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Randolph’s Leap
Maggie Mays, Glasgow

Are Randolph’s Leap Glasgow’s best kept secret? They open tonight, cello and violin in tow, with each of the six members singing a capella before strutting into Scottish folk infused majesty. Meek frontman Adam Ross excels with his lucid musings, sharply amusing at times, but it’s with the rousing ‘Going Home’, a trip through the Scottish hills and back that the heartstrings are tugged. A perfect amalgamation of music and storytelling, they might not be kept secret for much longer.

Chris Cope
- The Fly Magazine

The best thing about writing for Bearded is discovering great but obscure groups. Combining soulful folky laments with Darren Hayman-esque kitchen sink poetry, teenage wonders Randolph’s Leap are one such band.

Following on from their debut single, this none-more-DIY four-track EP arrived in the post with a single sheet of lined paper featuring a hand-drawn portrait of the band, and a biog which I quote in full: ‘Randolph’s Leap are a Glasgow-based figment of your imagination.’ John Peel would have approved.

The idiosyncratic arrangements combine spoken word sections, strumalongs in double-quick time, heartfelt vocals that could come from ancient folk songs and massed backing vocals. As with Hayman or Jeffrey Lewis, the occasionally rough-edged sound makes the songs more immediate.

Adam Ross is an unashamed country boy who sings of unrequited love in a pure, affecting tone, with a dry sense of humour and the eye for detail of a natural storyteller. Opener ‘As I Lie in the Mud’ tells of nightclub alienation, from a soul who’d rather have a nice glass of water and a walk in the mountains, than drink iffy beer and suffer hostile stares. ‘The Invisible Man had it easy… imagine being the Unlikeable Man,’ he muses.

There’s a trad feel to the gorgeous ‘Going Home’, a bittersweet lament whose yearning tone and fingerpicked melody conjure up the Highlands landscape the band hail from. In ‘Back to Square One’, Ross knows he’s blowing his chances by his inability to play it cool when it comes to the one he loves; and features a verse that would grace any Gram Parsons tune: ‘A lovesick fool / Trying desperately to be cool / As he sits with his beer / Wishing somebody was near.’

Closer ‘Undergod’ ponders what it would be like to have godlike powers and Warren Beatty-like pulling abilities, but who wants to hear the story of someone with no problems? Ross grits his teeth and vows ‘I’m glad that I am weird / skinny, pale, can’t grow a beard.’

If it helps him write songs as good as these four, we should all be grateful. The band’s debut album could be a real corker.

Ben Wood
http://beardedmagazine.co.uk/wp/?p=1444 - Bearded Magazine

In the Glasgow music scene there's not always much to set a fledging band apart from the rest. Randolph's Leap are trying to combat this by bringing back "some of the romance of making music".

The band consist of Adam Ross (guitar, vocals), Gareth Perrie (casiotone, guitar, vocals), Vicki Cole (bass, vocals), Iain Taylor (drums, vocals), Andy MacLellan (cello, vocals) and Colin Ross on violin.

With their instrumental sound, the six-piece play nicely on the ear with their lingering melodies, not a world apart from a folk sound but still 'indie' enough to capture the mainstream.

Speaking to Adam Ross about the band's plans for world domination turns out to be an interesting conversation – he claims that he was known to "whistle in the womb" as he explains the roots of the name Randolph's Leap. "The name is pinched from a section of the River Findhorn near to my hometown of Nairn. Apparently a soldier leapt over the salmon-filled rapids in order to escape Randolph the Earl of Moray."

The band in their current line-up have been around for about three years now, and even the quickest of glances at their MySpace highlights the creativity oozing out of their every pore, with a series of poetic stories feeding into their music.

Ross' exuberant style becomes clear when he goes on to explain his musical history: "My parents suspected potential musical aptitude so bought me a second-hand tuba," he says. "Unfortunately I kept falling inside. In school, a curious man named Calverto tried to teach me the cello but I didn't speak his language. I began writing songs at the tail end of puberty. I am now 21. The other band members have latched onto me like disgusting leeches over the last couple of years…"

It's nonsense of the best kind, and that pretty much sums up what you get with Randolph's Leap – instead of the usual new band mumbo jumbo, this group has charisma, charm and a very defined and confident personality of their own. They're nothing like some of the generic 'indie boy bands' we're over-saturated with – and they don't want to be either.

Citing The Divine Comedy, Edwyn Collins and Karl Pilkington as their influences, Ross explains that for him, "songwriting is one of the few things that my brain seems to be suited to."

"I'm usually happy enough with the results and don't really question whether I've done it 'right' or not as long as it's singable," he adds. "Whereas if I were to try and be a politician or a chef I'd constantly be doubting what it was I was saying or sautéing."

http://living.scotsman.com/under-the-radar-bands/On-the-radar-Randolph39s-Leap.5610945.jp - Scotsman 'Under The Radar' blog

Last on were Randolph's Leap. If you are in need of music to raise your spirits then it would be this band who would fulfill that need. Four strong tonight - although they can apparently muster six on a good day - they continue to improve as they run up the stage miles. Certainly their songs, and especially the anthemic "Going Home", seemed so much bigger tonight with the power of a full band to drive them along. I reckon it won't be too long before we will all be waving our lighters in the air to this band.

http://www.bluesbunny.com/LiveReviews/tabid/59/xmmid/743/xmid/1705/xmview/2/Default.aspx - Bluesbunny.com