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The Paper Trench from Admiral Fallow con- trasts with Rachel Sermanni’s breathy Ae Fond Kiss. An oddly dissonant harp and fiddle accompaniment by Joy Dunlop and Twelfth Day sheds a different light on Faca Sibh Raghaill Na Ailean? and contrasts mightily with the following Cut Me Off from Findlay Napier And The Bar Room Mountaineers.
An eclectic and thought-provoking com- pilation; a bargain price plus a bonus CD (Cliar’s excellent first album) make exploring some of the more interesting music emanat- ing from North of the border pretty much a no-brainer.
www.worldmusic.net
A somewhat different kettle of music is a double CD intended as a companion to The Scottish Diaspora Tapestry project. Scots have migrated all over the world, often having a profound impact on their destination, and the tracks on this compilation have been very carefully chosen to represent the correspond- ing geographical and cultural diversity. The album draws mainly from Greentrax’s own comprehensive back catalogue with well- known artists such as The McCalmans, Robin Laing, Margaret Stewart and Donnie Munro. But there are also tracks from Stan Rogers (The Scarborough Settler’s Lament), Natalie MacMaster (A Glencoe Dance Set), and a number of specially recorded tracks from the likes of Dick Gaughan (Connolly Was There), Brian McNeill (The Rovin’ Dies Hard) and Siobhan Miller (River Of Steel).
From far out of left-field come Waljim
Bat Matilda by Ali Mills (a wonderfully upbeat Kriol version of Banjo Paterson’s greatest hit, replete with Cajun feel and sheep bleating vocals – stunning), while Robbie Burns’ Purano Sei Diner Katha by two respected Indian singers, Dr Mungalam- palli Balamurali Krishna & Suchitra Mitra, makes a truly refreshing counterpoint to the normal Hogmanay anthem. Two CDs full of fascinating music, plus a full colour book- let with loads of information on the songs and people make this another excellent value compilation.
www.greentrax.com Bob Walton
LA CHIVA GANTIVA Vivo Crammed Discs CRAM 232
The second album from Belgian-Colombian seven-piece LCG delivers more of the same as their debut but with a greater degree of assurance. The band mix Latin American, funk and rock influences with just the right blend of fire and concision, tightly packing twelve tracks into under 40 minutes.
La Chiva Gantiva
Their carnivalesque combination of fruity horns and woodwinds, traditional Caribbean percussion, Filipe Decker’s amped up (but never over-indulgent) guitar and singer Rafael Espinel’s inspired howl of a voice are well marshalled by the band and co- producer Joel Hamilton (who’s previously twiddled the knobs for Tom Waits and Marc Ribot amongst others).
Estrenando has a heavy Afrobeat pulse,
whilst La Pecosa is a kind of funky tropical hip-hop. Elsewhere there are jazzy break- downs and dub effects on an album that rushes past in a culture-blending blur. Inevitably it doesn’t possess the thrill of the new that came with their debut but, unlike so much music of this kind which congeals into fusiony stodge, Vivo goes down a treat.
www.lachivagantiva.com Jamie Renton
RUTH KEGGIN Sheear Purt Sheearan Records PSRCD001
Assured debut album from a Manx Gaelic singer making significant waves in Celtic cir- cles (Mary Ann Kennedy is an avowed admir- er) who has already taken singing unaccom- panied to audiences of 10,000 plus (in Lori- ent’s Stade du Moustoir) firmly in her stride.
Following hot on the heels of the widely- acclaimed inaugural release by Barrule (whose Tomas Callister and Adam Rhodes contribute fiddle and tenor banjo and cover design, respectively) there’s clearly something going on over on Mona’s Isle that demands wider investigation. Like Barrule, Keggin acknowl- edges the influence of singer-songwriter Greg Joughin (a Meic Stevens-like figure on the Manx music scene), opening with a deft interpretation of the traditional Fin As Oshin, sourced from Joughin’s Mollag Band.
Keggin emerges as a singer of real range and depth, capable of soaring from warm lows to clear highs on Graih Foalsey, and of keeping the listener’s attention through unaccompanied Gaelic songs like Arrane Y Skeddan. The arrangements are brisk, inven- tive and syrup-free, with Vanessa McWilliams’ fluid double-bass lines and David Pearce’s ver- satile guitar outstanding throughout. The lat- ter’s bowed acoustic on Tree Eeateyryn Boghtey (Three Poor Fishermen) effectively adds to the tragic atmosphere of the ballad, while his hypnotically dextrous twangage elsewhere suggests a familiarity with Johnny Marr, as much as John Doyle.
There’s a fine Manx language version of She Moves Through The Fair and a couple of English language songs – an earworm version of The Road To Clady (familiar from the late
Eithne Ní Uallacháin’s singing with Lá Lugh) which is racking up the hits on YouTube at a rapid rate, and a jazz-inflected original by Breesha Madrell, the melody of which slightly evokes All About Eve’s Martha’s Harbour.
Sheear, released with the assistance and endorsement of Culture Vannin, represents an important milestone for Manx trad, pro- viding both a wholly satisfying musical expe- rience (one which should immediately appeal to fans of both Julie Fowlis and Kate Rusby) and irrefutable evidence that the Manx lan- guage (erroneously declared “extinct” by UNESCO in 2009) is actually growing in stature, along with events like the Island’s superb annual Yn Chruinnaght festival.
www.ruthkeggin.com Steve Hunt
IAIN MATTHEWS The Art Of Obscurity Fledg’ling FLED3096.
Maybe, just maybe The Art Of Obscurity brings down the curtain on Iain Matthews, solo artist. The thoughts he commits to paper in the booklet sound definite, but everyone can reserve the right to change their mind. Three musicians beside Matthews deliver understated arrangements which, soft on the ear, have melodies that linger. His lyrics pro- voke and whisper echoes of previous craft: his discography is extensive and now ranges over half a century. Stylistically he’s been a change - ling but his core of roots-driven acoustics with heartfelt vocals has been an underlying constant.
Obscurity is a thoughtful reflection of an album – exactly the type of record he had in mind. ”Something’s shifted in my life / I’m just not thinking quite the same,” he admits as the CD spins. When I Was A Boy embraces pure nostalgia in a quiet manner, “the world’s not quite as innocent / our front door was never ever locked.”
Recorded in Texas chiefly with Bradley Kopp, the songs are his creations or very sym- pathetic, such as Music by Nemo Jones. Else- where social change bothers him: Ash In The Wind questions the way modern values restrict and even discourage individuality. The Letter (1944) about a soldier who never made it home could be family history. Questions are even raised about what happens beyond this mortal coil in The Sweet Hereafter. More like- ly though is the view expressed on Pebbles In The Road, that somehow life is a series of lucky, happy accidents. History can’t be repeated so make the most of today before it becomes tomorrow.
If – as the popular expression has it – the past is another country, Iain Matthews has the map. Follow his route.
www.thebeesknees.com Simon Jones
BRAGOD Llatai BRA003
Bragod are a unique phenomenon in Wales, a duo specialising in the revival of ancient musical forms, featuring Robert Evans on the crwth, a five-string bowed lyre whose for- tunes are recently reviving in Wales, and singer Mary-Anne Roberts delivering bardic poetry “audaciously” (according to the enclosed CD information), in a dramatic, exu- berant yet carefully enunciated way nuanced with overtones and utterances, quite unlike any modern folk singers – or classical ones – that I can think of. Evans is a known scholar of medieval manuscripts and has thoroughly explored the ancient notation system he calls “binary” (it uses ones and zeros to denote harmonic and dissonant intervals, not specify- ing the actual notes played). I have heard him
Photo: Judith Burrows
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