Miscelectric – a new album by Gordon Duthie


I first encountered Gordon Duthie a few years back when an editor flagged his music and I interviewed the man in the course of some black coffee in a backstreet café in darkest Kintore.

We added cake as I recall and split the bill.

When Gordon first came to my attention he had just released his third album A Thran Backwoods Poet. The Westhill singer/composer/musician had re-visited a family event in which the young men of the Luftwaffe had bombed and sunk his grandad’s fishing boat in Montrose harbour.
   
A year in the making, Thran represented a significant shift from the themes of sadness and isolation expressed in Gordon’s previous albums and, alongside titles such as Whisky Disco and Feel Loon did a Wildpoepen, Indeed, Gordon’s tribute to his grandad’s Sandhaven built FR106 Duthies featured ten quite provocative numbers.

Then came Dunt, Dunt, Dunt - his fourth album and again a full year in the making. Dunt looked deeply into the soulless existence of those micromanaged Gen-X Millennials who, said Gordon “will IM you. Then ignore you to your face … Millennials have no empathy and are socially a bit awkward … social media has pretty much changed the world”. Numbers such as Dead Dreams reflected on “Sitting for hours in a solid chair, listening to a man who sold his life … dead dreams inside us, fight an old child’s mind.”

“It’s about PowerPoint Hell” said Gordon, “we’ve all sat through it.”

In Young Kenny - A melodious but slightly mournful piece - Gordon described a composite character struggling with isolation and loneliness. “Young Kenny didn’t know who he was … it all came to a head … the mystical beauty of the coast, brought his mind back again.”

For 2018, Gordon has released a new album entitled ‘Miscelectric’ and I dare you to try before you buy.

"It's a bit of a mix of ideas - things I had that didn't fit in before" says Gordon. "I tried to make it into a continuous piece - covering some previous themes like the juxtaposition of saturated toxic modern technology against the quiet Aberdeenshire backdrop. The cover being an unlikely battleground - Pennan - for an AI Robot War!"

With pounding numbers including Misspent Youth, Modren, Gweed Man and Marchufacturing it’s a good listen.

Samples r’ @: https://soundcloud.com/gordonduthie/sets/miscelectric

Words (c) Duncan Harley. Music (c) Gordon Duthie

Location: Aberdeen, UK

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