The Old Swan Band
Album: Fortyssimo
Label: Wildgoose
Tracks: 14
Website: http://www.wildgoose.co.uk

And out it blasts through your speakers - not quite fortissimo, but at a gloriously full-toned, ringing, blowing, bounding and joyfully bouncing forte (unless you decide to annoy the neighbours by cranking the volume up "fortehwith", which I was sorely tempted to do!). It's hard to believe that the mighty octopus that is The Old Swan Band is now celebrating its 40th anniversary - hence the bow-blow-pound-shout-out-loud wordplay of the disc's title. Bringing a real punchiness of approach to what was hitherto a somewhat polite and decorous English country dance scene, the fortissimo impact of this combo on that scene can be judged as akin to taking that scene by storm, and an awful lot of re-evaluation has since taken place thereabouts.

Although there was a conspicuous 20-year gap in the band's recordings (between 1983 and 2004), the actual lineup has remained quite constant even while its members have all been involved with sundry other bands, and yet there's never been any feeling of artistic compromise from within or without the ranks, the individual musicians concerned interacting so easily with each other and displaying the very best brand of togetherness.

The OSB orthodoxy entails an ever-wondrous triple-fiddle front line (Paul Burgess, Fi Fraser and Flos Headford), spicily augmented by the unbridled "saxiness" of Jo Freya and Neil Gledhill with John Adams on trombone, all brilliantly underpinned by the solid drive of Heather Horsley's piano and Martin Brinsford's exceedingly animated, alternately stirringly militant, clittery-clattery and shiffly-shuffly percussion. Everything's in its place, and all's right with the world in this swirling, whirling feelgood fairground where you suddenly feel decades younger again. As for the selection of tunes on this anniversary bonanza of a record, well it's an expectedly eclectic cornucopia of tunes of diverse origin, albeit that English figures necessarily large (not least the Cotswolds from which the OSB originated back in 1974, mutating from the cannily-named Cotswold Liberation Front). Although the band treats us to tastily sprightly renditions of well-danced pieces like Whistling Rufus, the Jenny Bell Polka and the medley of tunes from Headington morris tradition, I'm amazed to have also come across here a disproportionate number of the selections for the first time (indeed, the disc contains many tunes which the band has never recorded before).

The constantly invigorating parade of dances takes us from New South Wales to Much Wenlock (a pair of self-avowedly sleazy schottisches), then from Kelso to Michigan; and from the Irish Hunting The Hare to the mutant Playford of The Bishop Of Chester's Jig. Arguably the most infectious of them all, though, is the rumbustious pairing of the Bampton morris favourite The Rose Tree and the Jimmy Shand repertoire chestnut The Punchbowl, a perfect encapsulation of the OSB's deliciously enticing presentation. The overall sound-stage may very occasionally threaten to mildly clutter, but an ideal production ensures that even the humble triangle is able to stick its glittering head above the textural parapet with all due panache. Yes, this disc is a veritable feast of every-part-of-the-body-tapping energy, an irresistible full-on 62-minute sensory joyride that's in every respect "swan for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and go, man, go", fortyssimo!

David Kidman