Volume 1 Sound Magic

Artist: Afro Celt Sound System
Type: Album
Release date: 1996
Run time: 65:51
My Rating: 9

1. Saor/Free + News from Nowhere (8:21)
2. Whirl-y-reel (Beard and Sandels mix) (7:21)
3. Inion/Daughter (4:15)
4. Sure-as-not + Sure-as-knot (Jungle Segue) (9:58)
5. Nil Cead Againn Dul Abhaile/We Cannot Go Home (7:20)
6. Dark Moon, High Tide (4:12)
7. Whirl-y-reel (Folk Police mix) (5:27)
8. House of the Ancestors (8:01)
9. Eistigh Liomsa Sealad/Listen to Me + Saor Reprise (10:53)

Comments

A collaboration of musicians gives us a bizarre idea: an equal mix of Celtic and African music. Somehow it works, and quite well too! The result is something like a cross between a more-mellow Stone Age and Deep Forest, and reminds me a lot of the Celtic Circle series, though it's mostly instrumental.

Given the excellent work here, it's hard to pick favourite tracks, but I'm quite fond of the two "Whirl-y-reel" mixes, "Sure-as-not" (I love the guitars), and "House of the Ancestors". Very well done.

For some mystifying reason this came with four copies of the sleeve notes.