EP REVIEW: THE WORKING CLASS SYMPHONY – ‘Mulat Sarira Angrasa Wani’ (2021)

A island nation with a great seafaring tradition and history of invasion and occupation that became a republic two years after Ireland. Why Indonesia of course and one of the leading lights of the Celtic-Punk scene are The Working Class Symphony.

Over the years that this site has existed we have reviewed many Celtic-Punk releases from Indonesia. In fact I’d go so far as to say that the scene there rivals Germany in it’s number of bands away from the traditional Irish/ Celtic diaspora communities. Tenholes, Black Rawk Dog, The Cloves And The Tobacco, Rain In Summer, Dirty Glass have all graced these pages but it was the magnificent Wind From The Foreign Land compilation that really exposed the Celtic-Punk scene to many outside the region. Featuring fourteen bands it is still one of the best compilation albums I have ever heard. Of course todays band The Working Class Symphony were one of the highlights and have gone on to feature here several times subsequently, the last time being August last year.

Founded in 2010 in Surakarta, in central Indonesia, a couple of good friends (one a drunk and the other a musician!) were working together in an internet cafe listening to Irish pub song compilations. Inspired by the music it sparked an idea to get together with some other friends and play similar music. When this became a solid group shortly afterwards they decided to take the name The Working Class Symphony to reflect their roots and positive attitude.

Life in this country is already very difficult, if it still has to be added by listening to mainstream music as it is today … Really it will be FORGETTING..There is no other way than making music that can be uplifting … God Save The Working Class !!!!!

So having missed their 10th anniversary due to the Covid lockdown they see in their 11th with the new EP Mulat Sarira Hangrasa Wani. Recording did actually begin last year at the Biru Solo Studios but were delayed until recently. For those of you not too fluent in Indonesian the phrase translates roughly as “brave with sincerity to see one’s shortcomings”.

The Working Class Symphony in no particular order: @alby.moreno – Guitar/ Vocals * @andreaspyex – Lead Vocals * @mistergomz – Bass * @ami.ragil.sagita – Bagpipes * @erwin_ardz – Tin Whistle * @bimoaryp – Banjo/Mandolin @dannyfvckinshit : Drums @tuan.duaempat : Violin

Their are six songs here. Four new ones a previously released single and a cover. The EP begins with ‘Wani Perang’ and the drone of bagpipes soon gives way to the rest of the band and this is top quality Celtic-Punk. It owes a lot to the sound of Oi! (another genre popular in the underground music scene there) with its catchy rockin’ tune, gang vocals, great hooks and the pure ‘pint in the air’-ness about it! Several elements at play here that all work great together.

Next up is ‘Alerta Song’. This came out as a single last year and is a tribute to Cornel Simanjuntak an important figure in the development of Indonesian music. The song includes many of Cornel’s words and still inspire many today.

The Working Class Symphony dedicate this song to Cornel. With straightforward lyrics, as a picture of the reality that is happening here. Finally, keep on loving our country no matter what happens until the end of closing of your eyes… Freedom.

‘Don’t Forget Your Roots’ sees the Symphony take a much more Punk/ Hardcore route but still with their trademark sound intact. Not a band to stand still and without the confines of a more traditional Celtic-Punk band The Working Class Symphony show their not afraid to get a bit heavy at times. We can only guess at the lyrics but I’m sure from the title we can all agree. A lot of the island’s Celtic-Punk bands play more Trad Folk based Celtic-Punk while The Working Class Symphony have always edged towards that early Dropkicks sound but on ‘Lelaki Bekarja Dan Kemaki’ they show they can do the trad Folk sound too. They continue in this style with ‘Sahabat Yang Telah Pergi’ and every Celtic-Punk release needs a ballad and this is this ones and it is terrific. Sung with passion and gusto it really does soar and it needed worry you that you can’t understand the words. Wrapping up the EP is a cover of ‘The Holy Ground’ and what a fantastic cover it is too. On hearing it I am actually a bit surprised it hasn’t been covered by more Celtic-Punk bands as it has the perfect chorus for shouting and banging tables! Made famous by The Dubliners and Luke Kelly and his dulcet tones here the guys give it the pub feel with plenty of oomph among the “fine girl you are” chorus. The best song here for me but I love the whole EP so I’ll probably change that to something else by the time this comes out. Lyrically The Working Class Symphony usual staples are that of hard work, football and the real events that surround them. To close with The Holy Ground is a real good touch and I’m sure Luke is looking down with a twinkle in his eye at a bunch of young Indonesians paying this tribute to him and Irish music.

The EP artwork is by good friend of the band Jahlo Gomez from Belukar and those with an interest in Indonesian Celtic-Punk will recognise his artwork from other bands releases and logos. It is great to hear from the band that for this release many people were asking for a physical release and has been not only across Indonesia but the entire world. All the great things about Celtic-Punk are present here. Think of the Claddagh ring and its motto of friendship, loyalty and love. That is The Working Class Symphonys message and I’ll leave off with their words

“We hope that this can be the embryo of the rebirth of the punk spirit with its various variations.
Keep on trying, towards infinity and beyond.”

For the moment contact TWCS to buy the CD via Instagram/Facebook

Download coming soon!

Contact The Working Class Symphony Facebook  ReverbNation  Instagram  YouTube

NEW SINGLE FROM INDONESIAN CELTIC-PUNK BAND THE WORKING CLASS SYMPHONY

The new single/ video release from one of the best bands around and from a non-English speaking country too! The Working Class Symphony play a brand of Celtic-Punk that is totally influenced by Irish traditional folk music. If only more Irish bands played with this much passion and pride!

The new single ‘Alerta Song’ from one of the best bands in today’s Celtic-Punk scene who also happen to be one of the most under rated too!) The Working Class Symphony. Formed in 2010 in Surakarta, in central Indonesia when a couple of friends were listening to Irish music in an internet cafe in the city. This sparked the idea to start up a band playing similar music and soon after The Working Class Symphony were born!

Life in this country is already very difficult, if it still has to be added by listening to mainstream music as it is today … Really it will be FORGETTING..There is no other way than making music that can be uplifting … God Save The Working Class !!!!!

Their new single is a tribute to Cornel Simanjuntak who is credited with the development of Indonesian music with his heroic and patriotic songs against the occupation of Indonesia. His words still inspire today to inflame the spirit of resistance to fight injustice, fight for rights and for truth. The Working Class Symphony dedicate this song to Cornel. With straightforward lyrics, as a picture of the reality that is happening here. Finally, keep on loving our country no matter what happens until the end of closing of your eyes… Freedom.

 

Cornel Simanjuntak 1921 – 1946

“Those in power write the history, while those who suffer write the songs.”

so said Frank Harte and by heavens he was right you know. The man that The Working Class Symphony pay tribute to is little known outside Indonesia and even at home his contribution is almost never taught in the schools anymore. Part of Cornel’s song ‘Maju Tak Gentar’ are incorporated into the Alerta Song! A man who fought for Indonesia  in every way possible and in the end gave his life for Indonesia’s independence. 

THE SMART MUSIC LOVING KID

Cornel was born in Pematang Siantar in 1921. His musical talent has emerged when he attended school and at that time he was already playing guitar and singing western songs that he heard on the radio and watching movies. Around 1937, Cornel went to school in Muntilan and his friends recall he was an intelligent, brave, honest student and never reluctant to defend his and others stand. While there he learnt to play music joining the symphony orchestra playing the work of Beethoven, Bach, Haydn, Wagner and Schubert. One of Franz Schubert’s songs, Ave Maria, became Cornel’s favorite song. Here he discovered the works of Indonesian poets: Amir Hamzah, Sanusi Pane, JE Tatengkeng, and Sutomo Djauhar Arifin and a love of literature becoming familiar with familiar with Goethe, Schiller, Heine and Shakespeare among others.

SONGWRITER

Cornel would become a teacher in Magelang, Central Java around the time Japanese fascist forces attacked in 1942 leading to the one of his earliest songs ‘Mekar Melatiku’. In 1943 having moved to Jakarta he worked at the Japanese Culture Office where he was assigned to make propaganda songs. Many songs were created: ‘Asia Has Awakened’, ‘Destroy Our Enemies’ and ‘Beware Of Britain And America’. The 1943-1945 period was the peak of Cornel’s creativity making songs simple songs that were easy to understand, but very agitative and able to capture the feelings and spirit of the common person

INTO THE REVOLUTION

In 1945, when the fire of revolution burned the bosom of youth and people everywhere, he chose to go directly into the revolution. Cornel said to a close friend at the time

“If you want to find me, don’t look at home. I am at API headquarters, Menteng 31. For a while I leave music. I now feel free as freely as I can and with the freedom I have gained, I will certainly be able to block my soul. I don’t want that feeling of freedom to disappear. If our independence is taken by people, it will also disappear. Now there is a battle for this freedom. I’m stuck in it.”

He shouldered a rifle involved in battle until he was shot. Not fully recovered, the allied forces conducted a sweep in the hospital he was being treated in and Cornel was hurriedly evacuated by comrades and taken outside the city of Jakarta. From there he was sent to Yogyakarta and it was in this city that his many heroic and patriotic songs were born. ‘Land Of Blood Spilt’, ‘Forward Undaunted’, ‘In Heroes’, ‘Indonesia Remains Independent’ and many others. His body weakened he cared little for his health and continued to work to produce songs of struggle hoping to ignite the heroic spirit of the Indonesian people. On September 15, 1946, Cornel, sadly only 25 years old, breathed his last. He was buried in the Kerkop Cemetery in Yogyakarta. He had given his life to the revolution and to the liberation of his country.

Contact The Working Class Symphony  Facebook  ReverbNation  Instagram  YouTube

For the best introduction to the Celtic-Punk scene in Indonesia you simply cannot go wrong than checking out Wind From The Foreign Land- Indonesian Celtic Punk Compilation’ from 2014. An album of fourteen tracks from fourteen different and diverse Celtic-Punk bands from right across Indonesia. From traditional Irish folk right up to Celtic-Oi! and ballads to full on rockers its all here and just goes to show why the scene in Indonesia is both wonderful and always interesting. No self respecting Celtic-Punker should not have at least a couple of favourite Indonesian bands in their arsenal so get along here Wind From The Foreign Land is one of the best compilation albums you will ever here. That’s a London Celtic Punks guarantee!

SINGLE REVIEW: THE WORKING CLASS SYMPHONY- ‘Berdiri Bersama/Memories’ (2019)

A double single release from one of the best bands from a non-English speaking country and The Working Class Symphony play a brand of Celtic-Punk that is totally influenced by Irish traditional folk music. If only more Irish bands played with this much passion!

As we have stated many times before Celtic-Punk has become a truly international scene with some unlikely communities taking up the baton and one of the most unlikely is the country of Indonesia. As strange as it may seem for a Muslim country they have one of the best (arguably the best) Celtic-Punk scene in the entire world. Music played with passion and with absolutely amazing ability from some brilliant musicians but its not just the music that makes the Indonesian Celtic-Punk scene so utterly fantastic it’s the morals and ideology behind it. Life is tough over there and they have adopted Celtic-Punk not just for the joyous romp that it is but also the camaraderie and spirit of friendship, loyalty and working class pride that bands like the Murphys have instilled in it from their start.

Their are several great bands in Indonesia, many of whom have featured on these pages, but the perfect way to find out more about his great scene is through our review of Wind From The Foreign Land- Indonesian Celtic Punk Compilation from 2014, a compilation of fourteen Indonesian bands, which also features our band of today The Working Class Symphony. Founded in 2010 in Surakarta, a couple of good friends (one a drunk and the other a musician!) were working in an internet cafe listening to Irish pub song compilations and inspired by the music it sparked up the idea to get together with some other friends and play similar music. When this became a solid group shortly afterwards it was then decided that they take the name The Working Class Symphony.

 

BERDIRI BERSAMA

We just the other day came across both of these releases at the same time and though they are separated by just a week we thought we’d feature both together. The first track is ‘Berdiri Bersama’ and is sung in Indonesian. A tale of unity through adversity and togetherness. The music is straight up Celtic-Folk and with strong, clear and passionate vocals from Ican, who also plays a mean tin-whistle. With the song meandering off into folk the Bhoys bring it back and chuck in some drums and electric guitar and the song suddenly takes a more upbeat sound. Catchy as hell and utterly brilliant!

A long road to accompany
Every step of footing
with friends spend the night
singing and laughing happilyForget all the
important differences we can keep together
when we toast To
enjoy a pleasant bright night

Break the barrier, get
rid of all the differences,
here we stand together
we continue to work

Break the barrier Remove all the
obstacles
here we stand with
us I will continue to work,You, him and them
together, face the world hard,
unite, determination, keep on going,
to keep guarding each other

Break the barrier, get
rid of all the differences,
here we stand together
we continue to work

MEMORIES

The second track is this time sung in English and ‘Memories’ is also soaked in Irish whisky and tradition. The talent on display here is incredible from fiddle to accordion to the more usual ‘punk band’ instruments. A virtually acoustic band that kicks up more of a storm than most ‘proper’ punk bands do… and sung in near perfect English this time.

So there you have it a couple of cracking folk tinged Celtic-Punk songs from one of the best bands going. The good news just continues though and you can get these songs as a ‘Name Your Price’ download. This means if you are short then you can get them for free. Yes for bugger all!! Some of you may be a bit skint but we’d ask you to remember that Indonesia is a poor country and these guys need the support of the worldwide Celtic-Punk scene to keep the music flowing so chuck them the price of a Guinness or two if you can. Their goal in all this is to make music that is uplifting for others and their is surely nothing as noble as that. God Save The Working Class !!!!!

Download  Track 1 Track 2 

Contact The Working Class Symphony   Instagram  Facebook  YouTube  Bandcamp

LONDON CELTIC PUNKS PRESENTS THE BEST OF 2018!

Well it seems like only yesterday that I was sitting in Mannions in north London totting up the votes for the Best Album Of 2017 over a couple of pints and so here we are again. Everyone loves to give out there opinions and we are no different so for what it’s worth, here’s who we think made the best music in the celtic-punk scene over the last year. It’s been another outstanding year for the music that we all love and some truly fantastic records came out in the last twelve months. 2017 saw just about every major player in the scene release an album while in 2018 they left it to many of the lesser known bands to dominate! Remember though this is only our opinion and these thirty album’s are only the tip of the iceberg of what was released last year. Feel free to comment, slag off or dissect our lists. As a bonus we figured out how to attach a poll at the end so you can even vote on your favourite release of 2018 yourself. If it’s not listed then simply add your choice.

We don’t pretend to be the final word as that my friends is for you…

1. THE RUMJACKS- Saints Preserve Us  here

2. 1916- Far Beyond The Pale  here

3. CLAN OF CELTS- Beggars, Celts & Madmen  here

4. KRAKIN’ KELLYS- Promised Land  here

5. THE O’REILLYS AND THE PADDYHATS- Green Blood  here

6. SIR REG- The Underdogs  here

7. TIR NA OG- From The Gallows  here

8. FIRKIN- We Are The Ones  here

9. THE MAHONES- Love + Death + Redemption  here

10. THE MUCKERS- One More Stout  here

11. BASTARD BEARDED IRISHMEN- Drinkin’ To The Dead  here

12. HOLD FAST- Black Irish Sons  here

13. LEXINGTON FIELD- Dreamers  here

14. THE RUMPLED- Ashes & Wishes  here

15. TAN AND SOBER GENTLEMEN- Veracity  here

16.THE KILLIGANS- Dance On Your Grave  here

17. ALTERNATIVE ULSTER- Pog Mo Thoin  here

18. PADDY AND THE RATS- Riot City Outlaws  here

19. IRISH MOUTARDE- Perdition  here

20. BASTARDS ON PARADE- Cara a Liberdade  here

21. MR. IRISH BASTARD- The Desire for Revenge  here

22. PIRATE COPY- Swashbuckle & Swagger  here

23. SINFUL MAGGIE- S/T

24. JOLLY JACKERS- Out Of The Blue  here

25. MUIRSHEEN DURKIN AND FRIENDS- 11 Pints And 3 Shots  here

26. THE CHERRY COKE$- The Answer

27. THE CLAN- Here To Stay  here

28. KINGS & BOOZERS- Still Got The Booze  here

29. FALPERRYS- Nova Abordagem  here

30. AIRS & GRACES- Voting At The Hall  here

bubbling under: MALASANERS- Footprints  here

So absolutely no surprises here at all. In fact The Rumjacks have pretty much swept the board across the Celtic-Punk scene with what we even thought was their best release since their groundbreaking debut album Gangs Of New Holland. The Bhoys are going from strength to strength and are set to go through the roof in 2019. They remain as humble as ever and downright lovely folk to know which reminds me, congrats from us all here to Frankie and LCP’er Anna on their engagement. Other notables were Sir Reg who even flew over to London to premier their new album The Underdogs before later returning to embark on a successful nationwide tour… while I was on holiday! London-Irish band Clan Of Celts, despite a few teething problems, delivered a fantastic debut album as well as, my personal favourite of the year, Belgium’s Krakin’ Kellys. A dual release of an album and a EP on the same day is a novel approach but it paid dividends for Lexington Field as they were both brilliant. Sinful Maggie have just been getting bigger and bigger all year and we expect this to continue into 2019. Three albums from the Celtic nations with two from Galicia from Falperrys and Bastards On Parade and Cornwall’s Pirate Copy. All together we have bands from twelve countries with Germany with the most placings alongside  Australia, USA, England, Belgium, Sweden, Hungary, Canada, Italy, Galicia, Cornwall and Japan.

KRAKIN’ KELLYS- Promised Land  here

I was not the only one at London Celtic Punks Towers to be abso-fecking-lutely blown away by the Krakin’ Kellys debut album. Fast and melodic skater style punk rock with bagpipes that will blow the cobwebs away off off anyone! They made quite a wave in the scene thanks to their brilliant videos so go check them out here. This section was the easiest one to award by far!

1. THE LAGAN- Let’s Do It Again

2. MEDUSA’S WAKE- Rascals & Rogues  here

2. HANDSOME YOUNG STRANGERS- The Bleeding Bridge  here

4. THE DANGEROUS FOLK- One  here

5. LEXINGTON FIELD- Modern Times  here

6. SCOTCH- Last In The Bar  here

7. TULLAMORE- Déš An Pr’i Strà, Déš An Int ál Bar  here

8. THE GRINNING BARRETTS- The St. Padraigs  here

9. IN FOR A PENNY- Sometimes Its Better To Not  here

10. THE ROYAL SPUDS- Unforgotten Lore  here

bubbling under…

MOSCHE DI VELLUTO GRIGIO- Of Pain And Glory here and RAISE MY KILT- A New Tartan  here

At one point this was heading towards being an Australian #1, #2 and #3 but at the last minute our local favourites The Lagan released Let’s Do It Again at the end of December and wrestled it away from Medusa’s Wake. Their first studio release in a hell of a long time it came out too late to trouble many of our friends ‘Best Of’ lists but their loss is our gain! Besides them and our Aussie friends the list was made up from bands from the USA, Holland, Italy and Austria which goes to show the international nature of the scene. As an aside you can get the brilliant bagpipe punk debut EP from Scotch for free by following the link to their review. For lovers of the McKenzies you’ll not be disappointed!

1. MARYS LANE- Wild Unknown  here

2. LOUIS RIVE- The Cheap Part Of Town  here

3. THE CRAICHEADS- S/T  here

4. LANKUM-  Between Earth and Sky here

5. MAN THE LIFEBOATS- Man The Lifeboats  here

6. SLIOTAR- Voyage

7. CLOVER’S REVENGE- Gotta Get O’Raggednized  here

8. BLACKBEARDS TEA PARTY- Leviathan  here

9. THE LED FARMERS- Irish Folk Out Straight

10. FINBAR FUREY- Don’t Stop This Now  here

bubbling under: THE BRANDY THIEVES- The Devil’s Wine  here

Always the hardest to do this section as our scope has become fairly wide over the years and gone beyond Celtic-Punk but Irish-American’s Marys Lane managed at once to be a record both me and my Mammy love! Even better the Cleveland based band have made it available to download for free/donation so follow the link above. Scot Louis Rive’s debut album really impressed me and was one of my most played albums of the year and The Craicheads capped a great year with a fantastic single and their lead singer Mick making the papers and the telly for saving a Mum and her babies lives (here). Good on yer Mick. It’s a privilege to know you. More local talent at #4 which ended a year where Man The Lifeboats have gone from first band on to headline shows and a mention for the amazing Finbar Furey who put a most excellent LP at the tender age of only 72.

MERSEY CELT PUNKS

We may be a wee bit biased here but last years winners take it again this year too. 2018 saw them continue to develop the site into an all-round resource for Liverpudlians and further afield. Yeah these guys are always blowing our trumpet we know and we have shared a good few scoops with them, and will again not long after this is published, but we enjoy what they write and it’s all done with an enthusiasm that us auld hacks are constantly jealous of. Plus you are not a major player in the Celtic-Punk scene unless you had your picture took with Elliot! You can also join in their fun and games on their Twitter and Facebook and their Web-Zine. Be sure to subscribe.

So there you go. Remember we don’t pretend to be the final word on things in fact if you check the other celtic-punk media I’m sure we’ve all come up with relatively different lists. Our Best Of’s are cajoled and bullied out of the admins from the London Celtic Punks Facebook page. The assorted scraps of paper and beer mats were then tallied up please remember not all of us heard the same albums so like all the various Best Of’s ours is also subjective.

This is our 6th year of us making these lists so if you would like to check out out who was where in our previous Best Of’s then just click on the link below the relevant year.

https://wp.me/p3Huvn-es

https://wp.me/p3Huvn-Oq

https://goo.gl/RXNtMC

https://wp.me/p3Huvn-21o

https://wp.me/p3Huvn-29L

We are not alone in doing these Best Of lists in fact all the major players in celtic-punk do them so click below to check out what they thought.

THE CELTIC PUNKCAST

CELTIC FOLK PUNK AND MORE

FOLK’N’ROCK

PADDYROCK

MERSEY CELT PUNKS

MacSLONS IRISH RADIO

Now here’s a new feature. Pick your own favourite below! The Poll will end on the final day of the month!

remember any views, comments or abuse or slander we would love to hear it…

 Sláinte, The London Celtic Punks Crew- January, 2019

SINGLE REVIEW: TENHOLES- ‘Trouble’ (2018)

We keep telling you that Celtic-Punk has gone global and if you don’t believe us then have a listen to the new single from, one band of several out of a fantastic scene, Tenholes from Jarkata in Indonesia.

We have waxed lyrically about the Celtic-Punk scene in Indonesia many times and to say it is absolutely amazing is a massive understatement. With a load of bands, too many to mention here, that all work together in making the scene bigger and better. No competition just #OneBigCelticPunkFamily in fact.

‘Trouble’ was released in celebration of the last Record Store Day on Saturday 21st April, 2018. Formed way back on 28th October 2004 are one of the most popular bands in the Indonesian punk and Celtic-Punk scene. Tenholes are six young(ish) chaps from East Jakarta who have and sometimes still wear ten eye Doc Martin boots, cropped hair, tight jeans and still listen to Oi music! The song ‘Trouble’ tells how complicated life can become when you add in romance, relationships and social life.

Let’s toast the past, present, and future because: This is Fun, This is Oi!, This is TENHOLES

Video produced in collaboration with Bergerak Records and Homeast Jakarta

Filmed by Ikhsan Bule, Ichsan Bodrex, Ody  

TROUBLE

wherever i go
whatever i say
trouble finds me everywhere
trouble finds anywhere
whatever i do
to make it up to you
trouble finds me everywhere
trouble finds me anywhere
what should i do
when you know it’s true
that i’m officially hated by you
but trouble loves me a thousand
more than you

Music & Lyrics : Jenggo * Arr : Tenholes
Vocals: Ukien Bstrd * Guitars : Andri * Lead Guitars : Endry Poison * Mandolins : Jenggo *
Drums : Acongaco * Guest Bass : Cahaya (SATCF)

Produced by Tenholes, Bergerak Records X Embrionic Studio
Mixed and mastered Donny Onda | Embryonic Music Studio | Assisted by Cahaya SATCF

in collaboration with
Bergerak Records | Embryonic Music Studio | FTO THE EDGE Creative house

Sing it loud, sing it proud and stay outta TROUBLE!

Tenholes

Facebook  YouTube  MySpace  Twitter  ReverbNation  iTunes

For the best introduction to the Celtic-Punk scene in Indonesia you simply cannot go wrong than checking out Wind From The Foreign Land- Indonesian Celtic Punk Compilation’ from 2014. An album of fourteen tracks from fourteen different and diverse Celtic-Punk bands from right across Indonesia. From traditional Irish folk right up to Celtic-Oi! and ballads to full on rockers its all here and just goes to show why the scene in Indonesia is both wonderful and always interesting. No self respecting Celtic-Punker should not have at least a couple of favourite Indonesian bands in their arsenal so get along here Wind From The Foreign Land is one of the best compilation albums you will ever here. That’s a London Celtic Punks guarantee!

LONDON CELTIC PUNKS PRESENTS THE BEST OF 2017!

Yes I know it only seems like five minutes since the last one but it’s that time of year again when we give you, for what it’s worth, our opinion on who made the best music in the celtic-punk scene over 2017. It’s been another outstanding year for the music that we all love and some truly fantastic records came out in the last twelve months. So read on to find out who came #1! Remember though this is only our opinion and these thirty album’s are only the tip of the iceberg of what was released last year. Feel free to comment, slag off or dissect our lists. We don’t pretend to be the final word as that my friends is for you…

1. FLATFOOT 56 (Chicago)- ‘Odd Boat’  here

2. THE TOSSERS (Chicago)- ‘Smash The Windows’  here

3. THE BIBLECODE SUNDAYS (London) – ‘Walk Like Kings’  here

4. THE PEELERS (Canada)- ‘Palace Of The Fiend’ here

5. FEROCIOUS DOG (England)- ‘Red’  here

6. BLACK WATER COUNTY (England)- ‘Taking Chances’  here

7. THE O’REILLYS AND THE PADDYHATS (Germany)- ‘Sign of the Fighter’  here

8. IN FOR A PENNY (USA)- ‘One More Last Hurrah’ here

9. LES RAMONEURS DE MENHIRS (Brittany)- ‘Breizh Anok’  here

10. MATILDA’S SCOUNDRELS (England)- ‘As The Tide Turns’  here

11. KILMAINE SAINTS (USA)- ‘Whiskey Blues & Faded Tattoos’  here

12. ORTHODOX CELTS (Serbia)- ‘Many Mouths Shut’  here

13. UNCLE BARD AND THE DIRTY BASTARDS (Italy)- ‘Handmade’  here

14. THE SILK ROAD (England)- ‘S/T’ here 

15. FLOGGING MOLLY (USA)- ‘Life Is Good’  here

16. THE LUCKY PISTOLS (USA)- ‘Where The Orioles Fly’  here

17. THE REAL McKENZIES (Canada)- ‘Two Devils Will Talk’  here

18. DRUNKEN DOLLY (Netherlands)- ‘Alcoholic Rhapsody’ here

19. CASSIDY’S BREWERY (Serbia)- ‘One Brew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’  here

20. THE MOORINGS (France)- ‘Unbowed’ here

21. CRAIC (USA)- ‘Sounds Of Vandemark’  here

22. JOLLY JACKERS (Hungary)- ‘Blood Sweat and Beer’ here

23. THE SCARLET (Hungary)- ‘Hardfolk Shanties’ here

24. THE DISTILLERY RATS (Germany)- ‘Tales From County Whiskey’ here

25. CELKILT (France)- ‘Stand’ here

26. DROPKICK MURPHYS (Boston)- ’11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory’  here

27. O’HAMSTERS (Ukraine)- ‘Где бы мы ни бывали’  here

28. SONS OF O’FLAHERTY (Brittany)- ‘The Road Not Taken’  here

29. THE BABES (London)- ‘Greetings From London’  here

30. CHEERS! (Czech Republic)- ‘Daily Bread’ here

Just bubbling under:

THE TEMPLARS OF DOOM (USA), GHOSTTOWN COMPANY (Germany) McSCALLYWAG (Netherlands)

No surprise here at all as all four admins voted #1 for Flatfoot 56 and their utterly brilliant ninth album. Not only that but we also all gave second spot to The Tossers, making it a Chicago #1 and #2! The year began with news of two new Dropkick Murphys albums coming but we only got the one and it met with, well quite a muted response to be honest. Saying that they were fantastic live and they certainly added a new dimension to these new songs when played in the flesh. The list leans heavy towards the bands from these shores it has to be said but it was always going to be with bands we get to see live regularly. It’s especially fitting to see The Bible Code Sundays in there too. In a year when every ‘big’ celtic-punk band released an album the competition was great so well done to all. Keep them coming. If you are not here then it just means we didn’t all agree or even all hear it and maybe we didn’t receive it too. The amount of debut albums from loads of these bodes well for both the scene here and internationally with a great mix of bands from thirteen countries.

BLACK WATER COUNTY- ‘Taking Chances’

This was a very hard category to fill with so many new bands arriving on the celtic-punk scene this past year. Soooo many to choose from but in the end we pumped for our very own Black Water County who just pipped Cassidy’s Brewery and In For A Penny to the title!

1. BLACK ANEMONE (Sweden)- ‘In It For Life’  here

2. RAIN IN SUMMER (Indonesia)- ‘Discordant Anthem From The Gutter’  here

3. IN FOR A PENNY (USA)- ‘Every Day Should be Saint Paddy’s Day’  here

4. THE BOTTLERS (Australia)- ‘The Bottlers’  (here)

5. BLACK RAWK DOG (Indonesia)- ‘Suburban’s Folk Stories’  here

6. BogZH CELTIC CATS! (Brittany)- ‘Kazh al Lagenn’  here

7. THE CRAZY ROGUES (Hungary)- ‘Rebels’ Shanties’  here

8. THE McMINERS (Brazil)- ‘Tales of Betrayal and Deceit’  here

9. BORN AGAIN HEATHENS (USA)- ‘Born Again Heathens’  here

10. THE DEAD MAGGIES (Australia)- ‘Wild Dogs And Flannies’  here

Stand out winner here from Sweden’s Black Anemone which none of us were sure was either a big EP or a small album so we gave it the benefit of the doubt and placed it in here. Outstanding! Two representatives of Indonesia’s fantastic celtic-punk scene made up for no album releases from there last year and one band from a Celtic nation with the BogZH Celtic Cats! The Bottlers sneak in as they only sent it to us the week before Christmas. Glad they did though.

1. DECLAN O’ROURKE- ‘Chronicles Of The Great Irish Famine’  (here)

2. ShamROCKS- ‘Ye Ould Chariot’ EP  (here)

3. CRIKWATER- ‘Crikwater’  (here)

4. BEOGA- ‘Before We Change Our Mind’

5. FOLLOW THE CROWS- ‘West is East’ EP  (here)

6. PLASTIC PADDY- ‘Lucky Enough’  (here)

7. DAMIEN DEMPSEY- ‘Soulson’

8. GALLEY BEGGAR- ‘Heathen Hymns’  (here)

9. I DRAW SLOW- ‘Turn Your Face To The Sun’

10. ANTO MORRA- ‘From The Vaults’

Absolutely no question who romped home here. from the first time I ever heard Declan O’Rourke’s monumental album Chronicles Of The Great Irish Famine I was simply blown away. I simply cannot recommend it enough. Go and acquire a copy now. A mix of folk and trad makes up the rest of the list with a special mention for Ukrainian band ShamROCKS who play Irish folk as if they were naturals! We would like to feature more trad and folk on these pages in the future hopefully. Also Vince Cayo had a fecking brilliant album but was neither celtic-punk nor folk. Was tempted to make a separate list just for him!

MERSEY CELT PUNKS

This use to be the Celtic Folk Punk And More Best Celtic Punk Web-Site award so often did they use to win but last year it went to the new kid on the block, our good mates over at Mersey Celt Punks. Well we were in a bit of a quandary about who would win this week but then in the last few weeks of the year the Mersey Bhoys upped their game and won a unanimous vote. They finally started to use their Web-Site (here) and published a whole host of great reviews and things like a events/gig section. You can also join in their fun and games at Twitter and Facebook and we heartily recommend you do.

So there you go. Remember we don’t pretend to be the final word on things in fact if you check the other celtic-punk media I’m sure we’ve all come up with relatively different lists. Our Best Of’s are cajoled and bullied out of the four admins from the London Celtic Punks Facebook page. The assorted scraps of paper and beer mats were then tallied up over several pints of Guinness in Mannions. Not all of us heard the same albums so like all Best Of’s ours is subjective.

CARLTON HUNT

Of course we cannot go any further without mention of the saddest news of the year. That of the passing of Carlton , the drummer of The Bible Code Sundays. A friend of London Celtic Punks and an absolute diamond stand up guy he will be forever sadly missed by all who met him. We are grateful To Ronan for penning a few words for him.

We lost Carlton on 3rd November 2017 unexpectedly and it has left a massive hole in our family. Carlton joined The BibleCode Sundays some twelve years ago when we were still called Slainte.

His work ethic was second to none, he even dragged us into the studio to record our first CD, he did a lot of pushing in the early days and the Lord knows we needed it!

He was always the first to say yes to any gig, whether it was a small Irish pub like The Old Crown in Hayes or The Shawl or whether it was some of our bigger gigs. Over the years we played some fantastic gigs and venues, such as The Royal Albert Hall, New York’s Beacon Theatre, The House of Blues in Boston, Shepherds Bush Empire, The Roundhouse, Glasgow Barrowlands, Indigo at The O2, Glastonbury Festival, Finsbury Park, London Irish, on the pitch at Twickenham Stadium and at Celtic Park (the night Celtic beat Barcelona). We’ve played with Elvis Costello, The Dropkick Murphys, The Wolfetones, John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd, the Saw Doctors and he even got to realise a dream when we shared a stage with Thin Lizzy. They were minus legends Phil Linnot and Gary Moore but this mattered not to Carlton, his hero Brian Downey was still behind the drums. Carlton got to meet his idol and even got some Thin Lizzy drumsticks as souvenir, he was like an excited little kid that night. We did TV appearances on Sky Sports, BT Sport and even a live St Patrick’s Day performance on BBC’s The One Show.

We got to travel around on trips and tours all around the UK and Ireland as well as Germany, Italy, Spain and the USA to mention a few. This was all just topping up the stamps on his passport that he had accrued in his days with Bad Manners, Feast of Fiddles and The Melody Fakers and many more as he spent so many years on the London Irish music scene.

Not many would know that he also wrote poetry and song lyrics, they are very clever with pun-tastic wordplay and generally came out sounding like Bernard Cribbins songs with titles like ‘Breakfast Epiphanies’ or the Brighton-themed song ‘All Things Brighton Beautiful’. He used to always say

“I try to be serious but the humour always takes over”

He did, however, manage to pen two of the best songs on our latest album, he was very proud of his songs ‘Disorganised Crime’ and the beautiful ‘Clouds’. Drummers writing songs?! Whatever next?! He truly was the engine room of the band, a quiet and gentle man off stage who turned into a one man wrecking ball when he was sat behind his drum kit.

Things will never be the same without him but he would want us to and we will carry on making music and playing his songs.

Ladies and Gentlemen, on drums.. Mr Carlton Hunt

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This is the 5th year of us making these lists so if you would like to check out out who was where in our previous Best Of’s then just click on the link below the relevant year.

We are not alone in doing these Best Of lists in fact all the major players in celtic-punk do them so click below to check out what they thought.

CELTIC FOLK PUNK AND MORE

FOLK’N’ROCK

PADDYROCK

MERSEY CELT PUNKS

SHITE’n’ONIONS

MacSLONS IRISH RADIO

CELTICPUNK.PL

remember any views or comments we would love to hear them…

 Sláinte, The London Celtic Punks Crew- January, 2018

EP REVIEW: BLACK RAWK DOG- ‘Suburban’s Folk Stories’ (2017)

Another top quality Indonesian celtic-punk band belt it out of the ball park with their new EP! Black Rawk Dog continue the Indonesia love in…

Just a couple of days ago we reviewed a great EP from an Indonesian celtic-punk band (here) and low and behold just like buses up rolls another one five minutes behind! As with Rain In Summer we first came across Black Rawk Dog on the absolutely superb Indonesian celtic-punk compilation ‘Wind From The Foreign Land’ from 2014. Fourteen tracks from fourteen different celtic-punk bands from across Indonesia and from right across the whole celtic-punk spectrum from folky traditional folk to celtic-Oi! and hardcore it’s all there and is definitely one of the best album’s I have ever heard. We described Black Rawk Dog then as

“fast paced fiddle and mando punk played at breakneck speed with gang vocals”

and on the basis of Surburban’s Folk Stories I can see no reason to change that!

(The EP teaser a collection of videos by friends of the bands showing them hanging)

The Black Rawk Dog story begins at the end of 2010 when a group of Sidoarjo friends become interested in and decide to take up an unlikely form of music for youths in their country. It takes a while to get going and in November, 2011 they begin their journey playing with another of Indonesia’s celtic-punk greats Skarockoi! They began to invite some of the other great bands from around the country to play in Sidoarjo and soon enough they were being invited to play around the country as well leading to their performance at the Jogja Celtic Punk Night. BY now the band had set out to find more about traditional Irish music and the wider celtic music scene in Indonesia and Black Rawk Dog were now firmly on their way to transform from a punk band with folk instruments to a fully fledged celtic-punk band. A skinhead mate suggested ‘Black Dog Conspiracy’ as a band name and somewhere along discussions they ended up as Black Rawk Dog and set out to take Indonesian celtic-punk to the masses!

Surburban’s Folk Stories was sent to me by an old mate on Facebook Jr Miko from the record label that released this and pretty much everything Indonesian celtic-punk related. The first thing that strikes you on listening to this EP is how much energy the band has. If it’s possible to tell how much fun a band has through listening to them on record then here is the best example I have heard it quite a while. They roll out all the celtic instruments to kick start ‘Brand New Day’ the opening track.

Tin whistle, bango, fiddle all leading the song with vocals shared among the band and a real Dropkick Murphys singalong going on. Now the band sound more like Flogging Molly than the Murphys but the songs do remind me of them more somehow. A fantastic start to the EP and the sound of quality Irish folk music fills the air on the second track too. ‘Work Proud’ is again sung in English and is nice and clear and just on the right side of punky gruffness. Again its fast but without losing the folky sound and the ‘Woah Woah’ gang chorus is great. The celtic instruments are out in force again but the whole band is on top form here with nice drumming and guitar. Now regular readers will know how i wax lyrical about the most under-rated instrument in celtic-punk, the harmonica. My uncle Pat bought me a mouth organ when I was a kid and though I never did quite master it I still love the sound. ‘Still One’ slows it all down a little and the harmonica kicks it off until more gang ‘Woah Woah’s come in and beautiful guest female vocals take the song slowly up in tempo into a fast and frantic hardcore celtic folk punk number. The song ends with a high kicking blast that comes with a tinge of country included. More than half way through the EP and I am absolutely loving it. Play this in a bar in Dublin, London or NYC and tell the regulars these are a local band and you’ll get no argument I am sure. In fact the way that Black Rawk Dog have taken to Irish music would put most Irish bands on the island of Ireland to shame. Indonesia is a 80% majority Muslim country so great to hear ‘Rumble In The Bar’. Celtic-punk as our header states is music of rebellion and resistance and great to hear Indonesian’s playing it as well as anyone else, and sometimes better. Starting off with banjo it all turns into a massive ceilidh and like some sort of Irish-punk-celtic-hoedown with more gang vocal chorus and fiddle to die for. Super production here on all the songs and the music is flowing as the beer is flowing out and sadly the EP comes to an end with ‘The Old Man Stands Alone’. Expecting a slow maudlin ballad Black Rawk Dog kick out the best song on the record that takes me right back to to the days of The Pogues. Whoever is sharing their record collection with these guys is doing a fantastic job and I’m left wanting to hear more from this great band.

All the songs here are penned by the band themselves and if I had any criticism it would be that it’s only twenty minutes as I am now desperately wanting to hear more from them. This EP is a perfect example of what can be done with a bunch of extremely talented musicians and a wish to move beyond playing bog standard punk music. This is easily as good as anything I have heard this year and I only wish that bands like Flogging Molly or The Murphys would put their hands in their pockets and get some of the bands from Indonesia over to the States for some exposure. How about getting them on the next Salty Dog cruise Flogging Molly?

Buy 

Contact wlrv.record@gmail.com

Contact Black Rawk Dog

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WLRV Records  Facebook  Twitter  Soundcloud

WLRV Records is a Yogyakarta based independent record label, focusing on celtic punk and punk. Started by YK Mass in 2012 we are here to support Indonesian Celtic Punk / Irish Folk Punk / Paddy Punk movement.

EP REVIEW: RAIN IN SUMMER- ‘Discordant Anthem From The Gutter’ (2017)

Formed from a grain of sand on baladewa streets in early 2008!

Indonesian celtic-punk of the punky variety.

Without going too far into the history of celtic-punk it can be said that the genre was back in the day originally a product of the Irish diaspora living in England and mainly in London. With the worldwide popularity of The Pogues it very soon spread across the Atlantic to north America to the Irish communities there and from there we had a couple of bands who went on to become absolutely massive and helped spread the modern day celtic-punk scene into every corner of the globe. In just the last few weeks on this site for instance we have published reviews of records from Hungary, France, USA, Netherlands, Belarus, Germany and Galicia  and now we have a band from one the biggest and best celtic-punk scenes in the world- Indonesia.  Yes it may seem strange and even unbelievable but the Indonesians have embraced celtic-punk and seem to have taken to it completely. Rather than go into the various bands of the scene you’d be better off checking out ‘Wind From The Foreign Land- Indonesian Celtic Punk Compilation’ from 2014. An album of fourteen tracks from fourteen different celtic-punk bands from across Indonesia. From folky almost traditional folk to celtic-Oi! and hardcore it’s all there and is one of the best album’s I have ever heard (here). Out in the Indian ocean and a thousand or two miles from Australia Indonesia gained independence from Holland after the second world war. The country itself has a population in excess of 230 million and comprises nearly 13,500 different islands and for a country that is 87.2% Muslim the scene has adopted one or two of celtic-punks better known subject matters, if you know what I mean…

Rain in Summer have been going almost a decade having formed in 2008 and this is their second release. It came out in a short run of 100 CD’s for Record Store Day in May just gone. That first release was a 6 track EP titled Untuk Kutaku which you can hear below on the ReverbNation player.

Discordant Anthem From The Gutter begins with ‘Suara’ and it sounds like about two dozen musicians locked in a pub! At least three singers giving it welly with electric guitar keeping time but with the sound (suara) of tin whistle, mandolin and fiddle throughout giving it that unmistakable celtic sound. A catchy as hell wee punky number to begin with. ‘Are You Okay?’ is up next and starts off in a kind of trad celtic-punk style before going punky and then returning, thanks to tin whistle, back into celtic-punk. The vocals are brilliant throughout and while it may not be polished it sounds all the better for it. Growing up listening to DIY punk releases means I can overlook some things and appreciate the rawness of others and the passion here shines through. Lyrics this time are sung in English while the rest of the EP is in Indonesian. ‘Semua Terekam Dalam Media’ follows and is a fast paced punk number with throaty vocals and mandolin. ‘Kita Semua Saudara’ is next and slows it down not that most will notice though. The electric guitar is still there as well as the gang vocals and heavy drums. It’s one of those moments when played live that you reach for the sky and grab your mates and your loved ones. A swirling and catchy as hell three minutes of perfection. ‘Eksploitasi’ (‘Exploitation’) is another fast paced punk song which slows down a couple of times only to get faster again. The EP is all over in less than twenty minutes. It grabs your attention and then just as quickly is gone. We are now onto the last song ‘ Warrior’ and straight from the off its reminiscent of Belfast punkers Stiff Little Fingers. For me the standout track of the EP with its perfectly paced fast punk rock and the celtic instruments just nicely accompanying. Again the tin whistle, fiddle and mandolin are all over this song and place the band firmly within celtic-punk. The production on the last song seems a bit clearer too to these big ears as well.

The EP was released on WLVR Records who not only released the Indonesian Celtic-punk compilation mentioned above but also fantastic records by The Cloves and The Tobacco, which we reviewed here, and Dirty Glass, here. Discordant Anthem From The Gutter places them firmly on the punkier side of celtic-punk and with a sound that straight away informs you they are a part of that blossoming Indonesian celtic-punk scene. As already stated it’s not polished but too many releases are tinkered with and all that manages to do is to remove that live feel that is crucial to any celtic-punk release. Here listening to this you could almost be in the pub sweating away with the lads on stage. Six songs of catchyness that will have you headbanging away and anyone planning on a holiday to Indonesia be sure to contact some of these bands as I get the feeling a concert out there would be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Buy

Contact wlrv.record@gmail.com

Contact Rain In Summer

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WLRV Records  Facebook  Twitter  Soundcloud

WLRV Records is a Yogyakarta based independent record label, focusing on celtic punk and punk. Started by YK Mass in 2012 we are here to support Indonesian Celtic Punk / Irish Folk Punk / Paddy Punk movement.

• There is a fantastic Facebook group called ‘Indonesian Celtic Punk’ (here) we recommend you join. The Cloves And The Tobacco are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Indonesian celtic punk so invest a bit of time and find out a bit more about this great scene.

LONDON CELTIC PUNKS PRESENTS THE BEST OF 2016!

Yes I know it only seems like five minutes since the last one but it’s that time of year again when we give you, for what it’s worth, our opinion on who made the best music in the celtic-punk scene over 2016. It’s been another outstanding year for the music that we all love and some truly fantastic records came out in the last twelve months. So read on to find out who came #1! Remember though this is only our opinion and these twenty-five album’s are only the tip of the iceberg of what was released last year. Feel free to comment, slag off or dissect our lists. We don’t pretend to be the final word as that my friends is for you…

TOP 25 CELTIC PUNK ALBUMS

1. THE RUMJACKS (Australia)-‘Sleepin’Rough’  Review

2. THE NARROWBACKS (New York)- ‘Arrogance & Ignorance’  Review

3. THE CLOVES AND THE TOBACCO (Indonesia)- ‘Across The Horizon’  Review

4. MICKEY RICKSHAW (Boston)- ‘Behind The Eight Ball’  Review

5. THE WAKES (Glasgow)- ‘Venceremos!’  Review 

Absolutely no surprise here at all. For the first time we had an unanimous vote from all the admin’s that sees The Rumjacks sail away with the #1 spot for the second year running. It’s been an outstanding year for the Bhoys and with an American tour on the horizon they about to take another giant step in their campaign of world domination! Other notables were NYC’s Narrowbacks whose second album really showed the depth of their songwriting and could just have easily won the folk/trad best of too! The Cloves And The Tobacco deserve plaudits galore in another fantastic year for Indonesian celtic punk bands while Mickey Rickshaw could probably be said to have won the ‘unified title’ across all the various celtic-punk sites. In all we have twenty five bands from fourteen countries including USA x 6, Australia x 3, Indonesia x2, Germany x2, Netherlands x2, Catalonia x 2, Scotland, Italy, Sweden, Brazil, Spain, Czech Republic, Russia and Belarus with The Wakes being the only Celtic country based band which goes to show how international the scene has become.

6. THE CLAN (Italy)- ‘All In The Name Of Folk’  Review

7. HOIST THE COLORS (USA)- ‘Mourners’  Review

8. SIR REG (Sweden)- ‘Modern Day Disgrace’  Review

9. FOX n FIRKIN (Australia)- ‘No Vacancy’  Review

10. FIDDLER’S GREEN (Germany)- ‘Devil’s Dozen’  Review

11. LUGH (Brazil)- ‘Histórias Do Mar’  Review

12. JAY WARS AND THE HOWARD YOUTH (Australia)- ‘Love In The Time Of Fear’  Review

13. BUNCH OF BASTARDS (Netherlands)- ‘My Drinkin’ Ain’t Done’  Review

14. SIGELPA (Catalonia)- ‘Rabant Original’  Review

15. TENHOLES (Indonesia)- ‘Loyalty’  Review

16. THE O’REILLYS AND THE PADDYHATS (Germany)- ‘Seven Hearts One Soul’  Review

17. 13KRAUSS (Spain)- TheEnd Is Nigh’  Review

18. DRINK HUNTERS (Catalonia)- ‘Shameless’  Review

19. PIRATES OF THE PUBS (Czech Republic)- ‘Drunken Forever’  Review

20. THE MUCKERS (USA)- ‘The Muckers’  Review

Whiskey Outlaws (2016)

21. LQR (Netherlands)- ’10 Pinter’  Review

22. THE Пауки/THE PAUKI (Russia)- ‘La Isla Del Muerto’  Review

23. Всё CRAZY (Belarus)- ‘По Морям’  Review

24. RUSTY NAIL (USA)- ‘Bitter Ale, Bitter Heart’  Review

25. THE LANGER’S BALL (USA)- ‘Whiskey Outlaws’  Review

A special mention here to the ever prolific and always a pleasurable experience The Mahones who released a greatest hits entitled The Very Best: 25 Years Of Irish Punk which couldn’t be included in the Top 25 but if it did would have given The Rumjacks a run for their money!

TOP TEN CELTIC PUNK EP’S

1. MICK O’TOOLE (England)- ‘A Working Class Battalion’  Review

2. THE RAMSHACKLE ARMY (Australia)- ‘Whitewashed Graves’  Review

3. DRUNKEN FAIRY TALES (Russia) – ‘Пьяные Сказки’  Review

With The Rumjacks returning a year later to sweep the Album Of The Year it’s no surprise then that Wiltshire lads Mick O’Toole follow up last year’s win in the EP Of The Year awards to do the same thing. A great year for them that has seen them play less and less within the celtic-punk scene and really start to make waves outside of it. A foreign tour and more support slots to various punk rock legends than most bands play in a lifetime and all in the space of twelve months. The Ramshackle Army EP got lost in the post leaving us to do a rush-job review and given time I’m sure they may have given the O’Toole’s a run for their money. Drunken Fairy Tales impressed everyone and Matilda’s vinyl only release deserve a mention as well Mick O’Toole grabbing the 5th spot too.

4. MATILDA’S SCOUNDRELS (England)- ‘Crowleys Curse’  Review

5. MICK O’TOOLE (England)- ‘False Flag Collapse’  Review

6. BAY STREET BASTARDS (Canada)- ‘Small Batch’  Review

7. LEXINGTON FIELD (USA)- ‘Redwood’  Review

8. HANDSOME YOUNG STRANGERS (Australia)- ‘Battle Of Broken Hill’  Review

9. MATILDA’S SCOUNDRELS (England)- ‘The Organworks Recordings Session’  Review

10.  BALSALL HEATHENS (England)- ‘Life’s Too Short’  Review

TOP TEN FOLK/TRADITIONAL RELEASES

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1. ANTO MORRA (London)-’16’  Review

2. THE LOGUES (Ireland)- ‘Comin’ Of Age’  Review

3. MICKEY RICKSHAW (Boston)- ‘Wild Atlantic’  Review

Possibly the hardest Best Of List of them all to do is this one as so many releases cross over the genres between rock and punk and folk and trad but our good friend Anto Morra, the ‘London Irish folk-punker’, just edging it from The Logues with his superb tribute to the 1916 Easter Rising. Mickey Rickshaw swept to third with their specially recorded acoustic EP that came out for their European tour and ShamRocks put out an album of high quality and original Irish folk with imagination galore. A special mention for Blackwater Banshee whose EP came out later in the year and shows enormous promise and one or two original songs would have seen a much higher position I am sure.

4. ShamRocks (Ukraine)- ‘Captain’s Log’  Review

5. LARKIN (USA)- ‘A Toast To St. Jude’  Review

6. FOLK THE SYSTEM (England)- Unrest In The Wolds’  Review

7. SHAMBOLICS (Australia)- ‘Riot On Race Day’  Review

8. CLEAR THE BATTLE FIELD (USA)- ‘Set Me Free’  Review

9. SOLAS (USA)- ‘All These Years’  Review

10. BLACKWATER BANSHEE (Bristol)- ‘Blackwater Banshee’  Review

TOP CELTIC PUNK WEB-SITE

Now this has over the years become the Celtic Folk Punk And More Top Celtic Punk Web-Site award so often has that esteemed site walked away with the top spot but there’s a new kid on the block and this year we are happy to award top spot to our good mates over at Mersey Celt Punks. They only kicked off the site a few months ago but super regular postings on all manner of celtic-punkness has seen them triumphant. You can join their fun over at Twitter and Facebook and we heartily recommend you do. A special mention here also for Viva La XV another new kid on the block which looks amazing but sadly as none of us can read Spanish we can’t tell if it’s as good as it looks! We’re sure it is and you can check it out for yourselves at the Blog or over on Facebook.

Right now the details. The Best Of lists were cajoled and bullied out of the four admins on the London Celtic Punks Facebook page. The various scraps of crumpled paper were received and then tallied up over several pints of Guinness in Mannions in north London while watching the football on the telly.

We are now in our fourth year of doing these Best Of lists so if you would like to have a look at the previous years best in celtic-punk then click the link below the relevant year.

https://londoncelticpunks.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/best-of-2013-polls-results-in/

https://londoncelticpunks.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/london-celtic-punks-presents-our-best-of-2014-2/

https://londoncelticpunks.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/london-celtic-punks-presents-our-best-of-2015/

all the major players in celtic-punk do Best Of lists so click below to check out what they thought

CELTIC FOLK PUNK AND MORE

PADDYROCK

MacSLONS IRISH RADIO

CELTIC-ROCK.DE

remember any views or comments we would love to hear them…

Only one more thing to mention about 2016 and that is to remember here Erik Petersen the lead singer of the influential folk-punk band Mischief Brew who sadly passed away earlier this year. I still find it hard to believe that he has gone but he will always be commemorated.

“So tattoo our arms and raise our glasses, call out your name at New Year’s Eve, maybe next time we kneel at a casket, we can say at least the story’s complete”

Read our obituary for Erik here and raise a glass the next time you get the chance to.

 Rest In Peace comrade.

 Sláinte, The London Celtic Punks Crew- January, 2017

2016 REVIEWS ROUND-UP PART TWO. KORRIGAN’S CELTIC ROCK, MICK FLANNERY, ACROSS THE BORDER, TENHOLES, THE RAMSHACKLE ARMY, KING OF THE TRAVELLERS

Every year we have been doing this has got better and better for celtic-punk releases. As happy as we are that this is so it also means that we just cannot keep up with everything out there. We haven’t had the chance to review everything we received or heard so here is Part 2 of our 2016 Round Up where we catch up with some of the releases that we missed first time round. Here at 30492- LONDON CELTIC PUNKS blog we much prefer to do really detailed reviews but it has been impossible to keep up so here’s a few quick ones just to catch up and get 2016 out of the way. Each and every one are worthy of your time so go ahead and check them out. Last week we featured releases from the America’s (here) so this time we will try to fit in the entire rest of the world taking in Ireland, Indonesia, Germany, France and good auld Australia!

KORRIGAN’S CELTIC ROCK- ‘Tournée Générale!’ EP  (Bandcamp)

There is quite a strong and vibrant celtic-punk scene happening in France at the moment and by France I mean France and not Brittany which as you should know is a completely different country! One of these bands are Korrigan’s Celtic Rock who were formed in 2007 in Franche-Comté in eastern France and released their debut EP, Tournée Générale!, earlier this year. They take their name from the mythical creatures who were opposed to Christianity when the Apostles came to convert Brittany. The EP kicks off with a rocking start with tin whistle that AC/DC would be proud of. Next up is ‘Hypocrisie’ with more of a ska beat and the bombarde is introduced. I love the sound of this instrument and will be familiar to fans of the Breton legends Les Ramoneurs De Menhirs. They add bagpipes too into ‘Putain De…’  and this is my favourite track of the EP. The title track ends the EP and is straight up celtic-punk rock. A quarter of a hour well spent. These guys cover all the angles and we are destined to hear much more from them in 2017.

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MICK FLANNERY- ‘I Own You’ LP (iTunes  TowerRecords)

Mick Flannery comes from county Cork in the south of Ireland and funnily enough the artist he reminds me of the most is also from Cork, Cathal Coughlan of the excellent Microdisney/Fatima Mansions. This is Mick’s fifth album and the first I’ve heard properly. There may not be much here for the traditional celtic-punk fan except that if you love good music then you will also love this. From what I have read this album is much darker than his previous releases and the excellent Tom Wait-esque title track is based on the idea of class inequality and told as a poor man breaking into a rich man’s house. Dark and foreboding and downright bloody brilliant!

“Thought you heard something on the way home, was that a rustle, was that my belly rumblin?”

Elements of rap and dance music alongside the dark folk and even darker pop here and the songwriting is compelling and worthy of hearing just on it’s own. On ‘Cameo’ Mick’s famous introspection comes out.

“But if I’m so happy/ why do I lie awake at night?/ Why am I angry all the time?”

Though often found with an electric guitar its still very much based on folk melodies and the comparison to Bob Dylan and his change to electric guitar himself is not so odd.

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ACROSS THE BORDER- ‘Calling 999’ EP  (Bandcamp)

Formed in Remchingen in the South of Germany not far from the French border Calling 999 is their first release since they reformed having split up back in 2012 having been together since 1991! It sure is good to have them back as on the basis of this EP they right are back on form. With a stack of LP’s and EP’s behind them this stands up there with the best of them. A mainly accordion led band, very popular in their home country, this EP begins with the title track and its catchy punk folk throughout with distinctive vocals from Jochen with the lyrics sung in English. ‘Rob, The Man’ is a hilarious romp showing a good sense of humour with a good auld Irish twist with plenty of fiddle this time. The EP ends with the sad but lovely ‘Sometimes’ and your nine minutes is up with a real Tom Waits-esque bar-room ballad accompanied with piano and accordion. This is the song it would be worth getting your lighter out for! A great release but far too short. We want more!

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TENHOLES- ‘Loyalty’  (Juno)

Formed in 2004 in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta Tenholes are a working class Oi! band with celtic music influences. Loyalty is their second album and their best yet. ten songs and thirty-five minutes of punk rock’n’roll from the streets that reminds me of those first couple of Flatfoot 56 albums for energy. An absolute stunner of an album. Great production and comes bursting out the speakers at you from Track One. We have featured Indonesian bands several times before when we reviewed Dirty Glass (here), the great Indonesian celtic-punk compilation Wind From The Foreign Land (here) and the review of The Cloves And The Tobacco last album (here) so go there to find out more about this fantastic scene. So much to recommend here but for certain if you favour the Dropkicks/Flatfoot then this album is for you. I give you a guarantee you WILL love it! You can hear plenty of music at their Facebook page under the Band Profile tab including some songs from Loyalty. Anthems for the working class with stories of urban life, stories about them and us!

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KING OF THE TRAVELLERS- ‘Pros & Cons’  (Soundcloud)

The third release from Fremantle seven-piece King of the Travellers. Blending elements of folk, punk, ska and gypsy music to create a hoe-down of epic proportions! With instruments as diverse as the French horn and clarinet they are not your run-of-the-mill folk punk band but there experimentation does remind me of fellow Aussies the Dead Maggies even if their music aint too similar. With a reputation as a raucous live music act how well did they manage to transfer their sound to disc? Well the answer is pretty damn well. First track ‘Another Day’ has brass and a catchy ska-ish beat to it and kicks off these six songs in style. They speed it up for ‘Travel Away’ and then slow it down for ‘First Thought’ and again its all catchy as hell with the many instruments blending very well together thanks to the spotless production. Gypsy/Eastern Europe flavours the next song ‘Curly’ and on ‘Trenches’ the mando is back in charge for this anti-war song which sounds to me like something Stiff Records may have come out back in the day.

The EP comes to an end with ‘Curly Reprise’ which is of course the earlier track ‘Curly’ slowed down but with extra flourish. The clarinet works surprisingly well and could maybe have done with popping up a bit more often. Overall a solid EP. Not a weak song here just catchy punky folk music with a stack of influences from all over the place and spat back out by a bunch of Aussie’s. Now that is recommendation enough surely!

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THE RAMSHACKLE ARMY- ‘Whitewashed Graves’ (Bandcamp)

And our final review of 2016 is also one of the best we reviewed and no surprises that it’s another Australian release! Just released earlier this month this is the first new record from The Ramshackle Army since the beginning of 2014 but they have certainly been busy if not recording then touring right across the globe! The band began in the pubs and bars of their home town Melbourne but The Ramshackle Army have gone on to become one of the leading lights in the Australian celtic-punk scene and in a scene that is chock-a-block with great bands then that ought to be recommendation enough. Hampered by line up changes they have now got a settled team so lets hope it leads to a new album soon. Here we get six songs and just under twenty minutes of high tempo, catchy as feck traditional celtic-punk. The standout track gotta be the single ‘Foreign Soil’ but it could easily have been any of them such is the quality of this fine EP.

“Imprisoned by our plight and desperate acts faith,
They enter battles in our name and battle cry our pain,
Just keep me sane and welcome my escape”

All the songs are self penned and its an absolute stunning return to the scene from one of the best bands in it. Heavily influenced by the story-telling style of the Aussie folk/celtic-punk tradition that bursts with  the live energy of an Ramshackle Army live gig. Highly recommended!

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So ends Part 2 of our Round-Up’s and we are sorry we weren’t able to give each album the full on London Celtic Punks treatment. Apologies to all the bands as each and every release deserved that full treatment. We have still probably missed some fantastic music so all the more reason to send in your stuff to us to review. We are always looking for people to join the reviews team so don’t be shy if you fancy giving it a go. If you don’t want to miss any of our posts then you can follow us by simply filling in your e-mail address in the box that is either below or to the left depending how you are viewing and you will receive every post to your in-box.

ALBUM REVIEW: THE CLOVES AND THE TOBACCO- ‘Across The Horizon’ (2016)

 Indonesian Paddy punk since 2006

To those new to the celtic-punk scene or those that think there’s only two (maybe three) bands in the entire world worth bothering about it may come as a surprise to say that one of the biggest (and best!) scenes around is in Indonesia but that sadly most people don’t even know it exists. With bands and followers that live and breathe celtic-punk and play some of the worlds most authentic sounding celtic music. Indonesia has a thriving underground punk scene in general but I am at a loss to explain why they would embrace celtic music and take to it so much… and play it so well!

Indonesia is out there in the Indian ocean and a thousand or two miles from Australia and gained independence from Holland pretty much straight after the second world war. The country itself has a population of over 230 million and comprises nearly 13,500 different islands and is 87.2% muslim. Hugely diverse ethnically it is has more than 300 local languages but the main language is Indonesian. The Cloves And The Tobacco formed in 2006 in Yogyakarta and being inspired after hearing Flogging Molly a group of friends decided to get a band together and now ten years later that band is still together and getting stronger all the time. Yogyakarta is renowned for education and is a centre for Indonesian culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music and poetry. Taking their name from a kind of cigarette The Cloves And The Tobacco have been major players on the international celtic punk scene now for a good few years despite purely existing on word of mouth and good reviews on the internet.

click here for a FREE download of ‘The Day With No Sun’

They released their first studio album ‘Day With No Sun’ in 2012 which went down an absolute storm with the critics and you can own a copy now for free as the band have made it available as a free download. So click on the album sleeve on the left and get your free copy now.

The Cloves And The Tobacco are Adit Tongseng (Accoustic Guitar and Vocal), Pizzt (Fiddle and Backing Vocal), Abiyoga Fazri (Electric Guitar and Backing Vocal), Koro (Drum), Kojack Blues (Banjo), Fani Black (Tin Whistle) and Kahfi (Electric Bass) and they steer a path very similar to celtic-punk legends Flogging Molly. Pumped up, raucous, fast, energetic, traditional Irish music interspersed with the occasional ballad. The opening track of Across The Horizon is ‘Too Much Trouble’ and starts with electric guitar, banjo and fiddle and tin whistle blaring out loud but also crystal clear over words written by infamous celtic punk DJ, driver, poet and general all round celtic punk figure and knowitall Andrew Watts, known to many as Spider Mahone from his years in the scene in Germany.

‘You’ll Never Know’ is typical territory for the Bhoys with simply amazing musicianship going on. It’s one thing to be good musicians but you also need decent songs and The Cloves And The Tobacco have got them and have got plenty of them too. The energy is never ending even on a slower track like ‘When the War is Over’ which has a Pogues feel to it. They definitely come from the folkier/traditional side of celtic-punk but that doesn’t stop them rocking out as well and plenty of good punky influences here too. Superb banjo playing on ‘Sally O’Riordan’ where the band pick up the pace again and inject the song with a country feel while still keeping it celtic. ‘The Whiskey Tales’ is possibly the ultimate celtic-punk song on Across The Horizon. All the boxes are ticked off and for me this is the album stand out track. Shared vocal duties and gang vocals give it an amazing sound and we’re only halfway through and I’m a firm fan already. ‘Pure & Innocent’ sees them return to a ballad and again it has a Poguesy feel to it. Friend of the band Nana Nofi guesting on vocals and her lovely voice slots in perfectly with this great tune. The band sing in English throughout and the vocals are clear and easy to understand and  ‘And the Rain Will Fall’ is another class song. One of the best things here is the only hint of a cover version is a few seconds of ‘The Fields of Athenry’ during ‘The Town that We Loved so Much’ that is over almost as soon as it starts. ‘The Old Harbor’ is a song about emigration and something Indonesians know only too well about. The album comes to an end with the fantastic, and also the only instrumental, ‘Across the Horizon’ brings the curtain down on this amazing record that I am 100% positive will appeal to anyone with a love of Irish music. It is ten tracks of pure celtic gold that clocks in just shy of 3/4’s of an hour and keeps up a unbelievably high standard throughout.

An absolutely stunning album of perfectly produced and played celtic-punk that would go down a storm in absolutely anyone’s living room or in any bar across the world. They have taken all the positiveness of celtic punk and produced something you must all get your hands on. Not only is the music outstanding but the CD is out of this world as well. Hand produced by the band gluing and fixing the sleeves together shows how much the band care about giving their friends something special. It may be true that celtic-punk can dwell too much on the negative or the bad things in life but it can also be about the things that give us strength we must remember that. It’s not always about the music it’s also about friendship, family, resilience and community and how these things can help you survive. The Cloves And The Tobacco are a great example to everyone in the scene and I can only dream that I get to catch them live one day. Maybe Flogging Molly can be persuaded to take them under their wing. There are certainly not many bands who are more deserving.

(Here’s the band playing ‘Pure & Innocent’ live. The sound quality is not the best but it’s not always about that…)

Buy The Album

Contact clove.tobacco@yahoo.com or abiyogafazri@gmail.com

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• For a great overview of the Indonesian scene check out our review of ‘Wind From The Foreign Land’ (here) a compilation of fourteen tracks from fourteen different celtic-punk bands from across Indonesian.
• There is a fantastic Facebook group called ‘Indonesian Celtic Punk’ (here) we recommend you join. The Cloves And The Tobacco are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Indonesian celtic punk so invest a bit of time and find out a bit more about this great scene.

For an alternative view of Across The Horizon check out the review by Celtic Folk Punk And More here and when I say alternative I only mean in the sense that they liked it even more than we did!

ALBUM REVIEW: TRIBUTE TO THE POGUES- Various Artists (2016)

A huge compilation of songs written by the world’s #1 Celtic-Punk band as covered by today’s generation of modern celtic-punk bands from every single corner of the world!

FREE DOWNLOAD!

We were sent this brilliant album by our good mate Vladimir, who also did the fantastic artwork and also seems to do the artwork for most Celtic-Punk releases in Russia, just before St Patrick’s Day. I had to warn him that we wouldn’t be able to do it justice in time to put a review up on release day as we would all be in the pub busy celebrating our Irish ancestry so here a few days late is our opinion on this years must hear compilation album.

As far as I know this is the first international tribute to the Godfathers of Celtic-Punk – THE POGUES! Everything we hold dear in Celtic-Punk comes out of the influence of The Pogues and their seminal and legendary front man Shane MacGowan. What they mean to Celtic-Punk is unmeasurable and the only question you must ask of this album is whether or not this is a worthy tribute to them or not and the answer is of course is that it most definitely, certainly  is!!! The whole thing clocks in at nearly ninety minutes and has 27 bands from right across the entire globe with just about every corner covered. The list of countries here goes from the obvious ones like the USA, Norway, England, Italy, to some ones that may surprise you like Poland, Slovenia, Czech Republic,  and Russia to some that will downright shock you like Indonesia, Ukraine or Belarus. They have all combined to bring you The Pogues most popular London Irish ballads from the era of safety pins, ripped jeans and disheveled hair!

Now this has been put together by our mucker and artist Vladimir from Novosibirsk in Russia and has a whole host of bands that are both new to us as well as some that are already firm favourites. It would be pointless here to go too far into the history of the songs as they are surely known to even the slightest fan of The Pogues. The whole thing kicks off with one of The Pogues least known songs ‘Curse Of Love’, which was a bonus track on the Hell’s Ditch re-issue album, by Indonesian band The Cloves And The Tobacco. They recently released a new album and it has been making huge waves across the international Celtic-Punk scene and it is a fantastic start and swiftly followed by ShamRocks from the Ukraine and Dzieciuki from Belarus before the London Irish very own The Craicheads weigh in with ‘Sally MacLennane’. They give it plenty of oompf and one of The Pogues fastest ever songs is delivered more than safely with a hint of country and bluegrass. Next up is easily one of the most inventive bands in the whole scene, and one of my own personal favourites, from California are Craic Haus playing ‘A Pair Of Brown Eyes’. You won’t have heard another band like them in the world of Celtic-Punk I can guarantee it. They have even invented their own genre called ‘Shamrockabilly’ and though their usual Rock’n’Roll may be a little lacking on this track it is still outstanding and worthy of you checking out the rest of their back catalogue. Another bunch of my favourite bands roll up next playing some of my fave Pogues songs. A good combination indeed. Happy Ol’ McWeasel from Slovenia doing ‘Sunny Side of the Street’ with the band I once described as being a cross between The Exploited and The Chieftains Middle Class Bastards from Russia next with ‘Big City’, Ukrainian band O’Hamsters sing ‘The Sick Bed of Cuchulain’ before possibly the album’s biggest band The Greenland Whalefishers from Norway chipping in with a brilliant version of ‘Birmingham Six’. A couple of bands I don’t know follow with Kelush and the Bastards (feat. Chris Dutchak) from the Ukraine with an absolutely fantastic skate punk ‘Fairytale of New York’ before Harley McQuinn from Russia nails it with ‘London Girl’. Keeping just enough of the originals Rock’n’Roll sound before adding some great guitars and gang vocals. Czech’s Benjaming’s Clan and Italians Dirty Artichokes are both bands that have impressed us here over the years and you could almost call them Celtic-Punk veterans compared to some of the groups here! Russian band The Real Blackbeards I don’t know but they present a great fun pirate version of ‘Sea Shanty’. Americans CRAIC are another big hitter here and they also do a Hell’s Ditch classic ‘Sayonara’ and is one of the many album highlights. Troty hail from Poland and are one of the few bands with a female vocalist. They give us a faultless Polish version of Bottle of Smoke while Hell’s Ditch is revisited again by another Indonesian band Forgotten Generation with ‘Rain Street’ and again it is absolutely superb. Amach  I don’t know but they offer up ‘Transmetropolitan’ and bloody great in its simplicity it is too. They come from the Crimea and like the best bands here they don’t over complicate things but just add a twist to add their own stamp to the songs. Yet another Indonesian band pops up next and The Working Class Symphony give it plenty in their cover of ‘Fiesta’. Never one of my favourite songs but this version bloody rocks and I have fallen for it big time. Like all the Indonesian bands here they play traditional Irish folk influenced punk and is so well played you would think they were all Irish if heard them on the radio! БНД I can’t even pronounce their name but ‘Boys From County Hell’ keeps up the high standard while The Humble Hooligans are a band I only got into recently and these Californians give Turkish Song of the Damned a right auld kicking complete with proper authentic moans and wails. Great accordion leads and Troy’s perfect vocals mark them out as a band to watch out for. Red Box from Russia again I don’t know but offer up a decent ‘If I Should Fall from Grace with God’ before Rum Rebellion from Portland, USA serve up an epic ‘Boat Train’. Been fans of these for a long time and they do not disappoint. Всё_CRAZY are from Belarus and their ‘My Baby’s Gone’ is another album highlight. Taken from the first post-Shane Pogues album Waiting For Herb it’s a brave choice and fits in and works perfectly. We are nearing the end of the album and the last band I know here is the marvellous Moscow Celtic Punk group Drunken Fairy Tales. Keep an eye out soon for the review of their new EP it’s both fantastic and free to download! Crow Dog Clan have another brave choice with ‘Oretown’ from the final (non-Shane) Pogues album Pogue Mahone. They take the song and give it a real shake to come up with something outstanding. Almost gothic country its actually great to hear something not so celtic. Finally the album comes to a sad end with Kozlobar from Russia bringing down the curtain on this amazing tribute with the mental instrumental ‘Battle of Brisbane’.

Well what to say now in summing up. With 27 bands you’d think their would at least be a few duffers here but you’d be mistaken. I’m sure if their were any they ended up on the cutting floor as from beginning to end the whole thing is simply fantastic. From the selection of bands to the bands own selection of songs this is as good as it could have possibly have mine. Yes this is kinda dominated by eastern European groups but it has been put together by a Russian guy and I for one am glad its not dominated by American bands. If Celtic-Punk exists and is to prosper beyond The Pogues/Dropkicks/Molly’s then it must also exist outside the countries of the Irish/Celtic diaspora like the States, Canada, Australia or England. Compilations serve a purpose in introducing you to new bands and if there was a problem in celtic-punk it is that far too many people think the scene these days revolves solely around the Dropkicks or The Molly’s. I am sure this album will introduce everyone hearing it to today’s generation of bands that are carrying the torch for Shane and his buddies and not only that but will inspire another generation of fans as well.

Tracklist

1. The Cloves and The Tobacco feat. Cathy Shannon – Curse of Love

2. ShamRocks – Wild Unicorns of Kilkenny (Wild Cats of Kilkenny)

3. Dzieciuki – Не Саскочу! (Streams Of Whiskey)

4. Craicheads – Sally MacLennane

5. Craic Haus – A Pair of Brown Eyes

6. Happy Ol’ McWeasel – Sunny Side of the Street

7. Middle Class Bastards – Big City

8. O’Hamsters – Лiжко Кухулiна (The Sick Bed of Cuchulain)

9. Greenland Whalefishers – Birmingham Six

10. Kelush and the Bastards feat. Chris Dutchak – Fairytale of New York

11. Harley McQuinn – London Girl

12. Benjaming’s Clan – The House of Gods

13. Dirty Artichokes – The Rake at the Gates of Hell

14. Real Blackbeards – Пират и Колдун (Sea Shanty)

15. CRAIC – Sayonora

16. Troty – Butelka Smoke (Bottle of Smoke)

17. Forgotten Generation – Rain Street

18. Amach – Transmetropolitan

19. The Working Class Symphony – Fiesta

20. БНД – Boys From County Hell

21. The Humble Hooligans – Turkish Song of the Damned

22. Red Box – If I Should Fall from Grace with God

23. Rum Rebellion – Boat Train

24. Всё_CRAZY – Ты Ушла (My Baby’s Gone)

25. Drunken Fairy Tales – Плот “Медузы” (The Wake of the Medusa)

26. Crow Dog Clan – Oretown

27. Kozlobar – The Battle of Brisbane

So there you have it. Don’t forget to tell all your friends about it now! Share it with all you know and let the world enjoy this superb free compilation! And a happy (belated) St. Patrick’s Day to you!!!

(you can listen to the entire record here for free by pressing play on the Bandcamp player below and follow the link below that to get the download)

Download The Album- Bandcamp

(any problem with Bandcamp then you should try here)

LONDON CELTIC PUNKS PRESENTS OUR BEST OF 2015!

One of the best things about doing this here blog-zine is the end of year ‘Best Of’s’. This is our chance to reward, for what it’s worth, and recommend those releases that tickled our collective fancies over the last twelve months. Where as in 2013 the Best Of’s were dominated by local bands and releases and in 2014 it was international bands that stole the show this years is more of a mix of the two. No shocks at the top I’m afraid. It was always going to be a slug out between the big hitters of celtic-punk with The Rumjacks just shading it from the The Mahones by the slightest of margins. One of the team commented that the only difference was that ‘The Hunger And The Fight Part 1’ was slightly better than Part 2. In third place came 1916 out of New York who only just sneaked in with the December release of ‘Last Call For Heroes’. The album came out so late we didn’t even get a chance to mention it let alone review it nevertheless it blew us all away with their brilliant combination of rockabilly and celtic-punk. Another one to file in the ‘shamrockabilly’ category. Overall no major surprises and all four admins lists pretty much tallied up with each other but it’s especially great to see some non-English speaking bands in there as well as some bands that were new to us in the last twelve months. I was particularly happy to see Skontra and The Cundeez make the grade representing celtic-punk as played in the celtic nations. As ever we have reviewed some, though not all of these albums, so click (here) after the title and you will be re-directed to our review. If your album is not here do not be downhearted. These twenty album’s are the tip of the iceberg of what was released last year in what was an outstanding year for celtic-punk. Feel free to comment, slag off or dissect our lists. We don’t pretend to be the final word as that my friends is for you…

TOP 20 CELTIC PUNK ALBUMS

1. THE RUMJACKS- ‘Sober And Godless’  (here)

2. THE MAHONES- ‘The Hunger And The Fight Part 2’

3. 1916- ‘Last Call For The Heroes’ (here)

4. FEROCIOUS DOG- ‘From Without’

5. THE GREENLAND WHALEFISHERS- ‘The Thirsty Mile’  (here)

6. MR.IRISH BASTARD- ‘The World, The Flesh & The Devil’  (here)

7.  THE DEAD MAGGIES- ‘Well Hanged’  (here)

8. THE GO SET- ‘Rolling Sound’  (here)

9. MICKEY RICKSHAW- ‘No Heaven For Heroes’  (here)

10. HAPPY Ol’ McWEASEL- ‘Heard Ya Say’  (here)

 11. JASPER COAL- ‘Just The One…’  (here)

12. THE CUNDEEZ- Sehturday Night Weaver  (here)

13. THE FATTY FARMERS- ‘Escape From The Dirty Pigs’  (here)

14. THE SHILLELAGHS- ‘Bury Me At Sea’  (here)

15. JOLLY JACKERS- ‘Sobriety’  (here)

16. MALASANERS- Spanish Eyes’  (here)

17. SKONTRA- ‘Foguera’  (here)

18. THE WAXIES’ ‘Down With The Ship’  (here)

19. KITCHEN IMPLOSION- ‘Selfish’

20. THE TOSSPINTS- The Privateer  (here)

TOP TEN CELTIC PUNK EP’S

Now onto the EP’s. These are classed as shorter usually four to six songs long and around anything right up to 15-20 minutes long. No shock here at number one as a unanimous vote saw this years new band of the year Mick O’Toole walk away with the title. They have been a solid fixture during the year building up quite a reputation and following. At number two it’s long been a well known secret that Indonesia is a hotbed of celtic-punk and Dirty Glass are one of the best bands in their flourishing scene and ‘Drunken Summer Nights’ ran O’Toole very close while another English band came in third. Matilda’s Scoundrels really hit the heights in 2015 and just like Mick O’Toole bigger and better things await them in 2016. The rest of the list is made up from bands from across the globe with Slovenia, South Africa, Hungary, Catalonia, Russia, Holland, France and Yorkshire all making the list.

1. MICK O’TOOLE- ‘1665 Pitchfork Rebellion’  (here)

2. DIRTY GLASS- ‘Drunken Summer Night’  (here)

3. MATILDA’S SCOUNDRELS- ‘Split w/ The Barracks’  (here)

4. ZUNAME- ‘Pipes Not Dead’  (here)

5. THE HYDROPATHS- ‘Wailing Away’  (here)

6. SOUTH SHORE RAMBLERS- ‘Open Room Sessions’  (here)

7. O’HAMSTERS- ‘Kiss My Irish Ass’  (here)

8. LOCH NESZ- ‘Leave The Captain Behind’  (here)

9. CIRCLE J- ‘Year Of The Goat’  (here)

10. SIGELPA- ‘Ens Van Diagnosticar Un Transtorn’  (here)

11. THE MOORINGS- ‘Nicky’s Detox’  (here)

TOP TEN FOLK/TRADITIONAL RELEASES

As the blog is for (mostly) celtic punk so it is that we only review stuff that isn’t celtic punk if we really really (really!!) like it. All these rocked our boat and we loved each of them all to bits. If you like celtic-punk then you should not be afraid to give traditional folk a listen. Most of it is more punk than punk these days you know. It’s a direct link to the music that inspired celtic punk music and their are some amazing bands and performers out there. Hard to decide which order they should go in especially as O’Hanlons Horsebox could have just as easily won this years Best Celtic Punk Album as well! This is how the Top Ten ended up.

1. O’HANLONS HORSEBOX- ‘Songs And Stories From The Border’  (here)

2. BARRULE- Mannannans Cloak’  (here)

3. LE VENT DU NORD- ‘Têtu’  (here)

4. BRYAN McPHERSON- ‘Wedgewood’  (here)

5. THE RATHMINES- ‘Ramblin With The Rats. Stolen Songs of Struggle’  (here)

6. ANTO MORRA- ‘Boudicca’s Country’

7. JACK OF ALL- ‘Bindle Punk’  (here)

8. JOHNNY CAMPBELL- ‘Hook, Line And Sinker’  (here)

9. FFR CELTIC FIESTA- ‘Fresh Blood’

10. THE PROCLAIMERS- ‘Let’s Hear It For The Dogs’  (here)

11. SKWARDYA- ‘Domhwelyans/ Revolution’

TOP CELTIC PUNK WEB-SITE

Again Waldo over at Celtic Folk Punk And More walks away with this award. There is simply no better site on the internet. Everything you would possibly need to know is here with a HUGE range of bands covered and there is no doubt in my mind that the site you are reading here now would not exist without the inspiration of Celtic Folk Punk And More. Sadly Waldo published a post on January 3rd titled ‘New Year, New Life’ (here) announcing the suspension of the site for a while. We wish Waldo well and look forward to his, and his fantastic web site’s, return.

* The lists were compiled from the scraps of crumpled paper, and one beermat, handed to me by the other three admins from the London Celtic Punks Facebook page and tallied up over several pints of beer in a seedy working man’s Irish boozer in north London.

 Sláinte, The London Celtic Punks Crew- 2015

all the major players in celtic-punk do Best Of lists so click below to check out what they thought

CELTIC FOLK PUNK AND MORE

CELTIC-ROCK

PADDYROCK

MacSLONS IRISH RADIO

remember any views or comments we would love to hear them…

EP REVIEW: DIRTY GLASS- ‘Drunken Summer Night’ (2015)

friends, gigs, Irish music and cheap wine!

For those of you who are new to listening to celtic-punk it may come as a suprise that one of the best scene’s in the world for celtic-punk is in Indonesia. A whole bunch of bands (far far too numerous to go into in this review so after you read this go straight to our review last year of the Indonesian celtic-punk album ‘Wind From The Foreign Land’ here) that live and breath celtic-punk and play among the worlds most authentic sounding celtic music. Superb musicians and tight as feck songs and great production is what they all have in common and unfair as it is to pick out a few stand out bands from such an amazing scene then I would have to put Dirty Glass into that select group.

From Left To Right: SteXdog : Accoustic Guitar  Nathan Pijoh : Electric Guitar  Yasuspade : Tin Whistle  Ryan Frederiksen : Mandolin, Backing Vocals  Emil Nk : Bass  Rudech : Drums  Jr Miko : Vocals  Front: Ganang : Violin, Accordion

The band hail from Yogyakarta city the capital of the Java region which is known as a centre of education and culture within Indonesia. The EP lasts a few seconds under twenty minutes this is full on energetic Irish influenced celtic-punk with all your usual instruments but put together and gelling perfectly. Acoustic and electric guitars can be heard side by side and if you’re able to pigeonhole these bhoys then good luck to you. There is a certain recognisable Indonesian celtic-punk sound but I’m buggered if I can put my finger on exactly what it is. You’ll just have to listen to them and see if you can figure out what it is. The EP kicks off with ‘Good Mornin Eli’ and goes straight into a fiddle led punky number. Joined by tin-whistle and accordion the song bursts with energy and that energy stays up right until the end of the EP.

Next track ‘Ballad Of Lonely And Whiskey’ starts off giving the impression of being a slow number before again kicking right off. A catchy as hell song with a great chorus. A standout track on a standout CD. Joined by Little Ayash on ‘1000 Miles’ her beautiful voice accompanies the band perfectly on this lovely track. Tin whistle dominates inbetween the acoustic guitar with Dirty Glass taking a softer approach but still sounding as celtic-punk as feck!

The EP’s title track ‘Drunken Summer Night’ does have a Dropkicks influence but the fiddle then takes it into Mollys territory before Dirty Glass stamp their authority on it and I’m left wondering again who they sound a bit like. Final song ‘Anthem’ ends the EP and you’ll be sad to see it go. The EP has left me wanting an album soon as possible so come on bhoys get writing some songs. ‘Anthem’ has a Poguesy feel to it and a shouty gang chorus.

Possibly the most impressive thing for me is that this EP is all original numbers and with all five songs being as good as they are that is some achievement. Not just that but each song has a different sound and different approach. I cant’t recommend this enough. Investigate the Indonesian celtic-punk scene they will appreciate it and you will hear some fantastic music as well.

Contact The Band

Facebook  ReverbNation  Twitter  Soundcloud

Buy The EP

FromTheBandOnFacebook

and also don’t just take our word for how good the Indonesian celtic-punk compilation is read our musical comrades CELTIC FOLK PUNK AND MORE’s review here

there is a really good Facebook group CELTIC PUNK INDONESIA so go now and join up and sit back and enjoy some great music and the company of great people.

LONDON CELTIC PUNKS PRESENTS OUR BEST OF 2014!

TOP TWENTY CELTIC PUNK ALBUMS OF 2014

Last year our ‘Best Of’ list was completely dominated by bands from these shores but this time there’s a much more international flavour to 2014’s Best Album’s list. Again Irish influenced bands dominate but the absolute standout album for me was without a doubt Uncle Bard And The Dirty Bastards from Italy who nailed their fusion of punk rock and traditional music completely. With their own roots and influences included along with some amazing uilleann piping they are deserved winners of the Best Album spot. Kitchen Implosion join them in what has been a great year for Italian bands. Sure not all of these twenty bands are celtic-punk in the dictionary definition of the phrase but sod that anyway. These are what we liked and they all fit in in some way. Twenty bands from thirteen countries (Italy, England, Sweden, Brittany, Canada, Ireland, USA, Australia, Brazil, Catalonia, Germany, Switzerland and Belguim) which only goes to show the international appeal of the celtic-punk scene these days. A special mention for London Irish band Creeds Cross superb debut album. Only just caught them live and they were awesome so hoping to see much more of them around town in 2015.

As ever we have reviewed some, though not all of these albums, so click (here) after the title and you will be re-directed to our review.

We compiled the ‘Best Of’ lists together from the scraps of paper handed to me by the various admins from the London Celtic Punks facebook page.

1. UNCLE BARD AND THE DIRTY BASTARDS- ‘Get The Folk Out!’ (here)

2. CREEDS CROSS- ‘Gods And Fighting Men (here)

3. ROVERS AHEAD- Always The Sinner, Never The Saint (here)

4. LES RAMONEURS DE MENHIRS- Tan Ar Bobl (here)

5. THE MAHONES- The Hunger And The Fight

6. BLOOD OR WHISKEY- Tell The Truth And Shame The Devil (here)

7. THE ROUGHNECK RIOT- Out Of Anger

8. BASTARD BEARDED IRISHMEN- Rise Of The Bastard (here)

9. JAY WARS- Carry Me Home (here)

10. THE RAMSHACKLE ARMY- Letters from the Road Less Travelled

11. 6’10- The Humble Beginnings Of A Rovin’ Soul (here)

12. LUGH- Quando Os Canecos Batem (here)

13. SIGELPA- TerraMorte (here)

14. KITCHEN IMPLOSION- Pretty Work Brave Boys! (here)

15. THE KILKENNY KNIGHTS- Bradys Pub Tales (here)

16. BEYOND THE FIELDS- The Falcon Lives (here)

17. THE YOUNG DUBLINERS- ‘Nine (here)

18. KELTIKON- Agenbite Of Inwit (here)

19. FM 359- Truth, Love And Liberty (here)

20. THE BLACK TARTAN CLAN – Scotland in Our Hearts

a special special mention for three absolutely brilliant compilation albums too. Can’t really include them in the Best of charts so heres all three in no particular order at all as they are all 11 out of 10!

a class album with 4 songs per band and an absolutely beautifully put together record. THE PORTERS/ THE JUDAS BUNCH/ THE MAHONES/ MALASANERS 4-WAY SPLIT DOUBLE ALBUM- ‘Welcome To The Folk Punk Show’ (2014)  here

a mostly Russian compilation paying tribute to all (lets just face it they are!) our favourite celtic-punk band- ‘Ex-USSR Tribute To The Dropkick Murphys’ (2014)  here

this ought to be the number one album of the year to be honest. a fecking amazing compilation of Indonesian celtic-punk bands.the quality is amazing throughout.absolutely stunning. I cannot recommend enough!! ‘Wind From The Foreign Land- Indonesian Celtic-Punk Compilation’ (2014)  here

TOP FIVE CELTIC PUNK EP’S OF 2015

No question which EP deserved this and Russia’s Middle Class Bastards just blasted us away with their follow up to their 2013 album. Superb use of bagpipes and brass instruments combined with fast but tuneful punk rock. A bit unfortunate for Black Water County who looked nailed on to win this for most of the year with their fantastic 2nd EP. The Breton band The Maggie Whackers released their EP back at the start of the year while The South Sea Ramblers from South Africa literally released theirs just a couple of weeks ago while LQR from Holland slipped theirs out in time for St Patricks Day… ooh err missus! So spread out across the year but these are the ones that left their mark. Looking forward to hearing more from them all and long players must be arriving soon I hope.

1. MIDDLE CLASS BASTARD- Rebel To The Core (here)

2. BLACK WATER COUNTY- Fellowship Of the Craic (here)

3. THE MAGGIE WHACKERS- Naoned Whisky (here)

4. LQR- A Touch Of Liquor (here)

5. SOUTH SHORE RAMBLERS- Bare Knuckle Blackout

TOP FIVE TRAD ALBUMS OF 2014

As the blog is for (mostly) celtic punk so it is that we only review stuff that isn’t celtic punk if we really really (really!!) like it. All these rocked our boat and we loved them all to bits. Hard to decide which order they should go in but this is how we ended up. Turned out to be an all Irish list with I DRAW SLOW from Dublin with beautiful alternative country sounds and both Cork’s THE BUACHAILLS and London’s THE CRAICHEADS going head to head with both bands playing similar styles of music while Irish-American supergroup THE ALT’s debut album was a worthy runner-up to fellow Irish-Americans RUNA’s brillliant fourth album.

1. RUNA- Current Affairs (here)

2. THE ALT- ‘The Alt (here)

3. THE CRAICHEADS- Brewed in London (here) 

3. THE BUACHAILLS- At Your Call (here)

5. I DRAW SLOW- ‘WhiteWave Chapel (here)

BEST CELTIC PUNK WEB-SITE OF 2014

once again there is no question who gets this

CELTIC FOLK PUNK AND MORE

(find it here)

 keeping the whole wide world up to date with what’s going on and who is doing who within celtic punk (and more!) while also supplying us with regular free downloads and free compilations. Waldo you’re great. Keep it up mate!

BEST GIGS

Apart from the ones we put on which were all amazing and showcased some amazing performances from JAY WARS and THE DEAD MAGGIES from Aus, THE GREENLAND WHALEFISHERS from Norway, a couple of benefit gigs for Mad Dog out The Popes (hope youre back on your guitar highkicking soon pal!), BLACK WATER COUNTY played their London debut and went down a fecking storm, me O’s mates STEVE WHITE AND THE PROTEST FAMILY were as superb as ever and released a fantastic album. One of the major highlights was discovering the quintessential London Celtic Punk in ANTO MORRA and we look forward to working with him again in the future. We teamed up with fellow Londoners of Urbankelt and will be doing so again too.

I also saw DAVID ROVICS for the first time, THE MEN THEY COULDN’T HANG’s amazing 30th anniversary show was incredible, NECK and their sadly ended residency at TChances which had us all pissed on Polish lager on Sunday afternoons for the first 6 months of the year, FLOGGING MOLLY in Reading in June which showed they havent lost a thing and are as great as ever, THE POGUE TRADERS were the best Pogues tribute band I ever seen. Disappointing was missing so many gigs where I just didnt have the cash especially The Pogues various outings. THE STANFIELDS from Canada seemed like a decent bunch of lads but their London gig was a total rip-off. The pre-gig ticket price was £7-50 which more than doubled to £15 on the door on the night. Oi bands watch out for charlaten promoters won’t you? Rebellion music fest brings loads of decent bands over to play but that means that they all end up playing in the same week so I had to forgo THE GO-SET’s return to London. Missed out on THE WOLFE TONES London gigs too due to work. All three of them! THE LAGAN have been brilliant. Far far too many of their gigs to go into detail so we have choosen the whole of St Patricks Weekend as our Number One! With NECK playing three gigs over the weekend and both THE BIBLE CODE SUNDAYS and THE LAGAN playing on the same day as well it seen a clean sweep of all the London bands done. Afterwards sick days were phoned in, headache pills were taken and the best St Patricks in donkeys was had.

Now were just looking forward to catching THE DROPKICK MURPHYS ‘Celtic Invasion ‘ Tour in Dublin and London this year round St Patricks Day.

Sláinte, The London Celtic Punks Crew- 2015

 

Of course all these things are very subjective so don’t be dismayed if your album ain’t here. What appeals to one don’t neccessarily appeal to another. It would be impossible to keep up with the multitude of celtic-punk related releases so these are the best of of what we actually did get to hear. All the various sites in the celtic-punk family had different winners so to see what they thought check out the Best Of lists of the following sites…

CELTIC FOLK PUNK AND MORE

IRISH PUNK

PADDYROCK/GRINNNING BEGGAR

MacSLONS IRISH PUB RADIO

click on the blog logo at the top of the page to find more of this kind of stuff…

ALBUM REVIEW: VARIOUS ARTISTS- ‘Wind From The Foreign Land- Indonesian Celtic Punk Compilation’ (2014)

superb

/sʊˈpɜːb; sjʊ-/

adjective

1. surpassingly good; excellent a superb actor

2. majestic or imposing a superb mansion

3. magnificently rich; luxurious the jubilee was celebrated with a superb banquet

Derived Forms

superbly, adverb

superbness, noun

Word Origin

C16: from Old French superbe, from Latin superbus distinguished, from super above

Well what to say about this album…? Well its an album of fourteen tracks from fourteen different celtic-punk bands from across INDONESIA. Aye, that’s right. Indonesia out there in the Indian ocean and a thousand or two miles from Australia. These facts alone should have every self respecting celtic-punk fan from across the globe racing to their computer screens to order copies. First a few facts about Indonesia… they gained independence from Holland pretty much straight after the second world war. Their language is Indonesian (that’s not as obvious as it sounds when a country has been invaded and colonized!). The country itself has a population of over 230 million and comprises nearly 13,500 different islands and for a country that is 87.2% muslim this diverse bunch of bands have certainly adopted some of celtic-punks better known subject matters, if you know what I mean…

Panglima Kumbang

Party Time

Black Rawk Down

So now you know how worthy it all is the next question should be “is it any good?”. Well the answer to that is “yes its bloody brilliant”! As with all compilations there’s going to be some tracks you like better than others but this album really does showcase the Indonesian celtic-punk scene very well and everything from the albums production to the cover to the mix of songs and the order they’ve been put in has obviously been a labour of love for all involved and in fact the only fault i can pick with the whole thing is that one of favourite bands have included a ballad rather than a more punky song! You’ll be amazed at how well these guys’n’gals play their instruments and you can have hours of fun playing this for your mates getting them to guess what part of Ireland the bands are from!

Musically the fourteen tracks veer from everything from the Mollys to the Murphys to the Pogues and all points inbetween. Many sing in their own language which i love to hear, despite the obvious floor in not knowing what they’re singing about…Kicking off with a  new band to me, Party Time, and great accordion and tin whistle led punk it is too. Traces too of what I can only suppose are Indonesian instruments and tunes. Unmistakable celtic-punk though with shouty lyrics and choruses. Panglima Kumbang are more north american sounding to these big ears, nothing wrong with that, with a more celtic-pop punk sound.

Skarockoi start with a brilliantly played mandolin and fiddle and a more traditional celtic punk vocal style. Heard these before and always been impressed by them. Billy The Kid I have a few tracks by and this fantastic ballad shows exactly how good musicians they are. Black Rawk Dog is fast paced fiddle and mando punk played at breakneck speed with gang vocals. Ciusquad and Dirty Glass, another band I have heard before, and we’re half way through the album and still waiting on a duff track. No sign yet! Dirty Glass provide one of the standout tracks and its the production on this track i’m most impressed by. Gang vocals, celtic and brass instruments melting together with yer punk perfectly in a proper celtic-punk classic tune. Charlie’s Rum And The Chaplain are a band I only recently picked up on and are definitely one of the scenes leading bands. Starting off slow before heading to a more traditional fast paced tune and another of the standout tracks. Rain In Summer sound like The Pogues in their heyday with an acoustic punk song that soon turns into a proper celtic punk belter. Jeralax is another beautifully played ballad about whiskey. This track could be any of the scenes greatest bands to be honest. The Barley Hops I have also come across as well and they don’t disappoint either. Another standout track and followed by The Working Class Symphony who are quite simply a superb band. See definition at beginning of the review. Very accomplished musicians with great songs and vocals. Lots of instruments and band members but in the perfect production nothing is out of place or too loud or too quiet. Super Mario start with a bit of a DKM piss take and a great song follows.

Finally the last track and the band we’ve been waiting for. The Cloves And The Tobacco (a kind of cigarette i’m told!) are arguably the best known of the Indonesian celtic-punk bands and  they bring the curtain down on this great album with ‘The Indian Ocean’ the standout standout track. We can forget sometimes that we’re not the only sea faring race and in a country of over 13,500 islands these guys know their sea shanties. This album is, to put it as simple as i can, faultless. Great bands and great songs. Each one is worthy of following up on and each deserves to be as famous as any of the scene’s leading lights.

Contact The Bands

simply click on the band name in Italics and you’ll be directed straight to them. They are mostly Facebook pages but not all.

Buy The Album

WLRV Records

Decent Sites To Visit

heres a couple of decent Indonesian places to check out

Punk Indonesia MP3  free music

Celtic Punk Indonesia  facebook group for all things Indonesian celtic-punk!

CelticFolkPunkAndMore Spanish blog with lots in their vaults about Indonesia.

FACEBOOK CELTIC-PUNK GROUPS

like it or not but everything revolves around bloody Facebook these days so heres a shout out to the various FB celtic punk groups. we’ll add more as we become aware of them. have a look, join up and join the happy family…

Aussie Celtic Punk’s

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1403072399734251/

Australian Folk Punk Scene

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sydneyfolkpunkscene/

Mersey Celt Punks

https://www.facebook.com/MerseyCeltPunks/

Indonesian Celtic Punks-

https://www.facebook.com/groups/922538544450291/

Celtic Punk/Irish Folk Hungary-

https://www.facebook.com/groups/658636007488890/

Irish Punk Brazil-

https://www.facebook.com/groups/116715531739318/

Irish/Folk/Celtic Punk Italia-

https://www.facebook.com/groups/178051922237824/

Celtic Punk Scandinavia

https://www.facebook.com/celtic.sweden

Celtic-Punk Denmark

https://www.facebook.com/groups/227407707761/

Zaragoza Celtic Punks

https://www.facebook.com/groups/zaragozacelticpunks/

Celtic Rock France

https://www.facebook.com/pierre.pruvot.35

Irish Folk, Celtic Rock, Celtic Punk- Deutschland

https://www.facebook.com/groups/778438328847653/

Bretagne Celtic Punk

https://www.facebook.com/groups/259477114237059/

Celtic Punk Polska

https://www.facebook.com/celticpunkpl

Celtic Punk Rock Colombia

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Celtic-Punk-Rock-Colombia/201116253258714

Celticpunkrockers Paris

https://www.facebook.com/pages/CelticPunkrockers-Paris/157122170976789

Irish, Scottish, Celtic – Folk, Punk, Rock – Switzerland

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1615713988650179/

Celtic Folk Rock Music Czech Republic

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1605684316418943/

and lastly a big shout for ourselves

London Celtic Punks-

https://www.facebook.com/groups/306370667754/

https://www.facebook.com/londonceltpunx/

 

there’s also a few fanzine and radio station pages so will add them as I come across them too.

MacSlon’s Irish Pub Radio

https://www.facebook.com/MacSlonsRadio

Paddyrock Radio

https://www.facebook.com/paddyrockradio/

Celtic Folk Punk

https://www.facebook.com/celtic.folkpunk/

Shite’n’Onions

https://www.facebook.com/shitenonions/

copy and paste this around the place and lets get networking!

its absolutely dead easy to set up a group but if you do want a bit of advice ask any of the moderators of any of the above groups and I’m sure they’ll help you out. then let us know so we can add you to our list. if you want to be added then just leave a comment below.