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CD reviews RURA
Break It Up GREENTRAX CDTRAX364
PIPES-LEDpyrotechnics, a pair of peachy slower pieces, and even a piobaireachd to finish: this is a dream of an album from Scottish rising stars Rura.
Steven Blake takes centre stage on pipes and whistle, turning up the heat for Kelly’s Delight or pumping out pure soul on Elliott Fin MacDonald. There are times where I could have wished for a touch more spark — another of those screaming tremolo Fs on Ho Ro na Mogaisean, more weight on those Bs in Viva Galicia — but there’s a real risk that the chanter might have spontaneously combusted. Things certainly get hot enough during the fiery Finlay MacDonald jig Abdoul’s, with David Foley’s turbo goatskin injecting power and pace behind the pipes and fiddle. Foley is the only Rura member with composing credits here, among names such as Peter Morrison, Martyn Bennett, Liz Carroll, Nuala Kennedy, Chris Stout and Seamus Egan. Best tune almost goes to the Treacherous Orchestra boys for A Bottle of Vodka, Twenty Marlboro Reds and £50 Cashback Please, but John Walsh’s stupendous reel Three Crowns snatches victory despite its relatively dull title.
Guitar-vocalist Adam Holmes writes the most miserable modern madrigals it’s been my privilege to hear in a long time. Delivered in a tuneful but toneless tenor — giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “tenor drone” — Holmes’ songs are oddly in keeping with his voice. Words of desolation, depair, bones and betrayal: I can’t decide if Mary ends sad or happy, but the title track is certainly a ballad of slippery slopes and shattered illusions. “It’s no use asking Satan for your soul”, as Adam cheerlessly puts it in a voice which rips across you like a blunt razor. Murray Attoway’s Allegory isn’t much more upbeat, as its protagonist stumbles and falls, “Desperate to gain some reason in this life”. There was me thinking Glasgow wasn’t too bad these days. At least the tunes are positive, with Jack Smedley’s fiddle bringing The Sheriff to life while John McSherry’s jig Skipping Through the Bogs evokes his wee daughter’s gambolling wellies. Rura end on a firmly traditional but thoroughly modern arrangement of The Lament for Donald Ban, a grand MacCrimmon composition treated with respect and flair. Something old, plenty new, one borrowed song and two that are frankly soul-destroying: that’s Break It Up. Enjoy, but keep sharp objects well out of reach. ALEX MONAGHAN
Treacherous Orchestra
Origins NAVIGATOR 062
UNUSUALLY, in a time when bands produce albums after the second rehearsal, the mighty amalgam of musicians that is the Treacherous Orchestra have waited before releasing their debut CD. Given the energy and power of their live act, this delay has made Origins the most eagerly awaited CDs in a long time, with equally high expectations of its quality. Even by today’s eclectic standards this is a group with an idiosyncratic construction of pipes, flutes, fiddles, whistles, guitars, accordions, banjos, percus- sion, and when needed, a string section all brought into the mix. When those instruments are in the hands of Ross Ainslie, Ali Hutton, Adam Sutherland and Eamonn Coyle, to name but some of the talent within the band, then the musical possibilities are endless.
Right from the very first notes, the Orchestra lay out their manifesto, there is to be no blood-and-guts romp through the standards for this band of merry men. New tunes by the band members (none of which will disappoint) are the order of the day, and all will be given the full Orchestra treatment and be stretched, bent and generally misshaped to within an inch of their melody. Instruments will sweep in pick- ing up where others left off and disappearing just as quickly. The whole thing is enveloped in a blanket of sound with bold bass lines, crashing percussion, big strings and sweeping guitar lines to create a majestic noise that demands that the amp gets turned to 11. This is big band with a big sound but that never gets in the way of the subtleties of the music. There is more going on in any one tune than in an entire David Lynch film. And like Mr Lynch’s films the secrets don’t always reveal themselves at first glance with the tunes care- fully crafted, layer upon layer, to produce a mosaic of sound that is gloriously rich and complex. This is bold music that wears influences of the
Peatbog Faeries, Martyn Bennett, and Croft No 5 (amongst others) on its sleeve and is none the worse for that. The Orchestra are a force of nature produc- ing exciting and innovative music that acknowledges its roots but has eyes firmly on the future. Expecta- tions were high, they have not been disappointed. CHRIS MACKENZIE
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PIPING TODAY • 49
NEW PRODUCTS
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