Stanley Odd are an Edinburgh based alternative hip-hop band suffusing live instrumentation with samples and loops. Formed in 2009, they released their debut album, Oddio, the following year to critical acclaim across a host of respected media, with Scotland on Sunday stating: ‘These Scottish hip-hop standard bearers sound much more relevant than the mighty Eminem, rapping stories that are social realism with a sense of humour and dance shoes.’
The band continued to develop this early artistic drive, finding a stronger, more coherent voice with the release of the EP, Pure Antihero Material, in February 2011. Addressing concepts of outsider-dom, awkwardness and social observation, the release saw the band covering subjects from the UK Coalition Government, to the idea of a games console addict who controls the other people living in his building. With continued local and national support, The Skinny Magazine observed: ‘In a sane world, Stanley Odd would be way more popular than Snow Patrol.’
The band released their second EP of 2011, The Day I Went Deaf, on Circular Records in late October; showcasing a darker, more direct more direct sound that reflects their creative production methods involving writing and recording as a live band, re-sampling their own recordings and then sequencing and rebuilding the sampled material.
Equally potent in the live environment, Stanley Odd have been touring throughout the UK since 2010, supporting acts such as Arrested Development, Sage Francis and Goldie Looking Chain, and performing at a broad range of key Scottish festivals including T in the Park and Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party. Their 2011 performance at Insider Festival was described in The Scotsman as ‘dazzlingly eloquent… a performance that had the crowd baying delightedly for more.’
Ending 2011 on a high with a rap-special live session on national Radio One BBC Introducing alongside Smiler, Merky ACE, Lioness, Madhat McGore and Kobi Onyame, 2012 has already started with a bang, playing at a sold out O2 ABC as part of Celtic Connections Festival in January.
With a new album planned for September 2012, a UK tour and festivals already booked up and down the country, 2012 is looking like one hell of a year for Stanley Odd.