You are hereAlbum Review: Peatbog Faeries - Dust (Peatbog Records)
Album Review: Peatbog Faeries - Dust (Peatbog Records)
This sixth studio album from Dunvegan's instrumental Celtic fusion band Peatbog Faeries once again pushes the boundaries of what we perceive as Celtic music. Drawing upon jazz, rock and traditional Scottish fiddle music, and then interlaced with a fair share of pulsating electronica and trance-like dance rhythms; this latest hour of original material comes over as daring, experimental and ground breaking. Those are the positives. The negatives may be that it all comes across (to some) as if listening to The Boys of the Lough or Ossian, as a baseball cap speeds by with his windows down, sharing those familiar pulsating techno toons from the oversized bass bins in the boot, whilst brooding over how much the car insurance has just cost. That's a bit Luddite possibly, but if electronic dance music is not your thing on the dance floor, it's hardly going to be your thing in the armchair.
Having said that, there is no doubt as to the technical wizardry and skill going on here, largely due to Peter Tickell and Peter Morrison's composition credentials and their dexterity on the fiddle and pipes and whistles respectively, together with the band's prowess at arrangement, the band being credited thus on all eleven tracks. Joining the two Peters are Tom Salter on guitar, Graeme Stafford on keyboards, Innes Hutton on bass, guitar and bodhran and Stu Haikney on drums and percussion. There are a couple of special guest appearances in the form of Jarlath Henderson providing uilleann pipes and Paul Templeman on steel guitar, with a brass section of Rick Taylor on trombone and Nigel Hitchcock on sax.
The composition titles are probably insignificant, despite each having a story to tell. I doubt whether Tickell's Passport Panic, a title dreamed up after some visa problems Peter had en-route to the States, has anything remotely to do with the music. Nevertheless, naming instrumentals does bring character to the compositions and titles such as Fishing at Orbost, Marx Terrace and Calgary Capers does give us a sense of place. Peatbog Faeries are a vibrant live band, who bring much excitement and a fair deal of adrenaline to their performances and on DUST some of that immediacy has been captured. Perhaps the real acid test for DUST would be to pop it on at the next party and see what happens.
Allan Wilkinson
Northern Sky
