Into Music Review: Inaction by Alex Maxwell

Artist: Alex Maxwell
Track: Inaction

Alex Maxwell, releases Inaction on 15 September 2020. The ‘indie-folk-rock’ project by the Dumfries singer-songwriter has been realised through solo, duo and 5-piece band performances.

If your knowledge of the creative scene in Dumfries doesn’t extend much beyond Calvin Harris then you are missing a whole raft of brilliant grassroots talent emerging thanks to the work of the incredible DMC (Dumfries Music Conference)/The Stove Network. Alex represents all that is fruitful from the endeavours of this vibrant creative community and all the evidence of Inaction suggests that the ’emerging’ artist tag is, very soon, likely to become, ‘breakthrough’ artist.

On a resumé of airplays and compliments extending back to his pivotal year of 2017, he can include the likes of BBC Radio 6 Music, Tom Robinson’s ‘Fresh On The Net’, Radio Scotland (Nicola Meighan and Roddy Hart) and the Janice Forsyth Show (Single of the Week for Soul Divine). You don’t get that kind of attention by accident!

On first listen to Inaction, a full 5-piece band release, immediately takes you down the rabbit hole of making comparisons with other Scottish bands but I’ll resist the temptation to do that here as we are probably now beyond the point (if we are not, we should be) where songs sung in the artist’s own Scottish accent equals derivative. Inaction demands its own space and finds it.

It’s both an extension of and a change of tenor, at the same time, from Alex’s two previous singles. If that’s possible. The stripped down poise of The Want Comes in Waves and Soul Divine makes way for the more thrusting, soul-searching dynamic of Inaction

The track was produced by Rod Jones (Idlewild) and there’s certainly layers evident which might not have featured if a different producer was at the controls. So, without further ado … get yer lugs round this…