ALBUM REVIEWS
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ALBUM REVIEWS |
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Afro Celt Sound System
CAPTURE (1995 – 2010) REAL WORLD RECORDS 6.9.10 @www.vanguard-online.co.uk
Afro Celt Sound System were in at the early days of World Music becoming fusion (or is it colonised?) beginning with typically Celtic sounds, adding dance beats then working in a gumbo of influences, they made an irresistible dance draw for festivals, where white dreadies could bounce up and down, shaking their locks. The beat is an awesomely propelling and accessible one, surrounded with colour and not over-burdened with words and distraction from the good times. That effect works well for the albums too, winning solid sales. Now, five albums are filleted and the tastiest bits served up on this double set. One disc is instrumental, one vocal. Those vocals might be Arabic or other world vocals or floating voices over busy beats. Modern beats are disguised and blended with world sounds, always aiming for the danceable. The vocal “Verse” album opens with a pure stormer in Lagan before moving on to a collaboration with Sinead O’Connor. Celtic pipes keep things bouncing and the vocals slip easily over the ears. Lyrics tend to the warm and fluffy hippy contentedness – nice and relaxing, not up to close examination. But we’re here to dance and along comes the distinctive tones of Peter Gabriel then Mundy (half of the wonderful Mundy-Turner duo). This music has one foot in the “diddly-i” camp and the other stomping in the dance festival scene. The instrumental “Chorus” album also opens with a big sweeping number – Mojave – and rolls majestically on, riding high with lots of spacey drop-out sections to break things up. African rhythms permeate the whole, reggae appears, even bhangra and Arabic influences. The whole is tailored to give those moments of pause and reflection between the highs of crowd exultation. In the quiet of your own house or headphones it makes for great soundtrack music to accompany journeys, housework or anything else that needs a great beat and a sweeping sense of wide horizons. It does what it says on the tin……. www.afroceltsoundsystem.net |
