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Listener Reviews

Member Name: Jermy
Date Posted: 23-Apr-2012
Rating:

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Comments: Mike from Celtophilia writes:
Poitin has one of the most interesting stories of any of the CD submissions we’ve received. They are a Celtic group based out of Plzen, Czech Republic. If any of you are beer lovers, yes, I mean THAT Plzen. If you’re wondering, yes, I have the envelope with the address and postmark on my office wall, if anyone wants to come by and gaze at it. It is my favorite piece of Celtophilia memorabilia so far. If you’re not a beer historian, Plzen is the birthplace of a beer style called pilsner, and you’ve probably had one at some point and not even known it. Most of the “American” beer styles are poor imitations of a proper pilsner. Anyway, enough beer history for now. I think Plzen is probably a great place to be a Celtic band, and Poitin delivers some great music on Hot Days.

The CD is heavily instrumental, and it is immediately obvious that these guys are world class musicians. Everything is brought into nice harmony, and even the didgeridoo, which I’m not a fan of, is made to sound just right with the other instruments. I love that there are four instrumentals on Hot Days which stretch over five minutes each, because I could listen to these guys play all day.

This seems somewhat important to at least note, so yes, the singing on Hot Days is in English, not Czech. Lead singer Jeremy King is not Czech-born, as I understand. So, the lyrics are accessible, even to us ignorant Americans. His voice is clean and crisp, and really quite lovely, and the tracks on which it is taken advantage of are some of my favorites.

The title track of the CD, Hot Days, is an immensely long seven-minute instrumental, dominated in the first half by a soothing, entrancingly slow melody played with a flute or whistle, which inspires craggy highlands and mossy greens. Then, about halfway through, it breaks into a set of traditional dance tunes, and somehow it all just works together. I have a hard time explaining it, but it does.

I am not even going to try to pick a favorite song on this CD. I love them all. I have listened to this one over and over since we received it, and I will continue to do so.
http://www.celtophilia.com/2008/08/review-...oitin-hot-days/

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