Martyn Bennett's "GRIT" (a wee bit OT)

Trad Irish Music
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This is a bit of a departure, as it is concerned with Scottish traditional music rather than Irish, but I felt it was worth bringing to people’s attention.

Martyn Bennett has a new album out and it’s utterly fascinating stuff. For those who are unfamiliar with his music, he’s extremely hard to pigeonhole. A virtuoso Scottish piper and classically-trained violinist (The Scotsman once called him “the next Nigel Kennedy”), he’s also equally adept at modern electronic music programming. His output has ranged from the harsh, breakbeat-laced music on “Hardland” to incredibly subtle and mature arrangements on “Glen Lyon”, a collection of Gaelic songs recorded with his mother, singer and ethnomusicologist Margaret Bennett.

His new album “Grit” combines elements of his past work but this time his own instrumentation is layered around old archive recordings mostly recorded in the 1950s of Scottish travelling people from the northeast and Gaelic-speaking singers from Skye and Lewis. The effect is not dissimilar to what Moby attempted with old Alan Lomax recordings of Blues singers on his album “Play”, but it is far better realized here.

Thus we have the soaring vocals of Lizzie Higgins weaved with harsh, man-made sounds; the gentle cadences of Calum Ruadh Nicholson’s reminiscing on “the Great Wars” segued into Flora MacNeill’s stunning interpretation of “Mo Ruin Geal Og”, an abstract “tone poem” describing a typical Highland wedding accompanied by weird improvised piano and viola, an entire story recited by the storyteller Davie Stewart, and a whole lot more.

This isn’t some kind of gimmicky, “Deep Forest”-style attempt to market “ethnic” sounds at the techno crowd. The singers on this album are by and large people whom Bennett has known personally and he obtained permission from them or their families to use all the material here. He also submitted the finished product for approval to Hamish Henderson, the source of several of the archive recordings. (Henderson passed away last March and the album is dedicated to him).

This is an extraordinary album. It doesn’t always work, but when it does the results are thrilling. Recommended for those who found Iarla O Lionaird’s solo stuff interesting.

Moby? Afro Celts? This s**ts 'em.

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Afro-Celt, Moby, and Deep Forest don’t hold a candle to Martyn Bennett. This is partly because Martyn’s a part of the tradition (unlike Moby, Deep Forest, et al.). He also takes a very robust approach to his projects, addressing each aspect to its fullest, not just trying to do something innovative for innovation’s sake.

Greentrax has just released a compilation album paying tribute to Hamish Henderson. It’s called A’ The Bairns o’ Adam. One of the contributors is Martyn’s mother, Margaret Bennett. One outstanding track is Dr. Fred Freeman (the producer) reading a poem while piper, Allan MacDonald, plays a breathtaking Gaelic song.

Cheers,
Aaron