John Anderson of 57 Degrees North picks his favourite Scottish indy tracks Whittling down a list of your favourite indy tunes is difficult when you live and breathe the genre. John Anderson, who is one of the driving forces behind the inaugural Independent Record Label Market, was given the hard task of creating an indy mix tape for us. "I could list 50 and still not scratch the surface," John said. Originally, the remit was to provide my top five independent records, so I narrowed it down to just Scottish labels. But that ruled out Scottish artists on London-based labels. Nice one. Then I restricted it to singles and EPs. It was still a nightmare. So, here we are; a lot of these are as much about the ethos of the labels as the music. Orange Juice Falling and Laughing (Postcard, 1980) "This was Postcard's first single and the blueprint for what was to follow, both label and music-wise," John said. Edwyn Collins is still one of the coolest, most inspirational people on the planet. The Vaselines Son of a Gun EP (53rd & 3rd, 1987) "Yeah, yeah, Nirvana covered the title song," John said. Still great though (as is the cover of Divine's You Think You're a Man on the B-side). It's another benchmark eighties Scottish label as well. Loveless Nappy EP (Embryo, 1993) "When I first started going to gigs in Aberdeen in the early 90s, this lot blew my mind," John continued. Loud guitars and attitude. There's literally nothing online about them. Should have been huge. Slam Positive Education (Soma, 1993) "Away from the guitars, there's some amazing house and techno that comes out of Scotland," John said. And, although it's an obvious choice, this is still one of the best. Arab Strap The Shy Retirer (Chemikal Underground, 2003) "I could have chosen anything from Arab Strap, to be honest," John said. They just nail what it's like to be Scottish. Chemikal are a great label too.