The Scoville Units are an exciting new powerhouse of a band made up of prominent musicians from the British Folk and acoustic music scene that combine their individual talents and influences from American, Celtic and English traditional music to create a refreshing and uniquely inspiring sound. The name Scoville Units is the scale used for measuring the heat of chillis! They will go down a storm at Celtic Connections this year with their inaugral show on 23rd January in support of Dobro player Jerry Douglas!
The Scoville Units are:
Ed Boyd – guitar (Flook, Cara Dillon)
Leon Hunt – banjo (Daily Planet)
Miranda Sykes – double bass and vocals (Show of Hands)
Josh Clark – percussion
Gina Griffin – fiddle and vocals
Rex Preston – mandolin
Despite the reference to the heat of chillis, Scoville Units have a very cool almost laid back sound. Leon Hunt’s banjo and Rex preston’s madolin playing are not at all frantic as you find on some transatlantic groupings. Quite the opposite, there is some great steady paced playing that interplays beautifully alongside Ed Boyd’s guitar and Gina Griffin’s fiddle with some perfect percussion from Josh Clark and jazzy bass lines from Miranda Sykes. Each track on this album feels like an exploration of each tune. Flourishes and progressive re-interpretation give the feel of a live session. No one musician overtakes the show…each musician gets a chance to step forward and shine and shine they do!
Miranda and Gina sound great on the songs that are covered. Cluck Old Hen has an old time edge but the instrumentation is very sharp. Other influences are allowed to peak through with some jazz before slipping into leading bluegrass fiddle playing from Gina. There are similar transitions on each track which makes it a great listen. The arrangements on this album are very polished but not overly so, they have soul.
Rex Preston’s Mandolin sounds great on Glenuig’s Bay which starts gentle with Gina’s swaying fiddle setting the mood and atmosphere before Leon adds banjo and lifts the pace…just enough. Gina re-takes the floor melding American roots and Celtic music togther. Masterful!
No one track standards out as the standard set on each is so high! The Scoville Units have that wow factor and all the musicians are top of their league. A very highly recommended album!
Due out on 24th January 2011
Pre-Order it now!
Album Tracks by thescovilleunits
Background:
It was right after a 2008 festival performance in the heart of the English West-country that Celtic Connections artistic director, Donald Shaw hurried backstage and approached banjo player, Leon Hunt, about putting together ‘something special’ for a high-profile concert alongside Béla Fleck as part of his 2009 festival program. Given carte blanche to do whatever he wanted, Leon seized the opportunity to pursue a course that he and guitarist, Ed Boyd, had been enjoying for some time whilst occasionally performing together in trad super-group ‘Flook’ and with Michael McGoldrick. The combination of these internationally renowned Irish musicians, and Leon’s improvisational approach to traditional American music, proved a hit and took all involved into surprisingly uncharted musical territory.
When it came to putting the rest of the band together the timing couldn’t have been any better: fiddle player, Gina Griffin, having worked with Leon in the ‘90s, had just moved back from France where she’d spent a busy 12 years playing everything from bal-musette to be-bop. On hearing of Gina’s return to the area Leon wasted no time in calling her. Gina is not only a world-class fiddle player and singer, she does both at the same time! Her unique unison (and harmony) vocal-scatting to her fiddle improvisation has become a signature element of The Scoville Units’ sound.
Rex Preston is without a doubt the most virtuosic mandolin player in the UK today and, as luck would have it, had also just moved to the area to embark on his music degree. Rex won his current mandolin whilst competing at the prestigious US National Instrumental Championships last year.
Long time musical associate of Leon’s, percussionist Josh Clark, has performed with several notable British acts including Sheelanagig, Daily Planet, James Fagan and the 2000 BBC Young Folk Award winners ‘The Black Cat Theory’. With The Scoville Units Josh plays bodhrán and cajón, and an increasingly idiosyncratic array of other percussion instruments.
Later in 2010, after performing on The Scoville Units’ debut album as a session musician, Show Of Hands Double-Bassist, Miranda Sykes, decided she liked the band so much that she wanted to become a permanent member, an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Given the amount of ‘hard fun’ that went into putting that initial Celtic Connections show together, and it’s success on the night, it was never going to end there. The band name was conceived (early shows were as The Leon Hunt n-Tet) and new music has been flowing ever since.
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