so… I’ve been meaning to blog about music a bit more often, but finding the time is always the stumbling block – or at least, the time to write neat formalised 250-word reviews or features, which would more often than not end up on isthismusic.com or jockrock.org.

However, using the term ‘blog’ in its loosest sense, I can, I hope, get away with a quickie mention of whatever said artist has coming up, with a picture, music, video, link. Maybe all four. Or maybe it’ll just be a tweet – who wants to read all this waffle when there’s music to be listened to?

So without further ado, RM Hubbert.
Am not sure when I first became aware of Hubby, though this would almost certainly have been his considerable part as guitarist in El Hombre Trajeado – a band I saw a few times in the 90s (they existed for around 10 years starting in 1995. As a few appearances would have been support slots around Glasgow I’m not entirely sure of the wheres and whens… Sleazy’s for sure, maybe a slot on Ganger’s farewell show? – but his high-energy math-rock fretwork was always a standout of their gigs. (I’d say ‘math’ rather than ‘post’ due to the speed of much of the playing, but who ever let semantics get in the way of a good tune?)

My first encounter proper would have actually been related to his (then?) dayjob – as part of an internet company, Ubisan, who were in some way related to the people who were hosting my website (long story, probably lacking in acts, so we’ll skip that bit).

Then, Hubby re-emerged, having (as became clear) a troubled time personally, and using debut ‘First & Last’ as some kind of catharsis, took to the stage again. And ‘road’, the first time I saw him solo was one of the Slow Club ‘quiet’ shows organised by Smackvan, in Edinburgh.

Since then, I’ve come across Hubby several times (including the apearance at Doune The Rabbit Hole, pictured)- usually I don’t chat much to performers at gigs unless they’re clearly up for it, but oddly enough I had a good natter with him at a show a couple of Christmases ago, Jer Reid (formerly of Dog Faced Hermans) had been doing a gig a day in Stereo in Glasgow throughout December, and owing to a sparse crowd – blizzards had disrupted things to the state where guest musician Luke Sutherland was also unable to appear – there was plenty of time to talk about what he was up to, as well as the occasional confusion between himself and MJ Hibbert. He was working on a new album mainly, with Alex Kapranos producing and various guests appearing. Really just kicking off, this project all sounded like it would be amazing if it came off came to fruition. And guess what, it did, a few weeks ago with the launch of the star-studded ‘13 Lost and Found‘. It’s a spectacularly good album, and despite the very technical nature of the guitar work, somehow makes all that ‘difficult’ listening that El Hombre seem a decade away.

That brings us up to date – and since I’m not sure how I’m going to round off these posts, it’s handy that there’s a brand new video for his collaboration on the new album with Marion Kenny & Hanna Tuulikki.