Shooglenifty

Shooglenifty fuses Scotland’s longstanding musical traditions with contemporary strands of rock, pop, jazz, and urban dance music, resulting in a hypno-folkadelic/ambient/traditional aesthetic. The Ottawa Sun describes the Edinburgh-based sextet as “setting the world on fire with their super trippy blend of Celtic staples and everything from acid jazz to Latin shuffles.” Formed as an offshoot of the psych-bluegrass quintet Swamptrash, the group first coalesced during casual gatherings at Christy's, a pub in Edinburgh. The name Shooglenifty, drawn from the Scottish term denoting “shake, agitate, moving around,” signals the ensemble’s ultra-approach to its tradition-rooted material. The band functioned as a gathering point for an eclectic assortment of players. Fiddler Angus R. Grant, instructed from childhood by his father and recognized as a master of the West Highland fiddling style, entered Swamptrash in the late ’80s. Electric and double bass player Conrad Ivitsky maintained ties to contrasting musical spheres; although he performed fiddle in his father’s ceilidh band, rock outfits such as the Corries and Deep Purple, along with Miles Davis’s jazz fusion, exerted a stronger pull. After busking across Scotland, he entered Swamptrash in the early ’90s. Drummer, percussionist, and pianist James MacKintosh, who first encountered Grant during their school years, appeared with Swamptrash while also performing and recording alongside numerous Scottish acts including Capercaille, Mouth Music, and Sola; he additionally served as guest soloist at the premiere of Phil Cunningham’s “Highlands and Islands Suite.” Malcolm Crosbie, the final former Swamptrash member, had previously handled acoustic and electric guitars in alt-rock groups such as Z and the Arabs and the Nap Daleks. Gerry Finlayson, raised in Orkney, began teaching himself guitar at age 13 by playing along with American blues recordings; after relocating to Edinburgh in the late ’70s he turned to banjo and now performs on Banjax, a customized electric instrument constructed by luthier Dallas Sutherland with support from the Arts Trust of Scotland. Sutherland-born mandolin and tenor banjo player Iain M. McLeod took up fiddle in his youth and performed bagpipes with a boys brigade; once settled in Edinburgh he borrowed a roommate’s mandolin and learned the instrument through recordings of the Bothy Band. A founding member of the House Band, McLeod performed with Ruo and Miro before connecting with his future Shooglenifty colleagues at jam sessions. Following the release of their initial three albums within Scotland, Shooglenifty issued their first internationally distributed recording, Solar Shears, in 2000.