Scotland Today

Building on the many indie breakthroughs of the '80s and '90s, Scottish bands have taken a congenital yen for originality and innovation into the 21st Century's fertile creative landscape to produce a vibrant musical scene that sets veterans alongside fresh faces, dance-mongers next to six-string songsmiths, and mellow folkies next to talent show superstars . . . speaking of which, we open up with Susan Boyle's pretty and emotionally powerful cover of the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" before adrenalizing the dancefloor with Calvin Harris ("You Used to Hold Me") and enjoying a mellow moment with former Orange Juice frontman Edwyn Collins.

Alumni from the Delgados and Del Amitri can be found among our Next Steps.

Our cornucopia of current sonic treats from north of the border continues to delight here in Next Steps, as the marvelously (and phonetically) named Dunderheids combine sweet vocal melody with a slowly twisting guitar thread on "Unsteady", while Emma Pollock — formerly of the excellent Delgados — comes over all conceptual with "Red Orange Green" from 2010's The Law of Large Numbers. One of Pollock's recent collaborators, Kenny Anderson aka King Creosote, lends palpable anthemic heft to "Home in a Sentence", and Justin Currie — best known for his early '90s successes with Del Amitri — charts similar waters on "A Man With Nothing to Do".

Miss the Occupier cranks it up, and Dam Mantle turns it on its head, in Deep Cuts.

Scotland has long been a creative furnace where intelligence, melody and energy have been the raw ingredients from which great indie rock has been forged — and here in Deep Cuts you'll discover that there's plenty more to be discovered in the country's clubs, bars and muso basements. Firebrand three-piece Miss the Occupier takes less than two minutes to get its pogo-precipitating point across on "Glue Me to Thee" from standout EP The Heart Is Deceitful (Above All Things), the Paraffins mix a simple kind of catchiness with lo-fi smarts on "Something Good", and Dam Mantle — the stage moniker used by Tom Marshallsay — does incredible things with electronica on "Theatre".

Fuelled by an inexhaustible talent pool, brimming with innovation, and rooted in a modern tradition that takes in global pioneers of across a wide range of genres and styles, the Scottish music scene continues to punch above its weight. No wonder King Tut's Wah Wah Hut is considered one of the best venues in the world, a hive of fresh talent for the past two decades. Here, we offer you a broad overview of the finest movers and groovers Scotland has to offer, including the Mercury Prize-nominated Biffy Clyro, evergreen jangle-meisters Belle & Sebastian, seasoned indie guitar heroes Teenage Fanclub, wall-of-sound climbers Glasvegas, gods of out-there electronica Boards of Canada, razor-sharp neo-new wavers Franz Ferdinand, and many more to boot. If you're in need of direction, our advice is simple: look north.