I seem to be surrounded by single releases at the moment, and catching up on them is a huge pleasure - but inevitably means that I'm going to keep writing these increasingly lengthy 'catch up' posts about seemingly random collections of music. Today however there are a couple of potential themes - firstly all three of these acts have some connection with Edinburgh. While not always quite as productive or dynamic as Glasgow which houses the machinery of the Scottish music industry, there is a sense of something stirring on the east coast among a clutch of young bands just seeing their first releases. Secondly, these releases are by bands which are right at the start of their journey - a fragile and eventful time which often produces some of the most interesting recordings of a band's career. All of these releases deserve a listen, and ideally for you to part with the few quid necessary to get hold of them. They may just become little pieces of pop history after all!

Morris Major - Can't Go Back EP

It's been a productive winter in Edinburgh it seems, with a whole host of bands coming up with new things in the next few months. Since their debut EP graced these pages what seems only a short while ago, Morris Major have clearly been busy too, with a successful Song, By Toad gig under their belt and the recording of this new EP following swiftly in a period which for most acts is the fallow season before the year starts in earnest. This sense of urgency may come from the fact that Morris Major are racing against the clock - real lives bearing down on their ability to play and record together, and there is a sense of this in both the urgency of the music and Matthew Harrison's jaded but defiant lyrics here. As winter seems to have returned this morning, "Intrepid" is a suitable soundtrack. Its oddly summery cascade of ringing guitars are a contrast to a lyric which hinges on a journey through wintery conditions which dares to ask "why does a nation stand still?". There's a little nod to the notorious lack of resilience in the capital too, with the wry observation that there is a "crisis in London town/some white stuff is falling down".

Title track "Can't Go Back" has a pensive feel, a strange eastern European flavour adding to the air of paranoia. The guitars skitter playfully around the strangely foreign sounding tune as the lyric relates a tale of anonymity and flying under the radar - with Harrison claiming "I don't want to be seen/for reasons I just can't explain". Finally "Mines, Mills and Factories is a clever and measured post-industrial hymn to lost empire, forgotten prosperity, and dissolved pride - the work of "ignorant minds with reckless hands". Like most political songwriting this could all be very clumsy and dogmatic, but it comes across as gently human and considered, with Harrison expressing regret and frustration but never slipping into impotent rage. The churning guitars and complex basslines drive the song on with quiet insistence, just like the message here. The ability to write intelligent, captivating lyrics about something beyond love and lust is rare, and to couple it to deftly played, addictive tunes is a triumph. There may well be some changes coming up in the Morris Major camp over the next few months with members of the band scattering to the winds, and I can only hope that somehow, the inventive songwriting at the heart of these gems continues and that they resurface in some new form soon. In the meantime, download both this and their previous EP and marvel at how beautifully direct pop music can still be exciting and relevant.

Morris Major - Intrepid

The "Can't Go Back EP" will be available at Bandcamp from 1st April. Morris Major also appear at Edinburgh's Wee Red Bar on Friday 23rd March and Bannerman's on 4th April.

Letters - The Halfway House

It's strange how some bands receive so much early press that they seem to have been around for a very long time, when in fact - like Letters their earliest recordings are probably about a year old. After being tipped as one to watch in lots of influential places around the turn of 2011, Letters have done their growing-up as a band in the gaze of the often congratulatory but sometimes harshly critical blogosphere. But more positively, the latest fruits of this process of public maturity can be heard on "The Halfway House" which is a taste of what's to come on their debut EP "Older Motion Pictures" due later in the spring. The basic premise here is good old fashioned, anthemic pop music. Big soaring choruses, dynamic shifts and changes in pace, and vocals which ache with commitment. That alone would make this dark, noisy pop music pretty interesting in my book. The twist here though is the cello playing of Georgie Williamson. Throughout the song the instrument appears in several guises - firstly acting as part of the solid rhythm section and sawing out a moody undertone, but later in it's own moments of spiralling glory as the song builds to a rousing ending.

"The Halfway House" is heartfelt, chest-swelling stuff with a lyric which switches from tiny, detailed observations to sweeping descriptions of places and journeys, the opening few lines in particular being a masterclass in scene-setting - but I'll leave those to delight you on first listen as they did me. As such this is darkly pretty, stirring and sneakily catchy stuff. You're going to see those terms crop up a lot in reviews of Letters over the next year I'm sure - but it's not lazy journalism, it's just about the best description I can string together of this gem of a song. Any early concern that Letters palette was limited by their approach and their reliance on the cello is unfounded - they have the ability to conjure with moods and tones which makes me long for the EP and eventually the album to finally hear what they're capable of. If the point of releasing these songs is to hook us in, then mission accomplished.

Letters - The Halfway House

You can buy "The Halfway House" for just a pound on iTunes, the proceeds of which will help Letters to record their debut album. If ever there was a musical cause worthy of your quid, this is probably it. Letters are touring right now with Where We Lay Our Heads, appearing at The Captains Rest in Glasgow on 22nd March before heading into the Highlands.

Radials - Radials EP

One of the first records I reviewed here was the debut album by Edinburgh based Come On Gang!. It was a tough one to write in many ways, as the band had already performed their farewell show and it was as much a historical document as an exciting new release from the outset. It was however a fine album of lyrically reflective, punky pop songs which has lasted well and still gets played here lots. The various members of the band have scattered to other places, such is the Edinburgh music scene, but Radials sees the reappearance of vocalist and drummer Sarah Tanat-Jones in London as part of an entirely new band. On the surface at least, things are similar to the Come On Gang! blueprint, with Sarah's wonderfully wistful, dynamic vocal gracing these four urgent, delicate tunes. Opener "Ships In The Night" burns slowly but brightly, Sarah's vocal reaching incredible heights over a complex pulse of bass and a beautiful tangle of indie-pop guitars. Next up "Hands" is musically equally driven, but with an almost folky vocal which keeps the song from exploding for most of it's length - but when it does so, it reaches a scorching, drum heavy ending.

"Rooftops" is a quieter proposition, delicate and restrained, but delighting in some of the most intricate guitar work to be found here. This showcases perfectly the variations in tone, pace and colour which Radials can achieve despite taking the form of a fairly traditional trio completed by Matty Saywell's guitar and Al Baker's almost superhumanly deft bass work. Finally "Dashboard" manages to deliver that most elusive of things - an English road song. The Americans have always had this cornered with their long straight highways and epic coast-to-coast journeys but Radials were built for this, with tarmac and tyres embedded in their name. A rumble of distorted bass and Sarah's regret at reaching the edge of the city and losing the open road see this fade into the distance. It's easy to forget that Radials have only existed since last Autumn, and in that time seem to have become an industrious three-person arts collective with beautiful DIY sleeves and posters, and now this EP packed with tight, complex and spiky tunes. I can't wait to hear more, and I hope I manage to see this band play live very soon.

Radials - Ships In The Night

Maintaining the DIY ethic, each CD is hand-painted and comes in a 7" single sleeve with a fold out print cover featuring four separate artworks - one for each track. Time, thought and effort have gone into producing this - from the cover, right through to the intelligent pop music which graces the disc. It seems only right you buy a copy soon, by visiting the bands online store. Radials are playing all over London, and will be appearing an Manchester's Night and Day Cafe on April 19th, and Sneaky Pete's in Edinburgh on April 20th.

I sometimes wonder why any of us, bloggers or journalists alike, feel we have the right to expound on music. After all, it's art isn't it? There's no right or wrong way to go about this stuff. But then there is something about being the consumer here, and of demanding a level of quality which suits. Of course if it were that simple, we'd be writing dispassionate pieces for Which? magazine, stressing that this disc is reasonably good value because it clocks in at 41 minutes. FOUND have intrigued me for a while now, because of the explicit and unashamed artistry explored in their work. Indeed, it's impossible to read about them now without the baggage of Scottish Arts Council funding and their various, wonderfully outlandish projects being unearthed. But what is exciting about "Factorycraft" is how it bypasses all of this mythology, all of the confusing detail which made me wonder if FOUND were a band I could relate to? It's just a ridiculously good record. I could probably end this here, but - because we never do err on the side of brevity in the blog world - I won't of course.

So, for the uninitiated FOUND are three gentlemen from Edinburgh who got together at art school. Via a couple of confusing but brilliant albums, an ongoing dalliance with Fence which like all that label's dealings is never quite over, and the ambitious effort of releasing a ton of free stuff over the last year, they come to "Factorycraft". The title is no accident, and from the beautifully designed sleeve to the lyrics of recent single "Machine Age Dancing" the hum of industry and the absurd depersonalisation of automation and mass-production is never far from the foreground. Proceedings open with an old favourite in "Anti-Climb Paint", but it's been refreshed and reworked with slashing guitars and a choppier rhythm. However its howl of sexual frustration remains intact and as potent as ever. It's followed by the curiously titled "I'll Wake With A Seismic Head No More" which bleeps and shudders into life, before performing the musical equivalent of a tightly executed three-point turn into an anthemic rock chorus. Rarely do FOUND's songs remain in any niche or genre for long. The structures are complex - with a curious but insistent internal logic which is perhaps the biggest development since their earlier efforts.

"Blackette" slinks in behind a cartoon bassline, a deft touch of electronic rhythm preceding a simple, sing-along love song to particle physics - and somewhere around this point I realise that this is consistently brilliant stuff. Every song a polished gem of FOUND-style oddness, with a clever lyric and an unexpected turn towards the anthemic, before a shuddering time-shift into another genre entirely . On the previous FOUND records, there were plenty of strong songs of course, but their tendency to collapse in on themselves or to disappear far too soon into a fog of white-noise or bleeping was ever present. With this renewed focus, my personal album highlight arrives in "Lowlandness". It's a fantastic title for starters, but this disconcertingly wobbly ballad drenched in big guitars and burbling electronics resolves into a proper pop song in time for the frankly superb chorus. The lyrics displaying a touch of wry humour into the bargain. On "Every Hour That Passes" this reaches an Arab Strap-eque level of embittered introspection with "its a safe prediction you're sick of me, because I make you sick predictably". Another trademark FOUND focus shift, and the band are chanting "we're just not getting on" like a woozy punk chorus line. The wordplay and dark humour behind the lyrics is a constant delight too on "Factorycraft".

The album ends with "Blendbetter" - a bridge between the past and the future for FOUND, swooping in with a dizzy jangle and a menacing electronic drone. It stutters and bleeps into being with a dark undercurrent, as a tale of everyday romantic ineptitude spins out into a drawn out wash of note-bending noise. And then it explodes...fuzzily and messily with a cry of "...now nothing can hold me back". As frustrated and unresolved as it is triumphant, the track fades as it entered. Breathtakingly good, and hopelessly addictive.

Pigeonholing music is a curious thing. We all know it's wrong and lazy, but we all do it. Even the most eloquent of bloggers can't avoid the occasional genre tagging incident, and it's an easy way of marketing music - just look at how many bands describe themselves in terms of others for instance. So what happens when a band like FOUND defy easy categorisation by switching their reference points sometimes two or three times per song? One approach is to pin down one aspect of the band and amplify it - thus my advance knowledge of their art-school pedigree and their multimedia antics. Another is to invent a genre just for them, and so we have the curious but pretty odd concept of "glitch pop". However, I'm going to attempt to take the third path here and try to let the songs speak for themselves. It feels unseemly to be bandying abount end-of-the-year superlatives just yet. However, at first spin it becomes evident that there is something very special at work here.

FOUND - Lowlandness

This tour was originally scheduled for the end of last October, and was re-dated when Western Champion suffered some engine problems. However, with the usual care and attention lavished by The DTG things were soon sorted. One hangover from the original date however was the early start, which saw me staggering across the bridge to Temple Meads from my hotel at around 05:30. I wasn't feeling great - a sleepless and painful couple of days with a damaged ankle had left me tired and miserable - but I was determined to enjoy today's journey. Despite my fantastic vantage point above the station, I hadn't seen D1015 moving around either last night or this morning - and indeed there was no sign of the stock in the station. Wandered down to check if coffee was available yet and was disappointed. However, with the train crawling into the station with D1015 producing a cloud of blue smoke I used the time productively to get an atmospheric shot in the gloom of the station.

Found my seat and settled in for the day. The headache I'd been nursing began to disappear once coffee was served, and we were soon speeding northwards. A particularly fun ascent of the Lickey Incline saw D1015 working hard and making a fantastic noise at the front of the train. However, noted a message about disruption along our route - the Spitfire tour (which I would have been on but for this re-dating) had already been turned back to New Street and sent via Lichfield, and it was unclear quite what we'd end up doing. So, we had a longer than expected break in Birmingham and once a pilotman was found set off via Aston for Lichfield, rejoining our booked route at Wichnor Junction. Tours almost never seem to go this way because of the intensive Cross City service, but when it suits Network Rail it is, of course a different matter. Made our booked pick-ups at Derby and Chesterfield before taking the Old Road to bypass Sheffield as we headed for Wakefield Kirkgate via the link from Hare Park to Crofton West. After slowing a little before Huddersfield, the driver opened up Champion with an almighty blast of noise which visibly startled the waiting passengers. Once under the Pennines at Standedge we worked our way south to Stockport via a break at Denton where barely a coach made it onto the platform. Whilst these journeys with D1015 are full of 'firsts', this was a truly unique moment as this tiny station which receives one train each week hosted several hundred tour passengers! Back on board for the long, hard climb up to Buxton which prompted further music from the twin Maybach engines. A memorable trip indeed.

Buxton is a strange town with a steep hill in the middle. Most of what is at the bottom is duplicated at the top, meaning that people presumable have little need to move between the two parts? Decided, in the absence of anything much to do and with a steady drizzle falling, to walk up the hill which I'd decided against on my last visit. Finding nothing much of interest, I walked back down and explored some of the historic spa buildings. The town is pleasant if a little isolated - and that strange, frontier-town vibe seems to spur the locals into some very odd behaviours. Not least, some of the slowest walking I've experienced in years. Stocked up on provisions for the trip home and set off for the station. While I can see the reasons tour operators need to mix trips for 'normals' and 'cranks' in these tricky times, I'm not convinced the technique of dumping everyone at a destination for a few hours is the right way. Spitfire's method of running mini-tours and add-ons seems to work better and avoid half the train huddling miserably at the station for an hour or so!

Once the service train had shunted over into the other platform, our train returned to the platform, and cold, damp passengers gratefully boarded. For me, the next part of the trip was the clear highlight - propelling into the former XYZ sidings, we set off southwards, curving high over Buxton and travelling alongside the Hindlow branch for a while, before plunging into a deep gorge with the road and river below. The network of railways and tramways here was complex and there were occasional tantalising glimpses of this heritage as we turned north again towards Great Rocks. This area with its regular freight workings had been a source of wonder for many years, and with the weather a little brighter, it was fantastic to pass through the rather strange scenery in the quarries as we made swift progress towards Chinley, where we rejoined the Hope Valley line. The earlier problems with debris placed on the line at Tamworth had been cleared, but a fatality near Sheffield had produced further problems, particularly for Crosscountry whose service was in tatters. Thus unhindered, we sped south and made amazing progress arriving at New Street very early. We were booked a fairly long stop here, and rather strangely were held until time - well over 50 minutes by my reckoning despite nothing much being in our way. An early departure would also have avoided the need to divert into Gloucester and run the loco around - a late addition to the timings put in solely to path us around an express on the mainline. However, we duly completed the reversal, losing time into the bargain. Started to get a little nervous, with a 16 minute connection at Temple Meads into the last train home and about 10 minutes of delay already.

I need not have worried. The run from Gloucester to Bristol was one of the most incredible journeys I've done with D1015 which must have achieved some very impressive speeds. Presented ourselves at Bristol Temple Meads early, and as is traditional we were held at signals until our due time, before being let into the station about a minute late! Made the train home in plenty of time, with D1015 still singing quietly on the platform as we set off on an HST powered by a distant relative of the Maybach engine. Whilst today was a little too damp and dull to make the time in Buxton quite as enjoyable as it might have been, there were some stunning and memorable moments with Champion and some interesting track and scenery along the way. There are to be a few more trips later in the year which might need some serious investigation...

I can't explain why, but I find it incredibly strange and irritating to read blog entries that begin with "So...". I'm not sure why people do that - in conversation, you do it to call for attention and fill time until you get it. In written text, having someone's attention is implicit.

Perhaps it just annoys me because it reminds me of Seamus Heaney's attempt to translate "Hwæt" in Beowulf? Perhaps I just spend too much time thinking about this stuff?