Fife DIY collective and label Fence excels at many things, including crafting covetable records, magical live events, and wordplay.
So it was that this smaller version of their much-loved seaside Homegame festival was named Gnomegame.
The elfin theme was embraced by Fence's latest signing, psych-folk troubadour Monoganon, who serenaded us with an air of professorial pastiche and a briefcase bearing the insignia Gnome Chomsky. Elsewhere, upcoming alt-rock scholars Book Group were outstanding, harnessing Bandwagonesque -era Teenage Fanclub and Grandaddy, while Optimo filth-groove miscreants Golden Teacher were equal parts electro-pervs and Warholian post-punk fantasy.
FOUND's Lomond Campbell and River of Slime explored far-flung kosmiche-pop to delirious effect, and post-folk enchanters eagleowl provoked an onset of mass-weeping thanks to the exquisite psalms and chamber-krautrock of their debut This Silent Year. Indie-pop prodigies Randolph's Leap maintained their glorious run of not putting a foot (or couplet) wrong, and tireless Fence boss/organiser The Pictish Trail unleashed a stellar set of searing, euphoric pop backed by Eigg thrash-metallers The Massacre Cave.
Kid Canaveral's alt-rock rapture included a death-disco rendition of Erasure's Sometimes, and the startling chart covers continued apace with blues-punk heartbreakers Sparrow and the Workshop, who rewired 2 Unlimited's techno-hysterical hit No Limits amid raucous previews from their forthcoming album, Murderopolis.
Fence founder and visionary King Creosote was conspicuous by his Gnomegame absence, but his grassroots community spirit prevailed at the rugby club under his Alter-Ego Trading Company banner. He was joined by auspicious singer-songwriter Lidh and psychobilly-seducer Gummi Bako for a sublime and hilarious fundraising/membership drive in aid of Anstruther Improvements Association, whose concerns include the fragile Hew Scott Hall: long the heart of Fence events, and sadly missed this year.
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