Struileag
Album: Children Of The Smoke
Label: La Banda
Tracks: 15
Website: http://www.struileag.com

If you thought that Gaelic albums tend to be rehashes of the same of songs desperate to be remembered before a language is assigned to the history books like many languages and dialects, then hopefully "Children Of The Smoke" will make you think again, because it's been designed for just that purpose and it does it magnificently.

The album is just one strand of a project, delivered by La Band, funded by The National Lottery, BBC Alba and The Scottish Government, amongst others that has stretched across many different mediums, including a large scale multi-media show, poetry readings and specially commissioned films.

The album arranged under the stewardship of Jim Sutherland features vocalists like, Joy Dunlop, Calum Barker, Alasdair Whyte and Rachel Newton, amongst many others, with musical contributions from Patsy Reid, Matheu Watson and Angus Lyon as but a small sample of the many musicians involved in the project.

"Children Of The Smoke" is very much about new, fresh contributions to be made to the Gaelic canon and in that it definitely succeeds, but as with all of these things, does the album rise above the noble cause to which it undoubtedly hails, to deliver the ultimate requirement of someone not versed or bought into the cause, i.e. as a standalone album, does it entertain? I have to say the answer to that it a resounding yes and the reason for that is predominantly down to the music and arrangements of Jim Sutherland

As with most albums I review, I listened to the album without reading the accompanying press release. I'm not a Gaelic speaker so in many ways, I treat the album almost like an instrumental release, with the voice as an instrument and with the criteria, does the album move me? The answer here being an unqualified affirmative.

My first thought was that it was an exciting and contemporary take on Gaelic songs, especially as a run through the song titles consisted of fifteen songs that I was entirely unfamiliar with and would have awarded extra points for having the courage to move away from the familiar, it was only later I realised how far they had moved.

One of the things I liked, particularly having read the song titles was how much the album reaches out to other cultures, embraces them and brings them into the Gaelic family. Many of the songs reach across the continent and as with the more traditional songs that we know and love, they aren't afraid to shy away from darkness and politics.

As someone that listens to quite a lot of Gaelic music and songs I found this to be a very revitalising album. It's fresh and very much alive. It's now right at the top of my recommendations for a starting point for a newbie to try. "Child Of The Smoke" is about enjoyment and it delivers of that objective, big time.

Neil King