This one’s been sitting in my pile for ages now. I just couldn’t face the prospect of a live album of rabble-rousing Celtic folk. Without wishing to denigrate any act within this particular sphere, the way in which contemporary Celtic folk simply rehashes all the tropes of every other era of Celtic folk makes for just so much sameness. And when it’s a sameness of something that fails to inspire in the first place… well.
As it happens, ‘Kila Alive’ has significant glimmers of difference: the introduction to Pota Óir’ finds a snaking melody winding around a motorik rhythm that’s far from pure folk tradition, while ‘Babymouse’ is slow and lugubrious with a tender tone – it’s a far cry from the knees-up jig-by-numbers stuff that proliferates.
Elsewhere, the thunderous percussion that dominates the super-urgent ‘Or agus Airgead’ is exhilarating, and there’s a depth and darkness to the song which contrasts with the trilling whistle which provides the melody. The ten-minute segue of ‘Seo Mo Leaba / Am Real’ featuring Kayah, and the seven-minute ‘Skinheads’, with its funk-laced groove both offer something different and more cerebral than the run-of-the-mill.
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So that’s me and my prejudices told.
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