Northern Alliance - For the Grains of Sand

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4...according to our Brian on Tue 16 Jan, 2007.

Further epic, wistful guitar pop from Scotland courtesy of NORTHERN ALLIANCE . More mid-tempo melancholic guitar led pop, coming in somewhere between Sparklehorse, Delgados & Smog with bits of classic, windswept Scot-rock in there. There's a structured use of subtle feedback juxtaposed with the oh so slightly discordant semi acoustic rock sounds. Contains chiming, lazy guitars, modest keyboards & hazy, muffled vocals to produce windswept, powerful epic pop . Sad eyed, classic stuff from the Highlands that will appeal to fans of both Teenage Fanclub & Codeine.

Northern Alliance formed at a late Hogmanay party on January 4th, 2002. Naturally they were drunk. They make music very slowly and rest for long periods of time. They are over thirty years old. They are Doug Johnstone, Craig Smith and Viv Strachan. Here is a selection of facts:

Doug once had an emergency operation for an epigastric hernia. Craig once had a lung collapse on him. Viv is very healthy. One of them has a pre-molar tooth in a post-molar position. One of them has a PhD in nuclear physics. One of them has been awarded NME Single of the Week. Twice. One of them has been asked by Kurt Cobain if he had ‘any Benylin’.

In September 2003, they released their debut mini-album, ‘Hope in Little Things’, on 45B Records, their own imprint of Edinburgh label SL. The album was recorded in a basement. It received a bunch of incredibly favourable reviews from everyone from Q to Kerrang. It also got played a lot around the UK and Europe, and sold a good few copies to boot. Always nice.

The band have never played live. This is not a principle or anything, they’re just very lazy, and haven’t quite got round to it yet. They currently live in Edinburgh, Musselburgh and the Dolomite Hills of Italy. These days they are smoking less but drinking more, and they’ve bought a telescope and a collection of very cheap keyboards.

The band’s second record, ‘Disaster for Scotland’, was recorded as part of the Fence Records Picket Fence C Series in a loft. One day, maybe, they will make a record at sea level.

They have been compared to Sparklehorse, Will Oldham, Low, Mogwai, Mazzy Star, Mojave 3, Codeine, The Delgados, Teenage Fanclub, Slowdive and Smog. That’ll give you an idea where they’re at.

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