When people look into UK's dance music, they tend to focus on London's cosmopolitan scene, but each city has it's own history and character. How about Scotland? If you ask a UK dance music lover about Scotland, you will hear about Glasgow's well known Sub Club running since 1987 with the veteran resident DJs like Harri & Domenic, Optimo and Slam. Soma Recordings is a Techno oriented label that Slam founded in 1991 sent out Funk D' Void, Alex Smoke, Silicone Soul to Gary Beck representing the scene. Glasgow Underground is another label to be mentioned, started by Kevin Mackay in 1997, who co-produced Mylo's "Destroy Rock & Roll". This Deep House label has been releasing local producers like DJ Q and Romanthony's classic album "R.Hide In Plain Site", and also material from US producer like Mateo & Matos that are known worldwide. Compared to the 90's Scotland had been a little quiet for a while, until new talent Neil McDonald as know as Lord Of The Isles appeared. Born in Scotland and after living in many cities, he reached Edinburgh which is the second largest city next to Glasgow. He has been living in Edinburgh for almost 20 years, producing music since 1995 and have been throwing his regular party "Raw" every Saturday. He's a DJ/Producer that suddenly rose up in the Disco/Balearic scene in 2010, with a bag full of original tracks and re-edits. McDonald has already released "Pacific Affinity EP" from a Japanese label Ene managed by DJ Chida. 'To & Flo' from the EP was featured on DJ Harvey's mix CD "XMIX01", and 'Ultraviolet' that was released from LA's prime label Adlut Contemporary was heavily played by big DJs from Andrew Weatherall, Daniel Wang, David Mancuso and getting worldwide attention that same year. Constantly releasing from labels like Solardisco, American Standard, Sleazy Beats, CockTail d'Amore, London's record shop label Phonica, and Edinburgh based Firecracker's sub division Unthank, he has also released "Hot Blob EP" on his own Little Strong Recordings. His sound production has a very visual element based on his talent also as a designer, and as the project name 'Lord Of The Isles' shows his commitment to the Scottish Myth leads to the mystic atmospheric transy synthesizer and low bottom medium slow groove. It's delicate and the slightly twisted euphoria grabs the listener's heart. Disco/Balearic sound from the North reminds Norway's Lindstrøm and Todd Terje, but when you hear "Geek Chic/Radio Lolipop EP" you'll know that the Scottish sound has a totally different soundscape and trippy feel. Hokaido-KUNIYUKI aka Kuniyuki Takahashi crafted a hypnotic acid remix of 'Geek Chic' cools down our heat from the top of our head. Vakula's remix of 'Radio Lolipop' features a mysterious Japanese monologue and cicada hum in Autumn and twists the space-time. Everyone of them are from the Northern part of the world, bringing in a new Balearic touch to this record.
This Bandcamp exclusive comes complete with a head-spinning background story (check the album notes) and eerie electronics. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 29, 2023