Category: Adam Stafford

Imaginary Walls Collapse – Adam Stafford (2013)

I’ll never tire of shouting out very loudly that Adam Stafford is a musical genius.  It’s his misfortune (as such) to have been born in Sunderland and to spend most of his life in Falkirk, instead of one of the great and innovative cities of the world where his talents would have been more readily acknowledged.

I first came across him as the frontman of indie band Y’All Is Fantasy Island.  I later read that the band had broken up and Adam had decided to pursue a solo career. It was around the same time as I was making my first foray into gig promotion in 2011 by putting on a home town show by Butcher Boy, partly to mark the 5th anniversary of the old blog and to showcase the band’s new album, Helping Hands.

I made contact with Adam, and he agreed to come along as the support act.  He wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I thought he was magical.  I started going to as many of his live performances as I could and mentioned his name to a few folk, including Matthew Young, the entrepreneur behind Edinburgh-based Song, By Toad Records.  The next thing I knew, Adam had a deal to release his music on the label.

It was the start of a partnership that saw five albums between 2013 and 2021.  The first of these was Imaginary Walls Collapse, an astonishing LP that was longlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year, which was quite some feat for a label that was not much more than a cottage industry.

I previously described it as being something that defied conventional description, with a thin white duke playing his guitar, beat-boxing, crooning and using effect pedals to make sounds unlike any other of my records.  I’ll stand by that description, but quickly add that the live experience always outshines what comes across on vinyl:-

mp3: Adam Stafford – Cold Seas

I know that Adam’s currently working on new material, and fingers crossed it will see the light of day over the next year or so.

Feel free to come back later on for a bonus post ICA……

JC

It was just over a week ago that I offered readers the opportunity to win a digital copy of Pop’s Lowly Status, a 16-song ‘best of’ collection of solo songs by Adam Stafford. 

The original plan had been to have one lucky entrant receive, via bandcamp, all of the digital releases that the great man currently has available on that platform, while four others would be gifted a copy of Pop’s Lowly Status.

A chat with Adam last week led us to the decision that everyone who had taken the time to answer correctly the question, “Which Scottish town is home to Adam Stafford?”, would be gifted a copy of the new compilation.  The answer is Falkirk, although that’s a long way from where he was born, which as a number of folk mentioned was Sunderland.

Everyone has been notified and if I’ve done things correctly via my own bandcamp account, then digital copies of the album have been distributed, while I’m working on the best way to get the grand prize of Adam’s full back catalogue over to Rol.

A huge thanks to everyone who took part, and that’s from both myself and Adam. 

Here’s something that isn’t on the new compilation:-

mp3: Adam Stafford – Taser Revelations (Hold On Children)

It’s the title track from his 2016 album, and one that if I had been pulling together an ICA would more than likely have made the cut.

JC

Regular readers will know that I think Adam Stafford is a bona-fide genius.

My first exposure to his work was when he was part of Y’All Is Fantasy Island, an indie band I first came across around 2007 when playing with the likes of The Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit.  I really had high hopes for the band, but they broke up in 2011 without ever gaining much in the way of commercial success.

But it’s been Adam’s work as a solo artist that has continually got me excited.  As I said in one of the many previous posts I’ve written about him, the first few times I saw him live in the solo setting left me completely in awe of what he was doing, as the sounds coming from the stage were equally bewildering and bewitching. It was all down to his highly clever and imaginative vocal and instrumental looping. It was, and has remained ever since, an extraordinary experience.

I’m very proud of the fact that I’ve become good friends with Adam over the years. I don’t just admire him as a musician or creative talent, but he’s incredibly down-to-earth and a wonderful person to sit down with in the pub and talk about all sorts of things. So, when he mentioned he was gearing up to issue a ‘best of’ compilation, I of course said I’d put something up on the blog. 

Adam has called the collection Pop’s Lowly Status, Here’s how it is described on his Bandcamp page:-

Over the ten or so years Adam Stafford has been releasing solo recordings, it is hard to establish an entry point due to the often overwhelming amount of prolific output from the native of Falkirk, Central Scotland. Certainly, a lot of those albums, EPs and collections of Film Soundtrack works (not to mention previous group Y’all is Fantasy Island) have leaned towards the more experimental, minimalist, lo-fi, instrumental and electronic side of the musical spectrum.

But what about Adam Stafford as a Pop artist (in the loosest of terms)? A songwriter of impeccable craft and style able to conjure melody, hooks and harmony out of the mystical melch hat?

Here is a kind of `Best Of’ of that side of Stafford, an Introduction for the uninitiated – a Primer to discover one of Scotland’s best and underrated song craftsman and a chance to unearth some of the finest songs you’ve never heard.

From the explosive acoustic Surf Pop of `Fire & Theft’, to the beautiful, lilting lament of `Ghostly Arms’, the a Capella Alt Soul-Pop of `Shot-down You Summer Wannabes’ to the aching, thrumming ballad `Please’, which imagines a band like Low covering Roy Orbison – the sheer amount of incredible earworms are collected here for the first time, ripe for new discovery.

The thing is, I’ve long planned an Adam Stafford ICA….indeed I had an idea in my head that I’d approach him to see if he fancied coming up with one as a guest posting or perhaps one we could write together.  But this 16-song collection more than does the trick. Here’s its opening track, from the 2011 album Build A Harbour Immediately

mp3: Adam Stafford – Fire & Theft

The next track on the compilation, Cold Seas, was originally released on the 2013 album Imaginary Walls Collapse, a record which would be long-listed or the Scottish Album of The Year award (and should have won it in my humble opinion).  Here’s a live session version:-

That album was his first of four releases on Song, By Toad Records, the much-loved and much-missed Edinburgh-based label owned and run by Matthew Young (another genius to whom the Scottish music scene owes a huge debt).  As part of the promo efforts for the 2016 album Taser Revelations, the lead-off single was afforded a quirky and enjoyable video:-

Phantom Billions just happens to be the third track on Pop’s Lowly Status, and tempting as it is to take you through the remaining thirteen songs, I’ll instead offer up the chance to listen to one of Adam’s newest recordings, a digital only single from a few weeks ago:-

mp3: Adam Stafford – Crushed Steamroller

It’s also on the new compilation, the full details of which can be found on Adam’s Bandcamp page.

Here’s the thing.  Adam has made Pop’s Lowly Progress as something you name your own price for.  I’ve had a chat with him, and we have come to an agreement that I can pay for five digital copies of the album to give away to readers of this blog.  He actually was happy to offer them free of charge, but I insisted otherwise.

Oh, and what I didn’t tell Adam is that one of those five digital copies of the album will be accompanied by a full digital discography of his solo work, a collection which is on offer for just over £50.

So…..if you fancy having the chance of being a recipient of Pop’s Lowly Progress, courtesy of The Vinyl Villain, then just go to the comments section for this post and tell me which Scottish town is home to Adam Stafford.  It’s really that simple……

THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED AND ALL WINNERS HAVE BEEN CONTACTED.

JC

You’ll hopefully recall this piece from a couple of months back in which I lamented the decision by Adam Stafford to take his leave of the music scene.

Tucked away near the end of that particular posting, I set out my hope that Adam would take up my offer of a sit-down over a beer or two at which I’d lend a sympathetic ear if he wanted to gripe further about the music industry.

My hopes were realised and, at the tail end of January, he came across to Glasgow, ostensibly to catch a show by Broken Chanter (the new band formed by David McGregor following the break-up of Kid Canaveral), but we hooked up a couple of hours beforehand and we got talking. We were joined a while later by Mike Melville of Manic Pop Thrills and I think it’s a fair assumption to say that we both spent a bit of energy asking Adam to reconsider his decision and offering to help out in any way we could.

We both felt we were pushing a wee bit at an open door as Adam was saying that his love of composing and performing hadn’t left him – indeed he’d been given a gift of an old-style synthesiser at Christmas on which he had been working up some new pieces – but he just felt really low and bitter about how the tail end of 2018 had been panning out. In a nutshell, he’d released a critically acclaimed double-album and yet he was unable to transfer such praise into enough sales to financially support himself and his family and his efforts to tour further afield than the cities in Scotland had left him out-of-pocket.

But more than the financial side of things, it was painfully obvious that he was doubting himself for what must have been the first time in decades, wondering if he really did have an audience. Our response was that, as long as we were still capable of listening to music, he’d always have at least two fans to buy his stuff and come see his shows.

I think it’s fair to say that, by the end of what turned out to be a great night (the live show was most enjoyable), Adam was quite drunk and had been given a bit of food for thought. I got a really nice e-mail from him the day after in which he admitted not remembering much of his train journey back to Falkirk and the walk from the station to his home, but that he’d appreciated the company and the encouragment I’d given him.

I knew there would be other folk out there offering similar words to Adam, including his family, close friends, fellow musicians and other fans similar to myself. So it was great to get this missive a couple of weeks ago:-

Dear friends,

As some of you already know, in Nov last year, after a bad week of depression and insomnia, I hastily announced that I was quitting music, performing & releasing. It had been an eventful year: I was flattened by the deaths of two people I knew and greatly admired; an LP that I’d spent 8 years making was well received but a subsequent short tour of the UK was financially and emotionally ruinous. The shadows were closing in.

Thankfully I have a stupendous amount of supportive family and friends who dropped what they were doing to facilitate the massive whitey I was having and encouraged me to pause and reflect, respond rather than react.

To get to the point, I never have truly wanted to retire from writing and performing, but needed a break. In all honesty, I need to keep creating music to stop me from going insane and financially support my family. Thus, I am putting out this new EP of mainly soundtrack music that I’ve been working on over the last year. It is free to DL but any contribution (or a recommendation to a friend) would be greatly appreciated:

https://adamstafford.bandcamp.com/album/digressions-in-the-pale-palace-ep-2019

One of the issues that had come up during our drunken discussions in Glasgow had been how best to get the new music out there. I told Adam that I would be willing to get involved in any support costs in doing so and as the night wore on, I began to insist that he allow me to get involved in that way as it would be an honour and a privilege.

A few days later, in reply to his e-mail thanking me for being decent company at the gig, I reminded him of my offer and repeated my insistence. I was determined to try to make sure that he could start 2019 with something of a bang, through having new material available for sale and/or a couple of shows to look forward to. After much badgering, he accepted my offer. It’s not a great deal of money – I pay more for a season ticket at Raith Rovers and it’s come from a good couple of weeks making football score predictions and relieving an on-line betting firm of some cash – but what it has done is enable Adam to send this out:-

Adam Stafford returns in 2019 fresh from the critically acclaimed compositional album Fire Behind the Curtain (2018). This time he has hunkered down in his tiny studio with a newly acquired Synthesizer and laid down improv Synth jams over one week in a psychedelic sweatstorm.

The result is The Acid Bothy: a no-frills, no-bullshit hypnogogic slayer; a bad-trip brainmelch vomitorium spewing bubbling Synth lines that warp and contort in the shifting haze.

Fitting for an LP that was recorded live onto mono cassette, Adam is issuing The Acid Bothy on fruit salad (bi-red/yellow) coloured tapes limited to 50 copies.

Of these 50 copies, 15 can be pre-ordered HERE with the rest being available at two live shows:-

12 April: Leith Depot, Edinburgh
18 April: The Hug & Pint, Glasgow

(Turns out that the 15 pre-order copies are already sold out!!!….but you can still pick up a download version)

Who could possibly resist something described as a bad-trip brainmelch vomitorium spewing bubbling Synth lines that warp and contort in the shifting haze.

Paul Morley, eat your broken heart out.

In the meantime, here’s something from Fire Behind The Curtain, that critically acclaimed LP from 2018 mentioned earlier on:-

mp3 : Adam Stafford – Holographic Tulsa Mezzanine

JC

While it has its moments, this blog has never been the best for delivering new or breaking news….it’s far too retro in style and scope for the most part. One of the consequences is that you’ll rarely find reviews of freshly released albums but another is that, all too often, something of significance will have occurred and I’ll have fail miserably in providing the sort of coverage the event deserves.

It was Mike over at Manic Pop Thrills who carried this snippet of news back on 14 November 2018:-

“Talk about burying bad news on a busy news day.

As half the country was fixating on Brexit and how many resignations might happen as a consequence, around 5 pm this evening Falkirk based musician/film maker Adam Stafford was announcing a different type of resignation on Twitter:

Thanks folks, that’s it. I’m finished with releasing and performing music. There was a bunch of Y’all is Fantasy Island reunion and solo shows booked for the new year, but I’m cancelling them this afternoon…

it’s been a weird year but it’s all getting mentally draining now and there is only so long you can throw everything into something and get so little back, only so long you can play to half empty rooms to muted applause…

only so long you can slavishly obsess over an LP that no one particularly wants or needs. So thanks to everyone who has been kind over the years, especially to @gerryloves & @SongbyToad & @CreativeScots . So long for now xo”

Mike went on to pay a very fine tribute to Adam….which can be read in full here….and I can’t better these particular words that he used:-

“Even if Adam was only playing to half a dozen people, he still put in a mesmeric performance as he was never less than fully committed to the moment on stage.

On record, with the assistance of long term collaborator, Robbie Lesiuk, he always strived for the imaginative, often meshing what on the face it would appear to be contradictory styles into something wonderful and cohesive. Over a trilogy of albums for Song, By Toad he veered at will from abstract soundscapes to accessible pop gems, yet all the time sounding only like himself.

And that’s not to mention the ‘Reverse Drift’ soundtrack to his book of photos on Gerry Loves Records or even the ‘Torments Through Supernatural Flogging’ EP only available through his own Bandcamp.

His final album, this year’s astonishing ‘Fire Behind The Curtain‘, is a remarkable, all-instrumental double album, arguably his defining statement. It’s incomprehensible that this record won’t be in every Top 10 list for 2018 – other than for the fact that most people simply won’t have heard of him.”

I never got round to reviewing Fire Behind The Curtain, partly on the basis of rarely reviewing new LPs (which itself is based on not wanting to post mp3s of new material), but also for the fact that I know my love for Adam’s music isn’t widely shared among regular readers. Although it comes nowhere near as close to Adam’s frustration about playing to empty rooms and making music that nobody wants to hear, it is frustrating to put together a lovingly crafted blog post and find it achieves no feedback and very few hits and so there ‘why bother’ conclusion is reached.

Adam’s final album was an astonishing and deep piece of work but had an ambition that was unlikely to bring him many new fans who were previously unaware of his genius, a description I’ve often applied to him in the past and will continue to do so in perpetuity. The album, if it does indeed prove to be his last, is a tremendous swansong not just for the artist but also the label Song, By Toad which wound down last year after ten incredible and innovate years.

mp3 : Adam Stafford – Sails Cutting Through An Autumn Night

The news of his quitting the music business was difficult to absorb and even now, some two months on, I’m still quite bitter about it – not at Adam, but for the fact that so many who are lauded daily have less talent in their entire body than Mr Stafford has in his pinky-nail. But then again, that’s the cruel and unjust nature of the music industry.

The signs that he was nearing the end of his tether can be gleaned from some of the media interviews he gave in May 2018 to accompany the release of the new material. He admitted that the second half of the album was written during ‘a horrendous bout of bad mental health – and the music reflects that.’ He also added:-

“I’ve created all of my output suffering from depression; it’s just now I’m having more guts to discuss it openly. I hope in some small way I can help reduce the stigma because I have friends who really struggle with it too but are too proud to talk about it.”

It is alarming to realise that those words appeared in The Scotsman just 24 hours before the discovery of the body of Scott Hutchison, someone who was well known to Adam given that his own first band, Y’All Is Fantasy Island, were often on the same bills as Frightened Rabbit back in the days when the latter were setting out. Adam’s interview would have been given before Scott’s initial disappearance and there’s no question that the grim outcome would have shaken him to the core.

I have been fortunate enough to get to know Adam Stafford a little bit over the past few years, stemming back to him accepting an offer to support Butcher Boy at a gig that I promoted back in 2011. I’ve seen him live on numerous occasions at all sorts of venues. He cared passionately about his art and on every single occasion, whether there were just a handful of paying punters or the venue was packed and hot, he never failed to give it his all, ending every show drenched in sweat and on the verge of seemingly physical exhaustion.

I’ve learned over those years that he is a very modest and unassuming individual, someone who is genuinely grateful when anyone comes up to him to offer thanks and/or congratulations. I think I can just about get away with calling him a friend, and my hope is that over the coming weeks or months, however long it takes, I’ll hook up with him for a sit down and a gab. I’ve made the offer and said that I’d be happy to keep music off the agenda – so with a bit of luck he can educate me on aspects of his other passion, movies and film-making.

I’m going to end this with another opportunity to enjoy a criminally neglected 45 from the Y’All Is Fantasy Island era, one which would have sounded superb blasting out of the transistor radio during the daytime and as part of chart rundowns. It formed part of my set at the last Simply Thrilled Night and I’ve every intention of airing it again next time around:-

mp3 : Y’All Is Fantasy Island – With Handclaps

One day, I’ll find time to pull together an ICA.

JC

This new single isn’t all that typical of Adam Stafford, but it does show he can turn his hand to catchy pop tunes (but then again, he was great at that in the days when he was part of Scottish indie/folk band Y’All Is Fantasy Island).

Here’s what one astute reviewer has said about the new video:-

Adam Stafford is a real voice of independence.

A songwriter moving to his own, very unique, set of rules, he recently unveiled new album ‘Taser Revelations’.

Out now on Song, By Toad, it’s a wonderful record, one rich in allusion and autobiographical detail.

Album highlight ‘Phantom Billions’ has now received the visual treatment, and it veers between dreamscapes and evocative dance routines.

Check it out now.

Enjoy.

I normally never put up a bonus posting on the day of a guest ICA. But this is for a special reason.

Along with my regular gig-going buddy Aldo I was at the gig last Friday night when Adam Stafford launched his new album Taser Revelations. My mate Mike from Manic Pop Thrills was also there, accompanied as usual by Mrs MPT.

Mike is one of the best at reviewing gigs, and he’s no mean photographer either. As I was already lined up to contribute to the evening by selling the merchandise after Adam had finished his set, we agreed that I’d be able to use Mike’s words as a review, on the basis we agreed with each other’s take on the evening.

Which we do. So here is Mike’s take on things:-

“Friday night at Summerhall was the album launch for Adam’s new record ‘Taser Revelations’ (reviewed on here on Thursday) and the show was every bit as special as the record.

Compared to previous shows where Adam performed on his own this one was, for me at least, a bit different as producer (and former bandmate) Robbie Lesiuk provided bass guitar on most of the songs.

Over the course of more than 75 minutes, Adam again illustrated what a singular performer he is with a set drawn from his last three albums and even one song from the repertoire of previous band Y’All Is Fantasy Island.

The songs from ‘Taser Revelations’ came first and the album’s closing track ‘The Penumbra’ eased us gently into the show. It was followed by a selection of other songs from record including a superb ‘Atheist Money’ and forthcoming pop single ‘Phantom Billions’.

It was also fascinating to watch what I’d imagined as being some sort of rhythm sample on ‘Railway Trespassers’ in fact being built from scratch by a series of percussive strikes to the guitar.

Promotional duties dispensed with (his words not mine!) the back catalogue was then raided for the remainder of the set.

Particularly well received were ‘Vanishing Tanks’ and ‘Shot-down You Summer Wannabe’ the latter which Adam had to restart as the rather lusty singalong from the Gerry Loves crew had put him off!

If that was an example of how difficult the technical aspects of these live shows can be it only served to emphasise how impressive this type of performance is.

Add in just how compelling a performer Adam is (and of course the records) and it’s hard not to regard Mr Stafford as one of Scotland’s premier musical talents at the moment.

Beforehand Dan Willson had delivered a well-received Withered Hand solo set. These are always enjoyable experiences given the quality of the tunes and Dan’s between song repartee and Friday was no exception. We were also treated to a new song.

Opener Robbie Lesiuk also impressed in his own right despite having crawled out of his sick bed to play. I’ve seen audience members frequently looking at their watches during support sets before but never the artist which suggests that Robbie was checking how quickly he could get backstage to take another Lemsip!

But he still delivered an enjoyable set, even if for the second time in a row I didn’t see the full performance (in this case due to interview duties).

Adam played:

1.The Penumbra 2. Phantom Billions 3. Atheist Money 4. Black Lung Applications 5. Railway Trespassers 6. Cold Seas 7. Vanishing Tanks 8. Please 9. Shot-down You Summer Wannabe 10. His Acres

Encore

11. Phased Return 12. With Handclaps

Adam will be out an about in Scotland over the next 2 or 3 weeks (dates here) even if a Dundee show will have to wait until his co-headline show with Book Group on Saturday 21 May.

JC adds:-

Here’s two examples of Adam’s genius.  It’s all live….

Shot Down You Summer Wannabes

Enjoy.

The rather strange title of today’s posting simply reflects the fact that I’ve been waiting patiently for an awful long time for March 2016 to arrive as it marks the month when Adam Stafford finally gets to release his new album.

I’ve said before that if Adam lived and worked in somewhere like New York, Berlin or Tokyo he would be hailed as a visionary genius making the most extraordinary music, much of which would be famous to millions thanks to it being snapped up by directors and producers for use on film soundtracks or as themes to strange and unfathomable TV commercials. It’s his rotten luck to be Scottish and while he is revered by those of us who are fans there are just far too many folk out there who never get the chance to hear or experience this most incredible of talents.

His last work, Imaginary Walls Collapse, should have won the Scottish Album of The Year after its release in 2013 but had to make do with simply making the long list of finalists. It was an album that defied conventional description, with a thin white duke playing his guitar, beat-boxing, crooning and using effect pedals to make sounds unlike any other release that year. And it worked even better in the live setting.

I feared that an album of such magnitude couldn’t be topped but I’m thrilled and amazed that Taser Revelations, which comes out on Song By Toad Records on Monday 14 March, achieves that by some distance as it is an alt-music opus in the truest sense of the phrase.

If you like your music to be accessible, radio friendly and occasionally danceable in an indie-disco sort of way then there are a number of songs on this album which will more than tick all of your boxes. On the other hand, if you prefer things to be more experimental, weird and reminiscent of the sort of stuff that would stop you in your tracks when spun by John Peel, then there is a great deal within its grooves that you will never tire of.  It’s a captivating album that seems to offer something new and different with every listen with all sorts of subtle and clever bits of melody, instrumentation and vocal delivery (often thanks to the wonderful harmonies provided by Anna Miles). Oh and then there’s the continued evidence that Adam Stafford is one of the finest guitarists of this era.

The songs have been in the live sets for quite a while and indeed it was as long ago as ten months that a taster single was released :-

mp3 : Adam Stafford – Atheist Money

A second single, Phantom Billions is due for release soon. It contains steel drums and is set to a foot-tapping, head-nodding and infectiously catchy beat that pisses all over anything in the charts right now. I’ll get round to sharing that tune with you when the promo video becomes available!! (one has been made which is a first for the record label and the artist). In the meantime, I recommend that you demonstrate your impeccable taste by getting a hold of the album, which is available on pre-order, from here.

Finally….and at the risk of becoming repetitive, I have to emphasise that hearing the music of Adam Stafford is one thing – seeing him perform on stage is something else altogether. Thankfully there’s an upcoming short tour:-

March 11th (Fri): Summerhall, Edinburgh, The Dissection Room w/Robbie Lesiuk & Withered Hand (solo)
March 17th (Thurs): Mad Hatters, Inverness w/Robbie Lesiuk
March 18th (Fri): The Old Bridge Inn, Aviemore w/Robbie Lesiuk
March 19th (Sat): Aberdeen, Downstairs, w/Robbie Lesiuk & Special Guests
March 20th (Sun): Glasgow, The Hug & Pint w/Robbie Lesiuk, WOLF and Sweethearts of The Prison Rodeo

I’ll certainly be at the Edinburgh and Glasgow gigs. Most likely weeping with unbridled happiness down the front.

I’ve never shied away from talking up the talent that is Adam Stafford.

The world should by now have taken full notice of the truly magnificent music he has been offering up over the past decade, initially as part of the band Y’All Is Fantasy Island and more recently as a solo performer; but sadly, and despite being feted by just about everyone who is anyone in the Scottish music industry, he is still very much a cult figure.

Things could have changed a bit this time last year when Imaginary Walls Collapse made the 20-strong longlist for the 2014 Scottish Album of The Year (SAY) Award but sadly, and criminally, it fell agonisingly short of the ten that made it onto the shortlist.

But perhaps that is just as well, for I think it will be impossible for any singer or band to pick up the SAY Award more than once (not until it has been going for at least 10-15 years) and I’m willing to say with extreme confidence that Adam Stafford is a great bet to win outright next year.

I make this bold statement not on the back of having secretly invented a time machine that fast forwarded to the 2016 Awards Ceremony but purely on the basis of hearing the first bit of music that will feature on Adam’s next LP – tentatively called Taser Revelations – which is due for release this coming autumn.

Said bit of music is coming out as download single tomorrow (Friday 1 May) via Song, By Toad Records. It is called Atheist Money and it takes everything that was so special and extraordinary with the last LP up to a whole new level.

There’s no way of course that I’m providing a link to an mp3 of the song – instead you can click here to listen on soundcloud and then click here to take yourself over to the Song, By Toad shop where I hope you will give the single your full support.

But as I’ve said before on T(n)VV, hearing the music of Adam Stafford is one thing – seeing him perform on stage is something else altogether and I’m delighted to pass on the news that he is embarking on a small tour of Scotland and England to coincide with the singles release, the dates are:

May 1st – Newport-on-Tay – New Port Sound, Rio Community Centre,
May 2nd – Aberdeen – Cellar 35
May 5th – Stirling – Tollbooth
May 6th – Glasgow – Glad Cafe
May 7th – Leeds – The Fox & Newt
May 8th – London – Disorder at The Old Blue Last
May 10th – Edinburgh – Summerhall, Dissection Room

Go along and be astounded. And remember, buy Atheist Money now so that you can boast to everyone that you were among the first to pick up on it.

In the meantime please enjoy this, a single from 2012 (shared with Rick Redbeard) that was later re-recorded for Imaginary Walls Collapse

mp3 : Adam Stafford – Vanishing Tanks

Enjoy

I may well be biased as I booked him as the support act to Butcher Boy in the first ever gig that I promoted back in 2011 to celebrate the 5th birthday of the old blog, but I think that Adam Stafford is one of the most underrated and under-appreciated talents of our time.

My first exposure to his work was when he was part of Y’All Is Fantasy Island but it is what he has done since the band broke up in 2010 that is really extraordinary. The first few times I saw him live in the solo setting I was completely in awe of what he was doing as the sounds that were coming from the stage were equally bewildering and bewitching and the result of highly clever and imaginative vocal and instrumental looping. I had never seen or heard anything like this before and even now, having seen him perform maybe 20 or so times, I still get a huge kick from watching him in action.

His contribution of Vanishing Tanks to a split 7″ single with Rick Redbeard on Edinburgh-label Gerry Loves Records was my favourite bit of vinyl ib 2012 while the following year he found himself on the radar of many a Scottish blogger and music critic thanks to the brilliance of his LP Imaginary Walls Collapse again on an Edinburgh label, this time Song, By Toad Records.

Adam is also a highly regarded film, documentary and video maker with his 2009 work The Shutdown gaining a number of international awards on its release while his 2010 video for Seven Years of Letters for The Twilight Sad also gained much favourable comment.

The last I spoke to him was at the tail end of last year when he opened for The Twilight Sad at one of the gigs of 2014 at The Tolbooth in Stirling where, as his norm, he set a very high standard for the main act to follow. He told me that he is working on new material that hopefully will see the light of day in the months ahead.

In the meantime, please enjoy one of what was nine outstanding tracks from his 2013 LP:-

mp3 : Adam Stafford – Cold Seas

But given I believe he is a talent best seen live, then please also enjoy this performance of the same song as recorded for a Song, By Toad session:-

And while I’m here….I’ll feature something recorded back in 2010 as Adam Stafford & The Death Bridge Convention as part of for a seven-track covers LP entitled Music in The Mirabel. The title track set to music a poem by the Austrian poet George Trakl (1887 – 1914) while the six songs had originally been recorded by Daniel Johnson, Devo, The Handsome Family, Jandek, The Police and The Twilight Sad…which is about as eclectic a set of influences as you could ever imagine:-

mp3 : Adam Stafford & The Death Bridge Convention – Walking For Two Hours

Enjoy.