Foxglove

MOVING CLOUD

Foxglove (Green Linnet)

THE HOUSE BAND

October Song (Green Linnet)

PAT CROWLEY & JOHNNY McCARTHY

Fool’s Dream (Dara)

For your average punter, the mere mention of set dance music conjures up wince-inducing visions of chaotic céilí bands with at least three accordions, five fiddles and a banjo or two, all played by freckle-faced twelve-year-olds banging along in cacophony to the accompaniment of an insensitive clod at the piano who never seems to notice a change of key.

So, thank heavens for Moving Cloud. The group got its start playing for set dances at the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis, County Clare, and while in the sleeve notes for this new CD they repeatedly emphasise their desire to be seen as a concert act, their value as good public relations for set dance bands in general is inestimable.

Engineer Martin Murray does a wonderful job of balancing Paul Brock’s accordion, Kevin Crawford’s flute and the twin fiddles of Manus McGuire and Maeve Donnelly – the ensemble also being joined on a couple of tracks by banjo virtuoso Gerry O’Connor, late of Four Men & A Dog. Each individual instrument comes through clean, sparkling and perfectly audible, and Carl Hession’s tasty piano backing is right where it ought to be.

Paul Brock takes two fine solo turns – a mischievous, wittily ornamented set of hornpipes played on melodeon, and an atmospheric French swing waltz that would have you believing you were in a smoky cafe in Paris circa 1930. Manus McGuire’s winsome trilling fiddle gets an airing on his own composition ‘Shelly River Waltz’, and Maeve Donnelly’s solo on ‘Paddy Fahy’s Reel/The Ewe Reel’ reveals a confident player with a nice East Galway lilt.

Coming up on the heels of such high-energy music, the opening set of jigs on English/Scottish outfit the House Band’s new album feels somewhat subdued. Flute/whistle/bombarde player John Skelton, singer/guitarist Ged Foley and melodeon player Chris Parkinson have been playing together since the 1980s; now they’ve been joined by Roger Wilson on fiddle and vocals.

I can’t say I’m wild about Wilson’s singing, but perhaps it’s just too English for my taste, with more vibrato than I care to hear in a voice. Ged Foley’s more straightforward, understated approach – especially on a gentle rendition of ‘The Factory Girl’ – is easier on the ears, somehow.

Things liven up considerably with ‘Rispiti’, a Romanian dance number featuring nifty harmonica work from Parkinson. On a gorgeous set of Breton tunes (plus one original composition), Skelton plays the veuze, a Breton variant of bagpipes, with the fiddle and melodeon providing intricate harmonies and countermelodies.

The album’s other standout track, ‘The End Of The World’, also consists of tunes from Brittany, although the band have added a French Canadian element with tapping feet courtesy of their Quebecois sound engineer. Here Wilson’s fiddle is spot-on, playing in a droning style suggestive of American “old-timey” music, and Foley’s punchy guitar gives the tunes a good lift.

On Fool’s Dream, pianist and accordion player Pat Crowley and fiddler/flautist Johnny McCarthy have taken the highly unusual step of making an album devoted to new compositions in a traditional idiom. Both are nimble, precise musicians, and the melodies they’ve written are inventive and pleasant to listen to. It’s an interesting idea – fair play to them for coming up with the concept.

Even on lightning-fast jigs, however, the music has a soothing, New-Agey feel, a bit reminiscent of groups like the Paul Winter Consort or Nightnoise. Nothing wrong with that – just not my cup of tea. Mary Black supplies guest vocals for the title number, co-written by Crowley and McCarthy. McCarthy’s own easygoing vocal on the track is lovely – it’s a pity they only chose to include the one song amid 11 instrumental pieces. A dignified, restrained ‘Lament for Dave Early’, composed in honour of the late drummer, features Early’s own cymbals, sampled from other recordings.

Sarah McQuaid