It’s always a bit of a challenge when you want to say something about someone who everyone thinks is great. In this case, a band, an iconic one.
Finnegan, Allen, Boyd, Kelly.
Flook are legendary, we all know that.
Listen to their albums – they’re amazing.
Witness them live – it’s mindblowing; I hope you get to experience it if you thus far haven’t.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s focus on their brand new release, Sanju, their fifth studio album.
It’s been about five years since the previous one, the masterful Ancora, and after listening to Sanju for the first time, I had to go back to Ancora to make sure I was hearing what I thought I was hearing.
And indeed, in more ways than one, Flook have not stayed where they were before. The difference is not big, but it’s there.
First, the production. From its very first seconds of Ed Boyd’s guitar intro to The Farther Shore, Sanju sounds bigger than any previous Flook outing. The sound is rich and clear, and wide, for want of a better word. It’s a bit more produced than its predecessors, if you know what I mean, but it’s not a bad thing at all. It gives the Flook sound more space and depth without losing the band’s earthiness.
As the rest of the band joins in, we also get the bass – ukulele bass, actually – played by John Calvert, the other of the album’s two producers.
The bass, either as the ukulele version or a synth bass (gasp!) is along for the ride throughout this album. John Calvert plays very well, totally in the same wavelength as the band itself, and he gives John Joe Kelly’s bodhran the perfect pair. Together, they create a new, very nice, pulsating rhythmic layer to Flook’s music.
As for the tunes and the overall mood of the quite short album (barely over half an hour), Sanju lives up to its title. The name seems to be Sanskrit for peaceful, calm and other like states of being.
This is reflected in the music and also the cover art. Most of the album flows in slow-ish and mid-tempo tunes, always performed at virtuoso level; at the same time, it’s also always relaxed and, for me at least, strangely comforting and warm, even when they occasionally do really pick up the pace for some fast jigs and reels. The presence of Patsy Reid’s guest fiddle on some of those tunes adds a very nice spice to the mix.
Sanju is yet another impressive pleasure from Flook – how could they do anything less? I very highly appreciate the little tweaks and production decisions that make this just a little different from what’s come before.
My only complaint is the duration, as I would have liked to spend more time with this lovely world of sound. This is also why I don’t want to mention any particular tunes; 30 minutes with Sanju feels like one piece of music, and maybe that was their intention all along. So, probably have to turn it on again…
FolkNotes 