There are a lot of famous Fifers that have originated on the Scottish lowland peninsula that is separated from Dundee and Edinburgh by a couple of bridges. Flute-playing Ian Anderson is probably the best-known, although his fame came via Jethro Tull and the progressive rock scene. Yet, another Anderson, this time Kenny, is the artiste also known as King Creosote, a name that stems from own record label, Fence, as something that you might place…on a fence.

Although some forty albums have originated on that label since Kenny started recording in 1998, as with so many independents, gaining recognition is his biggest issue. Yet, in Flick the V’s, he may finally have the commensurate vehicle by which to take his uniquely appealing sound to a wider audience. It is a difficult sound to describe, even from one of his own countrymen, being a mix of electronic Gaelic, blended with conventional instrumentation.

There is the occasional drift into a Scottish accent, when he is not lilting in falsetto accompaniment with the lyrical brilliance of Rab Noakes. Hints of jazz influence creep into and out of some of the tracks, yet there is a tautness of control to the overall production, which verges occasionally into the Santa Fe balladry of Beirut, the muse of Zac Condon, whose combination of folk with western pop music has been an unsurprising hit around the world. There is no reason for King Creosote not to follow a similar pattern, in fact, the parallels between Beirut and himself become ever more obvious as you scan through the ten tracks on this gently meandering album.

Kenny’s tonal quality is thoroughly sweet and beguiling, yet full of emotional depth and meaning. No two tracks sound alike on ‘Flick The V’s’, which means that you do gain a deeper insight to the man behind the music and, while some of them are hardly toe-tappers, there are more than a few atmospheric moments that are well worth waiting for. If you check your local press, you will find that Kenny is on tour around the UK at the moment, which will give you an opportunity to put a face to the name, especially if you were drawn to the two tracks that KC delivered to accompany the 2007 Channel Four film, ‘Hallam Foe’, a story about a young guy pursuing a new life in the City of Edinburgh, which gave another acting vehicle to Jamie Bell and Sophia Myles. Fascinating musical voyage into lowland electronic-folk.