Gordon Duthie and Kintore Pictish stone – Credit: Duncan Harley.
By Duncan Harley.
With the release of his third album Thran, North East singer/songwriter/musician Gordon Duthie reflects on the 74 year old event in which his great grandfather’s fishing vessel, Fraserburgh registered Steam Drifter SS Duthies was sunk in Montrose Harbour by the young men of the Luftwaffe.
Alongside titles such as Whisky Disco and Feel Loon did a Wildpoepen, Gordon’s tribute to Sandhaven built FR106 Duthies is just one of ten provocative numbers in this new offering.
A year in the making, Thran represents a significant shift from the themes of sadness and isolation expressed in previous albums.
Westhill based and with roots in both Fraserburgh and Kintore, Gordon is well placed to comment on all things North East. With previous albums Shire and City and Multimedia Monster under his belt, this new album uncovers a different side of the man.
“My granny always accused me of being thran,” says Gordon.
“but how else can I be and what else can I write about? I can’t see any point in writing about the likes of San Francisco – what do I know about the city? – surely it must be better to write about where you know and belong.”
The explicit theme in this album is a politically charged nostalgia for simpler times. Moral values, the global culture of consumerism and the letting go of things come under scrutiny.
In Invisible Lines Gordon tackles the theme of poverty; Feel Loon refers to a place where “The only reality in this world is a place where no phone signal exists,” and concludes with the hopeful note that one day “You will open your mouth instead of your thumb.”
Mixed and Mastered by Thaddeus Moore of Sprout City Studios and combining voice, drum and pounding bass lines in an up tempo mix of styles, this is an album not to be missed.
For a man who started off his musical career as a four year old drummer on a temperance march Gordon Duthie has indeed come a long way.
Thran is available from most digital music stores and also direct from Gordon at www.gordonduthie.com
First published in the December 2014 edition of Aberdeen Leopard – All rights reserved ©
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