Tall Tales & Misadventures

Album number three from the Irish five-piece Goitse (the name is an informal Irish greeting, meaning ‘come here’) follows 2012's splendid Transformed with more than agreeable panache. Tall Tales & Misadventures reins in much of the excess energy and impetuosity that characterises the band in performance, and which spilled across their first two outings on disc. Usefully so. It should do much to raise the profile of this energetic but tightly knit ensemble, formed while still students at Limerick University's Irish World Academy of Music and Dance.

There's a vivid and vital sense of an outfit reaching its maturity; this is playing of considerable finesse, flexibility and flair. Taking centre stage is Áine McGeeney, whose feisty fiddle and silky vocals are beautifully evocative on the plaintive ‘Ye Lovers All’. James Harvey's characterful banjo is delicate and delightfully brittle on ‘Changing Lanes’, while the dextrous piano accordion of Tadhg Ó Meachair is gleefully virtuosic on ‘Misadventures’, a particular highlight. There's tremendous subtlety on display, too, courtesy of bodhrán champion Colm Phelan and Conal O’Kane's elegantly expressive guitar. In all, it's a big step forward for a band with a promising future ahead of them.