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As promised, I have a list of must-hear Afro Celts tracks for your entertainment and enjoyment. Originally I was just going to randomly list some of their great songs that I wanted to highlight, but then I started really thinking about it. I decided what I'd actually do is make a fantasy greatest-hits collection for the group. I've selected fifteen tracks, grabbing highlights from all of their albums thus far. I don't know if all fifteen tracks would fit on an 80-minute CD, but this is my fantasy and I say they all fit.

My Afro Celt Sound System Greatest Hits

1) North 1 and 2
From Volume 3: Further In Time

I'll start the album off with these two songs (which are combined in my mix) not only because they are great songs, but also because they start Volume 3 so well. They're great songs to ease the album in, so they start the party on my fantasy greatest hits.

2) Whirl-Y-Reel 1
From Volume 1: Sound Magic

This was the first great Afro Celt jam. It has your basic Afro Celt elements: Club beats, whistles and pipes, thumping drums. It's a great dance track, and it's essential to understanding the group's greatness.

3) Colossus
From Volume 3: Further In Time

Like Whirl-Y-Reel, only bigger and more powerful, Colossus is one of the highlights of Volume 3. Big, pounding drums provide the backbone for a light, happy reel. Midway in the song, many of the musicians take a solo based on part of the main reel. Even the computers get their chance to shine. This is the song that made me love the ACSS.

4) Release
From Volume 2: Release

This song was an important moment in the band's history. After the death of keyboardist Jo Bruce, the newly-stable group struggled to find inspiration in recording their second album. Guest vocalist Sinead O'Connor gave them a lyric that helped lift their spirits and provide them with a new resolve. As great as that all is, the song is just plain awesome. It's among the darkest things the Afro Celts have ever recorded, and took their sound to a whole new level.

5) Ayub's Song/As You Were
From Seed

After four songs in Seed, we step away from the computerized beats and head to the African plains for a bright, beautiful acoustic moment. Bodhran and kora mingle seamlessly while vocalist Iarla O'Lionard gives the performance of a lifetime. Just when things start to slow down, fiddle player Martin Hayes starts a heartfelt jig and we travel into Ireleand for a while. I love the acoustic feel of this track, and feel it shows most explicitly the connections between African and Celtic music.

6) When You're Falling
From Volume 3: Further In Time

For their third album, the Afro Celts did something no one expected: they wrote a radio-friendly single. As if that weren't unconventional enough, they enlisted the services of Real World Records founder Peter Gabriel to sing the lead vocal. The result is more of a Peter Gabriel track than an Afro Celt track (although there are some good drums present). Iarla makes a brief appearance, and Peter is backed up during the chorus by the very African-sounding Screaming Orphans vocal group. Radio-friendly or not, this is a song that won't soon leave your head.

7) Deep Channel
From Seed

The band experiments for the first time here with a traditional rock drum kit and thus deliver a very powerful, new sound. The track starts wistfully with layers of percussion and that great drum kit making its mark while James McNally delivers an echo-tinged whistle performance. Then, the drums kick into high gear before the bagpipes really get things fired up for the rest of the song. This is definitely on the more Celtic side of the Afro Celts' sound, and it's both energizing and atmospheric.

8) Go On Through
From Volume 3: Further In Time

Full of sad bagpipes, dramatic Irish Gaelic vocals and English vocals by newcomer Pina, this song is one of the most beautiful ever recorded by the Afro Celts. Anyone who has experienced pain or loss can relate to the lyrics.

9) Eireann
From Volume 2: Release

This song is a stirring tribute to Iarla's homeland. It starts with an eerie keyboard groove over which Iarla and fellow band member N'faly sing their vocals. Then the beats start, and the bagpipes and whistle echo the singers' emotions.

10) Lagan
From Volume 3: Further In Time

Dramatic strings, bouncy drums, and Iarla's ever-so-gorgeous voice. This song turns the emotional level to 11 and never fails to grab a hold of a listener.

11) Seed
From Seed

This song finds the band taking things in yet anothe direction. It's dark and spooky, with bluesy slide guitars all over the place and a pounding bodhran beat. N'faly Kouyate delivers some wonderful vocals and the Celtic combo of whistles and pipes add color. Just when you think you know the band, they throw something like this at you and make you think and feel.

12) Rise Above
From Pod

This is what a remix should be! "Rise Above It" from Seed was remixed by the band for their remix album Pod and it makes a great start to that album. The song starts fresh with atmospheric keyboard and new African chants. Following that, the familiar groove from the original song comes in along with a new guitar riff. The band has kept a lot of what was good about the original in the new mix, and threw out a lot of the extra stuff. They've tightened it and made it seem new too. Interestingly, they focused on just a few specific elements of the original song and turned that into a familiar-yet-original mix. This song is very well done and will get you dancing too.

13) Sure-As-Not/Sure-As-Knot
From Volume 1: Sound Magic

This is a very smooth, very long African-themed groove from the group's first album. Instead of the tight, dramatic punch of their later songs, this one has more of a laid-back, ambient feel. The first half is a gorgeous melody played on kora, backed by the computer beats. After a few minutes, the song slows down and then changes pace with a new, hipper, beat-oriented sound with samples of African children. This track is both beautiful and dangerous, and it's definitely one of the best things on Volume 1.

14) Hypnotica
From Volume 2: Release

Often, the Afro Celts will make the song titles match the feel of the song. This is certainly the case with Hypnotica. It's laid back, relaxing, and puts you in a good mood. It does a good job at combining the ambient computer sounds with the acoustic sounds of harp and whistle. It definitely grows on you with each listen.

15) Whirly 3
From Pod

Fittingly, I end my greatest hits with a song that shows where the Afro Celts are going. This is a remix of their big hit from Volume 1, and it is not a mere remix. It starts with a club-heavy sound, all synthesizers and computers, blips and bleeps. Then the familiar reel from the original song starts, played on guitar, whistle and even bouzouki. A strong club beat permeates, and then the live drum kit kicks in to give the song a live feel. The first reel builds and builds and finally, after a brief break, a whole new reel starts. That reel builds and builds too, and it's quite an uplifting sound. It's a very live, organic sounding song and it shows how the band can take a song they did almost ten years ago and make it sound entirely new. This is a great example of the innovation the band has grown over its existence.