Into the Loam

From the first opening notes of ‘Ryan’s Rant’, it’s clear this is an unusual take on Irish trad. Into the Loam is at once modern and experimental but also absolutely, unimpeachably and deeply traditional. Irish concertina player Cormac Begley is one of the few musicians that can walk these kinds of lines so well, and it helps that he’s found a willing compatriot in ace Irish fiddler Liam O’Connor. Though both can be experimental in their approach to Irish trad, the point of the album is really an exploration of tone and movement within the music. The whooshing bellows of Begley’s deep bass concertina, full of stutter and growl on ‘Master Crowley’s & The Roscommon Reel’, are met with O’Connor’s gristly fiddling on viola, matching tone for tone and playing with the tune the way you’d strip meat off a bone. Likewise, when Begley pulls out the high-pitched piccolo concertina on the masterful ‘Bogadh faoi Shúsa’, O’Connor skates across the higher registers of the fiddle, playing with harmonics. It’s a disarming album for aficionados, as they’re not trying to play perfectly in sync. They clash at times and disagree with each other slightly, but their music is like a great conversation; it pulls you in unexpected ways.