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Formed in 2006, The Valkarys are an Edinburgh based psychedelic/garage band. Songwriter Scott Dunlop on lead vocals and guitar is joined by Craig Birrell on lead guitar, Colin Brennan on bass and Wayne Hoy on drums.
There’s a great vibe to this album. The Valkarys have a really solid tight knit indie sound, encapsulating different styles from surf guitar to a ‘Madchester’ type of sound too. The playing is really solid with great drumming and percussive rhythms to propel the songs along. There is also great variety of guitar tones for riffs and solos.
Meraki This song is embedded above. I really like the energy to this song which opens with a great riff with blues harp. The drumming is really tight and gives the song a great momentum. The vocals have a laid back style which suits the song really well and there are some great harmonies too.
Honey Hill This song has a laid back riff to open. It has a lamenting kind of feel to the vocals but the percussion gives the song a great momentum. The lead line that sits in the background gives a really good contrast.
Xylophobia This song has a great opening riff accompanied by trem guitar. Drums enter to give momentum and there’s a really nice tone to the lead guitar too. The vocals again have a laid back style which creates a nice contrast against the more uptempo elements. There are great harmonies again too. The lead line repeats through the song with a really nice use of wah in the solo.
Early Verve This song has a nice riff against a distorted trem guitar. It has a great laid back groove with a nice solo leading into the vocals. There are really solid solos between the verses and to round out the song too.
Waves This song has great distorted tone to open, a big sound with trem accompanied by a riff and shaker / tambourine percussion which is really effective. It has an almost lilting groove before taking on a double time feel with a great wah solo too before returning to the original feel. There are some great effects to end the song too.
We Are The World Slightly distorted jangly riff to open propelled by solid drumming and percussive rhythms. There’s a great momentum to the song, vocals have great harmonies again, really cool riff between the verses too.
For You Great distorted guitar tone against a more jangly riff. Again there is solid drumming and nice percussive rhythm to provide momentum. The vocals have a more spoken style and are very laid back. Great harmonies again, a solid groove and nice solo too.
Fistful of Dollars (revisited) A really nice chord vamp to open with vocals, the song evolves a great groove and drumming / percussion enter to propel it along with a great surf guitar riff. The song has an excellent momentum with another great surf riff and vocal harmonies which are repeated at the end of the song with a solo to round the song out.
(Lover) Don’t Go There’s a different feel to this song which opens with drumming and a more ‘choppy’ guitar. There’s great reverb on the vocals and another solid guitar solo too with a nice wah solo at the end of the song.
Starfish Great uptempo riff to open with great spoken vocals. There’s a really nice edge of tension to the song, some great harmonies and a great organ sound too.
