Review: Valtos + Assynt + Josie Duncan – Edinburgh Tradfest 2024

Some gigs offer far better value for your ticket money than others, and the opening concert of Edinburgh Tradfest 2024 was one such. Headliners Valtos, wouldn’t appear till well past 9:30 pm, but Lewis’s Josie Duncan set about winning the audience’s affections right on the 8:00 pm button.

A sparkling presence in more ways than one, she pitched her set towards the folk end of her repertoire, though her indie sensibilities blossomed as it continued. A perky rendition of Calum Ban and a gently pretty fairy song (inherited from Christine Primrose – I think) were certainly enough to satisfy the Gaelic-minded. Turning to English, Natural Disaster from her 2022 album, As the Moonlight Melts blended her winsome vocals with a timeless, but distinctly modern reflection on troubled relationships. Her final offering, a distinctly classy cover of Blondie’s Heart of Glass certainly set heads bopping, and had she not left her CDs at home, she would doubtless have sold quite a few after taking a well-deserved bow.

Up next, award-winning trio Assynt, a traditional line-up of fiddle, guitar, and whistle/bagpipes, pushing at the boundaries of the trad repertoire with melodic virtuosity. the opening Assynt House Reels set their stall out, Innes White’s guitar a one-man engine room driving Graham Mackenzie’s sparkling fiddle, and David Shedden‘s nimble pipes to toe-tapping excellence. The trio of tunes within Gordon Stewart’s certainly demonstrated their talent for sophisticated melodies, layered atop each other, fiddle and whistle/pipes in conversation, not conflict. It’s the sort of music that benefits from another listen, to appreciate the band’s clever, tight interplay. If the set afterwards wandered – just a little – it was anchored with more excellent work including a gorgeous version of Nighean Donn Nan Gobhar, and – possibly the highlight of their set – Rescues. This trio really let Shedden’s pipes shine, a subtler sound than you might expect (though not that subtle!).

“Some gigs offer far better value for your ticket money than others, and the opening concert of Edinburgh Tradfest 2024 was one such.”

Then it was time for Valtos, relatively fresh entrants into the folk fusion scene since their debut album Valtos in 2022. Otherwise known as Martyn MacDonald and Daniel Docherty, down from Skye, they exist at the interface of trad music and electronica. Now this a band which doesn’t stop to banter all that much, preferring to slide from one track into the next with a minimum of explanation. That’s perfect for a crowd at 9:45 ready to let loose and give way to a welcome assault of heavy bass and driving rhythms.

MacDonald and Docherty love a beat drop so they do, and they drop them with style. Whether straying into Daft Punk territory or wandering into some Drum and Bass, you can be sure they will drop you off the beat cliff-face at least once, probably multiple times. It’s super festival music, and they pitched their set for a party rather than showing their considerable diversity of output. I think that was a pity, but constrained by time, and geed on by an adoring crowd, they can’t be blamed.

They are to be absolutely saluted for their love of bass which thrums up the feet and into the bones. If you claim to want to make me dance, then make me feel it – and that’s what they did.

It’s immediately clear that MacDonald and Docherty are huge fans of classic house/rave, from the familiar percussive piano chords to the mesmeric percussion loops, there’s a heavy touch of nostalgia to proceedings. They aren’t a tribute band however, just artists who love where their art form comes from.

Joining the pair on stage were a veritable super group of vocalists Lana Pheutan and Eilidh Cormack, fiddler Euan McLaughlin, and piper Finn MacPherson – all of whom have recorded with Valtos multiple times. They enjoy the tightness of a practiced band, and if anyone was having a better time than sunglass-sporting Pheutan, I didn’t see them. Josie Duncan was soon pulled back up on stage making three, not two vocalists. No stranger to the fusion world as a regular vocalist with McLaughlin’s Andannsadub, she slotted in very easily indeed.

There was particular excitement for the rendition of their new single with Julie Fowlis (who will close Tradfest 2024), A’Chuthag, and though said Folk superstar was not on hand, the assembled talents did themselves proud.

“you can be sure they will drop you off the beat cliff-face at least once, probably multiple times.”

In the final reckoning, a band’s performing success can be measured by the audience’s appetite for more. Said audience had the band playing right up to the 11 pm cut-off (a chore Valtos were more than happy to undertake). But for the various licensing laws preventing a continuation, there was easily another half hour (probably more) of fist-pumping adulation to be squeezed from a packed Queen’s Hall.

So there we are, Edinburgh Tradfest 2024 has begun and the cobwebs have been blown off with gusto. There couldn’t be a clearer signal that the Festival remains forward-looking and that the trad curious can dip their toes in without fear of being drowned in Arran jumpers and songs about dead relatives. Not that there’s anything wrong with either, but you can definitely have too much of a good thing.

Featured Image: supplied by Edinburgh TradFest PR.