’t like that about myself. I needed to be true to who I was, true to the music I grew up listening to. I was raised listening to Michael Jackson, Oasis, Daddy Lumba, Jay Z, Tracy Chapman, all of it.

Fast forward to Gold, which came out in 2017, and carried a heavy afrobeat/highlife influence.

Ironically, it became my most successful album.

That confirmed to me that I’m doing the right thing, that I should follow this sound, because this sound is me and is genuine to myself.

You’ve talked about the music industry on social media and within music. How would you describe the state of the music industry now and what is your stance on it?

The times I spent chasing and worrying about the industry are the times I’ve been the most depressed.

You get a lot of nos from the industry. You can be unsuccessful pitching to five magazines and publishers in a week, then still have to go into the studio. This can definitely hinder creation. You have to have a bigger reason for making music.

I’ve been at my best creatively when I say to the industry: screw you, I’m doing this for myself.

Image credit: Press

You moved to Scotland to go and study. What made you decide to base yourself here?

I finished my masters at Strathclyde and then just stayed. Scotland’s got my heart. I’ve been there since 2004 and every album I’ve put out has been recorded in Glasgow and been influenced by Glasgow.

Who are some of the artists you came up with?

2004-2006 was the era of an unsigned Emile Sande, Young Fathers, SK, Simba, Freestyle Master, Steg G: that was the underground back then. Back then there was a platform called Urban Scot. I guess you could say they were the authority on urban music coming out of Scotland. We all came via that route.

You’ve said that Don’t Drink the Poison will be your final album. Can you tell us a bit about the decision?

Just life. I’m almost 40, I have a wife, a child. But also, the inner desire to branch out to other things.

I want to age gracefully and work more behind the scenes in the industry. I started ChosenArtists, where we support Bemz and are looking for more artists to add to the roster. ChosenArtists intends to look after an artist’s music career, but also the artist themselves. People don’t realise there’s two different people: there’s Kobi Onyame the artist and then when the album’s done, there’s me, Kwame. And when I don’t look after Kwame, Kobi Onyame suffers. So ChosenArtists is not just about looking out for the music but also the individual.

I’ll always continue to make music though, even if it’s not another album. I’ll still write, produce and perform.

Don't Drink the Poison is out from 26th November Full interview at snackmag.co.uk Music by Joe Rosenthal Page 19

ANNIE BOOTH Settle in, cosy up, and get ready to feel. Annie Booth’s new alt-folk album Lazybody is a comforting and cathartic nest of blankets on a bruisingly blustery day. The album pulls you lightly along on an inward journey. Lyrically, it digs in your innards; musically, it rearranges them gently and softly into just the right place.

Stand out songs are: ‘Ruby’, which captures the feeling of trying to retain a scattered identity; ‘Nightvan’ – a pleasantly winding spoken word piece; and ‘Fallow Year’, which appears new and different on every listen.

All the songs were written before lockdown apart from one. Why did you decide to add that one into the album? How does it link in with the previously written songs?

The track ‘Fallow Year’ was written during lockdown. There's no real reason why that one was separate from the rest. Hopefully, it still feels cohesive with the other songs, but it was a bit of a release for me. It’s about remembered images of travelling, of being out in nature. That was quite a useful thing to write at the time. snackmag.co.uk

I feel like opening with ‘Cocoon’ underscores a central theme of the album, about losing one's identity. And in this particular one, it’s about the pursuit of pleasing others. What was your goal with this opening track?

In some ways, I feel really secure in my identity. But in other ways, I feel more lost than ever. You'd think it would get easier, but it doesn't. The whole album is trying to answer those questions all the way through and get a sense of resolution by the end of the album – a sense of conclusion and comfort, if not a full resolution. It's got a bit of a dark humour to it.

The repetition of ‘dust rising’ in ‘Soho’ gives me a feeling of attempting to sweep away the old to make way for the new, even if it's a messy process along the way. What are your intentions with this song?

I can be a bit scattered when I talk about my songs because they are often a collection of moments, memories, and sometimes imagined events as well.

It's not one specific event, but I did write it after recording in London, with my friend Chris. We wrote an EP called Clean Living under the name ‘Slow Weather’. I wrote ‘Soho’ after that trip there.

I was exhausted, but also reflective and ready to write new material. From what I remember, that was the first track I wrote for the album. Feeling transient and at a crossroads.

Authenticity is a core part of your song ‘Nowhere’. What are your thoughts about art and authenticity?

The intention for ‘Nowhere’ was to question what it means to be a working artist, what it means to share your work, and how much to compromise. Even if you're not super successful, even on a DIY level.

That frustration you can have – you see people around you who are super talented and super hard working and if they're not succeeding, you sort of think, what hope is there for me? Especially when sometimes I just feel so, so drained emotionally and professionally, even though there are so many wonderful elements to working as a musician.

I want to talk about ‘Nightvan’, the song that’s more like a spoken word piece. That summed up the lockdown feeling for me. Why is this one in a different style?

It just felt right for the track. I wrote it in the back of a touring van about four in the morning, half asleep.

All the words just came to me in that moment really, really quickly. I’ve mostly left them as they were written down; I wanted to keep the natural core of what I wrote. It didn't feel like it required melody – I wanted the words to stand in their own right, and then the production to enhance them. I came up with some chords a long time later, maybe even a year later. I sat the words in front of me and just played what felt right. If the chords feel a little bit meandering and random, it's because they are, to reflect the mood of the song and the way it evolved.

It is a short track but hopefully captures something a little bit otherworldly and kind of immediate.

Another lyric from the album that stood out to me was ‘why do we swim in our past?’ That one stuck with me, realising how actively we spend so much time in the past. In terms of your musical journey, how much is this album swimming in your past music and lyrics?

Lyrically, it does reflect on moments and memories, because that is quite core to the way I write. But ‘Ruby’, for example, is an imagined character, which is more unusual for me to write in a song.

Other songs like ‘Fallow Year’ are more of a lifting refrain. The listener can attach the meaning they want to, to push them to feel what they feel in that moment.

I wanted to move forward as an artist, I wanted to challenge myself with harmony and more unusual melodies, and bring in the new influences that I'd gathered over time. Some come from friends, others just from my own listening habits – a lot more vintage influences. I've always been influenced by the 90s too. Looking back, I have a lot of bands that have really moved me that have come from that time, but also any modern folk artists really inspire me in their production and their song writing.

Lazybody was released 19th November on Last Night From Glasgow

My producer Chris – I've got a lot to thank him for – ended up being on the final recording. He came up with all the production on the spot. He just started looking at guitars and came up with cool synth patterns.

Image credit: Brian Sweeney

Music by Natalie Jayne Clark Page 21

FRIGHTENED RABBIT: THE WORK snackmag.co.uk

Frightened Rabbit have just released The Work, a book of lyrics and illustrations by the late Scott Hutchison. The limited hardback edition presents the band’s complete lyrics (including B-sides and rarities) with handwritten excerpts by Scott, alongside his illustrations, many of which have never been seen before.

It's been great to be able to include some of those elements. Obviously, the way this book has come out is slightly different to how it would be if Scott was involved in the whole thing, but hopefully with the history I've got working with him, then there are still key elements of the design which kind of tie everything together with the things that we've worked on in the past.

The book is a celebration of and tribute to Scott’s unbridled creativity. It aims to fulfil his wishes by being the book that he wanted to create and had spoken of creating before his death. We spoke to Grant Hutchison (Scott’s brother and drummer of Frightened Rabbit) and art collaborator Dave Thomas, who worked with the band across their career, about the process of making the book.

The elements that tie it together, are you talking about maybe the library stamp pages for example?

What has been the reaction to the book so far?

Grant: Aye, it’s been great. I think what we wanted to achieve was something really positive and I think that’s what has happened. We wanted it to be a celebration of Scott’s work both lyrically and of his illustrations as well. It’s just nice to see people having it and holding it in their hands, it’s amazing.

Dave, you were there at the start of the idea for The Work?

Dave: Yeah, I was thinking about how to present a book like this as a sort of archive edition, so it had this feel of just presenting the lyrics fairly matter of fact, but being able to include his personal notebooks and stuff like that. I know me and Grant looked through lots of his personal lyric books and worked out elements of lyrics. It's great to see his working process: you can read the finished lyrics, and then glance across and see how he kind of worked out elements, little scribbled out words, things he tried and stuff like that. And it's just seeing the way that his mind was working at those times. I think it's nice to keep it as personal as possible, really, with how it's presented. And to let the illustrations and the hand-done stuff speak for themselves.

Dave: I’ve worked with the band pretty much since the first FatCat release and over the last number of years with Scott we'd started to talk about book projects and things like that: specifically a lyric book was something that we had talked around the idea of. I think around the time of The Midnight Organ Fight anniversary a couple of years back, Scott had actually started working on three or four tracks where he was illustrating and kind of reimagining the images around around each set of lyrics, expanding upon them, and that was kind of the idea behind a book of lyrics, that they would be expanded and stuff like that.

Books/Music by Kenny Lavelle Page 23

And what was it that you learned about Scott's process while going through the notebooks?

Grant: One thing that I noticed was that, lyrically, right up until we were in the studio, things were getting changed. What's in the book is, I would say, a sort of second draft or the kind of middle draft where lyrics had been put down and edited to a certain point. Then what Scott would normally do is, in the studio, he would write them out again, so that they were clear and there weren't scribbles on them.

Sorting through Scott’s notebooks, what were the lyrics that now jump out for you?

Even at that stage, there were bits and pieces that would get tossed aside as he listened to it, as he heard it in the final track. Also, just the way that he visualised and animated some of his ideas as well – most of them came with some kind of doodle, some kind of illustration – is always interesting, to see that as part of the thought process as well. Most of them are pretty funny: it also brings a little bit of insight into his sense of humour, his kind of dark humour, I guess. Because, the lyrics, reading them on their own and reading them as a full thing, some of the tracks can be quite beautiful, quite weighty and quite heavy. And it was kind of hilarious to see these little random illustrations stuck in there amongst all the darkness.

I think what stands out in most of them is, with Scott’s lyrics, he was telling a story that everyone generally would recognise, but telling it in a way that not everyone could. It has such strong, strong lyrics. I always knew that, but I guess it's been laid bare without the songs and you can really get a sense of just how clever it is. Another one being ‘The Work’: it has always been a favourite of mine. Because I wasn't really involved in that one at all, it's one of the ones that I can actually see and experience more as a fan. Yeah, those two are pretty definitely up there.

snackmag.co.uk

Grant: There's a couple. ‘My Backwards Walk’ is one that I think I’ll always be sort of in awe of – that story and the way that Scott tells that story, right down to the last phrase of ‘You're the shit and I'm knee-deep in it’. It's just such a genius way of storytelling.

All photo credits: Press

Dave, what was the thinking behind not including the cover artwork from the albums?

Dave: That was the idea, at various points, the idea of splitting each album with a page of album artwork, but I think it was clear, the more we went through it, that the way that you absorb the lyrics is so different without the music there. Then each set of lyrics can almost be seen as this complete little narrative, and so many of Scott's lyrics are so visual in the way they describe things. So it felt that it wasn't really needed, in the end, to push it back to the different aesthetic we had each time for the album artwork. It felt like, for this particular collection, that separating them and having them as their own thing just felt more comfortable.

But I suppose what I'd done was to take the little motifs and things that we'd used and that had continued to pop up across multiple albums – that's what features on the cover. Those become the sort of glue that holds together the artwork in whatever direction we ended up going in for each album: especially the double-pronged cross, the triple-pronged cross and things like that, this little unexplained motif that started popping up around Winter of Mixed Drinks.

I think it's amazing how that was never intended to have any kind of particular message linked to it.

We were just kind of being playful with these motifs that popped up in some of Scott's illustrations. The fans have kind of taken on some of these things, especially the cross, and kind of brought their own feelings to it. Everyone attaches their own connections in some way or another and I think it's great how that has grown its own legs and means something different to lots of different people.

What do you hope that readers will take away from the book?

Grant: Like Dave said, it's not the book that it would have been had Scott been here to see it through, but it was one of those projects that was very easy to make the decision on. Knowing that Scott had wanted it to happen meant that that was an easy decision and also something that I think that lots of people would want to have, to read and to experience. I think as a band, and Dave as well, we just feel very proud that we got it out there and that the response has been what we hoped it would be: positive and heartfelt and heartwarming. I think we all in the band feel the responsibility to continue to share Scott's art and his work, and be a part of his legacy. And this, this feels like a really appropriate and beautiful part of that.

The Work is out in the UK now, published by Faber Music. The book will be released in the USA and internationally on 13th January 2022

Books/Music by Kenny Lavelle Page 25

CATRIONA CHILD Back in 2012, Catriona Child announced her arrival as a writer of note with her acclaimed debut novel, Trackman. Her latest novel, Us vs the World, is an insightful and deeply personal look at family life and all its complexities.

SNACK caught up with Catriona to find out more.

Hi Catriona – I'm so excited you have another novel published. Without giving away any spoilers, how would you describe Us vs the World?

Thank you! The novel is essentially about a family dealing with grief in the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event, but with a supernatural twist. It’s about public scandal and turning from a hero into a monster. It’s a love story which juxtaposes first love with the love of a married couple who have been through many ups and downs in their relationship. It’s also about growing up and the realisation that your parents aren’t perfect after all and make mistakes like everyone else.

The novel opens, rather ominously, with a prologue set in 2023, before moving back to recent history. What were the reasons for this timeline?

The book is set in 2018, as I wanted my characters to be a specific age at the same time as real-life events such as the London Olympics and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. I wrote it around 2018/19, which made it contemporary at the time. But given we are now almost in 2022, my editor suggested that it needed something to stop it from becoming dated before it was even published. I had an idea of what happened to the characters once the events of the novel were over and so the prologue hints at that, while hopefully setting the tone for the novel in general. snackmag.co.uk

You have a mother and son as your main narrators, which, in my experience, is quite rare. What can you tell us about Jude and Sam Redpath?

It wasn’t really a conscious decision to have a mother and son; it just felt natural to me when I started writing that they both wanted to give their side of events. I wanted to explore the relationships within a family and it made sense to show things from different perspectives. I wanted to bring Adam’s voice into it as well, but given what happens to him, that was slightly more problematic, so I included excerpts from his autobiography.

As I started writing I realised that the child (Sam) actually seems to handle things better than the adult (Jude). My editor said that Jude clearly suffers from poor mental health, which was a bit of a shock to me as I hadn’t appreciated that when I was writing her. But once it was pointed out, I realised how obvious that was in the way she behaves.

One of the plot lines is to do with a doping scandal in athletics [Catriona’s sister, Eilidh Doyle, is a former Olympic athlete]. Did you have any concerns, writing about something so close to home?

It was almost the opposite. I think being so closely involved made me want to write about it more, as it’s a side of elite sport that’s not so well-known.

I remember being on my hen do and my sister, Eilidh, talking about the drug testing process. My friends were fascinated by it but also shocked by how invasive a process it is.

It was second nature to Eilidh but, to an outsider looking in, it’s a strange world of having your movements tracked and then peeing in a pot in front of strangers on a regular basis! It made me think about the people who work as drugs testers, but also about the reasons why an athlete will choose to take drugs in sport and how that affects hem and the people closest to them.

Image credit: Alan Simpson

Themes in Us vs the World include what modern family life is like in a digital world.

What did you want to explore, and were you ever surprised by what you discovered, and how your characters behaved in their world?

Years ago I read an article which talked about the dangers of digitalising everything when, at some point in the future, we may not be able to access that anymore. It meant that a huge chunk of history could potentially just disappear. I found the idea of that terrifying and it stuck with me.

It's your first novel since 2014's Swim Until You Can't See The Land. Did your approach differ to previous books, and have you noticed changes in the world of Scottish writing and publishing this time round?

I’m quite apprehensive about this book, as it’s been such a long time coming. I’ve had two children since my last novel, and I lost my writing mojo for a while as I was just so overwhelmed by becoming a mum and life changing so significantly. At times I would become frustrated that I wasn’t able to write, and then at other times I’d feel guilty for using my free time to watch TV instead of writing.

My writing muscle was out of shape too, so when I did sit down and write, I would be over-critical about what I’d done instead of just being happy that I’d got some words down. In the end I realised I had to stop being so hard on myself and I just had to keep at it whenever I got the chance, so a lot of it was written on the bus into work or on my lunch break.

I think Scottish writing is in a really great place right now, with so many brilliant writers, such as Ely Percy and Ross Sayers, and many independent publishers bringing out great Scottish books.

Us vs the World is out now, published by Luath Press Books by Alistair Braidwood Page 27

GIFT GUIDE

MEMPHIS DROP EARRINGS KITTYBACK PIN Dust, £27 Handmade polymer clay earrings with hypoallergenic surgical steel posts. Tactile, lightweight and bold, these are the perfect gift for any earring lover. Each piece is handmade in Glasgow. waspsstudios.org.uk/shop

Small Stories, £8 Kittybacks are like Piggybacks but strictly for cats only! This pin is printed on wood from an original illustration by Aberdeen based artist, illustrator and maker Gabrielle Reith.

PENDANT

NORDIC FIR

Mr Wood's Fossils, £85 Muonionalusta meteorite pendant. mrwoodsfossils.co.uk

Pines & Needles, from £42 pinesandneedles.com

snackmag.co.uk

gra-small-stories.co.uk

ANGELI

MF DOOM T-SHIRT

Melanie O'Donnell, £120 This earthenware Urn by Melanie O'Donnell, from Glasgow Ceramic Studio, is decorated in underglaze paint, with Japanese rice decals, crackle glaze and a touch of gold lustre. waspsstudios.org.uk/shop

Stuff by Mark, (S-XL) £25 decadentriot.co.uk

ART SUPPLIES Edinburgh Art Shop, Monochrome Collection edinburghartshop.co.uk

TRUTH BOMB Truth Bomb by Abigail Crompton, £25 bluntknife.co

Gift Guide Page 29

FOODIE CHRISTMAS ANCNOC 2009 VINTAGE Speyside Distillery Knockdhu have released a twelve-year-old whisky from their acclaimed vintages collection just in time for Christmas.

Limited to 1,320 cases worldwide, anCnoc (pronounced a-nock) 2009 vintage was matured in a combination of first-fill Spanish oak and ex-bourbon American oak barrels. This new expression has a spicy, citrus and honey aroma, with flavours of apple, dark chocolate and butterscotch. It is non-chill filtered, with natural colour, and is available from specialist retailers only (46% ABV, £50 for 70cl). ancnoc.com anCnoc

CHRISTMAS HAMPERS Regency Hampers have a selection of over 50 festive food & drink hampers, starting at £35.20.

There are also 50 gift boxes also available, should you want to order, say, a crate of wine, although most of the hampers come with at least one bottle of wine. Pick from selections with white wine, only red, fizz or all three with a variety of sweet and savoury items, including cheese to accompany. regencyhampers.com/christmas-hampers snackmag.co.uk

Virginia Hayward Hampers also have a selection of over one hundred hampers and gift boxes beginning at a more modest £12.50, should you just want a Christmas biscuit tin or children's snack sack. They also cater for special diets, intolerances and allergies, with packs ready-made for low sugar, vegan, alcohol-free, and wheat and gluten free etc., so that everyone can enjoy food & drink treats this Christmas. virginiahayward.com/christmas-hampers

SMOKEHEAD STOUT Taking the idea of maturing whisky in beer barrels a step further than the likes of Glenfiddich and their IPA whisky, the latest release from Ian MacLeod distillers sees Smokehead Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky being placed into stout casks, thus combining the intense flavours of peated whisky with chocolate, treacle toffee, vanilla ice cream, roasted nuts, and toasted biscuits (43%, £50 for 70cl).

MERMAID GIN

JUMP SHIP

Easily identifiable by its unique turquoise mermaid scale bottle, this is a small batch London Dry Gin made on the Isle of Wight. Citrusy and peppery, there’s also a hint of the sea – the most prominent of the ten ethically sourced botanicals is rock samphire, which is known locally as ‘mermaid’s kiss’. This can be found naturally clinging to the cliffs around the island. (42%ABV, £38 for 70cl). isleofwightdistillery.com

Give the gift of a new Scottish indie alternative to alcohol this Christmas (less than 0.5% anyway).

Jump Ship is a small start-up from Edinburgh, in existence since December 2018. With their mission being to make great-tasting beer without the booze and the hangover, in September of this year their Yardarm Gluten-Free lager was crowned the world’s best no- & low-alcohol lager at the World Beer Awards. They have 2 other beers currently available: Flying Colours pale ale and Goosewing IPA.

Photo credit: Foodie Explorers

VEGAN PANETTONE The Vergani Vegan Panettone is the classic Italian recipe, but made with extra virgin olive oil in place of butter. Certified by VeganOK, the panettone is made in Milan, and is rich with Calabrian candied orange and Bourbon vanilla. Not strictly a true panettone as to be officially named as such it has to be made with fresh butter, this is a light and vegan variant which means no-one has to miss out.

Mermaid Gin

RAW CHOCOLATE CO. The award-winning Raw Chocolate company make sweet treats with minimally processed cacao (it is sundried rather than heated) to ensure the goodness stays in and that there is less of a carbon footprint. All of their products are vegan and organic and this one, released just in time for Christmas, is sweetened with coconut blossom sugar and cacao butter, flavoured with festive spices including cinnamon, clove, allspice, and nutmeg. (£9.99). If you spend £30 on their website they will also plant a tree in Peru.

Food and Drink by Mark & Emma, Foodie Explorers Page 31

VEGAN WELLINGTON snackmag.co.uk

We’re having this for Christmas – after our trial run we all loved it, and the meat eaters were swayed. Well, let’s face it, the best bit of the Christmas dinner is the roasties. The turkey is usually bland and forgettable. So get some more veggies into your Christmas dinner and have a colourful centrepiece with this vegan festive wellington.

INGREDIENTS ▌ 2 packs of ready-made puff pastry sheets

▌ Pepper

▌ 1 400g jar of roasted red peppers

▌ 1 tablespoon dried thyme

▌ 1 400g can kidney beans, drained

▌ 1 tablespoon dried sage

▌ 2 sticks of celery, sliced

▌ ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

▌ 1 bunch of spring onions, sliced

▌ 2 garlic cloves, minced

▌ 300g cherry tomatoes

▌ 250g Brussels sprouts

▌ 1 butternut squash, peeled and diced

▌ 200g spinach

▌ Salt

▌ Olive oil for cooking

Food and Drink by Mark & Emma, Foodie Explorers Page 33

METHOD ▌ Pre-heat oven to 200c/fan 180c/gas mark 6

▌ In a large bowl add butternut squash, cherry

▌ Place drained kidney beans on one side of a

tomatoes, Brussels sprouts and the kidney bean/

roasting tray and the diced butternut squash on

celery mix from the food processor. Set aside.

another side. Season both and drizzle some olive

▌ In a frying pan, add oil and fry the minced garlic

oil over the butternut squash.

until fragrant. Then add the spinach and cook until

▌ Place in the oven.

wilted and the spinach is cooked through.

▌ In a small roasting tray, add cherry tomatoes

▌ Place a sheet of puff pastry on the baking tray.

and place them in the oven.

▌ To this sheet add peppers, then add the

▌ Roast both for about 20 minutes until soft. Set

butternut squash mixture.

aside to cool.

▌ Top with more peppers and the cooked spinach.

▌ In a frying pan, add oil and heat. Add spring

▌ Cover with the second sheet of puff pastry.

onions and celery to the frying pan along with

▌ Fold over the pastry so that there is a seal

seasoning (salt, pepper, thyme, sage, and nutmeg).

around the whole wellington.

▌ Cook until softened.

▌ Use the pastry scraps to make some decorations

▌ While celery mixture is cooking, par-cook

for the dish. Rremember to add a few vents into the

Brussels sprouts (i.e. simmer in boiling water for 5

pastry to let the steam escape.

min)

▌ Brush the top and side with egg wash if making

▌ Add celery and spring onion mixture to a food

non-vegan and coconut oil if fully vegan.

blender together with kidney beans. The mixture

▌ Bake for around 30 minutes until the pastry is

should be thick enough to shape with your hands.

golden and crisp. ▌ Allow to cool for 5 - 10 minutes and then serve.

snackmag.co.uk

All photo credits: Foodie Explorers

Food and Drink by Mark & Emma, Foodie Explorers Page 35

Lil Nas X

MOMENTS OF THE YEAR Listen, we all know 2020 was hot garbage.

And we really don’t need to dwell on a year that felt as much fun to endure as Lady Gaga’s current press tour for House of Gucci.

There was a lot riding on this year to deliver more moments of joy and success than its predecessor, and 2021 did deliver some exciting, promising moments for LGBTQ+ communities across the globe. Maybe it’s just the mulled wine and cheese board over-indulgence talking, but we have many milestones and achievements to celebrate as we approach the bells.

Elliot Page coming out as transgender Okay, technically this was a 2020 moment, but this is my list and I call the shots, especially when it comes to a moment as seismic as this. Any public figure’s coming out is a powerful statement, and 2021 saw many celebrities sharing their authentic identities; but Elliot Page, such a major player in Hollywood, using his platform to come out as transgender remains one of pop culture’s most moving and inspiring moments of the last year. snackmag.co.uk

I hope trans kids seeing him share his story so boldly – making the coveted cover of Time magazine – serves as a comforting, inspiring beacon moving forward.

Russell T. Davies’ impactful AIDS drama It’s a Sin Few series have packed the punch that It’s a Sin delivered at the start of the year. Other than being an amazing platform for Olly Alexander to demonstrate the range of his abilities, the show boldly forced its audience to reflect unflinchingly on the AIDS epidemic, reminding us of the personal tragedies too often forgotten or neglected over time: if anything, this show serves as a reminder to commemorate queer stories. It may well be Davies’ finest work. And in 2021, a year when the world began to recover from a traumatic pandemic virus, watching the characters we grew to adore navigate the hand they had been dealt felt just that touch more resonant. It’s a Sin is a tour de force we won’t forget in a hurry.

Image credit: Filip Custic

LGBT+

Lawrence Chaney Lil Nas X becoming the biggest pop star on the planet

Image credit: Alicia Fernandes / Penguin

No one has dominated the pop sphere in 2021 quite like Lil Nas X, whose bold embrace of his queer identity has been one of the most exciting cultural events of the year. Between his provocative, biblical video for ‘Montero’, his next-level fashion choices, and his impressive full-length debut album, everything Lil Nas X touches becomes a powerful statement of Black queerness and notions of masculinity.

Of course, he is far from the only Black LGBTQ+ pop star, but his global reach is hard to deny, and the prospect of him inspiring the next generation of artists is thrilling. The impact of him even symbolically can’t be overstated, and we round off our year excitedly asking: what could he possibly do next?

Lawrence Chaney becomes the first Scottish winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race There have been some exciting, moving moments of progress in the most influential queer franchise in the world. This year, among its various iterations, saw two trans RuPaul’s Drag Race winners (Kylie Sonique Love on All Stars 4 and Vanessa Van Cartier on Drag Race Holland 2). However, a particularly resonant victory comes in the (purple) shape of our very own Lawrence Chaney, whose humour and raw talent secured them the coveted crown.

In a bold, wildly entertaining season, seeing a queen we personally know from the Glasgow club scene excel at so much – hearing his name bellowed so majestically from RuPaul’s lips themselves – was honestly one of my proudest moments of 2021. Buy their book; watch their upcoming L.A. TV show; buy tour tickets; but whatever you do, show our (as of writing) reigning queen some love!

These moments are certainly worth celebrating.

But let’s not get too comfortable: in a year in which trans hate crime, threadbare medical treatment and anti-trans rhetoric in the media were so painfully prevalent, clearly work still must be done to achieve equality. Make your 2022 resolution one of action: put pressure on politicians to see the change you want (especially regarding an increase in homophobic violence that has emerged across the country), volunteer your time and energy to a cause you care about, make your workplace more inclusive regarding race, gender, and sexual identity, or anything else that chips away at the barriers we still face as a community.

Make your manifesto trans-oriented: reading this feature next December could well be a celebration of how far we have come in securing gender equity across the board, protecting our trans youth in Scotland and beyond. But for now, let’s raise a glass of your preferred beverage, put on Mariah’s version of ‘O Holy Night’, and celebrate our mighty milestones and achievements.

LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 37

A DIVA'S Christmas movies are principally aimed at straight audiences; chock full of cheesy dialogue, clumsy gender stereotypes, traditional notions on family, and the eternal pursuit of ‘the true meaning of Christmas.’

Titles like Happiest Season are dragging the holiday feature into the 21st century, but things weren’t always this way, especially in the dusty year 2000. We took what we could get.

Now, Christmas frivolity is one thing, but inviting the living legend that is Vanessa Williams to the party makes this month’s high-camp gem A Diva’s Christmas Carol the festive delight it is. And thank the gay gods for her, as she does a lot of the heavy lifting in what is otherwise a sledge crash of a movie. And I loved every minute. Deck the halls, as we welcome A Diva’s Christmas Carol into the (Not) Gay Movie Club vault. snackmag.co.uk

CHRISTMAS CAROL

Of course, this is a contemporary adaptation of the Dickens’ classic, gleefully interwoven with 90s Christmas movie cliches, some truly mind-blowing dialogue, and quintessential millennial special effects. Williams plays the subtly-named Ebony Scrooge, an R&B diva with a dire personality but many, many wonderful outfits. She must confront the errors of her ways one fateful Christmas Eve, as Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future (the latter hilariously conveyed through a Behind the Music episode) take her on a ludicrous journey of self-discovery.

There are no queer characters (though a throwaway gag does imply our villain could well be bisexual…) but between its cast, costuming and in-movie fictional 80s bops, this film is as camp as Christmas (I’m sorry, I couldn’t not).

Vanessa Williams is an underrated gay icon, for sure. Look at the material: she was the first Black Miss America, only to be dethroned because of leaked nude photos; her songs 'Save the Best for Last' and 'Colours of the Wind' are timeless tearjerkers; she is earth-shatteringly beautiful (especially in this film, where her hair and outrageously glamorous costumes are divine); she was Wilhelmina Slater, for God’s sake.

Very few stars have cultivated the career and success she has, and she has charm and elegance like no other. And she has always been one of the gals; last month, it was announced she is joining Trixie Mattel, Leona Lewis and Michelle Visage as a judge on Queen of the Universe, the first global drag singing TV show. She definitely has a queer audience at her fingertips, and never has that been more evident than watching A Diva’s Christmas Carol. She relishes in every camp, shady moment, and frankly I kind of want her to berate me in a red fur coat.

Honorable mention must be given to our beloved Kathy Griffin, a woman who deserves a full-length article herself. There are few public figures so famously connected to the LGBTQ+ community, having dedicated her career to promoting queer causes and remaining a staunch ally (as well as being one funny, funny woman).

The script is as good as the acting, though there are some camp one-liners that made me cackle.

Upon seeing 'The wind beneath our wings' on her future grave on Behind the Music (I still can’t get over the fact they used this as a plot device), Ebony bemoans, 'Not Bette Midler!' while she utters 'I really gotta break things off with Anne Heche.' I have 100% time for this bisexual beauty’s blisteringly 90s statement.

So, whether you are with your chosen family this Christmas, flying solo, or convincing your granny to watch literally anything but the Queen’s speech, A Diva’s Christmas Carol is the ultimate antidote for the holiday blues. Am I adding this to my list of annual go-to festive flicks? I feel my boyfriend would arguably tell me to give up the ghost, so to speak, and never watch this film again. But I personally urge you to give yourself the gift of Vanessa Williams looking stunning and being gleefully cruel. It’s the least you deserve. The Christmas Carol story is always heart-warming, even in this outrageously silly guise, and Ebony’s Grinch-like transformation is guaranteed to give you the Christmas feels.

Images courtesy of VH1

In A Diva’s Christmas Carol she delivers classic Griffin as the Ghost of Christmas Present, being the sarcastic, pop culture-savvy smarty pants we adore. Wearing 90s Gucci, she reveals she 'had to show Tom Ford all his past Christmases' the year before, and she demolishes Ebony any time she tries to get smart with her. We all need a Kathy Griffin to slap the sense into us from time to time.

Don’t get me wrong: this movie is not good. With the exception of our darling divas Williams and Griffin, the acting is rough: the gaggle of griping tour musicians are especially crunchy, and while Chilli has given us so many iconic moments as part of TLC, a natural actress she is not.

LGBT+ by Jonny Stone Page 39

Track by Track: Anaphora Mood Taeg Last century, waves of disparate music artists would be grouped together on the basis of having the same haircut or using similar drum kits. We live in more enlightened and better times, so we don’t do this any more, but if we did, there would be a terrible collective name for the blossoming of Scottish artists influenced by the very Teutonic pillars of both Krautrock and minimalist electro. The collective name would probably be based on one (or more) puns, as we’ve reached a stage of civilization where genuinely new names for things would otherwise need too many syllables to be memorable.

Mood Taeg, part of the wider Mood Taeg Kollectiv, hail from Düsseldorf and Dundee via Shanghai and would probably form the cultural nucleus of the afore-alluded-to umbrella term.

Their first album, Exophora, was a seductive, metronomic autobahn ride. Anaphora expands on their previous work and is arguably more accessible than its predecessor, but with enough mind-warping goodness to attract those looking for something decidedly left of the accepted centre.

snackmag.co.uk

As an eight-minute gateway to what’s ahead, ‘Pilomotor Reflex’ is a masterpiece on its own.

Motorik rhythms are punctuated by what I’d imagine are the various sounds from inside a broken space module for the first perfectly fine five minutes. After that point, the listener is introduced to the first of many spoken word samples, which gives way to heavily delayed electric guitar and an additional drum pattern that takes the entire track to a new troposphere. One that’s short on oxygen and well-stocked with toy pianos.

‘Squirrels Dancing Among Elephants’ has a goofy charm. The trebly, circulating synth patterns move in and out of focus, while 808 snares with varying levels of filter shuffle in and out of earshot. Nothing is overdone or overstays its welcome and the illusion of continuous motion charges on.

The influences throughout the record are almost too easy to list – Neu!, Kraftwerk, Harmonia etc., but ‘Tachistoscopic Interval’ betrays a love of LFO and tinkers with its jazzier elements while prog-like bass fills hint at a bassline that doesn’t quite exist.

‘Diskonkordanz’ uses its spoken samples (I think I can discern Red Clydesider Jimmy Reid in there) to drive a linguistic narrative, while the subtle movement between what might be considered a verse and what might be considered a chorus continues alongside a pulsating rhythm that results in shaman-like transcendence for any listener that might’ve chemically over-committed.

Lots of these songs sound like they feature reallife stringed instruments but the closest ‘Ohrwurm’ comes to that is a synthesised shamisen sound that acts as a mirror to the bassline, which is in itself a sort of oxymoron of jumpiness and smooth notes negated of all attack. Some smart DJ type somewhere will mix this into some obscure version of the Doctor Who theme, and I want to be there when that drops.

Closer ‘Happiness Fragment’ is both my favourite track on the record and the one most obviously inspired by Stereolab. If Anaphora is a journey from start to finish, ‘Happiness Fragment’ is a more upbeat sign-off than we strictly deserve. Just like the six tracks that have preceded it, it doesn’t settle for staying in the same sonic lane for any more than two minutes, but rewards anyone who has hung around this long with a swelling, weirdly inorganic landscape suited to private dancing (PROPER private dancing – dancing with no eyes on you – not any of that mucky filth).

The word ‘anaphora’ is a linguistic term meaning the use of a word to refer to a different word used earlier to avoid repetition (think pronouns as much as euphemisms) and is a genius title, not only in terms of wordplay in relation to their previous album, but also to convey the sense of moving forward and buiding on the foundations of things already there. Mood Taeg have made something that deserves to be the cornerstone of a musical movement, an album whose very imagery should be forever associated with an entire genre.

They’ve basically made the Sgt Pepper or the Never Mind the Bollocks of what at least one music writer is shamelessly calling MacKrautJock ‘n’ Röhl.

Anaphora is out now on Happy Robots

Sadly not on the vinyl and only available digitally, ‘Samfundssind’ is somehow the most Kraftwerksounding thing on the album, while using its least Kraftwerk-like beat. There’s something slightly unsettling about the smooth synth sounds, evocative of some widescreen space-scape, and the drums feel like they’re trying to resist falling into a basic 4/4, constantly sneaking or omitting sneaky beats just to keep the listener on their toes.

Music by Stephen McColgan Page 41

REBECCA SOLNIT

J.DAVID SIMONS

Book: Orwell's Roses Rebecca Solnit, writer and activist, has harnessed over the years a following that will immediately get excited in anticipation of a new book. Her lockdown project, Orwell’s Roses, should be no different. Sparked by her unexpected encounter with the surviving roses planted by George Orwell in 1936, the new novel considers the understudied aspects of Orwell’s life, exploring his writing as well as his gardening habits.

Book: The Responsibility of Love J. David Simons’ novel The Responsibility of Love asks if we have a responsibility to those who fall in love with us – an idea perhaps most famously explored in Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin.

It begins with writer Jake Tully as he is dressing for an award ceremony, believing that today is to be his day – unofficially, ‘Jake Tully Day’ – when he will be able to right wrongs and publically answer his critics. From there the chapters jump between ‘Now’ and ‘Then’.

Naturally, her reflection on Orwell’s passionate gardening outlines his consistency as a writer and antifascist, as she considers the intertwined politics of nature and power. There is a thorough contextualisation throughout this text, delving into Orwell’s history with the coal mines of England, the Spanish Civil War, and his thoughts around Stalin, when much of the international left still supported him. Drawing connections and making astute observations, the book is rich with both political and gardening knowledge. The chapter which addresses the brutal rose industry in Colombia that supplies the American market, and the lack of workers’ rights there, is a wonderful example of how flowers and politics intertwine.

The reality of roses can look somewhat bleak.

Saying that, as a book this really draws upon the lighter sides to Orwell: pleasure, beauty, and his more subtle acts of resistance.

Orwell’s Roses is out now, published by Granta Keira Brown

snackmag.co.uk

Current events unfold farcically as Jake’s day unravels in spectacular fashion. But the more poignant story is to be found in his past, where he was less than careful with the hearts of others, sowing the seeds for his later disaffection and isolation. The Responsibility of Love is a darkly comedic novel with an examination of human nature at its heart, and which will have readers pondering their own romantic pasts.

The Responsibility of Love is out now, published by Backpage Press Alistair Braidwood

RAVELOE

COURTNEY BARNETT

Single: Catkins The striding opening of ‘Catkins’ wraps you up, allowing Raveloe to take us all on another musical journey. It’s been a strong year for the artist, with this track offering more proof of the talent.

Album: Things Take Time,Take Time It’s fair to say many of us have shifted our outlook on life, love, and everything in between over the best part of the last two years. Similarly, the new Courtney Barnett album is one of change and evolution.

As you’d expect, Kim’s vocals remain beautiful, flowing with ease, yet twisting to confound expectations. The energy and drive come from behind, though, with the drums more potent than they were on previous releases.

For a song concerned with the passing of time, the artist seemingly hasn’t wasted a minute this year; no mean feat in a challenging period.

The moments where the tune drops out to allow the guitar to punctuate the pauses and gaps are the perkiest sections, but overall, it feels nowhere like a song which lingers beyond the four-and-a-halfminute mark.

SNACK has told you enough times to listen to Raveloe – if you don’t do it now, it’s on you, not us.

‘Write a List of Things to Look Forward To’ is a perfect example of the sunshine captured here, and the track lives up to its title. Even on the more sedate moments, there’s an air of acceptance and comfort. Things Take Time, Take Time is an album that feels content with itself, and hopefully that’s the case for Courtney too. On her third record, she seems more adept than ever before, and we all reap the rewards.

Things Take Time,Take Time was released 12th November on Marathon Artists Andrew Reilly

Image Credit: Joanna Bartkiewicz

‘Catkins’ was released on 23rd November on Olive Grove Records Andrew Reilly

At times, you’ll feel warmth and smiles radiating from your record player or laptop, such is the unfolding joy. Musically, the album is clever and immersive, but this allows the simple moments to sparkle brighter.

review@snackmag.co.uk Page 43

Album: Don't Drink The Poison British Ghanaian rapper, producer, and songwriter Kobi Onyame, longtime resident of Glasgow, has returned with an outstanding new album, Don’t Drink the Poison, released on 26th November. The ten-track record draws upon Kobi’s observations over the last year as he experienced the challenges faced by the world and the effects they have had on humanity. What could be assumed to be a collection of pensive songs about reflection on the difficult times, the album opener ‘Aseda’ – meaning thanksgiving – provides a triumphant moment of gratitude and introduces Kobi’s palpable optimism.

Self-produced, Kobi’s fifth studio album is doused in his distinctive blend of UK hip-hop and panAfrican sounds. As well as co-production on two tracks coming from Ghanaian musician Jayso, alongside Scottish Alternative Music Award nominated alt-jazz musician Nathan Somevi, this new release features guest appearances from some of Africa’s finest new artists, emphasising Kobi’s cultural integration. He brings a powerful social message of racial justice on tracks like ‘My Prayer’ and ‘Trouble’ featuring Ghanaian American hiplife pioneer Bayku. The upbeat, African-influenced beats and instrumentation are reminiscent of Mos Def, with his own social commentary sharing his musings over the last 18 months.

There is a sense throughout the album that Onyame has reached a higher level of confidence in his artistry, with bolder, more cohesive musical choices that really give Don’t Drink The Poison an aura and mood that transcends his previous work. Standout moments ‘Nante’ and ‘Beautiful Curse’ feature Worlasi and see the pair illustrate their conflicting feelings towards the music industry.

He also takes time to call out to his family in ‘Yo’ and over the slower, meandering beat in ‘Malawi’ featuring George Kalukusha. snackmag.co.uk

‘Giddy’ serves as the album’s experimental dance number before ending on ‘Poison’, which brings us back to the core message: a cautionary note to avoid drinking the poison and to stay wary of temptations.

With prestigious award nominations already held for his last album, GOLD, this release confirms Kobi Onyame’s exuberant, glorious musicality, that not only belongs in the Scottish music industry, but exemplifies the cross-cultural outlook of modern Scotland.

Don't Drink The Poison is out now Aisha Fatunmbi-Randall

WALT DISCO Single: Macilent In response to an attack on three trans women in Hollywood this year, Walt Disco created ‘Macilent’ in collaboration with Jessica Winter. Despite its bleak origins, it exists as a powerful record. Lead singer James Power's voice seamlessly alternates between vulnerable and furiously passionate, and when combined with shrieking guitars and drums, it feels like being struck in the face repeatedly. This track is a defiant must-listen.

‘Macilent’ is out now on Lucky Number Zeo Fawcett Image Credit: Neelam Khan

KOBI ONYAME

SILICONE SOUL

DVR

Album: Darkroom Dubs Vol V Craig Morrison and Graeme Reedie were responsible for at least two of the greatest five nights of my life and, for my age and peer group, that’s not an unusual statement to make. Their Darkroom Dubs label and their four previous ‘Compiled and Mixed by’ releases, featuring the fruit of the label’s archives mixed with their latest releases, have all hit the sweet spot of making the soulful out of the decidedly inorganic.

Single: Stupid dvr, also known as seventeen-year-old musician Dillon van Rensburg, is another great example of how new artists can learn and hone their skills at home (or school) and inch forward bit by bit. Sure, there’s a touch of luck involved with the jumps that got him to where he is today, but van Rensburg put the graft in and asked the questions to earn that slice of good fortune.

Suitable for either the last record you play before going out or the first you put on when you get home.

Darkroom Dubs Vol. V is out 10th December on Darkroom Dubs Stephen McColgan

He’s certainly not as ‘stupid’, as the title suggests, but you knew that already. The song is a lo-fi stomper, and on first listen will have you nodding or thumping along. Add in a catchy and relatable chorus, and it’s easy to see why people are paying attention to the lad coming straight outta North Berwick.

There’s plenty in his back catalogue to dip into, and you should, but ‘stupid’ suggests we’ll all be a lot more familiar with dvr in 2022. It would be a daft decision not to get it in your ears now. ‘stupid’ is available now, with the dirty tapes EP to be released 14th January on XL Recordings Andrew Reilly

Image Credit: Maxwell Granger

Sweeping pads, bleeping bleepy bits, metallic chiming sounds being used as an offbeat snare – it’s all in this pulsating 75-minute mix, which features cuts by luminaries like Justin Robertson and Dino Lenny, and even signs off with a newly remixed version of their string-soaked classic ‘Right On, Right On’.

review@snackmag.co.uk Page 45

NOUSHY 4TET Gig: The Great Western Festival, 13th November at Websters Theatre, Glasgow Noushy – trombonist and vocalist Anoushka Nanguy – has been gradually building her reputation as a live act, playing with corto.alto and Astrosnax and winning the Rising Star award at the 2020 Scottish Jazz Awards.

Tonight she’s leading her own quartet through a set alternating modal takes on some standards, along with her own material. It’s on the latter that they really shine – 'Party In Warsaw' starting out spacey and contemplative, breaking into a dissonant crash before finding its centre again, the spectacularly named 'Monster Truck Tuck Shop' seeing guitarist James Mackenzie turn into a shredding hair metal soloist and a pulsing, driven 'Seven Pennies' urging the packed crowd up off the theatre seats to dance in front of the stage, where they stay for the rest of the set.

There’s a strong emphasis on musicianship with each of the quartet; Mackenzie, bassist Ewan Hastie and stylishly-shirted drummer Peru Eizagirre taking propulsive solos, but the focus is on Noushy’s expressive scale-jumping trombone slides and resonant vocals. A poignant 'Strange Fruit' is a brave comparison for any musician to invite but they pull it off with skill. The crowd demands an encore which they quickly accede to after an apology to the front-of-house – a trancey, cosmic version of Sun Ra’s 1974 'This Song is Dedicated to Nature’s God' inspiring a mass chant-along from the young heads.

While they’ve delivered some engaging online streams, this is music that comes into its own in a live setting that it’s almost inexpressibly uplifting to have returned.

Chris Queen snackmag.co.uk

Noushy

ADMIRAL FALLOW Album: The Idea of You In the first half of the last decade, Admiral Fallow’s first three albums put them bang in the centre of Scotland’s collective musical consciousness without them ever seemingly becoming individual household names. It’s been six years since their last album, Tiny Rewards, but with their latest, AF have cast something that may become as beloved as their debut, Boots Met My Face. Comprising Louis Abbott, Kevin Brolly, Phil Hague, Sarah Hayes, and Joe Rattray, Admiral Fallow have always felt like natural and mature successors to The Delgados. Album highlights ‘The Grand National 1993’, ‘The Possibility’, and acoustic-led opener, ‘Sleepwalking’ occupy a gorgeous, reflective part of the listener’s brain and refuse to budge.

Varied, heart-wrenching, smooth and sumptuous, yet not to everyone’s taste, The Idea of You will be playing in the background of a cool café near you between now and the end of forever.

The Idea of You is out now on Chemikal Underground Stephen McColgan

THE GREAT SILENCE Film The late Ennio Morricone’s revolutionary scores for the classic Dollars trilogy are my favourite film compositions of all time. They are pieces of music that are indelibly linked to the movies they were made for, and immediately call up images from those classics. Yet taken on their own, they have incredible power and beauty. During the mid to late 60s Morricone also created scores for many other films, and a lot of them were other Italian Westerns. Sergio Corbucci’s The Great Silence is one, and without Morricone’s hypnotic music, the film would not be half as powerful. It helps that the film is praised as one of the greatest of its genre from the late 60s.

The movie is set in Utah in the late 19th century, in a harsh winter just before the historical incident of the great blizzard. Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a mute gunman, who kills only in self defence and helps those in need. He encounters Loco (Klaus Kinski), a bounty killer who kills without remorse.

Both take up residence in Snowy Hill, a small town.

When Loco murders the husband of local Pauline (Vonette McGee), she enlists Silence to help her get revenge.

Known for his later work with maverick director Werner Herzog, Kinski appeared in a number of Italian Westerns, and here is at his best as the smiling, calm psychopath. Trintignant is remarkable as the silent gunfighter, communicating loss, tenderness and melancholy. A subplot featuring the new sheriff, underwhelmingly played by Frank Wolff, is necessary in moving the narrative forward, but detracts a little from the movie's impact.

A brave, brutal, and bleak film, The Great Silence is not to everyone’s tastes, with its sombre mood.

If you can look past the bleakness there is depth, atmosphere, and great acting and film-making in a work of haunting resonance. Despite having watched the film once before, on this viewing I was blown away again by the shocking ending.

The final evocative shots, anchored by Morricone’s transcendent soundtrack, close a masterpiece of the genre.

The Great Silence is out now on Blu Ray from Eureka! Entertainment Martin Sandison

The Great Silence is an unusual Italian western in terms of location, as it was shot in the Dolomites, a mountain range in northeastern Italy. Most of the others were filmed in Spain, doubling for the old American West. The use of this location extends not only to the fantastic landscape photography, but also the setting, which is wrapped in a blanket of snow. Complimented by Morricone’s incredible score, the picture is a constant rush of unforgettable images.

Thankfully, the movie also contains brilliantly written characters in Silence and Loco, and a pair of iconic performances by Trintignant and Kinski. review@snackmag.co.uk Page 47

Dot Allison Photo credit: Essy Syed

SNACK SCOTTISH SINGLES OF THE YEAR

snackmag.co.uk

DOT ALLISON

BUFFET LUNCH

Can You Hear Nature Sing?

Red Apple Happiness [Upset the Rhythm] Edinburgh/Glasgow four-piece Buffet Lunch have made it their mission to create weird and wonderful pop that injects a colourful spark into your life. In ‘Red Apple Happiness’ they have achieved this to perfection, it’s a woozy romp of a track that traps you inside an infectiously oddball groove.

In addition to convincing youngsters and your da, to stick cash in a jukebox, great singles set the tone perfectly for an upcoming album. Dot Allison’s return this year was a great triumph, and this single paved the way in a hesitatingly beautiful way. And yes, Dot is still a tremendous singer.

Photo credit: Kat Gollack

Fable of the Urban Fox After a sixteen year hiatus the hallowed Scottish duo returned, resulting in this single which epitomises the evolution of Moffat and Middleton. This allegory for xenophobia boasts biting lyrics that never shy away from life’s grim underbelly, while rhythmically retaining the feeling that it’s still just two pals tinkering with drum machines and guitars, re-energising their sound and highlighting their skill to evoke violence and foreboding amidst hope and escape.

#SNACKSSY

Photo credit: Owen Godbert

ARAB STRAP

DAN BROWN Seven Spires ‘Seven Spires’ is Glasgow-based Dan Brown’s debut single – a jazz/trad crossover which is a perfectly crafted instrumental. Leading with ostinato Radiohead-esque piano chords, featuring a soaring melody on flute by Tom Campbell-Paine, and punctuated with phenomenal percussion by Stephen Henderson, this track is an incredibly exciting and emotive listen.

CO-ACCUSED The Psychonaut Society The title track from the EP confirms Co-Accused have the knack of crafting tunes that get you moving. Missing out on the club nights where this sort of track would bounce off the walls was a killer, but dark electro-techno is still alive and kicking in Scotland. review@snackmag.co.uk Page 49

CORTO.ALTO

HAMISH HAWK

Brotherhood Led by Liam Shortall, corto.alto have established themselves as one of the most exciting live acts around with the “Live From 435” series. Featuring Zongo Brigade emcee Franz Von, “Brotherhood” takes elements from dancehall and big beat with a propulsive positivity that owes as much to Tradeston as Kingston.

The Mauritian Badminton Double Champion, 1973 [Post Electric] Edinburgh based wordsmith Hamish Hawk hit a perfect serve with latest album Heavy Elevator.

We could have picked any track from the album, but this one is a joyously addictive pop gem full of wry wordplay, sparky ideas and grandiose dictation that encapsulates Hawk to perfection.

KAPUTT Movement Now Glasgow-based DIY sextet, Kaputt, hit hard with this twisted and visceral track back in May. Lyrically, it's a direct reaction to the wilful intransigence and neglect of the guys (it’s mostly guys, let’s be honest) that refuse to budge. The track is focused, taut and danceable, always on the edge of gloriously unhinging, ready to snap and spill. Chrissy Barnacle’s saxophone lures and punctuates. The pre-chorus is cartoonish and acts as a wide-eyed respite to the controlled chaos.

‘Movement Now’ is a macabre, punky, political banger which operates as an instruction, as your toe taps, ribs break, and your head bops. It’s a more than worthy winner as our single of the year.

GOODNIGHT LOUISA Get Your Hands off My Girlfriend Edinburgh’s Goodnight Louisa’s debut album is due in January and we can’t wait. ‘Get Your Hands off My Girlfriend’ is an astounding piece of ceiling rupturing dream pop that examines the abuse of gay women, delivered with a glossy disco glow and a poignant yet soaring vocal performance. snackmag.co.uk

LLOYD’S HOUSE

POST COAL PROM QUEEN

Eddie A touching track full of vulnerability and affirmation of personal identity. Lloyd’s mantra of ‘music for people who only play bass’ is less evident on this particular track as despite the brooding, almost acoustic bass rumble underpinning the song, it’s the twinkling synths and spitting snare drums that steal the show.

Salt You can’t help but love this duo. Formerly known as L-Space, PCPQ have built a reputation for creating organic future soundscape pop with a twist and a message around every corner. ‘Salt’ is a hauntingly breathy number that, fittingly in 2021, explores our global warming crisis with a chilling pop flair.

MOGWAI

RAVELOE

Ceiling Granny Reliving their early nineties formative years, ‘Ceiling Granny’ is Mogwai turned up to eleven with the bass booster on and auxiliary outputs plugged into an 18-wheel subwoofer with a Smashing Pumpkins sticker on it. Aural porn for those of us that love fuzz pedals with their settings maxed out.

New House Easily one of the most exciting talents to emerge in Scotland in 2021, the ‘New House’ single is just one of the reasons you need to welcome Raveloe into your life. This track was darker and more foreboding than her debut EP, but it still fizzed with optimism.

NOVA SCOTIA THE TRUTH Tyrone & Keisha Since winning Scottish Album of the Year (2020), Edinburgh-based Nova Scotia the Truth has continued to shine with signature grime tracks and sterling live performances. ‘Tyrone & Keisha’ best showcases her shadowy style. A 2-minute take down, boasting exquisite vocals, razor rhyme schemes and acidic satire.

Photo credit: Press

Photo credit: Jason Riddell

#SNACKSSY

review@snackmag.co.uk Page 51

RYLAH

STANLEY ODD

Running In The Dark Rylah firmly grasped the baton of Scottish electropop in 2021, and on the basis of ‘Running In The Dark’, they won’t let go for some time. The lead single from the EP is a tremendous example of what hands in the air synth bangers can do for a flagging disposition.

The Invisible Woman This sonic tussle showcases Stanley Odd’s diverse lyrical range. ‘The Invisible Woman’ recounts an unsung hero in global protest movements.

Through sharp observation, Veronika Electronika and Solareye take listeners on a timeline of revolutionary feminism, fired home by solid beats and fresh electronica, so signature in Dunt’s celebrated production. An alternative rap gem.

STINA MARIE CLAIRE The Human Condition With a chorus that is easily the equal of her band’s boldest pop moments, ‘The Human Condition’ showed that no matter the name she records under, Stina Marie Claire knocks out songs that get under your skin. Glitchier than her work with Honeyblood, the song balances introspection with some touching sanguinity.

Support our work by setting up a monthly donation at www.pollokshieldsfoodpoint.org

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Photo credit: Craig R McIntosh

Pollokshields says

SULKA

TEENAGE FANCLUB

Fear It Epitomising Johnny ‘Pictish Trail’ Lynch’s Lost Map record label, Glasgow-based talent Lucas Clasen’s single from his home-recorded album Take Care is an eclectic mesh of whispered vocals and unrestrained propulsive melody. The sound is both fresh and nostalgic, as woeful lyrics juxtapose sweet guitars and hopeful tones for scuzzy angst that’s insanely catchy in this wellproduced, dreamy single.

I'm More Inclined In the year they celebrated the 30th anniversary of Bandwagonesque, and after a line-up change some fans are still struggling with, it’s a joy to know Teenage Fanclub are still on form. As comfortable as your favourite socks, ‘I’m More Inclined’ more than reminds us the group remains relevant today.

REBECCA VASMANT

Photo credit: Iain Stott

Jewels of Thought (Ft. Harry Weir, Paix) DJ, producer, label boss and general musical polymath; Vasmant has been a stalwart of Scotland’s dancefloors for a decade. With beatific vocals from Paix and Harry Weir’s cosmic tenor sax, this is a blissed-out slice of summer that feels like the first tendrils of sunrise at a festival.

Photo credit: Steven McLaren

TAAHLIAH Brave Kilmarnock’s TAAHLIAH – the first artist to win two SAMAs in the same year – released this blast of dance-pop joy in February. After a triumphant Boiler Room set, ‘Brave’ sees her making an anthemic statement of power with one shiny foot in pitched-up hyperpop and another firmly on the dancefloor.

CONTRIBUTORS Andrew Reilly, Stephen McColgan, Iain Dawson, Sam MacAdam, Chris Queen, Dominic Cassidy, Victoria McNulty, Lindsay Corr, and Kenny Lavelle. #SNACKSSY

review@snackmag.co.uk Page 53

snackmag.co.uk

A JAR OF

POLISH

A glass of milk stood in the cabinet. Cheryl

She read the instant coffee label off the jar as he made lunch. Soon he held out a plate of glossy black open-face sandwiches.

‘Seaweed paste.’ She took a slice in each hand.

‘Did you go to the Japanese grocery store without me?’

touched the glass, couldn't tell if it held only the coolness of the material, took a distant sniff.

Her sinuses burned. She brought the bread close,

Martin wouldn't want to waste possibly okay milk

her breath held. ‘Is this... tar?’

on a prank, surely? She moved it to the fridge.

‘No?’ He put down the plate and half turned She checked her phone again. Seven or eight

away. She couldn't see his expression, only his

minutes since he'd dropped the small, unsprouted

arms dangling slightly forward rather than at his

kiss on her forehead and lugged his satchel to the

sides. The fork in his hand glistened black with

foyer. She hasn't heard anything from the front

shoe polish. A small earth-covered hand rake.

door.

Martin sat hunched on the low chest, staring at the

Whenever he went to the clinic or gym without

flat tin of shoe polish—black, for their interview

her, she would ask him to pick up a bag of frozen

shoes—in his left hand. His right lay curled palm-

vegetables on the way home. Cauliflower or

up, as if it was the hand that held something.

brussel sprouts, or anything. Cheryl hoped the request rooted him to her, to their life.

‘Martin?’

Most days were clearer, he said.

He looked up. ‘Yes, sweetheart?’

‘Aren't you late for work?’

She pulled a jar of jam out of the fridge door

‘Yes?’ He set down the tin and stuffed his feet into

without checking if it was strawberry, which tasted

his shoes—brown, for typical days—crushing the

to her of childhood, or raspberry, which tasted

heels. Beside him, the too-long shoehorn hung

of dirt. Twisted the lid. Stopped. Raised the jar.

forgotten, although he'd insisted on buying it in

Stopped. She brought the jar to her eye instead

spite of her protests about excessive plastic.

of smashing it against the floor, not knowing if

the pointed specks in the jam—imperfections

He stood. ‘I'm going now.’

suspended in what resembled precious, bloodcoloured mineral—still contained life.

Monica Wang

Did you know, only 3% of people in Scotland give blood?

Or that every time you do, you could save or improve the lives of up to three people?

Sign up to give blood.

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