Project SMOK – Bayview
AED Records – Out Now
In their own words, Project Smok are a neo-trad trio, a handle that tells you something of their intentions but rather leaves open the question of how they might actually sound. If you’ve been around Glasgow’s vibrant live music scene since the trio formed in 2017, you’ve perhaps already got an answer, if not, give a listen to Bayview, their debut album. Whether you’re approaching from the neo or the trad side of the hyphen, you’re unlikely to be disappointed. The band’s principal instruments, whistles, pipes, guitar and bodhrán, keep the music attached to traditional roots but it’s the musical imagination of the trio that drives their compositions and arrangements towards what they’re linking to new-age pop.
The album opens with Pablo Lafuente giving us a gentle riff on acoustic guitar that is soon overlaid by a melody from Ali Levack’s whistle, while the guitar develops a counter melody. This rather peaceful piece changes dramatically halfway through as the guitar picks up the pace with a strummed rhythm, reinforced by the final third of the trio, Ewan Baird, his bodhrán maintaining the tempo while Ali’s whistle plays out the lively tune. The track’s entitled Viewbank and, as with album’s other tune sets, the parts are separately named, in this case, A: Prologue and B: Viewbank. The second name introduces a common thread to the album, several tracks named after locations of significance to the band. In this case, it’s easy to spot the connection, Viewbank is the name of Pablo’s recording studio.
While on the subject of names, those of the three band members are likely to be familiar. Changing combinations of musicians, some ephemeral, some destined for greater longevity, seem to be a defining feature of the Glasgow scene and the members of Project Smok are no exception. Amongst their other musical outlets, Pablo and Ali are part of The Tweed Project and Ewan plays with The Paul McKenna Band. Of course, playing your music in such a vibrant and fluid setting works both ways and so they’ve been able to assemble an impressive array of guests, eleven in all, to contribute to the album.
The first guest, Elephant Sessions’ drummer, Greg Barry, joins the trio on track 3, Arisaig. He adds a heavier percussive line to Ewan’s bodhrán, which, along with Pablo switching to electric guitar, gives this track a distinctly non-trad feel. Its marked contrast with the previous two tracks highlighting one way in which Project Smok are seeking to expand the envelope of their sound. After this, the guest appearances come thick and fast, with just two of the remaining tracks featuring only the trio. The next track, Bayview, brings in 2019’s Radio Scotland Young Trad winner, fiddler Benedict Morris and the considerable talents of Mike Vass, here playing tenor guitar. Mike was closely involved in the making of the album, as one of four recording engineers, sharing mixing duties with Iain Hutchinson and taking production credit alongside the trio.
Bayview and the following track Clashnarrow, are names linked to the studio that hosted the majority of the album’s recording, a studio that has clearly left a lasting impression on the trio and on the sound of the album. Clashnarrow Studios are the brainchild of Edwin Collins. Purpose built in 2016 in the grounds of Edwin’s family home, Bayview, in Helmsdale on Scotland’s far north-eastern coast, it’s equipped not with the latest digital recording kit, rather, with a prized collection of specialist analogue and vintage equipment. These are the tools that Project Smok has delighted in discovering and using to define the sound of their album. The hospitality and support they received from Edwin and his wife Grace Maxwell clearly made a deep impression, so much so, they’ve included, as the closing track on the album, their version of Edwin’s 1995 hit single A Girl Like You, with Edwin featuring on lead vocal. As you might expect, the sound here is rather different from the remainder of the album, simpler, with a steady, relaxed rhythm and both guitar and whistle playing around with snatches of the melody.
Also standing out from other tracks is Ceitidh’s. It’s the only other vocal, with Gaelic lyrics and three singers to deliver them, Breabach’s Megan Henderson with Rona Lightfoot and John Mulhearn. Both these are perhaps better known as pipers, along with a fourth guest, James D. Mackenzie, also from Breabach. He provides flute for this track, freeing up Ali to give his pipes their only outing of the album. To complete the extensive guest line up on Ceitidh’s, 2017’s Young Trad winner, Charlie Stewart gives up his more usual fiddle to add double bass to the ensemble. That still leaves two of the eleven guests unaccounted for. Button accordionist, Sam Mabbett, adds his award-winning playing to Mountain Road and the concertina of Mohsen Amini is heard in the final section of the three-tune-set Headlifter, a section that’s simply called Mohsen’s, given that he wrote it.
With this array of talent, it’s no surprise that Bayview is a package of delights. But whilst the impact of the two vocal tracks clearly relies on the guest’s voices, for the remaining instrumental tracks, in every case, it is the core sound of whistle (or pipes), guitar and bodhrán that is the memorable takeaway. This is the sound of Project Smok and it is one that has already earned them an enviable reputation as a live band, the Bayview album is ideally suited to spreading that reputation far and wide.
Order Bayview here: https://projectsmok.com/shop/bayview