Artillery Saints, the project of Scottish musician Ally McKenzie, steps forward with a new chapter through the forthcoming album ‘Glimpse’, scheduled for release in 2025. Known for blending cinematic textures with avant pop precision, McKenzie expands the creative world of Artillery Saints while maintaining the distinctive tone that has drawn critical attention and a loyal audience.
Before Artillery Saints took shape, McKenzie was already deeply embedded in music, performing with the 1990s indie group Fly and later exploring electronic sounds through Cities People And Parks in the 2000s. After a period of creative pause following lockdown, inspiration struck unexpectedly when he noticed an Epiphone guitar displayed in a shop window. That moment sparked a return to songwriting and production, gradually expanding to include bass, synthesizers, and Ableton Live, forming the foundation of Artillery Saints.
The album’s lead single, ‘Control & The Cousins’, offers a sharply observed narrative centered on a fictional rock band maneuvering through the music industry’s inner workings. The song delivers its perspective with dry humor and visual storytelling, anchored by the line,
“To get to the stage we had to sneak through the back door.”
Musically, the track unfolds through hypnotic basslines, sparse synths, abrupt guitar accents, and a memorable chorus that reflects McKenzie’s unique compositional voice. 
Across its eleven tracks, ‘Glimpse’ ventures into new sonic areas while staying connected to the twisted pop sensibility and darkly comic lyricism found on earlier albums ‘Maneki-Neko’ and ‘Fixed Grin Of A Wallpaper Star’. The album integrates futuristic electronic sounds alongside organic elements such as woodwinds, ambient layers, and jazz influenced textures.
Key moments include the wordless, quasi classical opener ‘High Rise Sun Tribe’, the exploratory narrative of ‘Jelly Legs’, the deceptively melodic ‘Hick In Suburbia’, and the experimental ambient pieces ‘House Mother Console’ and ‘Glister’. Together, these tracks form an immersive listening experience that reflects McKenzie’s evolving artistic vision, blending emotion, humor, and cinematic scope into a cohesive body of work.
