A 2006 album getting the reissue treatment, significant because I believe it’s the first full-length the long-running anarcho band did while keeping all their lyrics in Gaelic. Well, twenty-five years after the band’s inception, Ar Ceol, Ar Canan, Ar-A-Mach finds them still sticking pretty firmly to their roots—crust with the occasional streetpunk/oi jab thrown in. Strangely enough, this album also has moments of indelicate, kind of bumbling electronica and keyboards scattered throughout, though to their credit it’s always tempered with a fevered sense of immediacy and speed. I like these guys. Their lyrics have always come across as a little simplistic (anarcho punk as a whole could be called out on that one) but I like their ideas and their willingness to tackle difficult subjects unflinchingly, and that they see things through a slightly sharper lens than many of their compatriots. English translations are provided, as are contacts to radical resources and language preservation websites.
–keith (Nikt Nic Nie Wie)