Small Nations Festival

Panda Su’s first gigs in Dundee were as a drummer in a death metal band!) Su has gone on to develop a writing technique that is as contradictory as it is charming. Simplicity is evident in the arrangements and melodies that curl up inside your head on first hearing Panda Su. Yet behind the simplicity lies a dark and sometimes menacing lyricist that is as likely to pull on the heartstrings of the world’s interlopers as she is to write a soaring pop anthem. Panda Su has been named Best Newcomer in the Jockrock Poll of the Scottish music industry, and comparisons have been drawn between Panda Su and French artist Coco Rosie as well as Florence and The Machine and Cat Power.

Lizzie Parks flew onto the scene in 2005 with her debut album ‘Watching Space’, an intimate glance into the young up and coming singers skill of songwriting. Featuring original compositions mixed with an eclectic choice of covers from Billie Holiday to Bjork, this was just a starting point from which Parks would jump in leaps and bounds on her path of musical discovery. Experimenting with more modern production techniques and creating a more up tempo soul jazz sound, Lizzy is currently in the process and writing and recording her fourth album.

Dublin’s DJ Kormac’s sound is good fun party music, dusty beats scattered with a maze of samples from various sources. including cut and paste master DJ Yoda, Radio 1’s very own queen of dance music Annie Mac, Ninja Tune’s DJ Food and the national newspaper the Guardian. His sound is good fun party music, dusty beats scattered with samples from various sources. A mixture of laid back Hip Hop beats and more upbeat sounds. DJ Kormac is also involved in an eleven piece band featuring a barbershop quartet backed by drums, double bass, trombone, clarinet, trumpet and banjo. And of course tying it all together DJ Kormac himself directing the sound through the maze of samples and beats that make this music so damn good!

One of Africa’s greatest guitarists, Mose Fanfan shot to fame in the late 1960s as 2nd lead guitar to the late ‘Franco’ Luambo Makaidi of OK Jazz – a group described by Mojo Magazine as ‘perhaps the most important dance band in African history’; Mose Fanfan became instrumental in the development of the groups classic ‘rumba Congolaise’ sound. Described alluringly by the Times as a,“Melodic, spiralling electric guitars drift in urbane but mellow fashion over rippling Afro-Latin rhythms with softly caressing vocals in a concoction that is highly danceable but requires a sensuous shuffle rather than a sweat- drenched workout.”