The Irish Examiner, December 11, 2003, Pat Ahern

New angles: Flaithrí and Eoghan Neff's second album Ar Scáth a Chéile/Each Other's Shadow puts an experimental take on traditional music.

A New Slant on Tradition ... There are nods in the direction of the Bothy Band and other luminaries of the past but Ar Scáth a Chéile/Each Other's Shadow is largely experimental.

The basic stock is traditional but there is a clear determination to seek out new angles. Experimentation is vitally important in every branch of music. Traditional music does it on a micro scale. It sees change as a continuous process where progress is measured in barely perceptible increments, rather than in bold quantum leaps. The Neffs challenge that attitude. Experimentation carries responsibilities; the Neffs show an awareness of this. The lazy experimenter, for example, hears both reels and reggae as sharing a 4/4 time signature and attempts to superimpose one on the other without regard to the fact that the result compromises both musical forms.

The Neffs bring an internal, more subversive approach. They slice the tune apart and reconstruct it in unexpected, and occasionally inspired, ways. Despite the title, Flaithrí and Eoghan step from each other's shadow to produce perhaps the two best tracks on the album, Clockworx and Róisín san Ind. Clockworx sees Eoghan coaxing an extraordinary range of sound from his multi-tracked fiddle. He bows, plucks, strums and scrawls his way through an unnamed reel in a tick-tock arrangement dedicated to his great great grandfather, a clockmaker and jeweller who came from the Black Forest to Cork in the mid-19th century.

Programmed sitars launch Flaithrí's commemoration of his cousin Róisín's visit to lndia. It shouldn't work but it has great charm. Computer-generated tables add percussive interest to Cóisir san lnd. Flaithrí's Leitrim 1798 Suite is a well-matched set of three tunes featuring pipes over a synth background.

The Neffs may not be the first to use samples in traditional music, but they have certainly done it with most imagination. They have used recent advances in music technology to create a broad and deep soundscape for thernselves, but have not allowed it to overshadow the music itself. A thumb piano, bought in Miltown Malbay many years ago, introduces the slide, This is My Love Do You Like Her? So far, so good. But the underlying bass motif, while well executed, is simply too obvious and lacks the subtle dance shuffle typical of the slide. Bonzouki takes the rhythm role on the Asturian jig, Xiga Murdeiros, before a clever slip into the commonish reel, The Longford Tinker.

Karl Nesbitt adds bouzouki, Ger Harrington's bass fills out the lower end of the sonic spectrum, Adrian Curtin's cello provides a sonorous intro to the Kerry Jig; and Muireann Neff, the lads' mother, plays bodhrán on a number of tracks.

... if you're looking for what's happening at the innovative edge of the traditional music continuum, look no further.