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
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
music and at least moderately adventurous ears will find much to enjoy on this album. ~ Rick Anderson