The old adage about the tortoise and the hare doesn’t apply much to current pop, where careers can be written off as early as a debut album. However, Glasgow’s Errors may yet become the exception that proves the rule. Famously branded “the sound of the future” by Alan McGee in 2010, the band have managed five albums for Mogwai’s Rock Action label, without ever looking likely to make the leap to bigger venues. After years of making mostly instrumental, leftfield “post-electro”, the addition of Cecilia Stamp as a guest vocalist alongside Stephen Livingstone coincides with a new, prettier, pop sound, with echoes of New Order and early Simple Minds.
Although melancholy synthesiser and guitar instrumentals still feature, newer songs such as the unashamedly lovely Slow Rotor and New Winged Fire point to a fascinating crossroads, where one avenue leads back to the underground and the other to the chart domain of the likes of Years & Years and Bastille.
Slightly reminiscent of a young Björk, elfin brunette Stamp has also brought much-needed glamour to an otherwise blokey band whose bobbing beanie hats – matched with Livingstone’s full beard – can make them look like electro garden gnomes. But an Errors gig is still a lot of fun. When somebody bellows “Next tune!” every time Livingstone begins to speak, he chuckles and fires back: “I like talking between songs, so this is going to be the worst night of your life.”
Although they perhaps haven’t yet penned the one out-and-out pop song that could see a major breakthrough, the combination of their bubbling electronica, Stamp’s hard-yet-ethereal vocals and drummer James Hamilton’s creative, rave-like grooves is dreamlike at times. The audience roar the encores, and Livingstone ends up shaking people’s hands. A mere 11 years after Errors first started, everything is possible.
• At Lemon Tree, Aberdeen (01224 641122), on 10 April; Art School, Glasgow (0141-353 4533), on 11 April. Details: weareerrors.com
