Now this is interesting, Folk-Punk from Italy of all places. Now I’ve heard a lot of European Folk-Punk, usually German Pogues clones with heavy accents (“Zee Last of zee Irish Rover yah”), what makes Ned Ludd different is that they have taken the Pogues basic idea of playing Irish folk music with a punk attitude and applied it to Italian folk music. The music is heavy on the accordion and mandolin with a punk rock kick up the ass from the bass and drums and especially Gianluca Spirito’s tough as nails vocals. England’s Ian Lawther adds in Highland Pipes, Uilleann and Northumbrian Small Pipes giving a slight Celtic edge to the Italian base. The one thing that may be a little off putting to some listeners is that all the songs are in Italian (lyrics are translated in the CD booklet into English and are intelligent Socio-Political criticisms of life in Italy – corruption, the Mafia, unemployment and racism) but this won’t take away from the listen ability and lets face it if your like me then 75% of the time you’ve no idea what the singer is going on about anyway.

A solid original album from possibly Italy’s answer to the Pogues, “Red Wine For Me” anyone?

December 2001