The Ossians - The MacPherson Tapes

The story behind The MacPherson Tapes is a damn site more interesting than the music itself. This may sound callous, but when you consider The Ossians are in fact a fictional band, described as the ‘Scottish Spinal Tap’, created for the novel of the same name by Doug Johnstone, to say anything else would be to question the very legitimacy of the book. The seven tracks here have been recorded in ultra lo-fidelity and quite cleverly pieced together in disparate fashion, lending to the concept that this is a collection of outtakes and rarities. While the music isn’t all inherently bad (sombre, organ driven The Haar stands out), the lack of ‘originals’ to benchmark against severely limits the listenability. Even if they existed, the chances they would be much better are slim. At best, The MacPherson Tapes is a fair accompaniment for anyone who’s read the book. Then again, that's probably the point. [Finbarr Bermingham]