Speak of the Devil

Dallahan aficionados will want to know that the Edinburgh-based quartet's fourth studio album suggests something of a new beginning as they near the end of their first decade together.

Speak of the Devil marks a number of firsts for the four-piece fusionists: their first outing on disc without guest support, a first collaboration with producer Euan Burton, the first album made up of wholly original music, and the first featuring new fiddle player and former BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the year, Benedict Morris.

Andrew Waite's accordion bookends the ten-track set, gently coming into focus on the opening ‘Beaton's’ before the whole combusts into a riotous virtuosic display, and gainfully inciting the adrenalised closer, ‘Anchor’.

Ciaran Ryan's zesty, up-for-it banjo and mandolin playing is a thing to behold throughout, delivering a veritable masterclass, from the bluegrass-laced ‘The Picture on the Wall’ to the crossfire vivacity of the Yeats-inspired ‘A Terrible Beauty’.

Frontman guitarist and lead vocalist Jack Badcock serves up a clutch of new, Spanish-infused songs, Ryan's urgent banjo underpinning ‘Marina’ and the Laurie Lee homage ‘Rude Spanish Soil’ with firecracker brilliance.

Recorded as live, Speak of the Devil is by far Dallahan's most accomplished disc yet.