Celtic Grooves (or "How I learned to stop a bheith buartha and love the remix")

Music's always been important in my life.  I grew up in a house that had "classic oldies" like Buddy Holly, Elvis (Presley and Costello), The Beach Boys, and Diana Ross playing in the house, and on the road I'd get to listen to the newer hits of the 80s.  In the 90s, I stuck with some pop music, but started to explore more classic rock and classical music, finding myself drifting from rock opera to classic opera.  I got my feet wet in the world of R&B and rap, but didn't really dig deep until the start of the 2000s, where I also spent some time looking for the gems in disco and discovering the fascinating world of electronic music and dance beats.  I started to explore international music, from the rhythms in Africa to lighter wind music from Ireland to the pop music and classic music from Japan to Latin soul.  I dove into new age music, listening to David Arkenstone non-stop.

In other words, my car radio presets will show you that I have some very varied tastes in music, and pretty much the only music I haven't spent much time listening to is deep redneck country and bluegrass, though I'm starting to discover the link that bluegrass has to many other music types.

So when I come upon something interesting in music that excites me, it's usually something special.  Such as a remix of classic Irish tunes involving fiddles and pan flutes.

So here's the back story.  I was at Jo-Ann Fabrics buying some storage bins when I spotted the standard "new agey/international music" bin that plays several short samples of songs.  I tapped through the CDs with a general sense of boredom, when I suddenly caught something interesting.  I had to search back to find it again, but what I got was a snippet of this song:

Now, I've bought CDs for less than that (somewhere around here is a CD of remixes from the French pop star Alizée that was pretty much a total impulse buy), but I didn't want to spend the price that store was asking for.

Fortunately, I found a copy at my local Bull Moose Music for a much lower price, and now I'm the proud owner of this album.

Initial impressions of it were somewhat mixed.  I loved the first few tracks that seemed to work with the structure of the song, enhancing it with an electronic beat and other tricks to make the songs actually feel like something you might hear at a party or a dance club.  However, I had less luck with the other songs, especially one that relied heavily on the pan flute.

This song felt really organic, with the flute missing just enough of the notes to let you think it was really someone playing it in a not-as-professional setting, perhaps as part of a live show or at a party, where a few drinks in you don't notice any missed notes from the band.  However, when the artist remixed it, it suddenly had a solid, definitive frame that seemed to interrupt the flute and force the organic part of the song to try to follow what the electronic part wanted to do.  Now, when the pan flute would miss a note or sound breathy for a half-second, it suddenly became extremely noticeable and took me out of the song.

However, I've always said that I won't judge something until I try it once (within reason, murder and Jeff Dunham stage shows are simply out), and with music I usually give it a few tries to see if I find something interesting.  I've warmed up to the rest of the songs on this album now to where I keep it in my car's CD player while I'm driving, if I want a break from listening to a podcast but don't want to have to deal with sorting through the radio.  I'm still not as big a fan of the fan flute song, but it isn't a deal breaker, and there are a few moments in even that song that I think are extremely well built.

Overall, I give the album a solid B.   Or, at least I would if I actually graded things.  Rather, I'll simply say that if you like eccentric music but already have a fondness for beats, dance music, and quick fiddle and flute work, you can give this one a try.