Big Ned

Big Ned are Doom 'n' Roll.

"We are a band from Glasgow. We like slow bluesy Rock music and we like Country and Western. We like David Lynch movies. We love dark Americana. We love trance. We think three chords is too much."

Finally, their album is to be released, and should be in the shops by spring. Look out for the 7" single, "Bad Angel", and then the album "Big Ned", both released on Optimo Music.

The band also have a brand new line-up and are rehearsing to play live shows very soon. Announcements will be made. Prepare yourselves.

Releases on Optimo Music
"Bad Angel" (7" Single)
"Big Ned" (Album)

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Den Haan

Den Haan are Crème de Menthe & Gardi, who got together from their love of Italo, Erin Gray and shiny white shoes!..

Den Haan is the end product of collaboration between producer / songwriter Matthew Aldworth and DJ / Songwriter Andrew Gardiner. The band formed in summer 2006 after discovering a mutual love of disco and soft metal. After getting together as a one off, they soon realized the endless possibilities of their songwriting partnership and since then have developed their own unique style as well as a confident approach to modern audio production.

Releases on Optimo Music
"Release the Beast" (12" EP)

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Divorce

Born in Glasgow through a frustration that THEIR kinda music wasn't getting heard in the city, DIVORCE decided that instead of adding to the choir of miserablists and moaners they would instead 'make their own scene'.

Brought together through random encounters, solid friendships and drunken obsessive discussions at terrible parties, the five members who make up DIVORCE (Sinead Youth: vocals - Hillary Van Scoy: guitar, vocals - VSO: bass, vocals - Andy Browntown: drums, vocals - Vickie MacDonald: guitar ) had no more of an exacting agenda than just MAKE NOISE and MAKE IT GOOD.

The end result has been likened to a roughly grafted assemblage of no-wave punk bands like Teenage Jesus & DNA, the pig-fuck noise of Big Black and Swans and the modern-styled rhythmically violent sounds of bands like AIDS Wolf, Ex Models and PRE.

Divorce are best experienced live, in a small sweaty room, with all the ear-splitting volume & uninhibited audience confrontation that goes with it. Shows in Glasgow and around the UK are being planned right now.

Releases on Optimo Music
"" (10" EP)

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Dollskabeat

DOLLSKABEAT is a solo artist, producer and performer. Part Scot, part Belarusian, part Spacer Woman. A Gemini by sign, her musical creations rather than personality are equally split with sounds, hooks and melodies from alternative electronic, disco and RnB, whilst the arrangement and lyrics go pop in formation. A handful of demos played on BBC 6 Music & BBC Radio 1 granted her an invite to the Maida Vale studios to record a live session as the BBC's Scottish 'Artist to Watch for 2008'. Classical piano training and home made tracks built momentum, however insight into past and present production techniques coupled with live instrumentation gave her songs new life. DOLLSKABEAT loves to dance, play vintage synths and drum machines. She performs with her live 4 piece Dollska-band. The result is an extrovert show of sound, shapes and colours.

Releases on Optimo Music
"Zodiac Rising" (10" EP)

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Louise McVey & Cracks in the Concrete

Having returned to her native city Glasgow during on-going artistic explorations, Louise McVey met Graeme Miller. Their shared passion for dark unexplored musical territory has made for a very fruitful creative period; exploring dusty pianos, scuttling guitars, sonorous vocals and selective percussion. Also joined by Gordon Macpherson on drums, Jimmy O’Donnell on piano, and Garry Freckleton on bass guitar, McVey and Cracks in the Concrete create the sound of a cigar-filled room with a strangely wayward band: bow-stroking guitar and sultry torch singer wooing and terrifying the audience who are probably too mesmerised to move.

Alluring and provocative, Louise McVey & Cracks in the Concrete are just the latest in Optimo Music’s quest to find the perfect band for the next David Lynch movie.

Releases on Optimo Music
"Louise McVey & Cracks in the Concrete" ( Digital Single & 10" EP)

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Older Lover

Glasgow-based artist and musician Douglas Morland's solo guise as Older Lover is a smoky, noirish take on psychedelia, with glam stylings and dub sonics thrown in for good measure. Both the flickering silhouettes and magical lustre of the silver screen and the spooky hold on the imagination of the pulsing, saturated analogue signals of the immediately pre-digital cold war period are as much influences as any musical genre, past or present. Recorded and produced with a nod to the grain and patina of these past eras, via the homemade waywardness of Swell Maps or The Homosexuals, the Older Lover EP is an astute and compelling exercise in dark and seductive rock n roll. "The Older Lover is black of heart and forked of tongue. He'll steal your youth, he'll tear your drum. He played guitar with thee brigands Mother and the Addicts and was known for his filthy electric scree and mellifluous twang, but is playing away from home now, darkening doorways. Billowing coattails. Shadow. Hot breath. Flash of Knives..."

Releases on Optimo Music
"Older Lover" (10" EP)

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