Biography
The Nino Gadgies was an art-rock band based in Edinburgh active between the summers of 2012 and 2013. The band consisted of Ally Leitch (lyrics / lead vocals), Phil Gallagher (rhythm guitar / vocals), Ben Budin (lead guitar), Larry Miller (bass), Chris Hutchings (keyboards) and Wendy Hicks (drums / percussion / vocals).
The group was initially conceived of as a song-writing partnership between Gallagher and Leitch. Influenced by Mike Scott's (The Waterboys) concept of 'The Big Music', the pair sought to put together a sizeable ensemble with a variety of instruments and timbres. Enter keyboardist Hutchings, guitarist Budin, multi-instrumentalist Jess Holme, and Edinburgh gospel rock mainstay Neil Watson on bass. Drummer Wendy Hicks was added in autumn of 2012, with Holme departing and then Watson leaving to be replaced by Miller (a guitarist by trade but who had played bass with Leitch in previous band Elephantine, a staple of Edinburgh's heavy rock scene between 2005-2008) towards the turn of the year.
The Nino Gadgies' sound belied an eclectic mix of influences from across the spectrum of alternative music. At times folksy or rockabilly, at times darkly gothic and macabre, at times melodious. The ethos of the band was built around the 'Big Music' concept- multiple layers of melody, multiple layers of timbres, multiple different instruments. This manifested itself in a diverse melody section with Hutchings’ use of multiple keyboard voices; the bizarre, avant-garde lead guitar of Budin whose background was in noise rock and incidental music; Holme's unorthodox, almost industrial rock, use of violin, cello, banjo, and accordion. These formed the core of the melodic eccentricity and idiosyncrasy of the band's sound, underpinned by the bright shimmer of Gallagher's twelve-string rhythm guitar. Added to this was Leitch's evocative lyricism and moody baritone, complimented by Gallagher's rawer – often chanted – backing vocals and the three-part harmonies the two built with Hicks adding a female voice to harmony parts.
Tracks like ‘The Crimson Bow' and '… And Only Then' represent the band’s darker, macabre leanings. Assonance with screeching violins and slide guitar as backdrop to tales of Revelation-style prophesying and murder, loss, manipulation, corruption, violence, sacrifice, and depravity.
Not all tracks are expositions on the harrowing, however. More delicate numbers such as 'Beautiful Little Girl' and 'Now You've Got Some' are slow-paced, melodic offerings and reflect on aspects of history to be both celebrated and reviled from the Chartist movement to post-colonial partition, albeit with occasional helpings of sardonic humour. This sardonic tone is also evident in the band’s more fast-paced songs, such as 'Rivers of Blue Blood' and 'The Sickest Man', which are both near country-punk takes on the issues of class and leadership.
The band also had some more orthodox tracks: 'A Clichéd Man and His Common-Law Wife' and 'The Glorious Ninth' develop the themes of the mundane, pop culture and classical literary horror respectively and have a Smiths-esque sway to them that provides a counterweight the group's more sinister moments. Capping all of this off is ten-minute epic 'The New Jerusalem'; which builds slowly from the bottom up, peaking in a picturesque diagnosis of the world's ills and prognosis for its healing before losing itself in a psychedelic crescendo.
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