Willard Grant Conspiracy: (Slowriver Records)
Strange name, strange band, strange album. WGC are one of those bands that like The Walkabouts and Hazeldine throw out interesting left-field countryish gems and disappear. Described quite accurately as a "Boston lo-fi swamp noir ensemble", WJC produce collections full of soft reflection, dark regret and infectious melody with the occasional jagged blade thrown in for sharp relief. The Work Song, from which the title is drawn, is typical of their music. The mood mirrors that of the desert of the same name, a life goes on and the world keeps turning attitude that is underlined by vocalist Robert Fisher's deep-voiced stating of the simple events of the day. It is a beautiful track, simple and memorable. The rest of the album, written mostly by Fisher and Paul Austin, is equally rewarding. Strange but compelling.
Joe Breen
Various Artists: The Rough Guide to Tango (World Music Network)
Now before you start having visions of a cool Come Dancing, we are not talking simply of endless versions of La Cumparsita (there is only one, the original by Los Solistas De D'Arienzo), the tune most associated with the Latin dance; we are talking about a culture, specifically one that is arguably "sometimes sleazy, sometimes elegant, but always sensuous, rhythmic and passionate". Tango was the product of a mix of European and indigenous cultures in the wrong side of Buenos Aires about 100 years ago. Though machismo and violence were part of tango culture, it spread to the middle classes and beyond the Argentine border. This collection shows the variety of tango, with sophisticated orchestral progressions of recent years mixing with the earthier trio and foursome music - violin, guitar, flute and bandoneon (a button accordion) - of the 1930s and 1940s. The minimalist approach wins hands down.
Joe Breen
Blood & Gold (Tara Records)
This four-strong harmony vocal group have flown the coop of Anuna, yet the Gaelic/monastic/suburban stamp still holds. However, arrangements are earthier, the repertoire committed to keener indigenous and English folk songs. Soloist Yvonne Woods attacks Sinead's version of Stretched on your Grave to some effect, although Mouth Music lacks the raw buoyancy of Dolores Keane's version. Woods also sings the goosebumpy Donegal hymn, Dolas an Maighdine Muire (arr. Micheal O Suilleabhain); while Brendan Power's gifted harmonica rows in behind Caron Hannigan on Lagan Love, before they sign out with a blunt but effective set of strathspeys and reels. There are some interesting drifting harmonies, and although some of it is a bit Christmassy, the philosophy is to sing it out bold.
Mic Moroney
Melanie O'Reilly: House of the Dolphins (Independent)
The difficulties of bridging jazz and trad show through this adventurous album by this highly dramatised, scat-meets-dydle Dublin jazz singer. Feargal Murray's tight session jazz settings take in jazz drummer Tom Dunne, Richie Buckley's sax, flautist Ellen Cranitch and Joe McKenna/Martin Nolan's whistles/pipes. O'Reilly's nervy feeling and energy shows through City of Dreams, Nuala ni Dhomhnaill's Chugat an Puca, and even a version of an old dispossession poem, but the jazz inflections fit less well on other songs in Irish, and the Johnny Logan/Lloyd Webber-school touches of Circle Me and Annie Moore slump into cheesy-listening. There's spadefuls of very keen musicality and colour here, but neither fish, flesh nor fowl, this album often seems to live in a dreamy medium all its own.
Mic Moroney
