What to buy ... or not

Published on 14/01/2005 00:26

POP

GRUFF RHYS: YR ATAL GEMHEDLAETH ****

PLACID CASUAL, 11.99

EVEN if they weren’t the grooviest pop band in the country, you would have to love Super Furry Animals for their free-spirited creativity. Here, singer Gruff Rhys heads into the studio to demo some new songs and emerges a week later with a fully-formed solo album in his native Welsh tongue. Given the strictures of time and budget, the album is missing the gleeful fun and sonic embellishments of your above-average Super Furry Animals offering, but Rhys has no trouble coming up with the melodies before breakfast. Epynt is the closest non-Welsh speakers get to a singalong track, but the bubblegum of Pwdin Wy 1 (Egg Pudding 1) and the acoustic punk pop of Y Gwybodusion (Experts) are also effortlessly infectious. Yr Atal Gemhedlaeth is not as engaging as SFA’s Welsh-language album Mwng, but is still better than anyone’s messing-about solo project has a duty to be.

FIONA SHEPHERD

JAZZ

MOISHE’S BAGEL: DON’T SPARE THE HORSES ***

MOISHE’S BAGEL/EACHDAY MUSIC, 13.99

THIS Edinburgh-based quintet have been attracting a fair bit of attention for their exciting fusion approach to Jewish klezmer and the music of the Balkans. That approach is by no means a purist one - while klezmer is clearly at the heart of the enterprise, it is mixed not only with Eastern European music but also with jazz, Asian, Latin and other audible influences.

FOLK

JAMES GRAHAM: SIUBHAL ****

FOOTSTOMPIN’ RECORDS, 13.99

JAMES Graham’s reign as Young Scots Traditional Musician 2004 ends this month, and this excellent debut album from the Lochinver Gaelic singer is part of his prize. Graham’s sweet singing combines expressiveness with technical refinement in beguiling fashion. The songs are a mixture of both traditional Gaelic material and work by contemporary writers like poet Aonghas MacNeacail and the Rev John Macleod, and serve to illustrate how seamless the Gaelic continuum remains.

The arrangements by Graham and producer Mary Anne Kennedy always serve the songs. Further confirmation that the singer is a major talent in the making.

KENNY MATHIESON

CLASSICAL

THE RED, RED ROSE *****

DELPHIAN, 14.99

THIS new release is another exciting example of the arty side of Scots music prevalent in Edinburgh around the time Burns was active in the capital. The singers are Mhairi Lawson and Jamie MacDougall; the quality of performance,backed by David McGuiness’s Concerto Caledonia, is svelte and stylish.

KENNETH WALTON