This Could Be You, Us, Or Anybody

Broken Chanter's new album- This Could Be Us, You, Or Anybody Else- is in the grand tradition of Glaswegian guitar bands, lyrically downbeat but with an eye towards the future and musically stirring. The sense of despair David MacGregor feels about many aspects of modern life is palpable- the first song is called The Future Is Bright And I Don't Want It, a song for the present complete with rousing, ringing guitars. The sleeve notes outline a variety of progressive causes and end with a call for Scottish independence. The album's first single was A Year Without Summer (a song with synths and keys alongside the guitars, striking a different musical tone).

MacGregor's disappointment with the state of the world- right wing populists that want to divide us using the politics of envy and victimhood, techno- feudalism, social media as a force for disconnection rather than unity- is clear. But despite this, he urges empathy and protest, unity in the face of 21st century breakdown. On Piazzale Loreto the drums skip and the bass bounds, optimistic music (and with hand claps provided by the blog legend that is JC from The Vinyl Villain). Piazzale Loreto is the public square in Milan that Mussolini was hung in, suspended by his ankles, after being executed by Italian partisans in 1945. 

On To The Victims They Call Citizens the band rattle and shake like Talking Heads and closer to home, the ramshackle attempts by early Orange Juice to sound like Chic. Atrocity/ Adverts/ Idiocy is urgent indie- funk, the slashing angry guitars echoing those of Gang Of Four and on final song CENTRS Broken Chanter show they can do the sweeping and soaring tunes with vulnerable and melancholic vocals as well as anyone else and just as you think that's it, they kick up a real storm, a swirling noise of drums, guitars and synths as a crescendo and a finale; a call to arms and a call for unity, to come together while the world goes down in flames around us. 

You can listen to and buy This Could Be You, Us, Or Anyone Else at Chemikal Underground and at Bandcamp. 

Oblique Saturdays

A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion. 

Last week's Oblique Strategy was Go to an extreme, move back to a more comfortable place. I posted various extremes- Gnod, Extreme Noise Terror and The KLF, Napalm Death, Husker Du, Steve Bicknell and Lords Of Afford- and a more comfortable Richard Norris ambient piece. Suggestions via the comment box and social media came in and included Cornelius, Extreme's horrific More Than Words, Allen Toussaint, Bad Brains, Durutti Column and Boards Of Canada (and this made me realise that in over fifteen years of blogging I have never once posted anything by Boards Of Canada- how strange). . 

I turned over today's Oblique Strategy card and it said this...

Imagine the piece as a series of disconnected events

That gave some food for thought and then something began to form in my head and selecting songs based on events fairly randomly, this happened...

Wednesday Morning 3 A.M.

Simon and Garfunkel's Wednesday Morning  3 A.M. is the last song on their debut album of the same name, a record that came out in 1964, sixty two years ago. Which has no real connection to this....

$1000 Wedding

Gram Parsons' $1000 Wedding is from Grievous Angel, a posthumous 1974 album with the groom stood up at a cheap wedding and going on a drinking spree. 'It's been a bad, bad day'. Which is fairly unconnected to this...

Captain's Holiday

Captain Beefheart went on holiday in 1974, surprisingly accessible funky rock from Bluejeans And Moonbeams. There's no connection between that and this....

Extinction Event Souvenir T- Shirt

Glasgow's Broken Chanter have been to the end of the world and have the souvenir t- shirt. The song came out in 2021, crashing and driving and ultimately uplifting Glaswegian indie rock. Which is not particularly connected to this....

Hard Ending

Hard Ending is by Sweden's Echo Ladies, a synthy dreampop song from a 2018 album called Pink Noise. 

Which just leaves the photo at the top of this post... one I've been waiting for nearly a year to use and been unable to work out how it could possibly illustrate or accompany a post and which is in no way connected to any of the songs. 

Last April we went to Morocco for five days and one day we went to a resort on the edge of the Sahara desert. The resort was  very new, not even finished and had a restaurant, a swimming pool, sun loungers and a spectacular view of the desert. The couple in the photo arrived not long before we left, both young, influencer looking and clearly benefiting from hours in the gym. They wandered round the site, looking for the best spot and having located it, the man took his top off to display his V- shaped torso and the woman began taking photos of him from behind, his body framed by the pool, the horizon and the Sahara. It was amazing to watch- they were so lacking in self- consciousness about what they were doing. 

Feel free to make your own suggestions of songs in response to Imagine the piece as a series of disconnected events in the comment box.