It has been a pretty good year for Irish music, more for the burst of top notch random tunes that arrived merrily on our doorstep since early September. The album front has been the usual mix of the great and the not so. Falling squarely (although you could never accuse this band of being square) into the former category is the self-titled debut from Dublin’s the Spook of the Thirteenth Lock. Here is a band with one foot stuck in the glorious past and the other firmly dug into a bright future. We’ve featured ‘In Country Dark’ previously (in fact we loved it so much it made it onto one of our compilations) and the album is awash with similiar leftfield diversions. In the main they leap from the speakers at full throttle, a glorious barrage of sound with distinct vocals and an identity all of their own making. On occasion though they just plump for the profound and so ‘Christchurch, 6 Bells’ floats enigmatically for several minutes like a classy seasonal stream of quiet triumphalness. KD
The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock – Christchurch, 6 Bells
More Info: Official & Myspace
Buy Songs: The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock
Year: 2008
The Spook are a great band. Love their sound and live they are amazing. Here’s hoping with your good self plugging the band big time that they achieve some moderate success.peter