After Hours

THE CAFE ORCHESTRA: “After Hours” (Gourmet Records)

THE POSE in Cafe En Seine notwithstanding, After Hours is a gem. Patrick Collins and his company of exotic troubadours have been beguiling a growing fraternity over the last twelve months, and not being the sort of people to let the grass grow under their feet, they’ve produced their second album hot on the trails of last year’s debut with equally beguiling ease.

Its beauty is in its cross-breeding. After Hours’ hybrid identity is what removes it from the masses and sets it firmly on its own footing. ‘Shakin’ The Shifter’ is a romantic hipsway in the Caribbean, ‘Dark Eyes’ is a post-ethanol trip within a gypsy caravanserai, its waltzing accordion as readily a native of the Steppes as of Romania, and ‘Valse Maria’ conjures images of campfire seductions and all sorts of other things romantic.

As for the eponymous ‘After Hours’, it’s no surprise to hear that it emerged after the witching hour, its birthplace the venerable Beal Bocht. It is here that Drazen Derek’s sublime guitar melds with Michael Flynn’s mournful accordion to create a melodrama worthy of backdropping the most calamitous couplings of Cathy and Heathcliff.

Amid the plethora of styles and substances, it would be difficult to surprise, since nothing is expected, everything bespeaks of a quartet of musical minds gelling and welding their own chapter to the stories. But surprise they do, with an unlikely outtake from Gabriel Yared’s seamless Betty Blue score, ‘La Poubelle Cuisine’, and, praises be, a sombre cover of ‘Carrickfergus’.

And it is here that they come a tad unstuck. The exotic identity that is theirs alone vanishes. Their gypsy leanings dilute to accommodate the demands of the better known pieces and the entire momentum loses force and comes to a grinding halt. Albeit temporarily.

The Cafe Orchestra have a sense of identity that’d put the entire psychiatric profession out of business, were it to spread beyond their hallowed confines. Their musical itinerary is so crammed that couch trips are the last thing on their minds – but even brief forays into the Classics might ultimately unsettle their spirit.

If they stick to the originals and the exotic they’ll enthral and beguile for a whole lot longer though. And who needs ‘Carrickfergus’ after it’s been butchered by Phil Coulter anyway?

• Siobhán Long