In the bustling world of avant-pop, few voices strike with the wit and candour of Artillery Saints, the brainchild of Scottish innovator Ally McKenzie. As anticipation builds for the project’s most daring release yet — the forthcoming 2025 album Glimpse — McKenzie offers fans a unique window into his evolving soundscape, where sly humour collides with lush electronics and textured storytelling.
The inspiration for Glimpse arose from a deeply personal moment: a gleaming Epiphone guitar, spotted in a shop window, purchased with a modest inheritance from McKenzie’s late mother. “She’d have wanted me to play again,” McKenzie reflects. This subtle act rekindled his creative flame, leading him to blend bass, synths, and the magic of Ableton Live into what would become the Artillery Saints’ signature style.
Having cut his teeth with the ‘90s indie band Fly and the electro-tinged Cities People And Parks in the 2000s, McKenzie’s lockdown renaissance marks a bold progression, both in emotion and technology — and nowhere is this more palpable than in his new album.
Setting the tone for Glimpse is its brilliant lead single, Control & The Cousins. Here, McKenzie spins a wry tale of a fictional rock group edging its way through the cutthroat music business: “To get to the stage we had to sneak through the back door.” With a hypnotic bass groove, razor-sharp guitar blasts, and an eerily captivating chorus, the track showcases the dark wit and boundary-pushing pop that has become a hallmark of Artillery Saints. Sparse synths and jagged rhythms mirror the chaos of life in art, offering both a send-up and celebration of the industry’s absurdities.
On Glimpse, McKenzie confidently steps into new artistic terrain. While keeping the twisted pop and black-comic lyricism familiar from previous albums (‘Maneki-Neko’, ‘Fixed Grin Of A Wallpaper Star’), he weaves in advanced electronic textures and more cinematic flourishes, cultivating an atmosphere both futuristic and organic.
Across its eleven tracks, Glimpse traverses a symphonic landscape — from the modern classical contours of the instrumental opener High-Rise Sun Tribe to the surreal, astral funk of Jelly Legs, where sci-fi synths meet earthy saxophones to tell the story of a dimension-hopping explorer. The album doesn’t shy away from provocative themes; Beauty Retreat envisions the trauma and farce of geopolitical spectacle, casting Gaza as a grotesque casino. Meanwhile, the deceptively gentle Hick In Suburbia couches a bitter revenge plot within shimmering pop finesse. Ambient sketches like House Mother Console and Glister hint at ever-evolving possibilities for the Artillery Saints sound.
Emerging from Aberdeen’s vibrant cultural stew and shaped by both family and formal study (McKenzie earned an English Literature degree at Sunderland University), Ally McKenzie’s worldview infuses Artillery Saints’ work with literary and cinematic depth. Offstage, his love of cycling, nature photography, and film spills into the visual and thematic fabric of his music, ensuring each project is as much a multisensory experience as a sonic one.
Fans of Roxy Music, John Foxx, Japan, Magazine, and Brian Eno will find resonant echoes here, but Glimpse is unmistakably McKenzie’s own — a testament to home-studio capability, sharp lyricism, and creative resilience. For listeners seeking a record that fuses razor intelligence with emotional punch — all wrapped in shadowy pop surrealism — Artillery Saints’ Glimpse promises one of the most original and rewarding journeys of 2025.
Advance downloads and visual teasers are available now, with Glimpse ready to redefine what bold, artful pop can be in the new era.