Artillery Saints enters a new creative phase with the announcement of ‘Glimpse’, the upcoming 2025 album from Scottish musician Ally McKenzie. The record builds on the project’s established avant pop identity while exploring broader textures, refined electronic detail, and richly layered storytelling.
McKenzie’s musical background stretches across decades, beginning with his involvement in the 1990s indie act Fly and continuing through the electronic explorations of Cities People And Parks in the early 2000s. After lockdown, a chance encounter with an Epiphone guitar rekindled his creative drive. This moment led him back into songwriting and production, gradually incorporating bass, synthesizers, and Ableton Live, and ultimately shaping the Artillery Saints project.
Serving as the album’s introduction, lead single ‘Control & The Cousins’ presents a fictional rock band navigating industry realities with wit and clarity. The narrative captures ambition and irony through the lyric,
“To get to the stage we had to sneak through the back door.”
The track’s sound is defined by a steady bass pulse, minimal synth arrangements, sharp guitar bursts, and a chorus that lingers, reflecting McKenzie’s balance of structure and experimentation. 
‘Glimpse’ spans eleven tracks and marks a progression from previous releases ‘Maneki-Neko’ and ‘Fixed Grin Of A Wallpaper Star’. While the album retains the project’s twisted pop character and blackly comic perspective, it moves confidently toward a more electronic and cinematic soundscape. Natural textures such as woodwinds and ambient details blend seamlessly with futuristic production techniques.
Among the album’s standout moments are ‘High Rise Sun Tribe’, a lyric free opening that sets a reflective tone, and ‘Jelly Legs’, which uses rhythmic bass, restless drums, sci fi synths, and saxophone to tell the story of an explorer lost between parallel worlds. ‘Hick In Suburbia’ pairs melodic pop with narrative contrast, while ‘House Mother Console’ and ‘Glister’ suggest new experimental directions.
Recorded at home with meticulous attention to detail, ‘Glimpse’ presents an emotionally rich and immersive journey, highlighting McKenzie’s ability to fuse humor, atmosphere, and cinematic ambition into a cohesive artistic statement.
