Customer Reviews

Volume 1: Sound Magic

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first heard Song 3 "Inion" on the ultra hip TV show La Femme Nikita and was instantly captivated by the crystalline voice of Iarla O'Lionaird. This album is so totally different than the main stream corporate junk that is being shoved down the throats of the public in the guise of music that I thought I had died and gone to "music heaven".

The sheer mastry of their incredible array of irish and africal instruments by this ensemble tells it's own story of true musicianship. Each of the musical themes are enhanced by the power of the various personalities who contribute their own unique cultural enrichment of two very different worlds of experiences and it resonates in this album.

As an example, you can hear the artist's gut level understanding of celtic history and its music under the flying fingers of harpist Myrydhin. The way he handles his celtic harp with it's haunting voice sends rippling thrills shivvering up and down the spine. This music is addictive.

The grooves are hypnotic and intense. I found myself dancing all over the place for that is how powerful the african beat is that drives this music. One can hear the intense connection of the african artists and how they talk in that language of their deeply rich drumming history of story telling.

I love the use of gallic words. Hearing their native tongue evokes a sense of the joy and longing felt by the artists' toward their homeland and it's unique cultural echo weaves a certain magic and inspires their songs .

This is music that restores faith for those of us who are aching to hear the art of real live musicians who are not under the control of power drunk, greedy, corporate music tin heads in suits.

And it is a CD that one will play over and over and never get sick of for with each hearing the listener discovers fresh nuances in each track. It is a knock out album.

Imagine Irish jigs and reels powered by a heavy jungle beat, African jazz supported by Irish pipes, whistles and fiddles, songs of prayer combined with high-kicking dance tunes, delicate harp melodies with synthesized accents -- all linked together by driving African percussion and an electric rock sensibility. That's the Afro Celt Sound System, but it doesn't begin to cover their sound.

The Afro Celt Sound System isn't a band so much as a cooperative of musicians intrigued by an idea. United under the umbrella of Peter Gabriel's Real World label, nearly two dozen musicians added their personal touch to make the idea a reality.

The initial product of their joining is Volume 1: Sound Magic. It cannot be described as Celtic or African in nature; yet, both styles are evident in spades. Sound Magic is a true union of two completely dissimilar musical genres.

If you're anything like me, you're saying "who the hell are they?". When I picked up their first volume, Sound Magic, at a cheesy CD store in Switzerland, I just assumed they were some no-name band that runs around small European countries playing in clubs and whatnot. The album is excellent, pairing African drums with Celtic moods on an electronic core to create a beat worthy of any club, yet melodic enough for casual listening. These guys truly rock, so on a whim I checked them out at Amazon.com (where else?), and lo, they have three albums released in the U.S. on a major label, and their third and latest creation, Further in Time, goes so far as to include world music champion Peter Gabriel and rock legend Robert Plant.
Check these guys out, it's worth it. I suggest Volume one first, to get a great intro to this truly different groove, and if you like what you hear, move on to the bigger (and harder) volume three. Hope you enjoy!

Well, over seven years since it's release and much has been said about this first release by A.C.S.S. They are everything good said and more. There are not enough superlatives to describe this hybrid sound that evokes Highlander images, a morning mist shrouded in a damp dew, revealing glistening mountain tops beyond the vibrant green forest or a red sky sunset, breaking through the clouds, highlighting the shimmering crytaline waters, taking the listener to far away lands, known and unknown. The music is magical, it has a feel of aborigines dancing with the elves in a hipnotic, capricious rhythmical motion , swirling and joining together to form an elongated celtic knot. The music is undescribable, it is like Enya to a pounding ancient rhythmic beat, Celtic harps weaving with programmed keyboards, uilleann pipes, various flutes combined with talking and programmed drums, fiddles, banjos, mandolins, cellos and violas thrashing with bongos, doudouk and kora precussion, it is old world meshing with technology, it is music for a new age. As suggested by others, if you are just getting into Afro Celt Sound System, start your listening experience with this first and most excellent release, then move in progression with the band. The music is as worthy now as then so do yourself a favor and buy this disc. Later put this disc on and travel within your mind to magical lands beyond, all within the confines of your home. The space between your ears will thank you.

I get the same feeling of discovery listening to Vol 1., Sound Magic, as I once got listening to early Grateful Dead albums in the late 1960s. The free form structure is the same as is the reliance on solo instrumental virtuosity to provide an illusion of otherworldliness. Afro-Celt Sound System features the influence and creative fusion of ancient musical traditions tightly wrapped around driving bass riffs and accentuated via electronic overlay. A jubilant spirit pervades the set which is primarily rooted in hypnotically alluring African and Celtic idioms but which takes a good deal of flavor from Middle Eastern sources as well. There are several tracks on this miraculous CD that really take off. The others are always interesting to become reacquainted with. The next CD by Afro-Celt Sound System, Vol 2., Release, extends the scintillating work begun here. It offers another focused journey into a trans-cultural, tribally grounded rock that is totally fresh and emotionally invigorating.

If you haven't bought this CD then what are you blowing your money on?! I personally like Vol I better than Vol II and I bought Vol II first. It is the perfect mix of third world with first world on Real World-a Peter Gabriel production. Now I can only take so much celtic music but with a blend of Africian rythm, it's an extremely volitile-nitro -dance mix. But it's great to listen to just sitting at home relaxing. Track 7-Whirl-Y-Reel 2 is particularly intoxicating, like summer on Riviera.

I saw Afro Celt live a couple of months ago, and I am now a total fan. I pulled this CD out again, and haven't stopped playing it since. The soulful vocals of Iarla O'Lionard and the smooth blend of African and Celtic rythyms make for both great dancing and listening pleasure.

Mesmerizing, hypnotic...and even a tad addicting.....

I happened to have the good fortune one night, of catching a few moments of these fellows on a PBS special. It left me lusting for more. I cannot recall ever having been so enthralled after such a brief encounter with a group's music.

This album is the musical equivalent of a languorous, blissfully exhausting sexual encounter. From the undeniably seductive SAOR/FREE, to the tranquil lulling afterglow of SAOR REPRISE, The Afro Celt Sound System will having you rushing through that obligatory post-coital cigarette in order to do it all over again....

Afro Celt Sound System's first album is, as their name says, a clever and in parts quite stunning mix of Celtic & world music that garnered huge praise and success on its release. But despite its ingenuity it's an odd record, veering often incongruously between "dance" music and much slower and occasionally quite turgid world/folk. Truth is that it's the more upbeat club/dance tracks, in particular the outstanding "Sure-As-Not/Sure-As-Knot", "Whirl-Y-Reel 1" & Whirl-Y-Reel 2", that make it come alive and which justify a great deal of the praise heaped on it.

So... if you want to discover similarly inspired, upbeat dance/world music where to? Well, Afro Celt's second album - "Release" - moves them much closer to the club area but, while good, loses a lot of the melodic intricacy & instrumental interplay that made "Sound Magic" such a success; better to go for their third outing - "Further in Time" - which more effectively combines the inspired enthusiasm of their early tracks with the driving club beats of "Release".

Better still, check-out their virtually unknown UK contemporaries, Elephant Talk, whose difficult to find albums follow a similarly infectious, more jazz tinged club/world "fusion" formula with more consistently upbeat and enjoyable results. Check out Amazon.co.uk for Elephant Talk's first two albums, "In a Big Sea" and the even better "Head", and the group's own web site at http://www.infrasound.co.uk/index2.htm for their quite brilliant last release "Leap". You won't be disappointed but you may be left wondering how such equally innovative and exciting music can remain so little known.

Hard to describe, but these guys manage to perfectly straddle the line between Irish / Celtic folk music (not enya and such) and African beats like Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The sound is provocative and image-intense, but the music itself is not irritating and it is easy to listen to a whole album. These guys recently recorded with Peter Gabriel (I forget what album) and are one of the undiscovered greats.