There are few things more ‘indie’ (in the old sense of the word) than the split 7″. By split 7″, what I mean is that one band has a song on one side of a record and another band has a song on the other side of the 7″. Hell, I dream of being able to do this with some of the acts on 17 Seconds Records…
Anyway, I digress. This was a double 7″ featuring four acts from Glasgow -Mogwai, El Hombre Trajeado, The Yummy Fur and The Karelia. It was released in 1998 on the London indie label Pastic Cowbly, in association with Glasgow label Guided Missile.
Of the four acts, Mogwai are the best well known, still recording to this day and having released their most recent studio album The Hawk Is Howling last year.
El Hombre Trajeado split in 2006 – if you click on the link, they have made it possible for you to download all their stuff from their own website.
The Yummy Fur split in 1999, singer John McKeown has gone on to form the 1990s, and towards the end of their life the band also included Alex Kapranos and Paul Thompson who would go on to be half of Franz Ferdinand.
The Karelia also included Alex Kapranos (then known as Alex Huntley). They only released a handful of recordings, which were at one stage changing hands for huge sums.
As ever, if you want to get your hands on physical copies of records by these artists, try Avalanche Records.