This is far from the first time that Broken Chanter has featured on TVV, but the band wasn’t in existence back in September 2016 when the initial alphabetical run through of singers and bands with at least one song on the hard drive of the Villain Towers laptop had reached ‘Br….’
At that point in time, David MacGregor was still very much involved with Kid Canaveral, a rather delightful five-piece Scottish-indie band who had just released their third studio album, Faulty Inner Dialogue, on Lost Map Records. The band did make great records, but their true strength was when they got up on stage, thanks in the main to an excellent chemistry and the talents of the two vocalists, the afore mentioned Mr MacGregor and Kate Lanza. By this point in time, Kid Canaveral had been together for 12 years, having formed when they all met as students back in 2004.
In early 2019, David revealed that he was going to release a solo album. He chose to use the moniker of Broken Chanter, emphasising that it would be a name that would apply whether it was just him on record or on stage as a solo performer or whether it was with a full band in similar circumstances. The self-titled debut album was a mix of the indie-pop we were accustomed to, alongside a number of gently-paced and lovely ballads, which helped to illustrate just how good a singer and songwriter he was. It was a record that truly delivered, and the shows in late 2019 to accompany its release were outstanding, with David’s charisma very much to the fore. The future looked very bright.
The big plans for 2020 had to be put on hold due to the COVID pandemic and all the restrictions that were in place and would remain so for some considerable time. When things began to get back to normal, we learned that Kid Canaveral had called it a day, but that Broken Chanter was intending to continue. It has resulted in two more superb albums – Catastrophe Hits (2021) and Chorus of Doubt (2024) – with the latter, released on Chemikal Underground, being shortlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year.
There’s more than enough great tunes out there to pull together a Broken Chanter ICA, and I’ll likely sit down and do that in the not too distant future. In the meantime, here’s a chance to listen to a single from the more folk-orientated debut album.
mp3: Broken Chanter – Don’t Move To Denmark
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 