Chasing Abbey - CYBER CELT Review: Trad House Meets Irish Identity

Chasing Abbey have never been particularly interested in staying inside the lines. The Irish trio have spent years developing what they call trad house - a collision of electronic dance music, contemporary pop production and traditional Irish sounds, with banjo, whistle and acoustic guitar all finding their way onto the dancefloor.

Now, after years of singles, platinum records, packed shows and a growing international following, Chasing Abbey have finally delivered their debut album, CYBER CELT.

And it feels like the record they’ve been building towards all along.

Big, energetic and unmistakably Irish, CYBER CELT takes the group’s trad-house formula and pushes it into more ambitious territory. Yes, there are tracks built to absolutely erupt at festivals, but underneath the pounding production is an album surprisingly preoccupied with identity, colonialism, history, social justice and what it means to be Irish in the modern world.

In other words, there’s considerably more going on here than simply sticking a whistle over a house beat.

Ancient Ireland Meets the Digital Age

The title CYBER CELT pretty much tells you where Chasing Abbey are coming from.

As the band explain:

CYBER CELT represents both a subtle description of the music and a philosophy we hold. The coming together of ancient and modern. A soulful respect for the tradition with a burning desire for innovation.

That tension between old and new runs right through the album.

Traditional Irish instrumentation and the Irish language sit alongside huge electronic drops, polished contemporary production and rhythms made for crowded festival fields. Rather than treating Irish culture as something that belongs safely in the past, Chasing Abbey drag it straight into the present.

There’s a confidence to it that feels particularly timely. CYBER CELT arrives during a period when a new generation of Irish artists are exploring language, culture and identity in increasingly adventurous ways.

Chasing Abbey approach that movement from a very different musical direction, but their intention feels clear: tradition doesn’t have to mean nostalgia.

It can evolve.

Seachain, Íorónta and Greedy Pigs Set the Tone

Listeners already had a decent idea of where CYBER CELT was heading before the full album landed.

Early releases Seachain, Íorónta and Greedy Pigs established the project’s mix of traditional Irish influences, electronic production and increasingly pointed lyrics.

Seachain hits with the kind of energy Chasing Abbey have built their live reputation around, while Greedy Pigs reveals the harder edge underneath the album.

It’s this combination that makes CYBER CELT interesting.

Chasing Abbey could quite easily have made an album of straightforward festival bangers and called it a day. Instead, some of the biggest productions on the record carry its heaviest ideas.

That contrast works remarkably well.

You can dance to it first and realise what they’re actually talking about afterwards.

Colonised Minds Hits Hard

The album's penultimate track, Colonised Minds is arguably where the wider concept behind CYBER CELT comes into sharpest focus.

The song tackles imperialism and the cultural and psychological consequences that can remain long after political control has ended.

Chasing Abbey describe the idea simply:

Colonised Minds, explores how the land can be free but the minds can still be colonised.

It’s a thought-provoking premise, and placing the track so late in the album gives it additional weight.

More importantly, Chasing Abbey don't abandon the sound that got them here in order to make their point. Colonised Minds still exists within the same electronic world as the rest of CYBER CELT. The message and the music aren't competing for attention.

That's important because the album is at its strongest when the two sides of Chasing Abbey meet: the band capable of setting off a packed festival tent and the artists increasingly interested in saying something once they have everyone's attention.

More Than Festival Anthems

For all the heavier subject matter, CYBER CELT isn't a grim listen.

Far from it.

There’s still plenty of the communal, hands-in-the-air energy that made Chasing Abbey such an effective live act in the first place.

Saoirse provides a particularly effective counterweight to some of the album's darker moments, leaning into the sense of freedom and collective release that sits at the heart of dance music.

And that's ultimately the clever trick CYBER CELT manages to pull off.

Its social commentary doesn't feel bolted onto an EDM record, while the club production doesn't cheapen the ideas behind the lyrics. One gives the other additional force.

There’s something fitting about hearing questions of Irish history and identity delivered through thoroughly modern electronic production while traditional instruments weave their way through the mix.

The past and present are constantly bumping into each other.

Which, really, is the whole point.

Chasing Abbey Find Their Identity on CYBER CELT

As a debut album, CYBER CELT feels unusually assured.

Part of that probably comes from the fact that Chasing Abbey have had years to figure out exactly what kind of band they want to be. The trio write, record, produce and mix their own material, while also creating the visual world surrounding their releases.

That DIY approach gives CYBER CELT a strong sense of identity.

There are moments when the sheer scale of the production threatens to overpower the subtler ideas at play, but the album's conviction carries it through. Chasing Abbey clearly aren't interested in choosing between tradition and modernity, Irish and international, serious commentary and Friday-night escapism.

They want all of it.

And for the most part, they make it work.

Final Verdict

YBER CELT sounds like Chasing Abbey taking ownership of the musical space they've spent years creating.

It's loud, proudly Irish and built for enormous crowds, but underneath the festival-ready production sits something more substantial: an album wrestling with history, identity, injustice, freedom and the cultural baggage carried from one generation into the next.

Most importantly, CYBER CELT doesn't treat Irish tradition as a museum piece.

Chasing Abbey plug it in, turn it up and send it crashing into the digital age.

For a debut album, that's one hell of an introduction.

The ablum, Cyber Celt, is available through all streaming platforms.

Photo Credit: @fargos_photos

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