SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #401: THE AFFECTIONATE PUNCH

The Affectionate Punch only began releasing music in 2018, so this inclusion in the series, like many others over the coming weeks and months, is down to the fact that I didn’t have anything back in 2015 when I was looking at the A’s on the hard drive.

Regular readers will be aware that I’ve written about The Affectionate Punch on a number of occasions.  But the first appearance on this little corner of t’internet was the result of a guest piece from strangeways back in June 2019.  Everything he said then remains valid almost five years later:-

“So DIY in spirit that their songs should be sold by B&Q, The Affectionate Punch have been releasing music online since November 2018.

This is a Glasgow-based ‘thing’ – yes, they’re a band, but no, they don’t tour – and probably they’re best described, really, as ‘a project’.

Each TAP song is led by speed and momentum, with almost every number taken from spontaneous idea to completed, listenable take, artwork (and, often, an accompanying video) in just a few hours. The rush is an essential ingredient, and a few songs have been abandoned midway when it’s clear they’d require lengthy noodling.

TAP explores a few styles of music, in general, you’d find them in the Indie aisle, probably between the Twee and Shoegaze sections. Led by just one person in one room, lurking close by, and keenly watched by the not-obvious-at-all store detective, would be a gang of contributors: Paul McKeever, a singer/songwriter from Larbet, Scotland, Marshmallow Fortresses, a musician from the San Francisco Bay Area, USA and, most regularly, Amanda Sanderson, a singer from Newcastle upon Tyne, England. As a non-musician myself, it is astonishing to me that this is largely a one-man band. Did I say band? I meant project. A one-man project, albeit one that welcomes these contributions.

The songs? They’re created for fun above all, and are led by guitars, keyboards, loops and samples – not to mention the odd peppering of toy orchestra lurking low in the mix.

And, yes, Associates fans: the project is named after the band’s debut LP. An Associates sample was being used on a previous project and this inspired the entire TAP idea. I love it when pop does stuff like that.”

All 23 releases from TAP are available at this bandcamp page.    Almost all of them are free to download.   Most of the music is of an instrumental nature, but there are also a few to which vocals have been added, often from guests whom TAP has invited.  Some of the vocals are of a spoken nature……..

With almost 100 pieces of music on the hard drive, it was a tough choice today settling on just the one.  But I’ve selected an instrumental from the Words Fail Me EP, which was made available on 18 December 2021.   A few of TAP’s influences are very much to the fore.

mp3: The Affectionate Punch – Epicene

As my dear friend Dirk would say…..

Enjoy!

JC