Treacherous Orchestra are a Scottish folk big band, celebrated for their furious live performances and impressive musicianship, but any similarity to Bellowhead ends there. This 11-piece follow the tradition of those festival favourites from Skye, Peatbog Faeries, in playing only instrumental material and mixing traditional Scottish themes with contemporary influences. And they do so in epic style. Their second album is an exhilarating fusion in which they constantly change direction, often switching within the same song from a lyrical soundscape to a pounding anthem, as fiddles, pipes, banjo or accordion take turn to dominate in the complex arrangements. Power chords are intercut with fiddle work in the opening of The Sly One, while the title track, partly recorded in a mausoleum near Glasgow because of its echo, opens with a wash of sound before pipes, guitars and percussion crash in. Play it loud.
