Latest releases reviewed

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Seisiún na hÉireann
No label
**

As a collection that will lure the listener back for repeated listenings, Seisiún Na hÉireann fails miserably; as a snapshot of the energy that can populate the best sessions, it achieves a modicum of success. And in truth, this collection is most likely to wheedle itself into the backpacks of nascent trad musicians in search of tried-and-tested pairings to bolster their repertoires. The gaggle of pulsating guitars would test the patience of Steve Cooney or Arty McGlynn, probably the two best exponents of the six string in the tradition. And as a taster of the (now) annual event that is Seisiún na hÉireann, it conjures an appalling vista of mediocre performances and jaded song choices. Yet another rendition of Mo Giolla Mear, anybody? www.besttradsession.com

CHRIS STOUT QUINTET
Devil's Advocate
  Greentrax
****

Getting his retaliation in first (with a knockout title), Chris Stout and his quintet put their shoulders to a wheel that navigates an underpopulated border- land where traditional, classical and jazz music don't so much collide as eye one another up with deep suspicion. Stout's visceral Shetland Island fiddle style was honed with Fiddlers' Bid, with the Finlay MacDonald band and on his 2004 solo CD, First O' the Darkenin'. Devil's Advocate pursues an even more pioneering route, taking classical idioms by the scruff and bending them until they mutate into something altogether more primal. The Rant is a jig medley that captures the inventive charisma of both Stout's own compositional flair and his ear for pairing the old with the disturbingly new. The stuff of genius in the making. www.greentrax.com