LOCOMO

When the worst thing a grumbly critic can say about a prog folk album from 1983 is that it sounds dated, well, then said critic should go back to cynic school. On this 5th offering, instrumental Celtic rockers GWENDAL seem to have eschewed any early 1980s trappings and doubled down on many of the more progressive and less excessive aspects of the prior decade, as if they the very concept of new wave music was unfathomable. Influences such as JETHRO TULL, JEAN LUC PONTY, ALAN STIVELL, even the MAHIVISHNU ORCHESTRA are all whipped up into a low froth solution, with nary a jig or overdone motif in earshot. Whereas a couple of the prior releases were well played and sufficient in their way, this is the first with tracks that are quite astonishing by any evaluation, in particular the two "epics". I would have loved to have seen them live around this time, but unfortunately that locomotive has left la gare.