Reviews & features: Edge Festival

The Stranglers

HMV Picture House, Edinburgh, Fri 7 Aug

The opening night of this year’s Edge Festival, and while young folksters Mumford & Sons are playing the other side of town, it couldn’t be more different at the Picture House as old school punks The Stranglers keep things ‘Nice’n’Sleazy’. Formed in…

Unicorn Kid and Young Fathers

The man with the horn

He may wear a lion hat and be named after a fantasy creature, but with the Pet Shop Boys, Calvin Harris and a belting set at T on his side, Unicorn Kid is set to make myth a reality. The Lion and the Unicorn have long been heralded as hostile beasts.

Múm - Icelandic collective a family affair

Doug Johnstone meets Icelandic otherworld music collective, Múm

Getting the members of Icelandic folktronica collective Múm in the same place at the same time sounds like something of a cat-herding operation. With nine band members appearing on the band’s forthcoming fifth album, the beautifully titled Sing Along to…

Music hitlist

The best music from the festival

The Bang Bang Club, David Byrne, Dub Syndicate, The Edge, Rough Cut Nation, Rough Cut Nation, Shooglenifty, The Stranglers, Time(less) Machine

5 reasons to go see: The Telescopes

1. It’s a trip down memory lane. Formed in 1987 by frontman Stephen Lawrie, these wall-of-sound shoegazing-cum-baggy space-rock pioneers are the forgotten sons of 1990s indie. But forgotten no more! Cos they’re playing this gig, likes. 2. You get…

The Black Dog and Mr Copy set for Soma Records Night

It has become a bit of a mainstay at the Edge Festival and Glasgow’s premiere label, Soma Records, is back once again for its annual showcase of all that’s great and good in the world of house and techno. This year’s line-up includes seminal UK techno…

Edinburgh festival highlights: The top 30 shows

August’s finest entertainment at a glance

We bring you a selection of the best shows at Edinburgh this year across all the festivals, including barnstorming retelling of the Goethe story Faust, former Talking Head David Byrne in experimental mood, The Wire's creator David Simon and theatre…

Enter Shikari show at Edinburgh Edge Festival

Hardcore dance punk for teenagers to pensioners

For readers of a certain age, Enter Shikari might be a baffling proposition. Coming on like sonic napalm, their mix of hardcore metal and hard, fast trance beats firebomb the senses with speed and intensity. ‘To the greengrocer I’d say, we are just an…

Exposure: Múm

Múm are an icelandic band whose brooding, yet beautifully delicate electronica have been greatly revered far beyond their homeland over the years. Adopting arguably more accessible structures and melodies this time round, Múm return with their fifth…

Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip

Electrifying collaboration brought together by MySpace

Opposites attract, right? That certainly seems true for Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, the former being a short, stocky, shy beatmaster while the latter is a tall, skinny hyperactive wordsmith. ‘We both bring the best out of each other,’ says Pip, aka…

Miniprofile: Jay Brannan

Sound sugar-coated acoustica with crystal clear swooping vocals and an edge of stark sexuality.

Was it terrifying releasing your first album Goddamned yourself? It seems like the natural order of things to me because I’m such a weird person with very specific ideas and opinions and beliefs. It’s a lot of work, for sure. I’m like, ‘do I get to…

Midnight Juggernauts

Aussie trio hit the disco highway

In the past few months, the globetrotting Midnight Juggernauts have toured with Bloc Party, been featured in stroppy lifestyle bible Vice and even cooked for Justice – friends in high places to be sure. While not the latest act to attempt to infuse rock…

The Raconteurs

The seemingly spontaneous nature of the release of their frankly tremendous second album, Consolers of the Lonely, might suggest this quartet, the brainchild of Jack White and his long-time best bud Brendan Benson, were trading in off-the-cuff…

Five questions: Marco Bernardi

Marco Bernardi is the mild-mannered janitor behind Octogen, the jewel in Soma Records’ electronic crown. He comes to Edinburgh as part of the Edge Festival’s Soma Records Night and submits to our probing with peculiar results 5 words to describe your…

Drive-By Truckers - Evolution rock

Drive-By Truckers may hail from America’s south but they do way more than your average redneck stomp. Doug Johnstone meets an ambitious rock band unafraid to take themselves and their audience to new highs

Bow Selecta - Dizzee Rascal Interview

He’s worked with Arctic Monkeys and Calvin Harris while giving British rap a good name. With his own record label on the rise, urban music star Dizzee Rascal tells Miles Johnson about a life of grime.

Sultans of swing - Pendulum Interview

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Hardcore drum & bass fans may have objected to the rockier feel of Pendulum’s new sound, but Richie Meldrum finds original member Rob Swire in no mood to apologise

Scouting For Girls

Edge Festival

What a rollercoaster ride it’s been for this London-based indie pop outfit since ‘She’s So Lovely’ crashed into the top ten in 2007. Typical of their instantly catchy, mass-audience appeal, the single had four old school friends finally leaving behind…