Cirque Insomnia

There is plenty about the Bristol-based band Sheelanagig that is rooted in Southern and Eastern European musical traditions. This album – their fourth – features a Balkan instrumental medley ‘Yovano Yovanke/Shkodra/ Tantsuva’, a medieval Italian tune ‘Lamento di Tristano’ and a Yiddish klezmer ‘Ot Azoi’. Unfortunately, there is also a heavy slice of English West Country festival madness mixed in, alongside the musicians’ prog-rock sensibilities. The results are a bit of a mish-mash.

Pun song names such as ‘Lost in Transitvania’ and ‘Vlad the Inhaler’ give you a clue that toking in-jokes and dream catchers are on the horizon. While traditional Balkan sounds have clearly been flavour of the Western European festival circuit for some time now, when they are mixed in with the burlesque circus madness, soft-drugs puns and generally dislocated from their origin, the tunes seem to lose something. While the musicianship of violinist Aaron Catlow, guitarist Kit Hawes, double bassist Dorian Sutton, percussionist John Blakeley and Adrian Sykes on flute, banjo, tabla, piano and organ is tight and intense, there is no real let-up in the pace of the album. Intensive touring has meant that the band have gained a reputation of putting on a great live show, so worth catching them at one of their many festival dates over the summer. But this has the feel of a record made by a frenetic live act that does not entirely translate from the festival field to the studio.