Arthur Coates - Trapdoor To Hell (2022)

Prodigious young multi-instrumentalist Arthur Coates grew up in Insch in Aberdeenshire listening to his parent's favourite folk music from their native Shetland. Nevertheless, it was the sound of Québec's progressive Francophone folk movement, which encompasses bands such as Le Vent du Nord, De Temps Antan, La Bottine Souriante and É-T-É, that captured Coates’ fancy while attending music school.

Trapdoor to Hell, his second album, finds Coates on fiddle, vocals, foot tapping, guitar, bouzouki, bass, electric guitar, synthesizer and percussion, accompanied by a host of musicians from both sides of the pond, including Cumbrian Kerran Cotterell (guitar, accordion, vocals), Québec-based Pierre-Luc Dupuis (accordion, harmonica, jaw harp, foot tapping) and Éric Beaudry (guitar, foot tapping), ceilidh specialist Mark Insley (harmonica, jaw harp), Alex Walters (Moog, synthesizer, piano), Douglas Barber (percussion), Louis Campbell (guitar) and Stuart Jack (percussion). The music frequently leans toward the prog-rock/alt-folk end of the spectrum, exemplified by songs such as ‘17 Horses’, ‘Orangedale Whistle’, ‘Sap Ain't Running’ and ‘Moneymusk Lads’, which is not to say Trapdoor… lacks in traditional acoustic fare. Among the albums 14 tracks are a Québécois fiddle showcase by Édouard Richard (‘Reel a Castonguay’) and a number of splendidly performed reels and jigs (‘Irish Reels’, ‘Suite Ambiant’).

Tracklist:
1.01 - Arthur Coates - Medley de la Création (6:46)
1.02 - Arthur Coates - The Lancashire Lads (4:51)
1.03 - Arthur Coates - Le Reel à Castonguay (4:08)
1.04 - Arthur Coates - Orangedale Whistle (4:09)
1.05 - Arthur Coates - Suite Ambiant (6:51)
1.06 - Arthur Coates - The Picardy Stone (2:45)
1.07 - Arthur Coates - Irish Reels (4:08)
1.08 - Arthur Coates - 17 Horses (4:48)
1.09 - Arthur Coates - Turlutte de L'Accent Changeant (3:43)
1.10 - Arthur Coates - Pills of White Mercury (3:59)
1.11 - Arthur Coates - Monymusk Lads (3:40)
1.12 - Arthur Coates - Un P’tit Air (3:52)
1.13 - Arthur Coates - Sap Ain’t Running (4:55)
1.14 - Arthur Coates - Suite du ‘Sexy Fiddler’ (5:27)