With their third album, former BBC Young Folk Award winners Uiscedwr have decided to help all of those of us who have struggled with their name; the title is a handy rebus; just remove the F and C to produce ISH-CA-DOOR. The band itself has gone through several changes and is now a four-piece. Founders Anna Esslemont and Cormac Byrne have been joined by James Hickman on guitar and Karen Tweed on accordion.
Despite these being traditional musicians, there's no traditional music here. It's a mixture of tunes and songs; slightly more tunes. Everything's written by the band apart from Jim Malcolm's "Neptune" and Katie Bennett's "End of the Day". The tunes have a great mix of variety and drive, and the addition of accordion really rounds out the sound. Having said that, one of the most exciting things on the album is the fiddle/bodhran duo "ESP". These guys rock.
There are two songs by Anna Esslemont. "Prescription Junkie" is her meditation on the haze of illness, surgery and medication that resulted from her having aplastic anemia. Following a bone marrow transplant, she's (fingers crossed) cured now. "Tip Tap Baby" is more traditional young songwriter material.
Overall, it's great to see Uiscedwr back on form and this is, I think, their best album yet.