Alasdair Roberts & Jackie Oates: A Selection of Marches, Quicksteps, Laments, Strathspeys Reels and Country Dances

I've bought this three times. As you will guess, if you've been following the story so far, this is not because I'm an avid collector of marches, quicksteps, laments, strathspeys reels or country dances. Though I'm quite keen on laments. No, it's because it's got Alasdair Roberts on, and where he leads, I will follow.

As it happens, I do have a couple of strathspeys by Hector MacAndrew in my collection — but those came via AR's recommendation.

This record, released on Lawrence English's Room40 label in Australia, was originally intended to coincide with Alasdair's first tour to Australia in May this year. Thanks to some technical hiccup, it didn't come out until June. The first I heard of it, I jumped at the opportunity to order it. I thought at first that I'd have to get it imported from Aus directly from the label. I shall spare myself the indignity of looking up how much I paid for postage on that. A week later I realised my error: that it could be obtained at much more modest cost from Boomkat in the UK. Well, I had to get do that as well. As I remember, it arrived before the one from Australia.

There's a hint on the label page that I should have got a download along with my 7" single. Hmmm, don't think so. But obviously I needed a version to play on this here computer, and my phone, so I bought it again from eMusic. That got me two tracks that aren't on the vinyl, including a new recording of Hyperboreans, the title track from Jackie's album, written for her by Alasdair. In keeping with the rest of the EP, this recording has more grit and less polish — and all the better for that, to these ears.

After a few plays, I could come to love these tunes. The last 30 seconds of Larach Do Thaicaidean gets a bit like Sonic Youth unplugged. Lovely. Alasdair's notes inform us this "is the tune of a Scottish Gaelic song taught to me by the great Lewis-born singer Mairi Morrison. The title translates as 'The points of your tackety boots'." Gutted to find out that Alasdair and Mairi did an impromptu set in Hackney earlier this year — I could have gone if I'd known.

I saw Jackie supporting Alasdair at The Spitz in 2007, but have never seen them play together. I would have been at this collaboration but for the fact that it was the hottest day of the year, and the Boy could not have coped with that much travelling in the circumstances. Still, he insisted that I play each side of the record twice two evenings ago, so clearly he's getting the idea.

Here's a recent review that gets into the spirit of things.

Wikipedia entry for this EP