Kungens Män + The Janitors + Dead Otter

Ivory Blacks, 16 September 2025

After what seemed like an eternity, I was back on the #AtoZMusicalTour with a visit to one of my favourite venues in Glasgow, Ivory Blacks.

Getting there early was a pre-requisite as the lineup included three bands, Glasgow’s Dead Otter who were on warm up duties and Sweden’s The Janitors and Kungens Män who were joint top of the bill.

Three bands, similar in some ways, however sufficiently different to make the gig such a wonderful advert for the nighttime economy.

Let’s cut to the chase, if drone music, extended jams and basic experimental rock is in your tastebuds, then this was a night curated for you.

Dead Otter

Dead Otter is a foursome built around the shimmering guitars of Omar Aborida and John Riddell with the pulsating beat of Scott Falconer on drums and Gav Riddell on bass.

Who needs vocals, when each song had us swaying and head bopping to the ebb and flow of each track played.

A touch of Mogwai here, a little bit of Black Sabbath there maybe, the incessant driving sounds, generally starting each song with a low steady wave of noise that flowed around the venue and building to a crescendo with John Riddell in particular giving it heavy licks to create the sound that will be only to familiar to those fans of the genre. It was loud, it was brash, it was dynamite.

With an album due out soon, I might just be looking to get a ticket to the album launch for another sonic boom.

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The Janitors

The Janitors were the main reason for seeking out a ticket. With two or three albums already in the collection at home, I was familiar with their music and never felt it was a blind punt to go to the gig to see them.

The surprise, like so many gigs on our own musical tour, was the sheer intensity that the band brought to each song played.

Their Bandcamp profile identifies themselves as ‘Peddlers of heavy drones and fuzzed nightmares since 2004.’

There is little doubt they relish being in the midst of the drone like sounds that are fed from the guitars, bass and drums with founding members Jonas Eriksson and Henric Herlenius leading from the front on heavily fuzzed guitars and vocals.

Like opening act Dead Otter, the songs slowly built with ever increasing loudness and, though there was no doubt a structure to each, they appeared to extend into inspired jams that simply captivated the audience.

An impromptu encore was met with unsurprising applause, and, across the relatively short set, the band displayed a togetherness that has been part of their DNA since forming over two decades ago.

Formed in 2004, a respectable number of albums and tours under their belt. My only disappointment was that it took this long to see them!  Not a mistake I intend to make again and already looking forward to another nightmare from them.

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Kungens Män

Kungens Män were last up and the first couple of minutes of their set felt like a Buddhist retreat was in store as not one but two sets of handcrafted Nepalese Singing Bowls were lifted into the air, brought together and pealed by both Gustav Nygren and Mikael Tuominen.

Briefly there was a ‘haud on a minute’ thought going through my head, but I needn’t have worried as the set built on both that of Dead Otter and The Janitors though with much less of the fuzz and feedback and a wider variety of instruments playing their part from keyboards to sax.

As a non-musician, it never ceases to amaze how simple things, a few chords of the guitar here, some tinkling on the keyboard, some nifty finger work on the bass and a steady drumbeat can all be brought together to carve out an extraordinary slice of music.

There was very little virtuosity on show, the same can be said for the earlier bands, and yet collectively Kungens Män played music that seamlessly ebbed and flowed throughout.

Melodic noise at it’s best! Another band on the let’s go and see again list.

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