North Adams Transcript,
CD Review
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There’s something absolutely silly about the idea of Salsa Celtica — the name says it all, the band mixes Celtic folk instrumentation with salsa orchestration — and, indeed, it wouldn’t be unsurprising if the music itself sounded as silly as the concept. Silly, no — fun, yes.
The band is actually from Scotland — they did time establishing themselves in the 1990s as a bar band in Glasgow and Edinburgh — but they found a following, especially among a growing new Latino population, and the acceptance of other countries followed. With members also hailing from Venezuela, Argentina and Ireland, the band pulls together its bagpipes and congas to create some wild sounds that get the feet moving without your consent.
On their most recent album, “El Camino,” the band bangs out songs like “Pal Rumbero” and “Cafe Collando,” where styles mix and trade places with vigor. At any given moment you might find a banjo shredding out a rhumba. Meanwhile, numbers like “Grey Gallito” wraps a traditional somber Irish ballad within an Afro Cuban backdrop that broadens the core of the song. The fusion is a seamless wonder and the band ambles at a pace that shows it doesn’t seem to care that they’ve stumbled onto a novelty — they’re too happy to be drowning in the sound they’ve crafted 09/23/09
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