Music
20 Mar 01

Soundpost & Bridle

The title refers to body parts on the fiddle and uilleann pipes, and heralds the arrival of siblings Eoghan and Flaithrm Neff, a duo which reminds me from the off of the casual but drum-tight interplay between Paddy Keenan and Tommy Peoples in the early line-up of The Bothy Band.

Nor do the comparisons end there, as several staples of the Bothies' repertoire - 'Farewell To Eirinn', 'Coleman's Cross' and 'The Butterfly', to name but three, crop up in various tune couplings.

The brothers' trademark as players is a wildness that infuses even the slowest, most measured tunes with passion, but it never threatens to get out of control; there is at all times a soul-deep mastery of instruments and conduct in evidence. This is not music that has been thrown together without a care - lifts, key and tempo changes all have their place in one of the best albums I have heard in years.

This is only their first outing, and already they have made one of the defining musical statements of the new millennium. Be mesmerised.