大象传媒

Get over the mid-week hump with Mr Riley and the welcome return of North Atlantic Oscillation - that's the Scottish band not the popular climatic phenomenon.

Descriptions of NAO usually involve words like 'Colourful', 'expansive' and 'crepuscular' (although we're not entirely sure what the last one actually means). However imagine Brain Wilson with a lap top or Pink Floyd with no money and you'd be vaguely on the right lines

NAO masterminds Sam Healy and Ben Martin met in Edinburgh in 2005 and bonded over a love of unusual time signatures, jazz, Tom Waits, Squarepusher, and Godspeed You black Emperor. They quickly formed a band and launched themselves into the world.

Sam financed and recorded their debut album Grappling Hooks himself in 2008: recording it in Glasgow and then flying over to a studio in Dublin every two weeks to mix it. Once they had a complete album, they started cold calling record labels and ended up with eight different offers. They eventually chose Kscope and the album came out last year.

A proper live band rather than bedroom boffins NAO have played with the likes of Explosions In The Sky, Everything Everything, Stardeath and White Dwarfs, the Engineers and many others

And in case you're wondering the other north Atlantic oscillation is the climactic phenomenon caused by fluctuations in the atmospheric pressure between the Icelandic low and Azores. So now you know.