"If you don't know what to expect, it's not suitable for children," Aidan Moffat introduces himself, volunteering parental guidance to whomever thought it appropriate to bring kids tonight. That's putting it mildly of a spoken-word set that, within the first five minutes alone, features tales of flashers, fighters and drinkers, and a piece bluntly titled "cunt".
Uniting two consecutive scruffy-bearded recipients of the Scottish Album of the Year Award, this Celtic Connections double-bill proves a compelling gauge of how folk and indie increasingly converge north of the border to remarkable effect. Not to mention measure of the middle-aged Scottish male's capacity for serious emotionality, when sufficiently couched in gallows humour and foul language. Formerly vocalist with Arab Strap, Moffat these days explores age-old Scots oral tradition – imagine somewhere between Charles Bukowski and Ivor Cutler. A nakedly raw riff on sex bad, sad or both, Glasgow Jubilee brings unquotably literal new meaning to oral tradition at points.
A tattooed bear of a man who admittedly makes music "strangely inappropriate for the way I look", RM Hubbert emerged from the same 90s scene as Arab Strap with post-rock band El Hombre Trajeado, before several years spent away from music facing personal demons. His Alex Kapranos-produced debut album Thirteen Lost & Found and its followup Breaks & Bones document dealing with chronic depression and the death of loved ones – how else but by learning to play a mean flamenco guitar.
Backed by the Cairn String Quartet, with former Delgados singer Emma Pollock and Moffat variously guesting on vocals, Hubbert's intricate solo symphonies feel both exotic and brushed with familiar Scots indie melancholy. Gentle instrumental For Joe – a piece written for his late father-in-law not in memorial, but simply as an excuse to think of him on stage every night – is a measuredly truthful study in grieving. Recalling last June when his "life changed in a moment", Hubbert's unlikely SAY award win seems like it's about to be recounted, and with it the floodgates of sentimentality breached, but no. "I got an amazing curry," he grins.
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