reviews

mouthmusic - the scrape

a dark album of fiddle-based music by the fluid, ever- challenging scots band put together by martin swan.

it's over a decade since mouth music's jaw dropping debut album and there's still no way of guessing what they might come up with next. originally a ground breaking vehicle for the gealic singing of talitha mackenzie, swan has now turned mm into a menacing barrage of sinister fiddle - with as many scandinavian and eastern european influences as celtic - with the recent recruitment of alison crawford as double-pronged string attack. the other major contribution is from the pipes of martin furey, while capercaillie's rhythm section also lend a sizable hand. the result is a big barren sound that goes against most preconceptions of fiddle music, yet is so earthy and harsh that it's impossible to ignore or indeed resist. stark and daring, an album that will polarise opinion.

mojo - colin urwin

martinfurey - howl

martin furey's debut solo album is a defiantly downbeat and lo-fi affair, again working through his diverse influence bag which includes irish, eastern, ambient and alternative strains. it is a highly accomplished work. aided by mouth music henchman martin swan and utilizing the varichord capo (a revolutionary chord-shaping device, the brainchild of martin furey), the effort captures a breathless romanticism crossed with abstract melancholy. more raw in nature than bonhinta, martin furey's solo music has that same chimerical atmosphere, yet embodies a generally more cerebral tone. speaker of evil, with eastern hand percussion, a rumbling bass, and sustained electric guitar chords, inhabits a more exotic canvas than before and furey's evocative low whistle on the ambient / irish / egyptian-flavoured aula recalls bashir abdel al's work. similar egyptian motifs inhabit falling whilst a typical fureyesque blast of solo uilleann piping ends strange bird on a lonesome note. vocally, furey's breathy tones recall those of early tim buckley and the enigmatic jimmie spheeris, in its breathy ethereal tones. subtle hints of trip-hop, and electro-beats pop up occasionally, adding even further to the exotic cocktail on show. howl is a challenging yet strangely captivating listen, that yields further riches on continued exposure.

john o'regan

mouthmusic - seafaring man

martin swan and his band mouth music made a big impact in the early 1990s by mixing gaelic vocals (including the traditional vocal technique from which the group derives its name), african rythyms and dance grooves. earlier albums relied heavily on the vocals, first of talitha mackenzie, and then of jackie joyce, but seafaring man, mouth music's fourth album, finds martin swan out on his own - and it's his most confident take yet on the gaelic tradition which continues to lie at the core of the sound.

there are subtle beats and grooves dropped into the mix, but swan has mostly chosen to rely on acoustic instruments (rather than samples or programmes) to create his increasingly stripped-down musical textures. He has also employed a flurry of fine vocalists, including michaela rowan, ishbel mcaskill and martin furey, scion of one of ireland's most famous musical families.

the material ranges from his own songs, such as berimbau-driven whaling ship and the pop romanticism of the title track with its smooth george benson-style guitar, to reinterpretations of traditional material such as brothers killing and the haunting inveralligin. but, he has reached a perfect synthesis in what he does, so that it's well-nigh impossible to tell which are contemporary compositions, and which carry the weight of tradition. which is what makes this such a special release.

songlines - nigel williamson