Irish Music Magazine

Trying to describe Flook's music is a bit like trying to fold a fitted sheet. You can come close, but never quite arrive at a neat solution.

Essentially it's sparkling stuff, rife with a bright positive spirit, the music of enjoyment, of savoured moments, of pulsing feelings, full of the earthy and exuberant breath of life. Three years after the excellent Flatfish, the quartet are still bursting with creativity on Rubai.

Flute players Sarah Allen and Brian Finnegan have composed many of the pieces themselves, and there's great oxygen in the pair of them. Guitarist Ed Boyd and percussionist John Joe Kelly are already in great demand as session players, such is the power and finesses of the hypnotic grooves they conjure up.

Their brilliant explorations fairly dance on the winds of changing textures and ethnic flavours. There's a bit of Irish in here, Scottish, Swedish, Greek and Asturian too, and their original pieces reflect those and many other influences. The tight balance production of the recording makes for a clean listen, maximising the impact of this exhilarating music, full of zest and optimism, brave in exploration, and classy in execution.

These four fabulous players have put together a great collection of refreshing tunes, a gas listen for any adventurous soul.

David Ingram
July 2002

Irish Music Magazine

This is Flook's third album, their second with the present line-up of Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen on flutes, Ed Boyd on guitars, and John Joe Kelly on bodhrán. The virtuosity of Finnegan takes some beating: not many fluters could take on Gordon Duncan's Pressed for Time and win, but this Ulsterman can. He also writes a mean tune: he plays seven of his own on Rubai, every one a cracker.

Sarah Allen's firm tone and imaginative harmonies make the two-flute sound work brilliantly, and she switches to accordeon now and then for a bit of variety. She also brings the alto flute into play, a fabulous deep, throaty instrument that cuts right through to the hindbrain. Sarah takes the credit for five original compositions, including the opener "Baldy Hollow" (a bouncy slide named for Brian) and the intriguingly titled pairing of "Granny in the Attic" and "Blue Ball".

Ed Boyd must now be one of the best sidemen in the business. He's been with Flook since the beginning, and with Mike McGoldrick and many others since.

Rubai certainly realises that potential. From start to finish, it's a riot of sounds and rhythms. The whole thing is nothing but highlights, but if you want me to name names, try the exquisite Asturian jig "Santalla d'Ozcos", or the no-holds-barred final set of another Gordon Duncan tune and a couple of equally high-octane reels. I won't even mention the amazing artwork or the cunning title. The music alone is more than enough to justify putting this CD at the top of the "Wanted" list. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Mind you, if it's sleeve notes you're wanting then you'll have to visit www.flook.co.uk for them. Rubai is like a musical workout, uplifting and draining both at once. It's addictive, and almost too good to bear. Just when you're beginning to think Flook don't know when to stop, they do precisely that and you have to listen all over again.

Alex Monaghan
September 2002

Hot Press

While the current Irish folk scene seems, with maybe one or two notable exceptions, to be treading water, now's perhaps an appropriate time to glance across the water at bands like Flook who are bringing an inventive joy to the contemporary folk genre.

Their latest opus Rubai offers fourteen exuberant helpings of smooth playing and mesmerising tunes with not a vocal within earshot, just four musicians and their cohorts playing with one miraculous mind to brew up a fiendish stew that is way more than the sum of their parts.

Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen lead the way, their flute-playing driving each other to new levels of dexterity. Ed Boyd's guitar supplies a driving rhythmic pulse, while John Joe Kelly's bodhran kicks up a veritable Sahara of dust as required.

With such versatility on hand, Flook are free to cool it, as on the sensuous 'Baldy Hollow', but also know when to let rip, as they do with 'Pressed for Time'.

They instinctively know when to be tight ('The Beehive') and to loosen up as occasion demands, as it does for 'Granny In The Attic', a tune blessed with Rory McLeod's evocative trombone.

But they can also do sensitivity, especially for the beautiful Graecian 'Kalamantinos', and they can apply several pairs of wellies too - see 'Ramnee Ceilidh'.

Never mind end of year lists, Rubai should be on your shopping menu now.

8.5/10

Jackie Hayden

The Living Tradition

"Rubai: A four-line poem, in perfect rhyme, full of music, rhythm and breath." A good title, which (as the inlay notes point out) virtually chose itself. John Joe Kelly, reclaiming the bodhran from its position as the last refuge of the musical illiterate, explores the full range (and then some) of that much-maligned instrument, ably assisted by Ed Boyd alternatively stroking and striking his strings with immense sensitivity, the two of them underpinning the the sublime flutes and whistles of Sarah Allen and Brian Finnegan.

It seemed improbable that Flook could produce anything to approach "Flatfish", a well-nigh perfect record, but "Rubai" runs it close. The tunes are so in the tradition that it comes as something of a shock to discover that only a couple of them actually are traditional. Most are written by members of he band, Finnegan’s name being especially prominent.

It’s the variety – tempo, tone and style – which most impresses and delights. Flook can rip it up with the best with the best of the jig-and-reel merchants, but they can do the slow stuff with equal facility. For example, there’s the transcendent “Glass Polska”, which begins with Allen and Finnegan unaccompanied and concludes with Boyd at his most subtle, or “Suiamhneas Intinne”, one of Finnegan’s own. It was inspired to include Seckou Keita on percussion and Rory McLeod on trombone recalls the heady days of Allen’s earlier legendary band, The Barely Works.

I can think of few other performers in any area of folk music who could play such a range of material seemingly unfettered by technical limitation. This is one very special band.

Dave Tuxford

Traditional Music Maker

By far and away the pick of the current crop of CD's to come my way, Rubai is Flook's long awaited follow-up to their promising 1998 debut Flatfish and evidence that the band have been using their time profitably during the interim - oh yes, they've come on leaps and bounds.

Quite simply, the flute work and whistles on Rubai is stunning- it predominates in terms of the overall sound and both Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen excel in this department. Even more commendable, they've come up with a slew of original and catchy tunes for the occasion, all underscored by the hypnotic rhythms which permeate and propel most of the tunes along at a fair old lick. Due credit here to Ed Boyd on guitar and bouzouki, John Joe Kelly's bodhran and occasional mandolin, as well as a few other notable guests lurking around the edges. It would seem that Flook are clearly developing their act with more than a keen eye astutely fixed on the live environment.

And from then on the pace rarely slackens, reaching it's most fast and furious by the time G.D.'s gets itself in gear. Granny follows, as light as a summer breeze, while Larry, with it's Greek influenced opening section, contains the only accredited "traditional" material. Natterjack injects a little more Celtic spirit at the end but ensures that the band keep the foot down all the way to the finish.

The sleeve notes inform that Rubai is a four line poem, in perfect rhyme, full of music, rhythm and breath and right now I can't think of anything which so ably sums up the music of Flook.

Peter Stevenson
June/July 2002

NetRhythms.co.uk

Now this is a seriously good record. Even if you're tired of flutes and whistles. Even if you're fed up of seeing albums full of tune-sets fused together in concoctions with supposedly trendy one-word titles.

Flook have always been at the forefront of the "intelligent and innovative tunesmiths" brigade, for the strength of their own trad-style compositions every bit as much as their vibrant musicianship, but this develops the winning lineup from the Flatfish album into an unbeatable team, springing some surprises along the way with the recruitment of guest musicians like Ewan Vernal (bass), Colin Farrell (fiddle), Rory McLeod (trombone) and Seckou Keita (percussive bits).

That twin-flute front line (Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen) has never sounded so good, while we mustn't for a moment underestimate the superb so-much-more-than-supporting team of that superb guitarist Ed Boyd and fluent bodhránist John Joe Kelly, who provide

The arrangements are consistently full of interest, as delightful as they are unpredictable, with world influences that convince due to the wholly natural manner in which they're incorporated (take the township/ska that heralds Granny In The Attic, the Latin vibe of Kalamantinos, or the cajun joyousness that infuses the latter half of Natterjack).

And the team can handle a more sedate pace just as well as the breakneck fingering, as they prove on the deliciously phrased Glass Polska; is it mere coincidence that this is followed by a stunning transposition of piper Gordon Duncan's Pressed For Time?!

This is an exceptional instrumental album that hits the replay button more than most with its irresistible combination of "music, rhythm and breath".

And all housed in a nicely sturdy digipak sleeve too.

David Kidman
November 2002

The Irish Times
Trad CD review

****
(Rating: 4/5: 'A Cut Above The Rest')

They’re neither the fluke nor the damp squid (fliuch) that their moniker suggests. In fact this quartet’s essence is buried deep within the curious genetic helix that defies biology and binds them together with the intricacy of a triple axle crossed with a double purl stitch.

If there’s one album that stands head and shoulders above the rest of this

High stepping reels, cocky jigs, and gloriously epileptic cross-fertilisations that defy box-ation. Shades of Brian Dunning, but their driving passion is all their own. Magnificent.

Siobhán Long
The Irish Times
4th July 2002

fRoots

This is an extraordinarily good record.

Their last two efforts have been no slouches, but now they move it up a notch to hit the sort of flowing rhythmic interplay that made the top Irish bands such an irresistible force.

The duelling flutes of Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen present a gloriously intuitive vanguard, but the driving rhythmic textures of Ed Boyd on guitar and John Joe Kelly on bodhran shouldn't be overlooked either.

The result is a fiery instrumental configuration that you may mentally wish to consign to the background but which surges through to the foreground with its guile, subtlety and sheer musical conviction.

Some intriguing guests also strut their stuff on this album to add further nuances ... Ewen Vernal on bass, Colin Farrell on fiddle, Sekou Keita on percussion, some twiddly electronic bits from Martin Cradick and even Rory McLeod weighing in on Granny in the Attic.

It's an album that sounds so familiar yet is full of surprises. Does that make sense? To hell with it, indulge yourself. Even if you hate flutes.

Colin Irwin - June 2002

Songlines
Geoff Wallis - June 2002

"Rubai extends their development as one of the most innovative and exhilarating outfits around.

.".. this is already one of the essential albums of 2002."

BBC Folk and Acoustic website

'Music, rhythm and breath'. The essential ingredients of a rubai (a four-line poem) and the flute-based band Flook, though you'd have to add 'energy' to that mix to properly describe the music of this band. Sarah Allen, Brian Finnegan, Ed Boyd and John Joe Kelly crank up a notch with their latest album, away from the simpler, more acoustic sound of 1999's Flatfish towards a more complex territory and a broader canvas for their powerhouse jazzy, improvisational technique.

Flook's Celtic/European-flavoured tunes, many from the expert pens of Allen and Finnegan, are for the first time augmented by guest musicians. Sparing use of Ewen Vernal's bass, Colin Farrell's fiddle and occasional tasteful sonic effects by Martin Cradick and engineer/producer Mark Tucker adds texture that never swamps the core musicians or redefines the trademark sound - the signature double-flute harmony work from Finnegan and Allen, John Joe Kelly's out-of-this-world

There's always a real flow to Flook albums: one set follows another like they've been mystically co-created in some musical nirvana, so it's hard to define highlights. Arm-twisting, however, might namecheck album-opener Pod, the tight inventiveness of which sets the tone for the rest of the album, and the Granny set: Allen's Granny In The Attic and Blue Ball segued with The False Proof by Jowan Merckx, permeated throughout by some delicious trombone from Rory McLeod.

Gone are the days, thankfully, when instrumental bands thought they needed to throw in a few songs to retain audience interest. The nine sets of Rubai need no vocals to keep the ear delighted, the face grinning, the feet dancing and the heart soaring. Excellent production, well-designed digipak, quality product all round. The music of Flook is joyous and irresistible. Go buy - now!

Mel McClellan - May 2002

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