My New Hobby

Edinburgh

playLIST

Discover the genre-spanning soundtrack to our latest issue, as curated by The List team. my new hobby

Enjoy music by artists including Bob Dylan, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Blancmange, LISALÖÖF, Rudi Zygadlo, PJ Moore & Co, Beth Orton, Junk Pups and many more. Ignoring its more common DIY application, author Lucy Ribchester has taken up the saw as a musical instrument

Scan and listen as you read:

‘Kids, if you’re jumping on the bed, don’t touch mummy’s saw,’ is a phrase I never imagined I’d have to use. I’ve always been fascinated by musical saw since watching Delicatessen back in the 90s (there is a beautiful scene where Marie-Laure Dougnac and Dominique Pinon duet on a roof, playing cello and saw). It’s been described as sounding like ‘a soprano without words’, ‘a ghost’ or ‘a theremin’, though I think it has a sweeter, more melancholy whisper than theremin. When I play, however, it still sounds like a cat in pain. Miraculously (or not?), my greyhound used to love the sound. He would lie closing his eyes gently (unlike when I read aloud my stories to him and he would get up and leave the room). Singing saw teachers are thin on the ground in Scotland, so I’ve been using YouTube to learn. One day I’ll remember not to leave it lying around when I’m finished.  Lucy Ribchester writes psychological thrillers as Elle Connel. RETRO Her latest, You Can Stay, launches at Waterstones Princes Street, Edinburgh, Thursday 22 September. PERSPECTIVE

THE KEYTAR

With Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ continuing to dominate the charts, another long-neglected musical artefact is begging for a revival: the keytar. This embittered bastard son of the instrument world is surely plotting to murder its nemesis, the drum machine, in the near future, and it has the sex appeal of ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic in a paper thong. But put one in an episode of Stranger Things and it’ll be a TikTok sensation in milliseconds.

CELEBRITY SAS: WHO DARES WINS

‘Who dares wins’ is a rubbish motto. Those who dare are also statistically more likely to suffer and die. Either way, it’s the lynchpin of Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins, in which a parade of recognisable-if-you-squint slebs take on sanitised SAS-inspired challenges while inadvertently acting as a PR arm for government-sanctioned death merchants. Those hoping for a season finale in which Marlon Brando slaughters a cow and decries the horror of war will (probably) be disappointed.