It would be fair to say that live albums either work or they don’t. Generally they don’t. They can frequently end up as self-indulgent, commercially-orientated attempts to capture the minds and money of a dedicated few; the sub-standard live offerings of Bowie and Led Zeppelin spring readily to mind.

Of course, Belle & Sebastian are not just any old band. For a start they are purportedly Scotland’s greatest – they were named as such in ‘The List’ magazine, yet have reached semi-cult status without sacrificing their distinctive baroque-pop sound for commercial success. And regardless, this is not just any old live album.

Taken from BBC sessions spanning a twelve-year career, this is effectively a greatest hits album without the commercial intent and with much more interest for new and old fans alike, with new tracks and surprising takes on old favourites. The opener, “The State I Am In,” is taken from their debut and introduces Murdoch’s tender lilting voice that fires through unexpectedly cutting lyrics. And that’s just for starters.

Experimenting in spoken word, the laid back “Shoot the Sexual Athlete” is one of four previously unreleased tracks that add another layer of intrigue to the harmonies that characterises all B & S work.

The alternative version of ‘Lazy Line Painter Jane’ is a more subdued and less polished offering than the previously released track, but even more personal, the recording sound quality dragging the listener into their beautiful world.

Elsewhere, Isobel Campbell’s haunting vocals on “Nothing in the Silence” seem a fitting way to mark her exit from the band in 2001.

The entire record is one of harmony, the intimate sound of the sessions stripping back songs that offers an opportunity to appreciate what Belle & Sebastian do best – write fantastic songs and play them magically.

Four stars

It’s 1.07 in the morning, in Farringdon, North London. Caspa’s remix of “Where’s my money?” rips through Room 3 at Fabriclive, the floor becomes a sea of limbs and bouncing “nu era” caps. If you could hear yourself think you might wonder at how anything got so big so quickly.

Seven years ago the creators of Dubstep could not have anticipated the wide-ranging affects of their innovations. The genre started in the South London suburbs where young DJs remixed garage tracks for the b-sides of their white label releases, incorporating their dark mood and strung-out beat, mixing in a minor key. Producers like Skream and Oris Jay resented the high-speed bass that dominated garage, so, taking influences from the Brixton Dub scene, they slowed the bass to 69 bpm and kept the kickdrum syncopated.

This created the perfect foundation for the brooding bass drops that define Dubstep’s grimy style. In 2001 Forward>> held the first Dubstep nights at the Velvet Rooms Club in Soho, while DMZ records was founded in 2003 by Digital Mystikz and soon hosted a night at Mass Club in Brixton with Benga (pictured left), Kode 9, Hijack and Skream, heralding the development of Dub in areas away from South London estates.

These clubs are essential to Dubstep’s development because a pair of laptop speakers cannot express what the genre has to offer; namely, deep, deep bass. Combined with clashing harmonies and a relentless beat, it is hypnotic, dirty, incredible music.

Dubstep is best heard in a club with a speaker system that will ‘make your chest cavity shudder’, where the sweaty, euphoric crowd add their style to the mix.

Recently Benga and Skream released the CD albums Diary of an Afro Warrior and Skream respectively. While the two albums are at first glance very different, they both contain accessible tracks that have stayed true to Dubstep’s roots. This release, marking the South London style’s entrance into mainstream music, now appears in CD shops and clubs across the country.
However, there has been a backlash against this new-found credibility. Skream’s track ‘Midnight Request Line’ is often dropped at commercial club nights, due to complaints from hardcore fans, who believe the genre has sold out.

They are right to stand up for their individuality; while similar artists Pendulum’s Hold Your Colour album was a drum n’ bass masterpiece, its commercial success encouraged a splurge of generic imitation tracks that stagnated the creative side of drum n’ bass music.

Thankfully, the emergence of Japanese and American Dubstep has kept the music fresh. The internet has turned Dubstep into a global phenomenon; fans can hear the newest tracks for free on music blogs and Dubstep forums, although nothing can compare to the grime and bass of a real night.

For new, innovative artists try the up-and-coming labels ‘Hench’ and ‘Tectonic.’ Otherwise give yourself a break from the indie norm and get to a Dubstep night.

Folk is sexy again.

At least, that’s true according to one excited female Bellowhead enthusiast I met at the Carling Academy tonight. It’s safe to say that, although I can’t remember a time when folk was sexy, the majority of the crowd at tonight’s concert probably can. A significant minority may well remember a time when the ‘old’ songs performed tonight were just songs.

There are bald heads and beards aplenty; it’s a night when those of us who wear our hair on top of our heads are in the minority. Nonetheless, Bellowhead do have broad appeal, and their ‘sexy’ brand of traditional English folk music has seduced a diverse and passionate audience.

Bellowhead are very adept at capturing the imagination of the listener. Their lyrics are integral to this; rarely will you see a performance where the vocalist’s words rise so clearly from the stage.

Many of the songs are rich in macabre stories and grotesque imagery, and the band believe that this attracts an audience tired of the staid lyrical content of today’s mainstream pop-songs. “There’s enough songs about love and birds singing in trees that we need songs about zombie soldiers” asserts John Spiers, a founding member of the band.

Certainly songs like ‘Widow’s Curse’ the tale of a woman giving herself an abortion by drinking boiling hot wine, provide a refreshing change from many of today’s pop songs, and, according to Paul Sartin, fiddler and oboist with the band, tap into a very human fascination. “It’s the same thing that appeals to people who read the News of the World, a fascination with the dark-side.”

Whatever the nature of their appeal, Bellowhead’s rise has been rapid. They were awarded Best Live Act at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards after playing just four gigs together, and earlier this summer played to a crowd of 40,000 at the Proms in the Park, an event which clearly left an impression on the band, despite the indignity of playing below the ABBA tribute band Bjorn Again on the event’s bill.

Fiddler and bagpiper Sam Sweeney admits to feeling overwhelmed at the sea of faces that met him at the biggest gig of his life. Tonight’s crowd, though significantly less than 40,000 strong, makes its presence felt in an impressively raucous fashion.

The gig opens with ‘Jordan’, whose anthemic refrain rouses the already boisterous crowd into a confused mess of sweat, facial hair and naked scalp. It also sets the tone for a night of songs delivered as enthusiastically as they are received.

The band had proudly recalled a recent gig during which the floor of the venue had been broken by the collective stamping feet of their crowd, and it is clear immediately that the integrity of the floor must be a concern for venue-owners across the country when Bellowhead tour.

Every time a band-member introduces a song its name is greeted by a chorus of cheers, and the words of each song from new album Matachin are echoed back to the stage by the crowd.

Theatrical stage-craft is an important part of the Bellowhead experience, and band members dance about the stage, singing, stamping feet, and generally inciting a riotous response from their crowd. They are a band that aim to please, and that are clearly enjoying their popularity. Bellowhead are proud of the heritage of their music, and of its rejection of the obsession with modernity which characterises the contemporary music scene.

“The idea that everything has to be new and a rebellion against music that’s gone before it is really immediate, it’s nice not to be doing that. It’s the natural thing to make something that’s been popular for 700 years popular again.”

Bellowhead do much to update the songs they resurrect. Each song is given a sonic overhaul, as Spiers says: ‘We’ll take one sea-shanty and make it sound like a disco track, and one sea-shanty and make it swing’.

All the band’s songs explode into life during their live-set, as the impressive musicianship of each performer is showcased in a performance which demonstrates the skill with which the band harness the romantic imagery of the songs they adapt, forging their own unique pop-rock-disco-folk anthems.

In their own words, the band aim to ‘make folk music attractive’ and if the rapture of tonight’s crowd is anything to go by, they are succeeding. However, judging by this audience, Bellowhead have a long way to go yet to truly make folk sexy again.