Young guns and loud guitars

There is something stirring in the heart of Scotland.

Young gunslingers armed with guitars and melodies seem to be appearing with increasing regularity, with Glasgow forming the epicentre around which much of this new noise currently circles.

That is not to say there is a defining sound. Far from it. Supersun, Fatale, Ferguson HiFi, Sleepy Badgers and The Paris Match all trail their own distinct paths. But there is an underlying feeling. An attitude. A belief.

The time is now.

Seize it while you’re young and the world hasn’t beaten you into submission.

The Kaves take yet another route. Power chords and cascading guitars sweep across a huge sound, crowned with spiralling vocals that soar and crash with equal precision. Where some of their contemporaries deal in jangle, fuzz or psychedelic pop, The Kaves are looking upwards. Everything seems constructed on a grander scale.

Their music evokes the bleak beauty of the Highlands: standing alone while the wind and rain swirls around you, battered by the elements but still unable to ignore the view.

Yet The Kaves look considerably further afield for their musical inspiration. There’s more than a hint of Foo Fighters in the sheer intensity and power-chord angst. Stadium rock without the stadium. For now, anyway.

But it remains grounded in Scotland. Peel away those arena-sized trappings and somewhere underneath you can still hear the distant echo of Big Country.

Exile is where The Kaves currently stand: four tracks documenting where the band has travelled over the last six months or so and offering a few clues about where they might head next.

The highlight is undoubtedly Superglue.

This is where everything clicks. Chords. Melody. Celtic soul. Guitars.

Loud guitars.

But importantly, The Kaves understand that volume means considerably more when you occasionally turn it down. The bombast is interrupted by moments of restraint and vulnerability, giving the inevitable return of the noise somewhere to go. Loud. Quiet. Loud. It’s an old trick because it works.

Most recent track Mr Hollywood offers a glimpse of a more mid-Atlantic future. This is where those proto-grunge instincts become clearest, as though Soundgarden wandered into the back room of a Glasgow pub and decided to stay for the evening.

It also boasts the most assured production here. The sound grows in wave after wave, bigger and heavier, but never collapses beneath its own weight. The Kaves clearly want to make enormous records. Mr Hollywood suggests they’re learning exactly how to do it.

These two tracks bookend the EP, with the title track and Somber sandwiched between them. They perhaps lack the immediate impact of their neighbours, but there’s still plenty to savour as they rattle along like someone has decided to race the last train home through the Scottish valleys.

In the driving rain, obviously.

What makes Exile interesting, though, is not simply The Kaves themselves.

Something is happening around them.

Maybe it isn’t a scene yet. Maybe scenes only acquire names years later when journalists start drawing convenient lines between bands who never thought they had anything in common.

But listen to what is emerging from Scotland right now and there is something connecting it all.

Not a sound.

A feeling.

That the time is now.

The sound of young Scotland.

Be it. Live it. Hear it.

Just don’t ignore it.

Exile is out now on all relevant streaming platforms. The Kaves are about to embark on a UK wide tour in November and December. Glasgow continues to stake a claim to be the centre of the musical universe.