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Album Reviews
An inspired fusion of ancient and modern Scottish traditional music cut with a modern edge (September 16, 2009)
Is it 30 years? I’ve listened to Battlefield Band play their
inspired fusion of ancient and modern Scottish traditional music cut with a modern
edge for all that time – and now here comes ‘Zama Zama’ celebrating 30 years of
Battlefield’s music. (Released on Temple Records.) There’s no doubt that Battlefield Band fans old and new
will relish another outing. A unique blend of superb song writing, powerful,
emotive vocals enriched with instruments ranging from Highland pipes to the
‘traditional’ Scottish synthesiser tell stories of excess, greed and
exploitation.
‘Zama Zama’ once again shows what fine musicians settle in
Battlefield – combining both old and refurbished tunes (in Battlefield Band
style) with new and sparkling songs to create a perfectly balanced album.
 Battlefield Band is Alan Reid (keyboards – piano, Hammond organ, vocals,
accordion) Mike Katz (highland pipes, small pipes, electric bass, bouzouki,
whistle) Alasdair White (fiddles, low whistle, backing vocals) and Sean
O’Donnell (guitars, harmony vocals).
There’s so much to enjoy it’s impossible to cover it all.
The opening collection of tunes ‘The Mines of Golkonda’ sets the tone for the
rest mixing formidable tunes from Mike Katz with traditional offerings from
Ireland and Brittany. ‘The Auchengeigh Disaster’ is a potent song that tells
the tale of men killed by the coal mining industry. There’s an ominous
treatment to the tune that fits with the dark sadness of the lyrics. ‘Ku’ula-Kai’
includes ‘Johnny Allan MacDonald’, ‘The Procrastinator’ and ‘Counting Cowries’
to deliver another superb Battlefield mdley of tunes to drag you from your
seat.
‘Robber Barons’ is a compelling piece of song writing with
Alan’s moving voice delivering the vocals. It tells the story of dissipation
from brutish medieval Rhineland barons through modern-day corporate financial rapists
to the undisciplined hedonism of our MPs. This one is a great anthem to the
results of insatiable avarice. The band enlists the help of Allan Mac Donald
and his small pipes to deliver a moving version of ‘Uamh an Oir’ – a Scottish
Gaelic song about the mysterious so-called Cave of Gold in the South of Skye.
‘Three Brothers’ (another great song written and sung by Alan) tells of yet
more hunger for wealth as folk joined the late 1890 stampede for gold in the
great Alaskan Gold Rush.
As ever, Battlefield Band deliver old and modern messages
blended with music from either end of Scotland’s timeline to create yet one
more excellent album.
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