The Scrape

Mouth Music

2003: Skiteesh SKITT-2003-01

1. Polska
2. Scalloway Lasses
   Shetland #3
3. Two Birds
   The scrape
4. Trip to Ballyshannon
   Exiles of Erin
   Sean Sa Cheo
5. The Marquis of Huntly’s Strathspey
   The Ewie Wi’The Crooked Horn
   Minimal Jig
6. The Derry Hornpipe
   The Maid From Castlebar
   The Silver Spear
7. Bombay Blue
   You Splotch-Faced Ram and Horo
   My Logshed keeps Falling Down
8. Rakes of Kildare
   The Witches of East Nigg
   The Haunting Of The Harrow
   The Even Scarier Witches of East Nigg
9. Iarla Iar
   The Road To Tipperary

Another blindsiding surprise out of the blue. This one was at Tower Records (Mercer) in Seattle on a day that had seemed to hold no promise whatsoever. I think I screamed when I saw it, but maybe that’s just how it felt inside. What really amused me right off the bat was the tattoo imagery coupled with the album’s title.

And it is a very nice album. But no matter how I spin it, I cannot escape a certain perplexion: the whole idea of “mouth music” is that it’s instrumental music produced vocally, and even though Martin’s moved beyond that general limitation, it’s bizarre to be faced with a “mouth music” album which contains no vocals whatsoever. It’s entirely instrumental. It’s good, but it’s kind of the opposite of “mouth music.”

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Comments © 2005 Mark Ellis Walker, except as noted, and no claim is made to the images and quoted lyrics.