The Seanachaidh - Ceilidh Electric: A Time To Dance

Wednesday 1st December 1999
The Seanachaidh - Ceilidh Electric: A Time To Dance
The Seanachaidh - Ceilidh Electric: A Time To Dance

STYLE: Dance/Electronic
RATING 5 5 5 5 5
OUR PRODUCT CODE: 512-1188
LABEL: Word WMD007
FORMAT: CD Album
ITEMS: 1
RRP: £4.99

Reviewed by David Bain

Can you combine Scottish/Celtic music and dance music? Well that is just what The Seanachaidh have tried to do. The 11 tracks on this CD, which include two remixes, are dance or have a bassy vibe. Over the top of the beat is a mixture of fiddles, Irish pipes, whistles, and heavy guitar sounds. Sammy Homer and a host of other obviously talented musicians play the many different kinds of instruments, but there seems to be either too much happening on some tracks or the wrong kind of instruments on others. Another problem is the dance beat sounds a touch dated while the pumping rhythm is often pushed into the background by all the other instruments. The lyrics are written very well and I am touched by a lot of the words and expressions. Unfortunately, I am disappointed when I hear them on the album. Often the words are lost in the music. However, there are some parts that I do enjoy. The tracks "The Seanachaidh" with its angelic sounding chorus and "The Devil's Own", mixing young school children's voices with a driving rhythm are both very creative and well thought out. Overall, the idea of combining traditional sounds with modern ones is a great idea but, in this case, not one that has worked very well.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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Reader Comments

Posted by Jussi in Finland @ 23:45 on Aug 22 2008

I bought the CD used and I don't regret. Although I don't dance, I like dance music mostly, and I'm manic about celtic stuff, especially Irish, Scottish comes just next so this is a neat addition to my scant collection of various items.

This album has its dance elements, yet it has a soft, soothing sound to it. Someone else noted too that the vocals are often lost in the background.

One of the songs reminds me strongly of Oh Susannah, which I heard with various mock lyrics in my childhood... some fun memories there!

And one song has the slow hiphop/breakbeat rhythm you could almost sing reggae to... the song sounds a lot like some Amiga tracker tunes (a style and, ahem, instrument, that I have fooled with too). While the sounds are old fashioned, maybe that was what the artists were looking for.



Posted by JimmyD in Glasgow @ 19:28 on May 28 2006

We were trying a fairly radical new style
on this cd ,and maybe some things did work better than others.
There are now so many albums of this kind of musical genre, but there were very few we knew of then.
Sammy and i have planned to do a 2nd album for a long time now, but its difficult to find the time between Sammys solo work,Electrics stuff,and the band members vaious other projects and commitments.

The reviews were very positve
for this project,so thank you for taking the time to give your opinions.
We appreciate it.
cheers
JimmyD(The Seanachaidh/Electrics



Posted by JimmyD in Glasgow @ 19:22 on May 28 2006

Hi David
Thank you very much for your review.
Constructive criticism is often a positive thing,and im glad that you did enjoy some if not all of the things we did on this,the first Seanachaidh album.





The opinions expressed in the Reader Comments are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms.

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