AFTER an absence of 2 1/2 years Clannad fielded a strong team for their comeback gig at the Mean Fiddler on Saturday night. As their new album, Lore, indicates, fans of the band need not worry that they might have wandered off into any strange musical territory during their absence. It's business as usual in Celtic wonderland.
The band's sonic juggernauts are always well built, with all the rivets - harp, synthesisers, whistles, voices and saxes - punched skilfully flush and everything neatly in place. But unfortunately, this can result in an undeniably "functional" quality to the music.
This is a more disquieting fault at a live performance than it is, for example, on Lore, where the consistent slickness becomes increasingly seductive. In concert, it is a disappointment when the work of individuals is sacrificed to the overall vision. Now and then, individuals do break through the dense wall of Celtic sound - Mel Collins's glistening jazz rock saxophone provided some of the evening's scarce reckless moments - but for the most part it remains sturdily intact.
Old favourites, with trademark cascading vocals from Bridin Brennan, still haunt the set. The newer material, such as Broken Pieces (a song with resemblances to Mary Chapin Carpenter's Stones In The Road) and the slightly more typical Alasdair MacColla, have enough elements of the winning formula to please an audience.