“The Scottish Band” was all it said when we sent a demo into the NME, looking to start a rumour.

And the rumour spread. Music in 1996 still had Britain pinned in its headlights and the country was two years drunk into a good old-fashioned knees-up. The Scottish Band were out of step. They were serious and gloomy, elegiac and beautiful, delicate and crushing. Low slung bass and spiralling guitars topped off with that voice.

Geneva formed in Aberdeen in 1992, immediately recognisable thanks to singer Andrew Montgomery’s skyscraping falsetto accompanied by Steven Dora & Stuart Evans on guitars, Keith Graham on bass, & drummer Douglas Caskie. It was a voice that swan-dived from Liz Fraser to Otis Reading, over music that twisted REM and Byrds guitars and Talk Talk melodies to dubby rhythms.

The band released their debut album Further in June 97 with producer Mike Hedges at the helm (Manic Street Preachers , The Cure). It was a rough-and-tumble affair; yet absolutely riveting in places.

The perfect, perfect Tranquillizer was the single of ’97 alongside a Chris Cunningham video .

The album mixed power pop with darker brooding songs and It reached top 20 in the UK album charts and included 4 top 40 Uk singles Tranquilizer, Best Regrets, No One Speaks and Into the Blue. Uncut magazine described it as an ‘extraordinary debut’.

In 2000 the band followed up with Weather Underground: a change in direction, with hints of trip-hop seeping into the mix. Howie B was brought in to produce, and what finally emerged was a concept album of sorts, dealing with the weighty theme of apocalypse as explored through a space-race devouring escapism.

For all you collectors, the vinyl version is a limited numbered 10” double set (1000 only) which is well worth tracking down.