Celtic Connections , Gig

Le Vent du Nord: Misses et Messieurs

The first half of Thursday night's gig (the second was the reconstruction of GRIT) featured a number of Celtic Connections artists contextualising Martyn Bennett's work: by performing covers of his songs, or the originals that he'd sampled. The odd-one-out was Le Vent du Nord, a Québécois quartet whose close harmonies and infectiously joyful playing won us over immediately.

So last night we made our way to Glasgow's Old Fruitmarket to see the group's headline set with a festival twist: the four Messieurs were joined by seven Misses, each virtuosos in their own right from the Scottish folk scene.

I'd seen only one of them before: Emily Smith so it was unusual to be at a unique gig listening to musicians I didn't know singing in languages I couldn't understand (French and Gaelic). The underlying music however was delightful, as were the expressions on the faces of the performers. A particular highlight was when Megan Henderson from Braebach — tonight playing in a backing string quartet — took to the centre of the stage to accompany the others on tap.

Tonight's performance is another that the BBC recorded, so look out for it on iPlayer Alba in about a fortnight.

Celtic Connections , Gig

Nae Regrets

There are two things most people comment on when reviewing Martyn Bennett's album Grit. I deliberately didn't, but you need to know them to understand tonight's opening concert of the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow. First, Grit is full of samples. The lazy description is to say it's Scotland's answer to Moby's Play. (Indeed some of the samples were collected by the same folklorist as Play: Alan Lomax.) Secondly, GRIT was Martyn Bennett's last record. He produced it while suffering from the advanced stages of Hodgkin's Lymphoma; it's said that he was too weak to play instruments himself, which led to the heavy use of samples and layered textures.

Now, almost exactly ten years after Bennett's death comes a bold idea: recreate the album live with a custom orchestra and no samples.

On a technical level Greg Lawson's arrangements succeeded. As the first bass notes of Move rumbled through the Royal Concert Hall my jaw dropped. I don't think I closed my mouth again until the standing ovation. There were a few rough edges, but the musicians did the work proud, highland pipes, plainchant choir, narrated stories, epic strings, brass, percussion and all. Of particular note was Fiona Hunter's forceful vocals riding high above the cacophony. Just about the only thing lost in the mix was the Piaf-esque chorus of Nae Regrets.

But this gig couldn't be judged on pure musicianship: something else was going on. It soon became apparent that this was a long awaited final goodbye to a much admired friend. It was hard to tell who was having more fun, the audience or the performers.

At the back of the stage was a roadside GRIT bin. Part stage dressing, part percussion instrument it also served another purpose: in a BBC documentary about the making of the album, Martyn Bennett springs out from one of these bins. Tonight it remained symbolically shut.

The gig closed with Paisley Spin, a track that Bennett didn't get time to complete. Its sole vocal, sampled from an old Jerry Rafferty track, provided the sing-along cathartic moment to round out a remarkable evening: "To each and every one of you I say 'Goodbye, farewell, adieu.'"

Nae Regrets is being shown on BBC 2 Scotland later this week, and should be on iPlayer soon after. I highly recommend watching it (also check the documentary and the BBC Arts article), although suspect nothing can come close to the experience in the Hall. This was one of those times that you really had to be there.

Album

Martyn Bennett: Grit

The album I enjoyed most in 2014 was originally released ten years earlier. I'm surprised it's taken me so long to discover Grit.

There are a few elements which seem to be required in reviews of Grit. I want to avoid them and focus on the music, so look elsewhere for comparisons with other albums or comments on Martyn Bennett's life.

Layering Romany folk singers, storytelling, poetry, highland pipes, gaelic chanting, a Psalm and some Hindi over hard industrial beats Grit is something like a Ceilidh from the Western Islands infused with the spirit of a 21st century Glasgow night.

What I love most is that the record challenged me. The vocals are very stylised, so even now after nine months of listening to it I'm picking out new phrases ("no eastern kings came bearing gifts" sings a traveller as they describe the community's reception on the opening track Move).

The standout track is Blackbird, a song recently used to tremendous effect as the soundtrack to the short film The Ridge, the soaring strings being the perfect match to the epic Cuillin Hills depicted in the film.

The 2014 reissue of Grit rounds off with Mackay's Memoirs, a track commissioned for the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. It's a real tour de force.

It's not all straightforward listening, and a couple of tracks should come with a parental advisory warning, but all round it's tremendous.

Here's to finding more challenging music in 2015.

Tech

It shouldn't need an act

Hooray for Alan Duncan MP!

It doesn't stand a chance of becoming an Act of Parliament, but his Internet Communications (Regulation) Bill warms my heart.

The Bill has one purpose: to finally eliminate frankly pointless verbiage that finds its way onto the bottom of emails from most companies. His speech at the bill's first reading puts the point quite well.

My previous employer added more than 200 words spread over 25 lines to every outgoing message. I've always held that I'd voluntarily include legal disclaimers in email when I see them on headed notepaper.

It shouldn't need an Act of Parliament to persuade companies of the folly of their ways.

What's surprised me is the backlash in comments on The Register's news report on the story. The general gist is that there may be some legislation that pushes companies towards including these abhorrent appendages to all outgoing messages.

Maybe it does need an Act after all.

Paul Bennett          _      onewhe
pab@doc.ic.ac.uk      |      elgood
                     /|\     twowhe
                     \_/     elsbad

Next step: stop "pithy" quotes or "Sent from my iPhone" in email signatures. Then again, back in the early '90s I was guilty of worse: unicycle ASCII art.

Perhaps an Act could've saved me from myself.