First Footin' Reviews: Eyve | Broken Chanter | Dead Pony | Shuna Lovelle | The Lonely Together

Eyve | Jack V Photography

The weather may have forced the cancellation of the outdoor events planned for this year’s Hogmanay celebrations in Edinburgh, but the First Footin’ programme still went ahead on New Year’s Day, with small-scale gigs taking place in venues all around the city,

A charismatic on-stage presence, rapper and singer Eyve (★★★★) performed a beguiling blend of hip hop, jazz, R'n'B and occasional reggae at the Eve bar in the Virgin Hotel on the Cowgate. Reciting lyrics of social and political agitation over her own live-recorded looped beats, the Glasgow-based Zimbabwean was defiant about her appearance and sexuality on the slow, sultry (Who Are You?) To Judge Me, recalled the trip hop assurance of Neneh Cherry on Can't Touch This, and foregrounded her mental health struggles with growls and yelps on numbers such as When I Lost My Mind.

Appearing at Greyfriars Hall as a quartet featuring Franz Ferdinand drummer Audrey Tait, David MacGregor's oft-changing outfit Broken Chanter (★★★) combined wit and a grasp of a catchy indie-pop melody, even when expressing despair or rage. Tracks such as The Rain Doesn't Only Fall On You, an apparent riposte to the similarly-titled Travis track with a choppy guitar riff, and Who's Asking?, were instrumentally insistent, the latter threatening melancholy but proving ultimately uplifting.

Performing at the same venue, Dead Pony (★★★★) offered a relatively restrained performance considering their brash reputation, although puckish singer Anna Shields still waded into the crowd as the Glaswegian rockers delivered a blistering set. The crunchy, high octane guitar of Rainbows was a highlight, while MK Nothing was an adrenaline thrash that verged into nu-metal by its conclusion. Their use of sampled speech can feel a little affected at times, but the confrontational swagger of a track like Cobra is undeniably bracing.

At Copper Blossom on George Street, love and the minefield of negotiating it seemed to preoccupy Edinburgh singer-songwriter Shuna Lovelle (★★★), who brought an easy blend of soul, blues and dubstep to tracks of heartbreak and resilience. Sweet Escape had an appealing, chilled vibe while Three Little Words is an elegant ballad. Elsewhere though, her repertoire simmers with understated feminist rage and hard-earned wisdom.

Mike Baillie, aka The Lonely Together

Last but by no means least for my night's gig-going, Mike Baillie of The Lonely Together (★★★) hunkered down in the Element bar on Rose Street for an irreverent set of covers, most strikingly a whimsical, waltz-like reinvention of Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance With Somebody, lightly growled as if sung by Bryan Adams. He archly channelled Neil Young's regret in his take on Buffalo Springfield Again, but all these humorous adaptations clearly sprang from a genuine respect and affection for the music of North America, exemplified by the dreamy, elusive beauty of his original composition Los Angeles.

Read More: Karine Polwart: Come Away In, Edinburgh review: 'a warm gesture of winter hospitality'