Kíla - Suas Síos

Over 25 years on the road and in the recording studio, Kíla remain among the most experimental and radical exponents of Irish traditional music. Album number 10 (approximately) finds them with most of the original line-up intact and doing what they do best: blending ambitious instrumental pieces with wild, syncopated rhythms and superb conventional songs.
Recalling Moving Hearts in their prime, the title-track is a head-rush of a tune, with Ronan O’Snodaigh’s race-to-the finish lyrics (sung in Irish) over frantic ensemble playing. In contrast ‘Mac Lir’ is a gorgeous, mellow instrumental with strings and saxophone to the fore; the simply titled ‘Jigs’ – another instrumental – does exactly what it says on the tin, building into an exhilarating climax; and ‘Rachel Corrie’ is atmospheric, dramatic and cinematic, with haunting strings and ethereal washes of sound.
A complex arrangement and world music rhythms underpin ‘Length of Space’; the epic, six-minute plus ‘Skinheads’ traverses several time signatures and would probably make for a perfect Riverdance-style routine; the Middle-Eastern sounding ‘Last Mile Home’, sung here in English, finds them making yet another stylistic about-turn, while hypnotic, trance-like closing track ‘Fainne’ is all cascading textures and haunting, other-worldly vocals. A very fine record indeed.

Key Track - Suas Síos'