A look at this week's tradional CD release

AT THE RACKET

It's Not Racket Science Racket Records

***

Light and all as the mood is in this quartet's latest collection, the sense of novelty is just too overwhelming to stand up to repeated exposure. Renaissance musician John Carty and his compadres have gathered together a discriminating mix of tunes, borrowed from the playing of James Morrison, Marcus Hernon and Seán McKeon, among others, and the latter's gift, Kitty Gone a Clinking, ups the ante with a beautifully paced pairing of tunes. Carty's original composition, Maggie's Afternoon Nap, throws his throaty fiddle into sharp relief, and sparks fly magically between Carty's and Brian McGrath's duelling banjos on Liam Farrell's. But the marriage of banjo and saxophone is a much more garrulous one, which declares its passions with a juvenile need for attention. Sometimes outstanding musicianship just isn't enough.
www.attheracket.com
SIOBHÁN LONG
Download tracks: Maggie's Afternoon Nap, Lady Anne