Project Smok – The Outset: Album Review

By Caitlin Barrett on 19th January 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Expert delivery and powerful melodies; Project Smok deliver a masterpiece of trad.

Release Date: 19th January 2024

Label: Self released

Format: Digital / CD

Project Smok has been delivering high class, high energy and rousing live shows since 2017. They are a force to be reckoned with; a tight-knit 3 piece who are only going from strength to strength. Their unique take on traditional music is refreshing and enchanting; the music is light, with plenty of space in the mix and a buoyancy that carries you along with it and gets your foot tapping instantly.

The Glasgow-based band delights audiences with their progressive neo-trad vibe. It’s no wonder they bagged nominations for Best Up and Coming Artist at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards 2018 and the Belhaven Bursary for Innovation at the same awards in 2019 as they’re certainly making waves on the scene. This well-respected and well-known act is bursting with vibrancy and is guaranteed to get you moving in no time.

The Outset is their 2nd album, flaunting the indisputable talent in this band. When renowned and award-winning musicians in their own right – Ali Levack (whistle and pipes), Ewan Baird (bodhràn) and Pablo Lafuente (guitar) team up with highly acclaimed Scottish producer & musician Duncan Lyall, highly regarded for his work on the traditional scene, the outcome is beautiful, tight and compelling. Their musicianship is effortless and smooth.

This album is pure joy from the start. The opening track Cathcart starts with a hypnotic refrain before launching into a toe-tapping tune; the track continues to build and you’re inside it, head grooving, body moving. The layering of pipes, whistle, bodhran and guitar really adds to the emotion in this track and you could imagine hearing it live with the crowd losing themselves in the music. 1984 (the first single to be taken from the album, released on 15th December) is a more chilled-out sound, the groove soft and light, bringing visions of the end of the night and the journey home.

The penultimate track Eilidh’s starts clean and clear with the brightness of the whistle soaring through, the bodhran enters and adds the heartbeat, then layered with a synth effect which brings us to a real 80s disco feel.

The band is incredibly tight and this album is on fire. Each track builds upon the next with the energy upheld throughout a truly high-calibre record. A credit to the band and their undeniable talent.

Here’s 1984: