Shooglenifty is one of Scotland’s most unique musical exports. This six-man band is credited being the originators of ’acid-croft’, a fiery and infectious blend of Celtic traditional music and dance grooves that band members decribe as “hypno-folkadelic ambient trad.” The Chicago Tribune described their trippy blend as “a bit like a jam between the Tannahil Weavers, Phish and The Chemical Brothers.” While their sound is difficult to put into words, audiences from around the world have fallen under their musical spell.
A supremely dexterous and witty live band, their energetic live performances have kept them in constant demand around the world. The Evening News in London, England said of a Shooglenifty live performance, “This virtuoso band started building crescendos from the start, each one higher than the last, until the final, shuddering chord left the crown breathless and cheering wildly.“ Once some of those fans regained their composure, they began asking (or begging and pleading, depending on who you talk to) the band to record a live album. Shooglenifty, whose members include: Malcolm Crosbie, acoustic and electric guitars; Garry Finlayson, banjo and banjax; Angus A. Grant, fiddle; Luke Plumb, mandolin, banjo and bououki; Quee MacArthur, bass and percussion; and James Mackintosh, drums, machines and darabuka, happily complied.
Radical Mestizo, to be released on June 28, 2005 is the band’s third release on the Nashville, TN-based Compass Records. The ten tracks on Radical Mestizo were recorded in Mexico City, Mexico; Cumbre Tajin, Mexico; Glasgow, Scotland; Bloomington, Indiana; and Lochailort, Scotland. Now more than a decade old, Shooglenifty has played for Prince Charles and Nelson Mandela, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has performed at the Bumbershoot festival in Seattle, WA alongside Cornershop and Beck, and back in 1996, became the first band ever to incite a stage invasion at Sydney Opera House.
Radical Mestizo features fan favorites, “She in the Attic.”, “Arms Dealer’s Daughter” and “A Fisful of Euro”, but each of the ten tracks marries traditionally based Scottish tunes with a rich pallette of influences including Africa, Arabic, funk, electronic and Latin sounds. Radical Mestizo displays the band at their very best: immediate, raw and inventive.