Various artists: (Hummingbird/Gael Linn)

This easy-minded selection box gathers many usual suspects: Clannad's sweet chestnut Dulaman, Sharon's good-humoured little box, Lunny's Coolfin groove - and Lunny's all over it, uplifting Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill's cutting Amhran Pheadar Breathnach, etc. And you couldn't omit De Danann, the Voice Squad, Donegal accordionist Dermot Byrne backed by Steve Cooney (also nursing Seamus Begley through Bruach na Carraige Baine in happier days), nor even Sean O Riada's Ceoltoiri Cualann on the Ulster cavalry march-of-ages Marcshlua Ui Neill. I sat up for Frank Harte's keen ould tattoo, Henry Joy, Brian Hughes's clean, breakneck whistle, Paddy's Glackin's bright fiddle spate on The Mooncoin, and Paddy Keenan's fine Monaghan Twig. It's all nicely annotated, but was it designed by committee or niche-market research?

By Mic Moroney

Various artists: A New Dawn: Uilleann Piping, Another Generation (Piobaire Uileann)

There`S no flies on these six young prize pipers aged between 15 and 17: Mikie Smyth's buttery timbre and uncluttered O'Flynn-tinged chanter ornament; Newryman Darragh Murphy's older-style wailing groove on Donegal reels, jigs and hornpipes; a gifted Lousie Mulcahy's elegantly paced tunes, with their Seamus Ennis-style traffic jams of barping regulators; 15-year-old US citizen Eliot Grasso's adventurous melodic complexity and embellishments; Ciaran O Briain's nice feel and wild-eyed skip on the percussive dance numbers; and Conor McKeon's juddering, exciting, no-nonsense reels and hornpipes taking the rosette with an unfair advantage, coming from that family. The hard-core competition ethic pokes through here and there, and you'd love to hear them all loosen up well away from the microphone.

By Mic Moroney