‘Fifty-Five North’ is the first single to be taken from Alison Eales’ debut album Mox Nox, out March 24 via Fika Recordings. A song firmly rooted in Glasgow, and expresses how a place can be both transformative and overwhelming. The song features samples from the Glasgow subway, with a rhythm track from the sounds of the train doors closing, and a melody made from the ping of the turnstiles.
Alison is a long-standing member of the band Butcher Boy, playing piano, accordion and other keyboards as well as arranging for choir and brass.
Taking inspiration from sundial mottos, Mox Nox is an album about the passing of time – most specifically, the transition from day to night. Its twelve songs explore experiences of all-nighters, anxiety, travel, frustration, and friendship. The record combines acoustic and electronic instrumentation with samples of environmental sound, resulting in a record that is by turns playful and melancholy and is likely to appeal to fans of Saint Etienne, The Magnetic Fields, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sterolab, Jake Thackray, Kirsty MacColl and others.
With support from Creative Scotland, the album was produced by Paul Savage at Chem 19 studios. Cover artwork was designed by Rhian Nicholas at The Passenger Press in Glasgow, using a mix of traditional printmaking techniques. The design represents a sundial and was inspired by the cover of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, with its stylised Doomsday Clock.
Mox Nox:
- Rapunzel
- Ever Forward
- The Broken Song
- Shadow Blister
- Negligence
- Fifty-Five North
- Through Hoops
- Half-French Kiss
- A Natural History of California
- Mox Nox
- Goodbye
- Come Home With Me
