Allan Yn Y Fan
Album: Pwnco
Label: Steam Pie
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.ayyf.co.uk

Medieval…that's how I'd describe the music of the Welsh band Allan Yn Y Fan on hearing the first track "Death In Ennis/The Audient" of their latest CD. Not in an arcane way but, if you get my drift it's the kind of music that you'd expect at a banquet with serving wenches and portly bearded gentry stuffing their faces with chicken drum sticks and the like…not unlike an evening at Fyfe Mansions then?

It's perhaps not the kind of music I'd generally listen to even with the Bellowhead-ish (with additional brass) "Miniwet Dinbych" but the musicians do make a good fist of it. A brief resume of the utilised instrumentation including guitar, fiddle, accordion, mandolin, flute and recorder offers a guide to what to expect performed in a laid-back, 'session' kind of way.

With the addition of everyone's vocals (Geoff Cripps, Meriel Field, Chris Jones, Linda Simmonds and Kate Strudwick) this is the kind of recording that throws up occasional gems and one of these is "Twinkle Twinkle (Little Star)" with its unusual setting to a melody by G C Westcott.

This is a nicely judged and delivered lullaby that I can imagine would not only go down well with under five's but also a lot of 'folk' audiences. Perhaps "Pwnco" won't move mountains but it is none the less a nice recording.

Pete Fyfe