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Hub AI
Celtic fusion AI simulator
(@Celtic fusion_simulator)
Hub AI
Celtic fusion AI simulator
(@Celtic fusion_simulator)
Celtic fusion
Celtic fusion is an umbrella term for any modern music style which incorporates influences from Celtic music or from Celtic people.
It is a syncretic musical tradition which borrows freely from the musical traditions of all the Celtic nations and the Celtic diaspora, as well as from all styles of popular music; it is thus sometimes associated with the Pan-Celtic movement. While Celtic fusion may include authentic music from any Celtic nation, it may also feature non-traditional or non-Celtic music that has been influenced by the common characteristic of Celtic identity.
The genre of Celtic electronica blends traditional Celtic influences with modern electronic music. Artists such as Martyn Bennett, Lorne Cousin, Mouth Music, Mark Saul, Saint Sister and Valtos (band) whose backgrounds are in traditional Celtic music tend to favor traditional instruments, melodies, and rhythms, but augment them with drum machines and electronic sounds. Others, like Dagda, Brigid Boden and Niteworks approach the fusion from a background in electronic music that eschews traditional instruments and incorporates traditional melodies played on synths into a New Age-influenced trance sound. Peatbog Faeries have experimented with Celtic electronica, mainly on Faerie Stories.
The first Celtic-identified hip-hop group to gain mainstream notoriety was House of Pain, a Los Angeles based hip-hop group which incorporated rhymes about the Irish-American experience into their music. With a few exceptions, however, their actual instrumentation did not incorporate traditional "Celtic" instruments, though they did use time signatures typical of jigs on several songs – a major deviation in a hip-hop market where virtually everything is done in 4
4 time.
Marxman, an Irish-Jamaican hip-hop group, whose explicitly nationalist and Marxist politics gained them notoriety and infamy in the United Kingdom in the 1980s, incorporated traditional instruments into several songs on their first album, but largely abandoned them on their second album for a more electronica- and blues-oriented sound that would later form the basis for the emergence of trip hop.
Sinéad O'Connor contributed vocals to several of Marxman's songs and even tried her hand at rapping on her 1994 album Universal Mother with a track about the Great Irish Famine of 1845–1849.
Starting in 1998 Manau, a French hip-hop group of Breton origin, created the first truly consistent fusion of Celtic music and hip-hop in two critically acclaimed albums, incorporating a wide range of traditional instruments and melodies and combining them with hip-hop beats. In one of their songs, they used part of an arrangement of a traditional tune (Tri Martolod) by Alan Stivell, and were subsequently sued by him for copyright infringement.
1998 also marked the release of Seanchai and The Unity Squad's second album, Rebel Hip Hop. The sound was equal parts folk-punk, rock, and old-school hip-hop and marked the first time Celtic hip-hop had been performed exclusively with live instruments instead of samples. The album was selected as the Hotpress "Album of the Year" and received positive reviews, but failed to break into the mainstream. The band has released 4 more albums since and are still active, playing primarily at Rocky Sullivan's in New York City, which is owned by Chris Byrne, the band leader.
Celtic fusion
Celtic fusion is an umbrella term for any modern music style which incorporates influences from Celtic music or from Celtic people.
It is a syncretic musical tradition which borrows freely from the musical traditions of all the Celtic nations and the Celtic diaspora, as well as from all styles of popular music; it is thus sometimes associated with the Pan-Celtic movement. While Celtic fusion may include authentic music from any Celtic nation, it may also feature non-traditional or non-Celtic music that has been influenced by the common characteristic of Celtic identity.
The genre of Celtic electronica blends traditional Celtic influences with modern electronic music. Artists such as Martyn Bennett, Lorne Cousin, Mouth Music, Mark Saul, Saint Sister and Valtos (band) whose backgrounds are in traditional Celtic music tend to favor traditional instruments, melodies, and rhythms, but augment them with drum machines and electronic sounds. Others, like Dagda, Brigid Boden and Niteworks approach the fusion from a background in electronic music that eschews traditional instruments and incorporates traditional melodies played on synths into a New Age-influenced trance sound. Peatbog Faeries have experimented with Celtic electronica, mainly on Faerie Stories.
The first Celtic-identified hip-hop group to gain mainstream notoriety was House of Pain, a Los Angeles based hip-hop group which incorporated rhymes about the Irish-American experience into their music. With a few exceptions, however, their actual instrumentation did not incorporate traditional "Celtic" instruments, though they did use time signatures typical of jigs on several songs – a major deviation in a hip-hop market where virtually everything is done in 4
4 time.
Marxman, an Irish-Jamaican hip-hop group, whose explicitly nationalist and Marxist politics gained them notoriety and infamy in the United Kingdom in the 1980s, incorporated traditional instruments into several songs on their first album, but largely abandoned them on their second album for a more electronica- and blues-oriented sound that would later form the basis for the emergence of trip hop.
Sinéad O'Connor contributed vocals to several of Marxman's songs and even tried her hand at rapping on her 1994 album Universal Mother with a track about the Great Irish Famine of 1845–1849.
Starting in 1998 Manau, a French hip-hop group of Breton origin, created the first truly consistent fusion of Celtic music and hip-hop in two critically acclaimed albums, incorporating a wide range of traditional instruments and melodies and combining them with hip-hop beats. In one of their songs, they used part of an arrangement of a traditional tune (Tri Martolod) by Alan Stivell, and were subsequently sued by him for copyright infringement.
1998 also marked the release of Seanchai and The Unity Squad's second album, Rebel Hip Hop. The sound was equal parts folk-punk, rock, and old-school hip-hop and marked the first time Celtic hip-hop had been performed exclusively with live instruments instead of samples. The album was selected as the Hotpress "Album of the Year" and received positive reviews, but failed to break into the mainstream. The band has released 4 more albums since and are still active, playing primarily at Rocky Sullivan's in New York City, which is owned by Chris Byrne, the band leader.