Soot

The fiddle-tune traditions of Scandinavia, Ireland and the US generally work their magic via simple tunes. Sometimes their simplicity is deceptive, sometimes not. On this album, the Swedish trio that is Boot – Samuel Andersson on percussion and violin, Hållbus Mattsson on guitars and lutes and Ola Bäckström on viola d'amore and bouzouki – carve traditional tunes and some of their own, into unusually Rococo shapes. It's an approach similar to the Gjermund Larsen Trio, reviewed last issue: only where Larsen frames folk tunes with subtle jazz, Boot use the nail-gun of heavy metal. The mood is urgent, thrusting, and dramatic, but too much so: there seems to be an underlying conviction that equates over– elaboration with quality. And their heavyweight approach tends to squash the material. That said, there are moments of calm. ‘Lillasystern’ is a traditional tune in a lilting waltz time, and it begins with a welcome delicacy and poise, though it rather spoils it with some jocular-sounding talking drum, a slightly odd musical decision.

The music here that looks eastwards fares best: ‘Samu’ features percussion with a charming lope and clatter to it, backing up an intriguing Greek-influenced melody. For a while it sounds like an adventurous hybrid between rebetika and early Adam and the Ants. Overall, however, Boot's undoubted technique and composerly skills are compromised by rather questionable taste. Too many of this album's highs and lows use the musical equivalent of multiple exclamation marks.