About The Irish
Music Review
Most magazine reviews are effectively
ephemeral thanks to the nature of the media. Of course, this is of no
importance when the musical genre in question, such as pop or dance music, is
essentially transient. However, as far as traditional music is concerned (or
any genre where passing fads are largely irrelevant) record-buyers are seldom
worried about the date of recordings. So it seemed a worthwhile venture to
collect a body of work which will remain of some value as long as recordings
are still available.
Because I spend much of my life writing
reviews, the initial state of the IMR is a collection of as many of my own
reviews as I can find, but one of the points of the exercise is to open up the
IMR for others to express their own opinions. Thankfully, Philippe Varlet
has already given permission for me to use the reviews contained in his Celtic
Grooves newsletter (see The Stores Page for details of
the Celtic Grooves online store).
I know the difficulties which small
independent or ‘own’ labels face in trying to attract the interest of magazine
editors so I would prefer the focus of the IMR to be on such recordings.
However, all reviews are very welcome. Like the Boa Island Janus pictured here
the IMR hopes to look both forth and back simultaneously.
Geoff Wallis