GLEN RIVER

With this 1989 release, GWENDAL, shrunken to a quartet, eschewed most of their jazzy leanings in favor of a slick expose of their Celtic roots. While quality had often been at issue in the early years, it was reigned in by the limitations of running time, which was relaxed by the CD era. When you become so familiar and facile with an activity, you might say that you can perform it in your sleep, and that seems like what GWENDAL is doing here. Unfortunately, I am listening to it while awake.

Luckily the playing is spirited for the spread of tracks 3 to 6. Though the "Uilean Mandinga" pair sounds like it could have been lifted from one of those 1990s MIKE OLDFIELD albums like "Tr3s Lunas", I'll gladly take a mediocre Oldfield at this juncture. "Colombaneon" is probably the high point, with an adept and enthusiastic blend of flute and percussion. After this it's all pretty much the stuff that any pan Celtic rock group could do but many fewer should, with the exception of the closer which sounds like a B track from the superior predecessor "Danse la Musique".

Well, at least the cover is pastoral. From this point, GWENDAL's output dwindled to a trickle before fizzling. Clearly out of ideas and probably in the midst of raising children, they gave way to the oncoming onslaught of morbid Celtic extravaganzas that had every tattooed punk professing to having been fans of the style all along.