VITAL IDLES for a conglomerate of art outsiders and aesthetes are primitive, whimsically brutal. Sculpting a skeleton from a body already lean, there's a thrilling minimalism that runs through every beat and strum, a sparseness that feeds Jessica Higgins's surreal, oblique vocal delivery all the nourishment it needs. Playing their first shows in Glasgow in 2015 during a summer that never threatened to show up, Vital Idles' origins are closely tied with a tireless underground culture, a culture that informs the band's refusal to take it easy. Matthew Walkerdine, Nick Lynch and Higgins are responsible for Glasgow DIY publishing institution Good Press - an independent volunteer-staffed zine and art book shop - while Guitarist Ruari MacLean's pedigree stretches back to breakneck-indie-pop group Golden Grrrls and the Rose McDowall band.

Following two self-released demos and a sold out debut 7", Vital Idles arrive on Upset The Rhythm with 'Left Hand', a bare manifesto layered with meaning and non-meaning. The group can conceivably be called artists, or Artists, but in approaching their debut album Vital Idles have stripped away all extraneous ornamentation to sculpt an incredibly life-like, vibrant pop music completely detourned and re-thought.

ORDER OF THE TOAD Gemma Fleet (The Wharves, Thick Syrup, Rainham Sheds) and Robert Sotelo (Upset the Rhythm) relocated to Ibrox in Glasgow end of Summer 2017,where they met and subsequently began making music with drum expert and coffee aficionado Christopher Taylor under the guise Order of the Toad.

A social icebreaker between new friends and a reunion for Fleet and Sotelo musically as it guides a similar path towards the sound of their previous outfit Trogons: Laurel Canyon hippiedom x medieval inflection + early REM spareness = OOTT. Except nothing like that.

2PLY are Mark Briggs (bass/vocals) and Eothen Stearn (drums/vocals). Formed from the perils of 2017 the duo are a mixture of optimism and sarcasm. Looking to write songs on subject matters (such as Artificial Intelligence, the phenomena that is Hot Desking), that simultaneously interrogate and celebrate contemporary life.