Reviews

 What Men Deserve To Lose      Peatbog Records CDBOG003

There can be no one direct approach taken to describe the constantly evolving music of the Peatbog Faeries, its very nature is polyglot and that disparate collection of philosophies makes them the perfect band for 2007.  In a time when we have to move beyond silly categories and vague labels, which by very definition can no longer apply – unless you’re stuck in a time warp – fusion is the only term that makes real sense.  If anything, What Men Deserve to Lose  ( a quote from writer Derek Cooper) moves out further into the big, blue beyond, still latching on to island roots yet in a mood of glorious experiment.  The Peatbogs have thrown caution to the wind, through ten tracks of busy, busy music nothing seems beyond them and even if it is, by God they have a bloody good tray at touching every base.  So is this where the writer falls back on Clichés and starts to make generic references?  Er, no!  However, allow me this – if Junior Walker & All Stars had been based in Portree, played bagpipes and fiddles as well as brass and known about dub and programming, then maybe I should just say this is unique.  I love it heaps.  Now if only Milo had time to do a remix.  www.peatbogfaeries.com

                                                                                                                                                                        Simon Jones    fRoots  

Croftwork Peatbog Records CDBOG002

Yep, I know it's got a cow on the cover, but Croftwork is intelligence and daring wrapped in an Aladdin's Cave of possibilities. No bull. If Shooglenifty are Scots fusion pushing into wider world styles, then Peatbog Faeries are happy to be Scots pushing their own style into the wide world. Got the difference? Good, because it's crucial to understanding the potential of the Skye mavericks. Welcome to Dunvegas was their calling card left politely, this one hammers the message through the front door and down the hallway. Here Adam Sutherland and Peter Morrison - in particular - piper and fiddler respectively, have hit stride and stir the same demons as Moving Hearts did with the genius of The Storm; that is, put simply, a compelling, haunting, danceable spree that makes no apologies for roots, indeed, would not and could not exist without them so shouts it loudly from the rooftops. Whilst one or two of the titles may be a bit tongue in cheek, for instance Scots on the Rocks, there is nothing apologetic about the music which runs some eleven tracks, from hi-tech drizzle reeling to plaintive electronic airs. Peppered with a horn section that comes straight out of The Commitments, there is pretty much no stone left unturned in their race to recreate the Caledonian soul. The opening track comes on like a Battlefield Band lift, until the cavalry arrives in the shape of huge granite rhythms and honking brass riding a funk groove. If only James Brown had been born in Portree! There are moments too of jazzy ambience: Weakened wheels and circles in cascading spirals, the horns once more punctuating the forest of samples and loops. The title track picks up similar ideas to the late lamented Martyn Bennett, while When The Seahound Left Me could have come fresh from a Nathan Hines album before surging into a plaintive fiddle led lament. Other such glories flood rather than pepper the rest of an album that's almost taken up residence in the stereo. Your home will be the poorer for not owning this joyful, playful, energetic wonder.

Simon Jones, Froots

Peatbog Faeries - Croftwork (Peatbog Records)

It's only their fourth album, yet it seems the Faeries have travelled a long long way from their striking yet tentative Greentrax label debut Mellowosity. Basically yet most excitingly, Now, Croftwork really does what the press handout says - it combines “everything you've ever heard from the band in the past with a distinctly new sound for now”. With the many Celtic-fusion albums of the past few years, you might think you've heard all the ways in which bagpipe-music can be rocked-up or grooved-out, but the joy here is that the Faeries still retain an element of surprise and innovation in their treatments of the traditional-sounding dance tunes created by band members (mostly the work of pipes/whistle player Peter Morrison, with some by fiddle/mandolin player Adam Sutherland and drummer Iain Copeland and bassist Innes Hutton, either jointly or severally).

This time round, the band have added the sound of brass to the mix with a mini-horn-section (trombone and sax) spicing up the already pretty full group sound, and to bristlingly good effect. Specially so with the title track, which is boldly heralded in by what might be a radio news call-sign and then pursues its quarry in the style of a contemporary Scottish-set crime-action-movie soundtrack complete with exotic touches of instrumentation and cinematically lush textures. As elsewhere on the album, there's a lot of new sounds in the picture now, and much of it is a genuinely groundbreaking new mix that retains the powerful upfront attack and strong presence for which the Faeries have always been noted as a live act, all the while startling our preconceptions with intriguing subtleties in the arrangement. The Anthropologist is probably the funkiest slice of strutting the Faeries have ever committed to CD, with a brazen jazzy swagger that propels it along the streetwise beat like nobody's business. When The Seahound Left Me and All About Windmills stray into lounge-jazz territory, whereas Croftwork's Trans Island Express (surely a sly nod to Kraftwerk's Trans Europe Express, geddit?!) transports us from outer-space, with echoes of world-music static filtering through the transmission distortion, soon zooming right on down to earth and trundling along its track rather stylishly. The extended Decisions, Decisions/Kevin O'Neill set revolves captivatingly around a lazy spacey reel, while The Great Ceilidh Swindle boogies on down in the time-honoured manner and The Drone Age updates the Third Ear Band with a similarly hypnotic modern-day trance beat, taking it further into filmic terrain with added vocal nuances. On first playthrough I thought a couple of the tracks were a mite relentless, at least on initial acquaintance, and with the latter half of the album the Faeries certainly seem to get more into their experimental stride, but second playthrough and a neat cranking-up of the volume enabled me to appreciate the serious dance grooves and the inventive majesty of the complex sound-picture so much better. Brilliant - so get right in there and lie back to dance!

David Kidman

Croftwork is the fourth album from this Skye-based band. As was the previous album, they recorded it in Roag in Skye. This band are fine innovators and Croftwork is their most high tempo album to date. There are performances from special guests as well as a top class brass section on this CD and the band have worked hard to try and make this their best release yet. Tremendous work from the boys with plenty of laid-back rythmn, contemporary groove, and yet still a strongly identifiable Scottish accent. Pipes and whistles, fiddles, mandolin and guitars surge with dobro, piano, horns and twanger (yes!) in a hyper-cool Celtic collection.

Footstompin' Website

Summary: A Cracking Album
Comment: If you've heard their previous albums you'll pretty much know what to expect and The Peatbogs deliver in a big way! There is much that is familiar here; in that we have the bagpipes, fiddles and whistles to a driving up tempo beat, first rate musicianship and "tunesmithery" and... brass!
Yes, this is the new magic ingredient and it does lift the album to heights as yet unreached by our chums from the Isles. At times the album is almost "jazzy". The Brass section is used on several tracks whether the musicians are "hired guns" or "friends with a horn" is unclear from the sleeve notes but they play up a storm and after the shock of the new expanded voice of the band you'll hardly believe they've never used them before!
Do I like this album? - Oh yes!
Is it their best to date? - I think I perhaps prefer "Faerie Stories" but it's a shoe in for second best!
For those of you who have never tried a Peatbog Faeries album, their music is almost impossible to describe "joyous" and
"life-affirming" come close. In terms of who they sound like, well if you like Shooglenifty they are a more lively version of them. A scottish version of the Afro Celt Sound System perhaps.
Look just buy the album - you'll thank me for it!

Unknown - from the Web

Scottish Fusion – Wow!

How do you categorize the Peatbog Faeries' latest release Croftwork, how about WOW!

Blending the haunting sound of Peter Morrison on Pipes (bagpipes) and Whistles, with Adam Sutherland on Fiddles, Mandolin, Glissando Guitar, Innes Hutton on Bass and Percussion, Tom Salter on Guitar, Leighton Jones on Piano and Keyboards and Iain Copeland on Drums and Percussion, you have a sound that is Rock, Celtic and Jazz, and as stated on their web site “is their most ambitious and dynamic offering to date”. 

Energy is the key to this release, and you feel it throughout all the tracks and through all the instruments. Great tracks abound from The Anthropologist (Jazzy and beyond), to Scots On The Rocks (haunting pipes lead the way), the title song Croftwork (pipes, a hard drum line and fiddles are woven together), When The Seahound Left Me (Celtic/Rock), and Decisions, Decisions (electronic programming line with a fiddle) are just a few of the gems that Croftwork contains.

I had the opportunity to experience the Peatbog Faeries live at Whisky Live during Tartan Week in New York in April 2005 (for information on Whisky Live and other Tartan Week events please read Spirits World, and The Winners sections), and I was totally taken by their presence, musicianship and energy. Croftwork is the group’s fourth release and is truly “ambitious” and “dynamic”; prior releases were Mellowosity (1996), Faerie Stories (2001) and Welcome to Dun Vegas (2003).

The band continues to inspire each other to new levels, and you can hear it on this release, and WOW is it worth it – walk, run or let your fingers do the walking on the Internet, but give Croftwork a listen.

Luxury Web Magazine (American web based Magazine)

Skye-based combo the Peatbog Faeries were on at least their third Cambridge visit, winning the heartiest of welcomes back with two electrifying, rave-like performances at the close of Saturday and Sunday night.Their newest recruits, fiddler Peter Tickell and drummer Stu Haikney, following a recent personnel reshuffle, seem to have given the whole bunch – including brass section The Wayward Boys – a serious shot in the arm. Not that their aural panorama of Celtic, world, techno and trance music was exactly sluggish or diffident before, but here it hit fresh heights of euphoric intensity.

 Sue Wilson, Herald Scotland

I wanted to check out REM but sorry guys, it's your misfortune to be on at the same time as THE PEATBOG FAERIES, the highlight of Glastonbury. Mere earth words can't do the Faeries justice...

NME Glastonbury Festival

"The band have taken their superbly seamless blend of crisply played tunes on pipes, fiddle and whistle, a world class rhythm section and a totally diverse but successful mix of other musical styles and turned the dance-o-meter up to 12 to create the most pumping, uplifting and exciting Scottish fusion you're ever likely to come across. Unreservedly recommended".

Rootin About festival programme.

Peatbog Faeries

Queens Hall, Edinburgh

****

Formed way back in 1994, Skye's Peatbog Faeries now rank amoung the veterans of contemporary Celtic fusion, but far from slackening off or falling behind their younger contenders, they're sounding mightier than ever.

With their signature sound of fiddle, pipes and whistles allied to electric guitar, bass keyboards and drums, the Peatbogs have always had a large and varied musical palette to draw from, mixing reels and jigs with the colours and rhythms of rock, world and dance music, to headily powerful effect.

Since they added a three piece brass section a couple of years ago, though - here comprising Rick Taylor on trombone, with saxophonists Nigel Hitckcock and Konrad Wiszniewski - their sound has taken on several new dimensions, in terms of both its scale and its multi-layered complexity. And with the nine-piece line-up now fully bedded in, this wealth of fresh possibilities has not only been thoroughly explored, but honed into resplendently slick, taut, intricate arrangements, and one of the best live shows on the current Celtic scene.

The diverse sounds and moods of the brass - from fanfare-like granduer to sassy banter, scorching intensity to slinky chutzpah - were a richly expansive element in themselves, meanwhile being artfully interwoven and interjected amoung the rest of the bands already kaleidoscopic soundscapes. The incorporation of new instruments and personalities additionally seems to have had a creatively invigorating effect all round, evident in such recent developments as the greater prominence of Tom Salter's superb electic guitar work, embellishing his trademark African-style picking and redblooded rock'n'roll attack.

Another winning introduction to their blend of vitage and contemporary dance grooves is that of 70's-style disco-funk, which might seem an unlikely bedfellow for traditional(ish) Scottish tunes, but in factcosied up brilliantly, while a couple of slower tunes made room for scorching solos from Wiesnewski. By the time we reached the closing number, an epically reworked version of the old favourite 'Folk Police' with its stormy edge of menace and majestic mounting drama, audience hands en masse were in the air - after an earlier conga line around the hall - and the mood matched that of any euphoric summer rave.

Sue Wilson - Hi-Arts  

****

The Arches, Glasgow Celtic Connections

****
It is a bold band that can launch a set with a muscular, epic track which makes them sound like a Celtic Led Zeppelin and promise that "it's still uphill all the way", but Skye's Peatbog Faeries are a bold band - bold enough to team bagpipes and fiddle with unabashed rock drumming, as they do on said track, Croftwork, and bolder still to employ a brass section, which was often called on to add extra dramatic oomph to an already hefty sound.

The danger with folk fusion is that it can be genre-splicing for the sake of trying something different and unsatisfying to folk, jazz or rock devotees. But Peatbog Faeries pay close attention to the dynamics. Each fresh ingredient (did they just throw a synthesiser into the mix?) served to beef up the sound, not muddy the waters. The Great Ceilidh Swindle teamed very traditional Scottish fiddle and pipes parts with rumbling rock rhythms, a couple of otherwise straightforward Irish reels were embellished with African jit guitars and sassy brass, and there was still space for some bluesy harmonica, Pink Floyd guitars, a dubby jam incorporating Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag and the staple drum solo.

The escalating party momentum of the last half hour was akin to a Celtic rave, eliciting waves of euphoria from the crowd and uniting the tribes in dance. The Peatbog Faeries really do drive uphill all the way.

Fiona Shepherd - The Scotsman