Artist: Randolph’s Leap
Title: BMH
Format: digital
Cat#: Fika085SG3
Release date: 5th February 2021
Bandcamp | Spotify
BMH is the third single from Scottish folk-pop collective Randolph’s Leap’s forthcoming album Spirit Level.
“On one hand, it’s about the pretentious things people say to appear interesting. I found humour in the idea that the Big Momma’s House film franchise could be based on a critically-acclaimed and cherished novel (spoiler: it isn’t) and there are some digs at hipster culture. It’s also about a house not feeling like a home. Looking back, I reckon I was probably exaggerating the flaws in the house but I got a bit fixated on it, almost like it was haunting me or conspiring against me somehow.”
Spirit Level is an upbeat, melodic indie-pop album full of personality, catchy hooks and memorable lyrics, rich in textural, polyphonic arrangements, and capturing the infinite charm of Adam Ross, the leader of this 8-piece band.
As a core songwriter with a large ensemble, Adam Ross may draw comparison with Stephin Merritt or Neil Hannon, while mining the rich Scottish seam of Postcard Records and C86. And as with contemporaries King Creosote or Withered Hand, is unafraid of drawing on folk music’s story telling tradition, detailing the minutiae of life’s fluctuations, here packaged up in glorious, anthemic and energetic pop.
The titular ‘spirit level’ is a steady reference point over what had been an unsettled spell writing the album, with Adam Ross uprooting from a decade in Glasgow to a tauntingly lopsided house in rural Aberdeenshire, navigating his way through shifting phases in his well-being and happiness, and reflecting on the untimely death of two greatly admired acquaintances. That balancing act came in the form of music, in an optimistic, even celebratory, collection of songs.
Recorded over a period of a year in Glasgow with keyboard player Pete MacDonald engineering, mixing and producing the sessions at home, the album went off to mastering in the nick of time: the following night Pete’s flat went Up In Smoke in a massive fire, taking everything bar Pete (and his pet hedgehog, Frida) with it.
“The next generation of witty Scottish indie pop” The Quietus
“A band deserving of every shred of love and success which came Belle & Sebastian's way” The Scotsman
"The Jonathan Richman of Scottish indie" The Herald
Randolph’s Leap started out as a pseudonym for the solo output of Adam Ross, and now includes up to 8 people in the full live band. The debut Randolph’s Leap album, Clumsy Knot, came out in 2014, with another four live and studio albums and a handful of singles across labels Fence Collective, Olive Grove Records and Lost Map. In 2018 a touring theatre show called The Isle of Love was devised around the songs of Randolph’s Leap.
They’ve recorded several Marc Riley sessions, performed at Green Man, T in the Park, Indietracks, and The Edinburgh Fringe, and have toured with The Burning Hell and James Yorkston.
The Randolph’s Leap name is taken from a scenic location on the River Findhorn.
Randolph’s Leap are Adam Ross (songs, vocals, guitar), Adam Armour-Florence (drums), Ali Hendry (trumpet), Andrew MacLellan (guitar), Fraser Gibson (trombone) Heather Fox (violin), Pete MacDonald (keyboards) and Vicki Cole (bass).
“It reminds of the old Austin band Hollywood Gossip; just imagine Belle and Sebastian rushing through a tune just to cram it in under 3 minutes. I love that they don’t stray away from arrangements here with the horns, even though it definitely has the feel of more of a rock tune.” Austin Town Hall