GWENDAL (IRISH JIG)

While Breton instrumentalists GWENDAL eventually became best known for their blend of Celtic folk and jazz, this quality is barely evident on their debut, which in re-releases was named after the first track. This is mostly a series of traditional jigs, reels and slow airs propelled by flute and violin, inasmuch as they are propelled at all. By this time ALAN STIVELL and TRI YANN had already issued seminal releases from this neighborhood, and CLANNAD and HORSLIPS had served notice from the northern extremes of the British Isles.

GWENDAL tries to sound spirited, and really, with the uptempo cadences and flutes how could one not at least partially succeed. Unfortunately, apart from the skirt lifting flourishes of "An Dro Nevez" and the reflective wonder of O'Carolan's "Planxty Burke", this mostly colours within the lines, like early GRYPHON on diluted uppers. Elsewhere, when they do cut loose, it brings to mind their overindulgences with minimalism which would mar later releases ("Deu tu Ganeme"), while numerous other tunes offer fumes that never quite ignite ("Patrick's Day"), firmly shackled by the confines of numerous setlists of Sunday afternoon seisuns. That said, the dispiritedly named closer "Irish Song" would raise even the differently abled out of their seated prisons if only for 3 minutes.

While I may take issue with later Gwendal and their tendency to repeat themselves more than a radish in a GERD sufferer, their first album is mostly just a "We better throw our hat in the Claddagh ring before it's too late" proposition, and is thus weak in a different but just as valid way.