Интересные новости туризма

THE IRON HORSE «Five Hands High» Klub Records CDLDL 1214 The press release for this album claims it is «certain to consolidate The Iron Horse’s position at the forefront of the Scottish roots scene», and I think they might be right. «Five Hands High» is definitely a step forward from the previous two Iron Horse releases: the band has matured, the line-up is unchanged from the last album, and this is altogether a more professional piece of work. This album gives a very good idea of what The Iron Horse is like, whether on stage, on disc or in a pub: lots of driving instrumental sets, plenty of virtuoso strings, good harmonies and a balanced mix of new and traditional material. If you’re looking for slow, haunting pieces, forget it – this band rarely slows the pace to less than a brisk trot. However, there are several fast haunting tracks: «A’ Bhean Iadaich», «The Heiress» and «Northern Cross Rising» among them. The album is roughly evenly split between songs and instrumentals, but I was pleased that the instrumentals still took the lion’s share: this is definitely where the band’s greatest strengths lie, with the brilliant fiddling of Gavin Narwick and whistling of Annie Grace backed by equally accomplished strings, keyboards and percussion. Annie’s piping features strongly on this album, on both highland and small pipes, and it is much improved from the last album. I felt the small pipes were a bit overdone in places, such as in «The Lowlands of Holland», but that’s just …