Imar, Afterlight (Big Mann)
THE latest product of Glasgow’s thriving traditional music session scene, Imar releases its debut album having already had the distinction of playing its first billed gig as the opening act at last year’s Cambridge Folk Festival. Listening to the standard of the quintet’s playing individually and collectively on this all-instrumental set, the group could easily be headlining such events by now.
There’s a potency to the music here that puts Imar in the tradition of great bands such as the Bothy Band and Lunasa but with a touch of the Isle of Man integrated into the Irish accent that uilleann piper Ryan Murphy (the only actual Irishman involved) and concertinist Mohsen Amini’s musical training brings to the sound.
With enough awards and championships between its players to warp the strongest mantelpiece the band has pedigree but it’s the way this accomplishment is combined into a group ethic that particularly impresses. The energy that’s seemingly bursting to let loose is tempered by a variety of instrumental formations and an attention to pacing that showcases the tunes’ melodic strength, and even when the floodgates open the effect is all the more exhilarating for the underlying control and musicality.
Rob Adams
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here