Aidan John Moffat – THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #8 : ALOHA HAWAII

Here’s Aidan Moffat popping up again for the second time in three weeks.

Aloha Hawaii is a collaboration between Aidan and Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai. Here’s a press release they once put out:-

This the result of at least a decade of (often drunken) planning that has finally come to some form of fruition: to record any kind of sounds that please our four ears whenever we have the time, inspiration and enthusiasm. There is no game-plan, no style, no genre; anything that makes us smile will make it onto our records, which will take the form of sporadic, vinyl-only singles to be released on any record label willing to accommodate us over the next year or two.

There will be no digital formats whatsoever.

This could be a statement about the cheapening of an art-form in a world of disposable download culture or it could simply mean that we’re interminably old-fashioned and hopelessly out of date. We also reserve the right to change our minds.

That was back in September 2008 and it was to help publicise that the debut single was coming out on 10″ vinyl on Chemikal Underground, consisting of three bits of instrumental music with the lead track quite frankly becoming a huge influence on the likes of Fuck Buttons who have been such trailblazers in the past few years.

mp3 : Aloha Hawaii – Towns On The Moon

This remains the only release that Aloha Hawaii have ever issued. I guess that Aidan and Stuart took up the option of changing their minds.

Enjoy

Aidan John Moffat

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #6 : AIDAN JOHN MOFFAT

Aidan John Moffat is the most diversely talented and intriguing Scottish musician of my generation.

He celebrates his 42nd birthday next week and he’s now been a staple part of the music scene in my part of the world for 20 years ever since Arab Strap came to prominence. He’s never been one to let any grass grow under his feet whether it has been recording albums – musical and spoken-word – under his own name), ambient dance music under the guise of L Pierre or Lucky Pierre, as part other of groups such as the low-fi The Angry Buddhists or the hard-to-pigeonhole Aloha Hawaii, as guest vocalist with countless others such as Mogwai and R M Hubbert and not forgetting his incredible collaboration with jazz musician Bill Wells that led to the Scottish Album of the Year award for 2011 for Everything’s Getting Older (the follow-up,The Most Important Place In The World, has just been released). Then of course 2014 saw him spend most of his time exploring the oral traditions of Scottish music with a tour of some very unusual venues and the making of a documentary film that was shown at the Barrowlands in Glasgow.

In short, he’s a one-off and he’s a national treasure.

I thought I’d treat you to one something from the 2009 release How To Get To Heaven From Scotland together with a rare live radio session.

mp3 : Aidan John Moffat & The Best Ofs – Big Blonde
mp3 : Aidan John Moffat & The Best Ofs – Big Blonde (session)

Given his propensity for being part of acts that begin with the letter ‘A’ you can bank on Aidan featuring in this slot a few more times in the coming weeks.