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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Possibly the most alive recording yet made...., August 7, 2003
Flook! are one of a number of groups taking traditional UK/Irish folk music in great new directions. Rubai, their second album, sees the band's relentlessly upbeat & uplifting ethos further honed from the more traditional (and varied) style of their debut 'Flatfish'.
Most of the sets within this album are just fantastic, with a reliance more on skilled & energetic whistle, flute, bodhran & guitar playing than on the effects-based (but still fantastic)creations of contemporaries such as Mike McGoldrick (a founder member of Flook!) et al.
Purists may not like it- anyone into folk or world music who is open to new ideas almost certainly will.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolute best of the neo-Celtic bands, April 21, 2004
These people are insane. More energy, more smarts, more sheer musicality than any ten other Irish or Scottish new Celtic groups. Their tunes literally dance out of the speakers with a wildly infections groove seldom if ever found in the music of any other bands, no matter what the genre. It's almost as if they've figured out how to play Celtic music in an entirely new and glorious way. Something mysterious is going down here, perhaps tied to "a few sonic contributions" from the band's "ingenious engineer, Mark Tucker," reminiscent of similar contributions another Tucker, Tucker Martine, has made to North American bands Mylab and the 4 + 1 Ensemble. In any case, this is music that should be experienced by anyone who wants to see not only where Celtic music has been, but especially where it is going. Easily the best Celtic disc since Shooglenifty's magnificent Arm's Dealer's Daughter.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Time to get Flooked! Refreshingly New Celtic, Fusion Sound!, October 25, 2004
Celtic Music is reincarnated yet again! This quartet is anything but a flook. This is intelligently, creatively arranged music with a tightly designed, interwoven quartet sound from excellent musicians. If you were weaving on a Scottish or Irish loom, you would have strands for flute, whistle, button accordian leads driven by strands for a snappy rhythm guitar and the bouncey beat of irish drum. The result is an incredible range, from a jazz fusion flavor, to Latino, to Celtic Traditional. The Flook sound is the interplay of two teams, a two instrument lead, plus a two instrument guitar and bodhran rhythm. It is a carefully crafted sound with two instrument leads hitting the same notes, as if one instrument. Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen can be said have established a Flook trademark double lead. At other times, they have interwoven harmonies and counterpoints. It is surprising that John Joe Kelley's bodhran (Irish Drum) is carrying the rhythm throughout with enormous versatility. The backside of the drum head is being manipulated to bring the sound up and down to fast paced doublets and triplets. Ed Boyd contributes excellent chord progressions to make this an amazing, pace setting, double rhythm. Their first album, Flatfish, highlights their second album as proof of the primary quartet fully developing their
chemistry. My hope is that Flook stays together and continue in the direction of creative quartet arrangements. This album is exceptionally well reviewed in the United Kingdom, and an undiscovered gem in the United States. If you are a American (Neo)Celtic Music fan, its time to get "flooked."
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by Flook 
