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Tracer Trails First Birthday Party - The Irrisistable Rise of Cottage Industry Culture

Old St Paul’s Church Hall, Jeffrey St, Edinburgh, Oct 12 2007
A tracer trail is the streak of light left behind by a speeding bullet. It’s also the name of the micro cottage industry who’ve consistently promoted some of the most charming live shows in Edinburgh over the last year. To celebrate, a very special anniversary do will feature ex Appendix Out frontman Alasdair Roberts supported by PuMajaW, the spectral collaboration between vocalist Pinkie Maclure and John Wills, formerly of proto-shoegazers Loop, alongside DJs from Tracer Trails equally hand-knitted kindred spirits from Beard fanzine.

With previous shows having featured the likes of Jeffrey Lewis and all manner of sensitive troubadour types from the more melodic end of the current wave of alt-folk-pop-whatever, the emphasis of Tracer Trails is on the low-key.

““I don’t know if we achieve it,” chief Tracer Trail Emily Roff admits, “but I think there are people looking for more of an event. We’ve no ethos as such, other than whatever happens to fall into my tastes.”

Venues are important to Tracer Trails, with occasional shows at both the Collective and Stills Gallery, including a forthcoming Halloween extravaganza, while shows upstairs at Bristo Adventist Church, above the Forest Café, saw the provision of tea and toast on the menu.

“The tea and toast thing is faux naïve,” Roff says, “but I think it gives things a deliberate aesthetic. As far as I’m concerned I’d rather have a venue that doesn’t have a bar which makes money out of people.”

Hence TT’s birthday church social vibe at Old St Paul’s. Whether pure or puritanical, Tracer Trails has been an education for Roff.

“I was told recently that a tracer trail was also the aura that you see around things when you’ve taken hallucinogenics,” she deadpans. “That disappointed me slightly.”
www.myspace.com/tracertrails

The Herald, October 2007

ends

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