ALEXANDER SMITH hears the Blas festival kick off in style in an unusual venue
WITH BLAS 2010 promising a seriously diverse and ambitious programme throughout the Highlands and Islands across the next ten days, Hangar 2 at Inverness Airport appeared a fitting venue to kick-start proceedings and pledged an exciting triple bill mixing on-the-up young crossover acts with one of the most respected and established bands on the circuit.
Originally from Skye, but now based in Glasgow, Niteworks opened proceedings with a charged set of folk influenced electronica which started at blistering pace and remained there pretty much throughout.
They offered a fairly unrelenting and often extended barrage of thumping live electronics, which were most effective when they embraced dynamics and allowed the music to break and build to some seriously impressive pay-offs. They certainly grab your attention, and tonight’s set was short enough to just about hold it.
They would perhaps run the risk of losing you across the length of a longer set, or in the context of an album, where you would really look for it to go somewhere else, but in this short burst, at times, it really connected.
It’s certainly not a challenging take on the genre, held up against an act like Meursault, for example, and it’s also a little clumsy in places, while the live electronics, although featuring some smart breaks, are far from progressive, but there is something convincing about Niteworks, and when it does finds cohesion, it carries genuine power.
The execution was skilful throughout, and Niteworks are an interesting prospect with real cross-over potential. Tonight they illustrated that, subject to a little refinement, they may well have the arsenal to pulverise audiences in marquees all summer long.
Next came Skerryvore, and audience expectation was met with a suitably dramatic entrance as the members assembled around a sole piper to a fittingly stirring reception. For me though, this was the highpoint.
Skerryvore are undoubtedly extremely adept at what they do, and very popular indeed, it’s just all a little safe and clichéd. Much of their material carries an all too familiar tick-the-box emotionalism, packed with huge, slightly contrived choruses which, although suitably rousing on occasion, lack any real substance or identity.
When they try to channel the mothership during a cover of ‘Rocket to the Moon’, they generate more passion than on any of their original material and during the funkier sets, it’s just too clinical and lacks any real feel.
That said, they’re appeal is clear; and this aesthetic is very often the formula for unit sales and mass appeal; added to that, they certainly have the potential to be the genre’s poster boys. Personally though, ultimately I found it all a little underwhelming.
In fairness, however, most of the hangar appeared in high-spirited disagreement, and a significant percentage of the audience huddled around their merchandise stand throughout the turnaround and well into the headliner’s set.
By stark contrast, the wonderful Shooglenifty brought some real magic into the hangar. There was a compelling immediacy which drew you into the performance from the off and set you on an intriguing musical excursion which was imaginative, dynamic, expansive, charismatic, stylistically individualistic and really quite brilliant.
They appear fixed to the ‘Acid Croft’ tag, and to be honest, it fits quite well, if not fully serving justice to a band who seamlessly cross genres with an assurance, originality and style, which at times is remarkable and really quite intoxicating.
Over and above the sheer quality of the musicianship, both individually and collectively, the performance is utter class, and the music is simply sublime in places. Despite the explicit musical complexities, Shooglenifty skilfully remain accessible and strike a genuinely captivating tone throughout.
In terms of setting, the hangar really worked and made you feel as though you were at once experiencing a unique event and in familiar live territory, and personal taste aside, the programming was certainly attractive. At the bottom line, to quote the promo blurb, Blas certainly ‘took off’ at the airport on Friday night.
© Alexander Smith, 2010
For the uninitiated, Shooglenifty are an Edinburgh based 6-piece Celtic rock
fusion band that tours internationally and not nearly enough in the UK. The
band blends Scottish traditional music with influences ranging from the
electronic to alternative, even progressive rock. Yes, I kid you not, this
band is brilliant. The new album is stuffed full of instrumental lovelies
that bring to mind the Ozric¹s and the Fairport¹s all in one. The wonderful
labels of 'acid croft' music or ŒCeltic confusion¹ kind of sums it up. The
5-piece has the perfect blend with young Tasmanian multi-instrumentalist,
Luke Plumb, here on mandolin and tenor banjo along with the four Scottish
guys, Garry Finlayson (banjo, banjax), Quee Macarthur (bass), Angus R Grant
(fiddle) and Malcolm Crosbie (acoustic and electric guitars).
The first CD was recorded live in 2008 (with little or no overdubs) whilst
the second CD has four remixes of tunes from disc one and four new tracks.
No point selecting tracks because they are all just thoroughly peachy (can
you say that about a folk/rock review?) Go on, put ya pure prog album down
for ten and give something else a go! MH
Martin Hudson
Classic Rock UK Ltd
_______________________________________________________________________
With a reputation as one of the most exciting live acts on the UK folk scene, it would be easy
to assume that Shooglenifty might not be quite so compelling while sitting at home on your
sofa. Happily their new double CD, Murmichan, offers a freshness of approach that is clever, fun
and very listenable.
On CD1, tunes are adeptly arranged to give a flavour of the live Shoogles experience: from the
soft house and funky bass of the Road To Bled through the tense, stringy, Celtic-Indian fusion
vibe of The Dotteral to the more reflective and soulful Glenfinnan Dawn, the fullness of the
Shoogles repertoire is showcased. CD2, on the other hand, is a departure: deft production fills
out, enhances and sometimes even subverts their own sound. Far from feeling gimmicky,
the loops and sampling incorporated in the studio are perfectly at home alongside the
signature trippy, trancey vibe the Shoogles have developed over the years. A definite winner.
JC
Properganda
_______________________________________________________________________
****
The latest from the unique Edinburgh-based globetrotters is a double CD, the first being the classic Shoogle riff-and-groove of their touring set, recorded in "live" studio takes – no layering, all playing together, with Tasmanian mandolinist Luke Plumb's compositional talents taking the lion's share. The second disc lets their imaginations rip in the studio with remixes by DJ Dolphin Boy, spoken word inserts, an Ardnamurchan/Afghan crossover take of the six guys live with Ensemble Kaboul, and marvellous tune titles like Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station.
Download this: The Dancing Goose
Kenny Matheson
Scotland on Sunday
_______________________________________________________________________
Not usually a fan of entirely instrumental works, I approached Murmichn with slight trepidation. But despite my personal bias telling me I should dislike the album, it won me over with the sheer energy of every performance and the sheer impertinence to fly in the face of traditional generic boundaries.
Before that however, Murmichan has been split into two volumes with each disk showcasing a particular facet of the band’s performance. The first was recorded over the course of a week and features the band as they would sound if you saw them live. In contrast the second disk is a mixture of remixes and actual live performances, adding an extra dimension to the band’s sound and an intimate view of how each track has come into being.
‘Road to Bled’ has both the first and the last word in Murmichan. With a distinctly Eastern European twist from the off, the track transcends the musical boundaries in a way that only the creators of Hypnofolkadelia and Techno Celidh can do. What surprised me most though was how amazingly the various instruments meshed together with neither one upstaging the other.
Boundaries are pushed in every track, ‘Dancing Goose’ for example features a bass-line more often seen in 70s-style pop/rock records and yet Angus Grant’s exceptional Celtic fiddle line floats over the top as if there was no question that this is how music should sound.
The album’s second CD is even more rebellious with each mix pushing at the boundaries more than the one that came before. Of particular note is ‘Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station’ which conjures up stereotypical alien imagery of flying saucers and little green men through the wonderful use of generic computer blips just at the right moment.
Of all the tracks, however, ‘The Vague Rant’ has to be my personal favourite. Led by the fiddle from start to finish the mix of repetitions and slight variations of the melody immediately give the impression of somebody ranting on about nothing really in particular. And yet, once put to music it becomes both interesting and entertaining.
Cheeky, impertinent but, at the end of the day, simply brilliant!
Mary Stokes
www.brightyoungfolk.com
_______________________________________________________________________
Scottish Celtic fusion veterans deliver more trad/modern grooves
Shooglenifty can be credited, alongside fellow Scots Peatbog Faeries and the late and much missed Martyn Bennett, with being the founders of what has come to be known as Celtic fusion or, more descriptively, “acid croft.” A base of traditional tunes is tweaked, modified and added to with all manner of electronics, loops, funk bass and the like to create a hypnotic and often irresistible groove. Unlike Bennett and the Faeries though, who are more in your face, Shooglenifty are nearer the ambient end of things, with their tunes (everything is instrumental) stretching out and going down often unexpected byways before returning to the powerful rhythms that are their forte.
Their latest album is essentially more of the same. Two discs, a mixture of live and studio recordings, some pieces in more than one version, with most tracks clocking in at least five minutes. Live favourite “The Road To Bled”, which opens and closes the album (the latter an epic nine minute odyssey), is the standout but everything else is not far behind. As a band renowned for the reeling intensity of their live shows, a recorded as live/live album was a good call and Murmichan captures the essence of the band perfectly.
Jeremy Searle
www.americana-uk.com
GLASGOW WITH its contemporary revival kick-started back in the 1970s by
Alan Stivell, Brittany has long been a rich source of inspiration to forward-looking
Scottish folk artists. The veteran instrumental five-piece Skolvan are another
seminal presence on the Breton scene, not least for the invention - by founder
member Youenn le Bihan - of a new instrument, the piston, a revamped baroque
oboe. Saturday's gig featured their occasional ten-strong line-up, with
bombarde, piston, accordion, guitar and soprano sax supplemented by a superbly
tight-knit brass section. The vibrant jazz dynamic within Brittany's revival
coloured many of their elegant arrangements, including a deliciously insouciant
version of My Favourite Things, mixed with a traditional dance tune. Shooglenifty
have been a comparably groundbreaking force for well over a decade, and
show no signs of losing their edge. Certainly not if they keep having ideas
like collaborating with the extraordinary Canadian Inuk throat singer Tanya
Tagaq, their guest on this occasion (as on their new album Troots), whose
unearthly vocal antics make Björk sound demure. To delighted appreciation
from a sell-out crowd, her improvised array of growls, yelps, barks, grunts,
screeches and ecstatic soaring cries brilliantly complemented the band's
own far-out roots/rave firestorm of fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, bass
and drums.
Sue Wilson, THE SCOTSMAN, 22nd January 2007
SKOLVAN, a 10 piece show-band from Brittany with a five strong brass section,
smoothed the way for Shooglenifty with a bizzarrely Breton take on songs
from the Sound of Music. Then Shooglenifty's Angus Grant, grabbed centre-stage.
"It's Friday night, lets have a party," he screamed. The fact
it was Saturday didn't seem to matter, as the crowd partied like the weekend
has just got longer. Like a hyperactive John Byrne, Grant and his band introduced
us to their new album, Troots (as in trouts, the fish), the frontman's big
body bending into the music like a slinky. Alongside new material, he and
Tasmanian mandolin player Luke Plumb sparred together through older medleys
such as Scraping the Barrel and the Nordal Rumba, and both musicians were
equally at homeplaying traditional reels or wreaking havoc in a manic hoedown.
The melodies were underpinned by the danceable beats of James MacKintosh's
percussion and warped undertones waved in and out by way of samples and
Garry Finlayson's customised electric banjo, the banjax. But the highlight
of the evening was Inuit singer Tanya Tagaq Gillis's traditional throat
singing. The sounds coming from her voicebox were more intriguing than the
other instruments produced.
Aideen McLaughlin, THE HERALD, 22nd January 2007
The globetrotting Scots band demonstrate their musical ability and imagination
in another album packed with their trademark melodic grooves. A tune written
in the Antipodes ('Excess Baggage') is arrestingly graced by an Inuk throat
singer who sang with the band in the Yukon, while a Balkan horo rises in
the middle of a set and 'Loreen's Tune' revels in the gentle waltzy banjo
and fiddle of some Appalachian valley. Troots once again proves Shooglenifty's
talent for music rooted in home traditions but with proven international
appeal.
Norman Chalmers, THE SCOTSMAN, 4th February 2007
Shooglenifty have been around long enough to defuse the element of surprise in their musical fusions, a process hastened by the pervasive genre-expanding influence they have exerted over the years. If it no longer packs the sheer novelty it once did, they have succeeded in continually revitalising their energised music along the way, and this fine new album reveals a notable coherence and assurance in both conception and execution.
The new tune sets, all by the band except Donald Macleod's pipe tune 'Walter
C Douglas', are well up to standard. The inclusion of Inuk throat singer
Tanya Tagaq Gillis (a star turn at their Celtic Connections gig which launched
this disc) on the vibrant 'Excess Baggage', also demonstrates that they
still have the odd new trick up their sleeve.
Kenny Mathieson, THE LIST, 31st January 2007
Stalwarts of the Scottish folk and fusion "acid croft" scene,
Shooglenifty spend much of the time on tour, honing their skills as one
of the best live bands on the international circuit, and this new set is
predictably classy. As ever, they mix rousing instrumentals, traditionally
influenced and played on fiddle and banjo, with more contemporary rhythms,
making subtle use of drum, bass and electric guitar, along with occasional
samples. The emphasis is on dance tunes, but interspersed with more gentle,
drifting passages, often underpinned by the solid rhythm section. It was
an inspired move to include the extraordinary Inuit throat singer Tagaq,
but why was she limited to such a brief appearance? A little more bravery
would have been welcome.
Robin Denselow, THE GUARDIAN, 17th January 2007
".. both bands gave enormously satisfying performances [Alexandra
Gardens concert], creating a party- like atmosphere as they coaxed audience
members up off the grass to dance...Scotlands Shooglenifty is compelling
enough to compete with just about anything( apart from mechanical fish).
Angus Grant is the band's idoiosyncratic frontman, darting about the stage
with an agility that matches his wonderfully expressive fiddle work. On
Saturday he shared a close rapport with Mandolin player Luke Plumb (a Tasmanian
kidnapped by the band several years ago), the two sparring with each other
in playful yet highly effective riffs. The sound mix allowed all the acoustic
instruments to be heard over the powerful dance grooves generated by electric
guitar, bass and drums, the last played with gleeful intensity by James
Mackintosh. It was, for me, the perfect way to farewell Festival melbourne
after many afternoons and evenings of superb music.."
Jessica Nichols, MELBOURNE AGE, 25th March 2006
In the age of global terrorism it's nice to know that we're being protected from Scottish Celtic dance bands.
Shooglenifty drummer James MacKintosh was getting immigration forms together at Perth airport and stood back from the line as the cute little sniffer dogs came round. One of the handlers saw this suspicious movement and singled him out for a thorough sniff.
MacKintosh was marched off to the quarantine department where an official emptied his bags and made the startling discovery of a djembe - an African hand-drum - in the Scottish drummer's luggage.
"She said, 'Oh! I'll have to get my supervisor,' " Mackintosh says. "'Coz it's got a raw-hide skin on it, the supervisor freaked. I said, 'Look, it's not a problem. I've carried this drum into this country four times in the last five years, and the last time I was just given documentation to sign saying that I wasn't going to boil it up in the Sydney water supply.'
"It was kind of like I was trying to bring anthrax in. I was there for 2 1/2 hours. Eventually the supervisor's supervisor came up and it kind of calmed down. They were very freaked-out at first but the fact that we're playing the Commonwealth [Games] Festival seemed to have some kind of sway. I had to sign a form saying I was just going to use the drum for the purpose for which it was intended."
And they believed him. Now there's a Scotsman on the loose using an African hand drum for something distinctly different to what was intended: as part of a kit that also includes samplers to play dance-mix versions of jigs, reels and other tartan airs.
For a decade, Shooglenifty have been sprouting dance beats from Celtic roots. The audience for their energetic live shows keeps swelling, thanks to six albums and constant touring to such unlikely places as Borneo and Mexico.
But then, there's nothing likely about this band from the name onwards. "Shoogle" means "shake" in the old Scottish vernacular.
Also, the band comprise five Scots and one Tasmanian. It's hard to find anywhere further from Scotland than Tassie. Four years ago, the band needed a replacement mandolin player while touring here. Former bass player Conrad Ivitsky thought of Luke Plumb, a 21-year-old he'd heard busking in a Hobart market while there on his honeymoon.
Plumb was invited along just to listen, but he had learned the repertoire
and played the whole gig. He joined the band soon after, writes most of
their tunes and finds it easier to get back into Australia than MacKintosh.
John Shand, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD 17th March 2006
The sixth album from Scottish roots/rave legends Shooglenifty, Radical
Mestizo is named after a Mexican journalist’s attempt to encapsulate
their music in Spanish. This their second live recording, representing the
pick of tracks from gigs taped over the past year in Mexico City, Veracruz,
Indiana, Glasgow and Glenuig. In attempting to capture the unique incendiary
fervour of their concerts on disc, the six-piece band have effectively set
themselves an impossible task: their onstage ensemble dynamic – and
inexorable expertise at cranking up the mood over the course of a show –
can’t be reproduced in sound alone. There’s nonetheless plenty
of fun to be had, in extended versions of material drawn mainly from their
last studio set, The Arms Dealer’s Daughter. Here it’s seething
and glittering with extra guitar aggression, deftly applied samples and
a wealth of wild, dazzling improvisation – the latter usually centred
on the superb front-line partnership between Angus Grant’s fiddle
and Luke Plumb’s mandolin. The key aspect of Shooglenifty performances
that does shine through is the band’s seemingly inexhaustible ability
to ring fresh changes and thereby reinvent even their most familiar and
favourite tunes – combined, of course, with the vividly drawn melodies
and barnstorming rhythmic drive of the tunes themselves.
Sue Wilson SUNDAY HERALD 20th
February 2005
As one of the key original matchmakers in the on-going romance between Scottish traditional music and contemporary dance sounds, Shooglenifty continue to set the standards by which prospective rivals are judged.
They’re a band most naturally at home in the live arena, whipping up crowds into a rave-like frenzy from Bombay to Sydney, and The Arms Dealer’s Daughter is only the fourth studio album of their decade-long career.
Following last year’s line-up reshuffle, 22 year old Luke Plumb steps up on mandolin and banjo with Quee Macarthur on bass, joining founder members Angus Grant (fiddle), Garry Findlayson (banjo/banjax), Malcolm Crosbie (guitars) and James Mackintosh (percussion).
The record ringingly reaffirms the acoustic melodic heart of the band’s
music. It’s not that samples, loops, programming and spacey digital
effects have been abandoned, more that these approaches are integrated deeper
within the fabric of the tunes, against a shiftying backdrop of multi-cultural
allusions: from a dash of fiesta-style brass to drum’n’bass
beats; oriental sultriness to rock’n’roll belligerence. In some
ways, the results are closest in spirit to the band’s seminal debut
release, Venus in Tweeds, while simultaneously underlining how they’ve
honed and developed their sound to stay ahead of the pack.
Sue Wilson SUNDAY HERALD 29th June 2003
The latest album from Edinburgh’s peripatetic acid-croft innovators
launches the band’s own label and new line-up. Quee Macarthur (bass)
and Tasmanian mandolin whiz Luke Plumb slide easily into the deep Shoogle
grooves and add to the sonic undertow with their programming skills, taking
this album further from a Scottish-rooted sound into something more celtic/oceanic.
The great mix of real acoustic instrumental fire and subversive electronics
shows that, even with new head or handle, it’s still the same Shoogle
broom.
Norman Chalmers SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 29th June 2003
Fifth album from Scotland's folkadelic acid-crofters is the first on their own label and new boys Quee Macarthur (bass) and Luke Plumb (mandolin, tenor banjo, bouzouki) replace the outgoing Conrad Ivitsky and Iain Macleod. Plumb effortlessly steps into Macleod's writing shoes, contributing half the album's tunes which - as ever - are original in all senses of the word, their quirky titles commemorating the band's collective life experiences in impressionistic sound-stories.
Quee's prowess with recording software also comes in handy. Regular producer Jim Sutherland has served them well in the past but they prove more than able to fly themselves in the studio (aka the round wooden lighthouse room in drummer James Mackintosh's flat). There's still plenty of programming and found sounds but it's more melodic and integrated, less in-your-face than the narcotic mayhem of 2000's Solar Shears.
To the Shoogles, dance is all. Live, they like to be able to see their
audience to share the experience. But after grooving, listen closely to
the bodacious range of influences and the inventive experimentation: you'll
find Celtic nods and Oriental winks, coronary-inducing polkas and trippy
beats, delicate mandolin and twangy slide guitar, global percussion and
drumming from the dark side. Garry Finlayson's kora-influenced banjo on
Nordal Rumba (a sort of Scottish/Spanish/high-life bop featuring Salsa Celtica's
brass section) is a delight as is the title track set, which belly-dances
to centre stage and does a reel in the moshpit before exiting left with
a bouncer. And amid the polyrhythmic rumpus, beautiful slow tunes like Carboni's
Farewell (intro: the gods play bowls with The Eagles in Valhalla) and the
closing Tune For Bartley, a brain-embedding string-driven slow march into
space, building into an orgasmic uilleann pipes climax courtesy of a passing
Michael McGoldrick. Brilliant, brilliant. Go and buy it.
Mel McClellan BBC Radio 2 July 2003
Fans of Afro Celt Sound System and Mouth Music will immediately recognize
Shooglenifty as something of a kindred spirit to those bands, mixing Celtic
roots music with a kaleidoscopic array of rhythmic influences both ancient
and modern and from points all across the globe. The Arms Dealer's Daughter
basically picks up where Solar Shears left off in 2001, delivering a mixed
bag of tunes and rhythms that hits the spot more than it misses. Things
get off to a pleasant, but not really compelling, start with four sets of
original tunes, mostly written by fiddler Angus R. Grant and mandolin/banjo/bouzouki
player Luke Plumb. Of these, the most exciting is the set that includes
the title track and the raucously joyful "Aye Right." Then things
really pick up and get interesting: the "Nordal Rumba," with its
percolating combination of fiddle, Afro-Cuban drumbeats, and rollicking
horns, is some of the most fun music recorded in this century; on "Maxine's
Polka," the band dips into electronica textures and produces what may
be the first junglist polka in the history of recorded Celtic music; "Fistful
of Euro" is a dense and trip-hoppy fusion of Celtic and North African
elements. "Carboni's Farewell" gets a bit too long-winded for
its own good, but the energetic reel set "Scraping the Barrel"
puts things back on solid footing again. Anyone with both a love of Celtic
music and at least moderately adventurous ears will find much to enjoy on
this album.
Rick Anderson, All Music Guide
It's a full four years since Shooglenifty released 'A Whisky Kiss' to an unsuspecting public, who wasted no time warming to their particular brand of 'acid ceilidh'. In doing so they became instant hits in just about every village hall across the land. Sadly this groundbreaking album suffered from a lack of mainstream radio airplay and television interest, as is often the case. Subsequently our beloved hero's are only household names in those homes frequented by their family, friends, and a loyal cult following.
In those four years essentially very little has changed. They've unquestionably become more experimental, Solar Shears is a quantum jump in production terms for the group. However it's still the elements of banjo/mandolin dueling with Angus Grant's fine fiddle technique which remain the real musical engine room, and is still one of the most refreshing aspects of their whole approach to recording. Thankfully they don't use gadgetry to hide behind a lack of playing ability. I'd like to think that if Frank Zappa had been born on say, Benbeccula, this might have been the music he would have chosen to produce.
Shooglenifty are one of the foremost groups in the 'cool Celt' genera,
and I suspect will be so for some time to come now that they have the often
difficult third album out of the way. Their musical journey is always that
of discovery, as each album appears and I've had time to analyse the contents,
my mind moves to where they may take us to next?
Keith Whitham The Living Tradition - folkmusic.net