Cd reviews
GERRY DIVER
Music in Mouth
Scorching Sun Records
You’re unlikely ever to find yourself thinking: now, what I’d really like to listen to is some Irish traditional music mixed in with a bit of Stefan Grappelli/ Northumbrian/ Rumanian/ English/ Ukraine music. But should that mood ever descend upon you, I have the very album.
Diversions contains all the above — plus a few self-penned numbers as well.
Of these The Shepherd’s Bush Reel and the Procrastination Reel put me in mind of the old joke: how do you tell one Irish tune from another? Answer: by their names.
The thing is there’s about 6,000 pieces in the Irish national store of traditional music stretching back these last 300 years or so.
Now we’re talking here about a very precious music — the best in the world as far as I’m concerned, and I seldom listen to anything else.
But one would have to say that being a fairly rudimentary music, as all folk music is — 6,000 pieces is really all we need.
Everything you can do with the oul’ music has more or less been done — and there’s nothing about any of the self-penned music on this CD to persuade me otherwise.
Let me say here and now: there’s some absolutely terrific musicians on this album, not least Gerry Diver on fiddle himself.
There’s some exceptional accordion playing from Tim Edey, and of course you can’t really improve on Gino Lupari on the bodhrán.
But by the end of the album you feel with all that musical firepower at his disposal Gerry might have been better visiting just one or two places in the world and confining his musical style accordingly.
MÍSE
Firefly
www.misemusic.com
Míse are a straightforward traditional band doing some fairly non-straightforward things to Irish (and Scottish) music — indeed, at times some exceedingly tricky things.
Mostly, things pan out well, occasionally outrageously well, but sometimes the whole thing lands just short of the garden, somewhere in the nettles.
The opening track crackles with energy — adding a bit of Shetland music is always a good idea, and Shelder Geö is melodious for any mainstream listeners, but spiky enough if you like your music challenging.
Not so sure about the Butterfly (track 3), though. The trouble with a biggie like this is that anything you come up with will be forever compared to the Bothy Band version. “Ah, g’way. Youse can’t improve on Paddy Keenan and Tommy Peoples’ version,” they’ll say, with some justification. Míse’s version bristles with seductive musical tension — although, as I’m something of a conservative when it comes to jigs, I’m not at all sure about the use of the African instrument the djembe.
Despite the presence of the bodhrán in Irish music (since about the 1960s), it is in fact a tradition without a percussive element, and personally speaking an overdone drumbeat does nothing for me.
The simple playing of the button accordion in the Ingohish Jig, however, is simply masterly. Good music, played exquisitely, with all triplets, rolls and grace notes given their exact measure — you really can’t beat it anywhere on this planet. Similarly the final track, the exhilarating Pinch Of Snuff is itself reason enough to buy this album.
On the showing of this album Míse have a very rosy future with the music of the past and the present.
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