VIDEO PREMIERE: Sons Of The Descent – Roomful of Heroes

VIDEO PREMIERE: Sons Of The Descent - Roomful of Heroes

Hugh Duggie (Mute Records Foil, and Lowlife) and Ian White ( Factory Records signing The Wendys) got together in 2013, having lost touch for a long time. A few years later, they were joined by Stephen ‘Bendy Toy’ Evans (previously championed by Steve Lamacq).

Sons Of The Descent released their first album, ‘Lazy Glamour’ in 2017 and was surprised and delighted to get some plays from Gid Coe on BBC 6music, Vic Galloway on BBC Scotland and various local and community stations. The band are based in Edinburgh, Leith and Fife. They play pop-tinged noir.

Roomful of Heroes is the latest single release from Sons Of The Descent and is out on Thursday 26th May and follows on from December’s Salaryman. It will also feature on the band’s second self-released album due out in Autumn 2022 on Brawsome Productions.

The new single ‘Roomful of Heroes’ has a dubby Summer evening vibe. Musically, think Bill Callahan’s ‘Have Fun With God’ dub album or the Clash’s ‘Sean Flynn’ from Combat Rock. It started as a simple echo-laden guitar part from Ian. Hugh and Stephen took that and shaped and crafted the soundscape with, amongst other things, accordion, sax, cicadas and driving beats. The original guitar part is barely heard.

Ian explains where the lyrics came from: “A few years ago, I went to see some bands at Edinburgh’s Summerhall Dissection Room. There were some visuals and props onstage featuring stars of tv and film, in or on domestic appliances. For some reason, this got my mind racing, and I started taking notes on my way home. Who might be my heroes or stars? Rosa Parks, Mary Barbour, Archie Gemmill and Wolverine … Anti-discrimination legends? Rent strike leaders? Football icons? Comic book figures?… What’s not to like? I walked across town in the hot, hazy small hours. During that journey, I talked to some people in crisis, or at least not in the best of places. These included a stoned kid who wrote beats and was thrown out by his parents, an elderly ex-military man going through a bin outside a deli looking for out of date edibles, and a well-known Edinburgh homeless man who told me to live organically, devour turmeric, and stay away from caffeine. These were people who had been or could be abandoned… ‘See you next Tuesday’. The song is an abstract reflection on that evening and my surreal cross-town venture.”

Watch ‘Roomful of Heroes’ – BELOW:

The band are back in rehearsals to get match fit for some Edinburgh Fringe low-key dates and will be playing live around the country in Autumn. Pre-lockdown SOTD played with: A Certain Ratio, The Blockheads, Mekons 79, The Wendys, Pilotcan, Kapil Seshasayee, Salt and various others.

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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