Soon: Le Thug

Le Thug are a 3 piece from Glasgow and the Outer Hebrides. They combine guitars with synths, samples and loops to create ambient pop-tinged drones that sound as if they started from those in-between song-snippets on MBV’s Loveless album, and gradually expanded into their full-blown, repetitively-structured, beautifully affecting own.

The band consists of Clio Alexandra MacLellan on vocals and bass, Danny McColgan on electronics, keys and sampler, and Michael Raphael Gilfedder on guitar and vocals. Their first release, a split 12’’, came out in April 2013, and in July they released their debut EP, Ripping. It offers four different variations on their special brew of densely cascading white waters of guitar and synth sound, yearning foghorn-call swathes that woozily stretch the harmony to macrocosmic microtonal expanses, warmly pulsating electronic rhythms, and vocals that are full of gritty character and ragged romanticism.

It looks like they are yet to play outside of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and have only recently hit some kind of home stretch in terms of line-up, song writing and sound. They already boast a winning combination of the fuzzy soundscapes of shoegaze with the abrasive tones of noise experimentalists such as Yellow Swans and the cool continental elegance of Stereolab, and easily transcend all these influences to weave their own kind of compelling, multifarious aural mystery.