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CD Reviews - Flatfish |
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Songlines Spring 2000
If Flook's original line up looked like some kind of niche-marketing exercise for woodwind fans, they soon blew such preconceptions away - if you'll excuse the pun - with the dazzling range, depth and dynamism they conjured from this seemingly narrow instrumental palette.
Flatfish, the Anglo/Irish quartet's first studio album after their live debut CD, does a similar demolition job on any fears that a partial reshuffle a year of two back, replacing one of that frontline trio with a bodhran player, might have risked diluting their unique signature sound. It is, quite simply, one of the most stunning contemporary Celtic albums you'll hear this or any other year. |
Prior to hearing Flook, it's hard to credit the diversity of tones and textures available solely from flutes and whistles of different size, pitch, nationality and construction - wooden, silver, steel or bamboo. From the hollow, bassy power of the alto flute to the fervent shrillness of the penny whistle, the warm throaty croon of the standard flute to the leaping airiness of the Indian bansuri, Sarah Allen and Brian Finnegan ring and redouble the changes, combining fiery wildness and adrenalin-fuelled spontaneity with razor-sharp technical control and rich fullness of feeling.
Ed Boyd on guitar and John Joe Kelly on bodhran match them step for step, balancing thrilling rhythmic drive with a responsive lightness of touch. Headlong jigs and reels, elegant waltzes, poignant slow airs - all are delivered with consummate verve and imagination.
Songlines, Winter 1999/ Spring 2000
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"It is, quite simply, one of the most stunning contemporary Celtic albums you'll hear this or any other year"
Songlines, Spring 2000
Flook - Flatfish
Flatfish CD 002
Buy Now
or direct from
Flook
33 Lemsford Road,
St. Albans, Herts, AL1 3PP, UK .
Tel/ Fax: +44 1727 861209
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Mojo December 1999
Folk Album of the Month
Debut studio offering from band fronted by the flutes of Irishman Brian Finnegan and ex-Barely Works accordionist Sarah Allen.
It may take a giant leap of imagination for an instrumental album spearheaded by double flutes (and occasional Sarah Allen accordian) to get the jucies flowing but Flook give us an album of subtle fire, wit and rhythmic intensity.
Their only previous album was an |
unassuming live recording from Sidmouth Festival a couple of years ago, and while the redoubtable Michael McGoldrick has since departed, they've refined their approach and streamlined a sound enhanced by unusually clean production.
John Joe Kelly's bodhran lays a crucial bedrock for the primarily Celtic jiggery pokary at the core, although the odd Macedonian tune and occasional jazz free wheeling adds intrigue. When they step up a gear they could almost be the Bothy Band, but when they address the complexities of Flutopia, they're a smiling world music group.
A band you don't meet every day.
Mojo December 1999 |
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The Scotsman 2.10.99
The first studio album from this dazzling young Anglo/Irish four-piece, two years on from their live debut CD, is also their first recording since Mike McGoldrick, one of the band's original flute and whistle players, was replaced by bodhran sensation John Joe Kelly.
McGoldrick's departure was widley seen as a blow; if so, Flook have triumphed over adversity. Sarah Allen and Brian Finnegan continue to conjure a |
breathtaking array of wind blown timbres and textures, each playing several variations on the band's signature instrument. Kelly and guitarist Ed Boyd make a dream team rhythm section, their precision honed yet gossamer-fine interplay meshing mesmerically with the melodies, Boyd occasionally picking out the tune, with Finnegan and Allen hit a sparky percussive groove.
No guest players, no electronic embellishments, just a craking set of tunes, from tender waltzes to fiery Balkan dances, and a cornucopia of sublime musicianship.
Rating ***** Sue Wilson, The Scotsman, Saturday, October 2, 1999 |
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Folk Roots, November 1999
A mighty, mighty gathering of the clans . . some of the best young musicians in the land . .
It's such a delightfully absurd notion - a band using flutes as its primary weapons, but Flook have stopped playing the curiosity card. Sarah Allen and Brian Finnegan lead the flute army but Ed |
Boyd's guitar and John Joe Kelly's bodran are equally crucial to the formidable rhythmic impact as the arrangements become more confident and daring. There's almost a jazz feel to it, such is the extent of swing they apply to the reels, jigs and even waltzes that come thick and fast. The mounting excitement of the closing volley of tunes on Flutopia is quite spectacular and there's such an infectious sense of fun and humour to the whole thing it's impossible not to like it.
Colin Irwin
Folk Roots |
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Sunday Tribune, Ireland
Brilliant short -flute and whistle acrobatics on new and old tunes. Brian |
Finnegan is the maestro on Dairmuid Moynihan reels and Eamon McElholm jigs. Sarah Allen weaves Boehm and piano-box with Ed Boyd's strings and genius John Joe Kelly hops electric single-beats out of Seamus O'Keane bodhrans.
Fintan Vallely Sunday Tribune, Ireland. |
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The Rough Guide to Irish Music
April 2001 |
“No frills, no studio gloss, just simple unadorned pleasure from start to finish”
The Rough Guide to Irish Music |
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