Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The music on offer from the four highly talented women that make up Rant is full of texture, abiding dexterity and imagery that allows the flourish of a fiddle all it can ever dream of, of all it can ever want to achieve. In Reverie, that dream like state pulses outwards and catches the ear of the listener with pride and passion in every plucked string and every slide of the bow towards the bridge; in Reverie comes fruition and daring and Rant certainly have placed that into each song on the new and well conjured album.
In Reverie comes fluidity and as the music from Bethany Reid, Jenna Reid, Sarah-Jane Summers and Lauren MacColl flows as if being conducted by a being of substance and dramatic infusion, so too does the imagery rise, the thoughts of the playful being turned into a titanic overture and one to whom each member benefits greatly from.
The critical acclaim the band has received since their debut album has been complete and sincere and as each bow takes to the field of play in some kind of heroic fiddle dance, so too does the rise in expectancy that the listener cannot but help to hope to hear achieve. It is an expectancy which is soon attained and the accomplishment is one to savour.
In tracks such as Strathbogie Toast, the beautiful Dad’s 60th, Wha’ll Dance wi’ Wattie and Thug thu Chonnlach as an T-sabhal, Folk mixes freely with the simmering air of Celtic nourishment, it glides and replenishes with vigour and fated consequence and above all a deep and meaningful respect for the instrument of the band’s choosing. It is an album that is made possible by the collective will to highlight the tracks with the beauty that the fiddle offers and one that sticks in the memory because of the illuminating score that underpins the whole experience.
An album of attitude and fondness; one that surrender to the soul but punches outwards as protecting its own, Reverie is a great dream to be found within.
Ian D. Hall