Red Stripe Music Awards 2010
Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh
03/02/2010

It’s admirable that the UK’s leading brand of Jamaican lager beer should make an effort to champion unsung talent in cities across the country. This is especially true when popular opinion dictates that many of its selected locations boast little in the way of a music scene, as is the case with Edinburgh. As the Scottish capital’s local showcase unfolds, it becomes apparent that this goal is not only admirable, but also extremely optimistic.

Opening act Carrie Mac makes an impression as a sassy singer/songwriter with an enviable vocal range. Aided by bossanova-tinged guitar accompaniment, however, her performance comes across as a mannered effort to combine Duffy‘s brassy swagger with Katie Melua’s precious take on jazz. There’s no doubting Carrie’s talent, but with her eyes fixed so firmly on the charts, she’s yet to find a real voice of her own.

Similar complaints can be leveled at The Fire and I And Pose Victorious. The former, a duo, deliver a shallow aural assault, specializing in crunching, processed chords, shouted backing vocals and pulsating synthesizer effects. The latter, meanwhile, appear to have no aspirations beyond imbuing inane lad-rock with a spirit of ill-deserved Celtic triumphalism, coming across like a nightmare hybrid of The Kooks and The View, fronted by James Morrison. They have the capacity to be huge, yet it’s dispiriting to find young talents producing such derivative music.

Though all three initial acts are markedly different in their sound, they are near-identical in their conservatism, seemingly uninterested in venturing outwith the confines of their genre of choice. It would be tempting to disavow the vacuum-like nature of Edinburgh’s music scene for having deprived obvious talents of ambition and inspiration, were it not for Come On Gang! and The Banana Sessions’ sets proving that relative isolation can breed personality and invention in abundance. Both acts’ performances hint at eclectic record collections, an understanding of musical dynamics and aesthetic agendas with which their material is informed. Though Come On Gang! impress the most, vocalist/drummer Sarah Tanat Jones’s voice exuding a detached cool, her frenetic rhythms underpinning angular guitar and bass grooves, The Banana Sessions are well-chosen headliners, the collective’s brand of mutant folk-pop unanimously enjoyed by all in attendance.

Lewis Porteous