Have I missed a review of the new Afro Celts cd? I just now looked for one, but didn’t find any here.
Haven’t picked it up yet, any first impressions on thier new effort?
After a long abstinence from emails and web…
We have the album now for a little over a week. First I had to get used to it, as it seems different to the first 3 albums as it has less of the trance/beat machine arrangements than the other three albums have. Still there are these parts but a lot is now played by real instruments and there is an excellent “drum and bass” section added (I really like drum&bass and the bassist does do nice bass lines so this is fine by me 
) Anyway the rhythm part is as you are used to, built by lots of drums djembe to indian tablas, bodhran, drum kit etc. etc. The harmony instruments like the kora, uillean pipes, whistles, mandolin, guitar as you are used to from the first albums and again they have guest musicians like Eileen Eivers as on fiddle and an excellent flamenco guitarist whos name I do not know at the moment. The songs are sung by Iarla and again by 2 guest singers like on the last album which do also excellent jobs (I really like Bono from U2 and the guest singer does sound SO similar…). If you liked the first albums I am pretty sure you will like this one as well. It is growing on me, when I first heard the third album that also took a few listens to get used to but I love it now. It is definitely a more organic album to my ears and has some nice trad-like tunes on it. I think also Emer on the pipes has developed tremendously, I think she is brilliant. I look forward seeing them play again on stage, as I am sure it will be a great live experience again.
Brigitte
as far as I know Mundy is guest vocalist on one of the tracks (rise above I think its called)