Rattling Ark – Top of a Mountain – Album Review
by Killian Laher

Anyone who has followed Kevin Murphy’s various iterations (Seti the First, Slow Moving Clouds, Blind Stitch) knows he has a way with a brooding tune.  This album might be his most trad-inflected project yet.  It opens with Murphy singing Top of a Mountain, something of a lament but backed with great sweeps of cello from himself and Lizzie Murtough.  Murphy has always had a good handle on moody instrumentals and Coleraine Jig and I’ll Buy Boots for Maggie are very traditional-sounding, enhanced by Thomas Haugh’s zither playing.  These are complex tunes that you could imagine belonging in a widescreen soundtrack, as is Omos Silverskin.  This latter, lengthy tune is one of the darker moments on the album, with some haunting, wordless vocals before the percussion kicks in to drive the piece on.

On the other hand, traditional ballad Three Lovely Lassies From Bannion has a gorgeous vocal from Murtough.  The creeping, shuffle of Leprechaun has some quite eerie singing from Kevin Murphy.  Anne Lovett’s Lament is simply gorgeous, a lush piece you won’t want to end.  More ‘trad’ in the shape of Hare In The Corn, could work in the most downbeat céilí this side of An Gaeltacht.

It’s a fine piece of work and definitely one of the strongest Irish albums of the year so far.  The album is available here: https://rattlingark.bandcamp.com/album/top-of-a-mountain

Leprechaun