Kíla Alive

Recorded live in various venues throughout 2016, this latest offering from the irrepressible Kíla captures the outfit in their natural environment. Packing plenty of punch soaked in adrenalin and wrapped up with a tight sense of ensemble playing, it sounds characteristically spontaneous. Renowned for their live appearances, the eight-piece don't disappoint here even if the overall effect is more ‘greatest hits’ collage than coherent set. On offer is the well-tested formula: driving Irish traditional tunes infused with multi-hued world music influences and topped by Rónán Ó Snodaigh's husky vocals. The 11-minute ‘Seo Mo Leaba/Am Reel’ forms the epic centrepiece, with Eoin Dillon's uilleann pipes and Polish chanteuse Kayah's intense keening seamlessly meshed. There's more than a hint of Horslips to ‘Skinheads’, where Alan Doherty's dancing flute conjures up Jethro Tull against a barrage of percussion and urgent pipes. Ó Snodaigh's ‘Raise the Road’ is given a rousing anthemic treatment but there's room for the quietly poetic in the stillness of a new song, the lullaby-like ‘Babymouse’ and the stirring ‘Pota Óir’ with its echoes of the Middle East threaded through gravelly vocals and insistent Irish rhythms. Simply put, Kíla Alive finds Kíla doing what they do best.