(Evangeline, 2001)
Third disk in study of the electro-Celtic band of
Ireland of the North.
This trio of the siblings John and Pat Mc Manus
collaborating -recent in Arjen Lucassen's new project - and Dan Axtell he
has transformed in kind of a the European journalists' spoiled boy. Their mixture of
Celtic, pop, electronic, jazz, blues and country believe a very personal sound that
appeals so much to elements of vanguard as well as to other simpler ones, of more
acceptance in the radial spectrum.
The topics have a base highly pop-rock, on which the trio plays with Celtic instruments as
the whistles, the uillean pipes, the bodhran, the bouzuki or the fiddle. The keyboards and
programming of Axtell takes them to transform that traditional sound in something
near to the brilliant expermentations of the Afro Celt Sound System, although with
the melodic attractiveness of a Capercaillie. For moments this can come closer a
point to certain more conventional formulas, but the irresistible harmonic charm and the
continuous surprises that he/she offers the album it transforms it into one of the most
interesting appearances in the vanguard Celtic coalition in the last times.
Andrés Valle
andresvalle@interlink.com.ar