Red Hot Chilli Pipers: Music for the Kilted Generation (Rel Records)

This can be brief, and perhaps something of a consumer warning for those who only scan things. Look very, very carefully at the band name here.

Yes, this is Scotland's revenge, a group of rock'n'roll bagpipers (Bagrock by any other name), and if you don't like the sound of the pipes then you should pass by rather quickly.

It's a weird and rather clever one though, because with so much embellishment from electric guitars, pianos etc the pipes sometimes disappear entirely or just become part of the weave and are barely the central instruments. And they also deftly integrate originals into the mix, sometimes threading them between rock classics like Deep Purple's Black Knight and Ozzy's Crazy Train . . . as on, errr, Black Knight on the Crazy Train.

Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars comes up as chest-swelling ballad (you can imagine Braveheart Mel striding o'er the heather) and if the increasingly strident Hellbound Train doesn't turn up in a Scottish or even Irish movie soon I'd be very surprised.

There's Radio Ga-Ga here too, a medley on Everybody Dance Now which should have you reeling if not rocking, and Robbie Williams' hit Let me Entertain You gets the Bagrock treatment.

Yes, they also do Amazing Grace -- but of course it isn't quite like you've heard it before. And they also don't rock it out as you might expect either. 

Dunno how often I would play this, but I can see that in years to come I will be reaching for Bagrock to post at From the Vaults.

Like the idea of this? Then check this out.