Duncan Marquiss
Wires Turned Sideways In Time
(Basin Rock)
★★★

RECORDED in his parents’ garage in rural Aberdeenshire, Duncan Marquiss’s debut solo record is an impressive instrumental set of slow-build soundscapes.

The guitarist in Scottish indie rock group Phantom Band, Marquiss and his bandmates were forced to take a break in 2015 when all their equipment was stolen.

The atmospheric songs here date from this period, and are apparently all rooted around the guitar — remarkable when you consider the marvellous variety of sounds and emotions he gets on tape.

“I enjoy trying to stretch the guitar as an instrument,” he says.

All the tracks would make great film scores — Ry Cooder’s soundtrack to Paris, Texas, is cited as an influence — from the futuristic organic synth sounds on C Sweeps to the acoustic guitar-based Minor History and Tracks, which bring to mind folk masters like Bert Jansch and James Elkington.

Spiritualized
Everything Was Beautiful
(Bella Union)
★★★★★

BEST-KNOWN for their 1997 magnum opus Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, Spiritualized — led by English rock maestro Jason Pierce — are back with their ninth album.

Chockful full of big songs, it packs a massive emotional punch — check out Let It Bleed. And it rocks too, with Pierce directing a choir and 30-odd musicians to create a lavish wall of sound on tracks like the Primal Screamesque Best Thing You Never Had.

Crazy is a grandiose soul-drenched country ballad, while the lyrics to the propulsive Mainline were apparently written while watching protests in the US on TV.

If Everything Was Beautiful was a debut record it would be impressive. That it appears 25 years after their career high is nothing short of astonishing when you consider the often stale career paths of other established artists.

Big Thief
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
(4AD)
★★★★★

IT seems too early to start talking about albums of the year but Big Thief’s astonishing fifth record, like Spiritualized’s new one, merits such discussion.

A sprawling 20-song double album, the set’s magical, off-kilter brew of folk-rock is arguably the best thing the Brooklyn four piece has produced, which is saying something when you consider their critically acclaimed output since they got together in 2015.

The organic music is the perfect accompaniment for frontwoman Adrianne Lenker’s conversational, catchy vocals. Lyrically, she is equally adept at bucolic descriptions as she is emotional vulnerability (“Some nights barely breathing at all/Waiting for my woman to call”) and dry humour.

Shifting from swinging country twang (Spud Infinity), to ’80s indie guitars (Little Things) and their special brand of shambling, lo-fi folk (most of the set), Big Thief have fashioned a wonderful, captivating record.