Artist	Song
AirSpiel	Home (2005)
Orange Juice	Three Cheers For Our Side (You Can't Hide Your Love Forever, 1982)
dbass	Keep Pace (2005)
[cayto]	The Hand-me-down (Stupendium! [7" single], 2003)
Looper	Mondo '77 (Geometrid, 2000)
The Blue Nile	Tomorrow Morning (Peace At Last, 1996)
Cocteau Twins	Heaven Or Las Vegas (Heaven Or Las Vegas, 1990)
Friends Outreach Programme	Disappointed (Join The Programme [EP], 2005)
Bert Jansch	Blackwaterside (Jack Orion, 1966)
Aztec Camera	We Could Send Letters (High Land, Hard Rain, 1983)
Daniel Wylie	Consoling The Girl (Ramshackle Beauty, 2004)
The Ads	Things Get So Much Better (2005)
Momus	Lolitapop Dollhouse (Ping Pong, 1987)
Teenage Fanclub	Hang On (Thirteen, 1993)
Rost	Paper Street (2005)
14corners	Born (The Born [EP], 2005)
Eric & The Bunny Boilers	15ft [live] (Heard You Say [EP], 2005)
Shop Assistants	Safety Net (Safety Net [7" single], 1985)
The Rezillos	(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures (Can't Stand The Rezillos, 1978)
Kirsty MacColl	Innocence (Kite, 1989)
Aberfeldy	Heliopolis By Night (Young Forever, 2004)
Fairground Attraction	Whispers (First Of A Million Kisses, 1988)

Comment:

This is a Scottish-themed mix which was by request from a friend of a friend, who wanted to find out more about what Scotland has to offer, music-wise - it ended up as a mixture of "classic" bands, those who are becoming better-known, and those who are just starting out and, in some cases, haven't been signed yet. It also got me thinking about an interesting aspect of Scotland's (popular) musical past and present, concerning the actual origins of bands and artists. For instance, there's no denying that Glasgow has produced a fairly continuous flow of good-quality music, but it also has a certain reputation to uphold as a city of trend-setters: combine this with Glaswegian music fans' zeal for discovering new sounds, and some light is perhaps shed on why the city has adopted so many bands for its own. Two recent examples are Franz Ferdinand - singer brought up in Sunderland; German bassist - and Snow Patrol, who are half-Northern Irish. In the former case, the band's affiliation with the Glasgow School of Art, which has strong links with the music scene, means that they have, in turn, an instant cultural connection to Glasgow. The latter case is more difficult to understand: the band members met at university in Dundee and were adopted by Glasgow when they began to gig around it. As a whole, Scotland displays a similar desire to firmly establish its connections with artists: Momus was born and bred a Scot, but decamped to Berlin and feels a strong connection with many countries. David Byrne moved to the U.S. at a very young age, but Scotland concentrates on where he was born. And then there's Jimmy Miller from Salford, Greater Manchester, who turned it round and spent his musical career as Ewan MacColl, claiming to be from Auchterarder (in Perthshire). So, what are the requirements for bands to be considered as being "from" a certain place? And what is it about the Scottish psyche that needs to establish what it owns? There are many possible answers to these questions, but basically, this is just a mix that brings with it a lot of interesting questions about "place" and "home"!
The Kirsty MacColl inclusion is a reference to the Ewan MacColl example above, and Glasgow's dominance of the Scottish popular music scene is represented by the fact that 15 of the bands are from there, with 14corners acting as the "hybrid Glaswegians" who also have members from Rothesay (on the isle of Bute) and New Cumnock (Ayrshire). Bert Jansch, Momus, Shop Assistants, The Rezillos and Aberfeldy fly the flag for Edinburgh, while Cocteau Twins were from Grangemouth.
The cover is unfortunately a bit blurry, but displays another musical phenomenon in his own right: Donnie Macle=id was responsible for the colourful guitar strummings and even more colourful dungarees which formed an integral part of D=taman ("Spinning Top"), the first Gaelic-language children's show to be broadcast on the BBC. (Click here if you want a listen!) That led to the title, which means "words-song-music", and is also the name of a web-based organisation which funds Gaelic-language music and promotes the learning of the language through this medium. Enjoy!

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