Edinburgh’s Hogmanay review: First Footin', various venues, Edinburgh

A series of free gigs in venues all over Edinburgh, First Footin’ offered a wide range of musical styles, writes Jay Richardson

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay review: First Footin', various venues, Edinburgh ***

Very well attended judging by the smattering of acts I saw, First Footin' on 1 January initially (and perhaps inevitably) had the air of the morning after the night before, with audiences drifting quietly but attentively between the various free gigs spread around the city. Not that Glasgow-based rapper Bemz is a man to go through the motions – he commanded the stage of the Music Hall in the Assembly Rooms with his bristling, intelligent lyrics, reflecting the alienation he experienced being transplanted from London to Ayrshire as child on the punchy Black Kid White City. A wordsmith of overt Christian faith, he was in contemplative mode with the reflective 26 but the tracks Raging Bull and Zidane were undeniable club bangers.

Appearing without her usual band at the same venue, Becky Sikasa jokingly admitted that her piano-based songs tend to the “depressive”, but she's a plaintively soulful artist with a honeyed vocal, her opening, a cappella track Lullaby creeping up with its understated message of defiance. Win was similarly delivered from the back foot, but it has a simple grace, while The Edge is a hauntingly delicate, subtly evocative ballad.

Bemz

Meanwhile at The Huxley – a busy pub with standing room only – Irish singer-songwriter and pianist Anna Leyden fought for her soft, ethereal tones to be heard. Accompanied by fiddler Charlie Stewart, theirs was a charming, mid-paced, melodic sound. That said, I Don't Like You contained a fierce steeliness, and Leyden acknowledged the influence of Kate Bush with a keenly trilling cover of Running Up That Hill.

Moving smoothly between jazz and R&B, Grace & The Flat Boys are a relaxed five-piece who most captivate when they slide into funk, and when singer Grace Dempsey relinquishes some of the poised control that characterises her winsome vocal. They were clearly enjoying themselves at Eve @ Virgin Hotel and transmitted that to the crowd. Solitude was a gorgeous, shuffling number, with the clattering locomotive of Take 3 a hip-swaying contrast.