Hex

Hex is the second album from the group from the Scottish Highlands & Islands that won the Up and Coming Artist title at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards last year. Two years on from their first release, Hex features an expanded six-piece line-up with highland and border pipes, accordion, fiddle and whistles buoyed by a crisp rhythm section that confidently draws on rock, pop, funk and Caribbean grooves to create a powerful sound.

Instrumentally, Hò-Rò bring an assurance and high level of skill that seems to come as standard from young Scottish bands these days; accordionist Calum MacPhail is alive with excitement in his phrasing as tune sets such as ‘Elliot Finn’ grow from pub-session intimacy to stadium-rock grandeur and intensity. If the songs – two each in Gaelic and English – and singing aren’t quite so well developed, they still carry a certain charm, and Lucy Doogan's delivery of a song discovered in her late grandmother's attic, ‘Muinntir mo Ghráidh’, is a lovely and honestly sung addition.