SHOOGLENIFTY
Stamina Island

Thirty-five years and ten albums into a career that has helped redraw the boundaries of Scottish traditional music, Shooglenifty sound anything but settled. Stamina Island arrives with the swagger of a band still chasing new terrain: restless, rhythmic, gloriously alive, and powered by the same sense of musical exploration that made their “acid croft” reputation in the first place.

Opener “Up the McFud” wastes no time in setting out the stall. Six minutes of instrumental uproar, it is all momentum and muscle: fiddle, banjo and beats colliding in a joyous pile-up that feels less like a scene-setter than a warning flare. The single “Dig Deep” follows with even greater force, Ciarán Ryan’s banjo riff locked into a driving groove while Kaela Rowan’s vocal cuts through the rhythmic churn with infectious confidence. Eilidh Shaw’s fiddle adds lift and bite, turning the track into a serious case of Up the McFunk — buzzing, bold and hard to ignore.

The accompanying radio-edit video is worth seeking out too: a vivid, genre-scrambling visual rush that nods in several directions while keeping one foot firmly planted in the tradition. That balance is central to the album’s appeal. However far Shooglenifty push the textures — into electronic throb, psychedelic colour or festival-field abandon — the music never loses touch with its roots.

Nor is Stamina Island merely a blast of banjo-and-fiddle fireworks, welcome though those are. “Old Pal Aongas” opens out into something more dreamlike, its breathy vocal and spacious atmosphere suggesting a softer, stranger landscape before the pulse begins to reassert itself. Even in its reflective moments, the record seems unable — and unwilling — to sit still for long.

The current line-up, pairing original members James Mackintosh and Malcolm Crosbie with Euan McLaughlin, Ciarán Ryan, Kaela Rowan and Eilidh Shaw, sounds revitalised rather than reverential. There is no sense here of a band polishing its legacy for display. Instead, these tracks feel built for movement, argument, memory and celebration — the work of players who know exactly what they can do, and are still excited by what might happen if they push a little further.

Lyrically and thematically, the album reaches beyond easy party-piece exuberance. “Dig Deep” may be a floor-filler, but its message of resilience gives the groove a tougher emotional core, while “Bairns O’ Gaza” carries a title whose urgency needs little explanation. Elsewhere, the writing turns more personal, celebrating and remembering figures of significance with warmth and character.

Most of the tracks stretch close to, or beyond, the six-minute mark, but the running times never feel indulgent. Shooglenifty use the space well, letting themes expand, mutate and lock into new patterns. The closing title track — folding together “Microcosmic God”, “Stamina Island” and “Comically Bumpy” — captures the album’s spirit in miniature: playful, expansive, rhythmically irresistible and technically dazzling without ever becoming sterile.

This is not the sound of a veteran band reclining on well-earned laurels, or lying back on the heather. Stamina Island is alive with ideas, craft and appetite: a dynamic, deeply groovy collection from musicians still hungry for adventure. Quite marvellous — and best played again the moment it finishes.

Stamina Island is released on September 16. The single “Dig Deep” is out now, with The Shoogles also heading out on a run of live dates and festival appearances – get along and take your dancing shoes with you!

The Shoogles have a number of festival and venue dates for the rest of the year.

Visit the Shooglenifty website