The Scrape

Mouth Music

2003: Skiteesh SKITT-2003-01


  1. Polska
  2. Scalloway Lasses
    Shetland #3
  3. Two Birds
    The scrape
  4. Trip to Ballyshannon
    Exiles of Erin
    Sean Sa Cheo
  5. The Marquis of Huntly’s Strathspey
    The Ewie Wi’The Crooked Horn
    Minimal Jig
  6. The Derry Hornpipe
    The Maid From Castlebar
    The Silver Spear
  7. Bombay Blue
    You Splotch-Faced Ram and Horo
    My Logshed keeps Falling Down
  8. Rakes of Kildare
    The Witches of East Nigg
    The Haunting Of The Harrow
    The Even Scarier Witches of East Nigg
  9. Iarla Iar
    The Road To Tipperary

Another blindsiding surprise out of the blue. This one was at Tower Records (Mercer) in Seattle on a day that had seemed to hold no promise whatsoever. I think I screamed when I saw it, but maybe that’s just how it felt inside. What really amused me right off the bat was the tattoo imagery coupled with the album’s title.

And it is a very nice album. But no matter how I spin it, I cannot escape a certain perplexion: the whole idea of “mouth music” is that it’s instrumental music produced vocally, and even though Martin’s moved beyond that general limitation, it’s bizarre to be faced with a “mouth music” album which contains no vocals whatsoever. It’s entirely instrumental. It’s good, but it’s kind of the opposite of “mouth music.”


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