Introducing... Yahweh

Published on Friday 20 March 2009 15:44

It's easy to forget that Scotland has produced some of the most influential music of the past decade. While bands all around the world reference Mogwai or Boards of Canada or Belle & Sebastian, there are also fledgling musicians closer to home who owe these trailblazers a debt.

One is Lewis Cook, an 18-year-old singer-songwriter who recently released his first album under stage name Yahweh. Now a student in Glasgow, Cook grew up in the small Dumfriesshire town of Moffat, where his love of music began:

"I think one of the biggest inspirations for me was when I heard Mogwai's EP+6," he says. "It totally opened my mind to a whole new concept of music and was my first introduction to minimalism. Similarly, Boards of Canada's Music Has The Right To Children was a real revelation."

Yahweh's LP, Tug of Love, is, thematically at least, a double-sided work: the first half dedicated to Glasgow and the second to Moffat. For a bedroom recording it's an alt-folk revelation, combining the wry lyricism of Arab Strap with subtle bursts of electronica and sampling.

What's more, if you order a copy from their MySpace it comes in a brown paper package tied with string, surely adding to the likelihood of it becoming a collector's item in the not too distant future.

• Yahweh play Mono, Glasgow on 23 March, Stereo, Glasgow on 11 April and Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh (with Meursault) on 20 June.

• For more blogs on the best unsigned bands in Scotland, visit Under the Radar