Album Review

Clanadonia – Clanadonia

• 15th Dec 2010

Scotland has many tourist attractions and some of them are to be found in Glasgow. However, there are treats for the regular shopper down on Buchanan Street sometimes tucked away in an alcove, sometimes in view of the passer by, but always in full volume. Is it a pot of gold jangling away? No, there are rarely rainbows here.

This musical treat is none other than Clanadonia, a band of kilt wearing, drum thumping middle aged guys, who pound any of the other pretenders who busk all day without much interest. Yes, no other act in this street warrant scores of shoppers and tourists alike to stop from their plans and take photos on their mobile phones or pocket cameras. Still, this is not about their live performances.

Clanadonia have a CD available directly from the band, either from their website or from their helpers on the street, is full of the intensity and magic of a ceilidh with all the cries of excitement you might expect. This is what opener Tu-Baidh is all about. The bagpipes do not annoy like the old standard ‘Scotland The Brave’ but paint that rainbow you would with the pot of gold at the end with its technicolour flashes of inspiration. Hamsterheid also brings out the blur of hedonistic pleasure, but this time in a slightly more restrained, but not corseted fashion.

Wait, there is more. Their music is not just about the joy of dance, but of times gone by. The drone of the ‘pipes sets the scene of a lone man on the hill tops, similar to The Hamish story of Bagpus. This sad mournful tune of ‘Tyler’s Lament’ wisps in the foggy evening as the heavens open. Choral movements in the background root the blow in something which is deeper and has longevity over anything, play this in the dark at about 3am and you might understand. ‘Shadowdancer’ is another epic sounding lament, but with a much darker undercurrent as the thunderstorm effects rumble over the sound of the drums gaining pace all the way through.

If the laments are adventures of the spirit, then there are enough rockers on here which become experiences of the body. ‘Egyptian’, ‘Spanish Eyes’, ‘Ya Bassa’ and most impressively, ‘Cossack’ are ways in which to travel out of the rain soaked landscape scenery of Braveheart. The latter being aided by synthesisers to give which there is an extra feel of eastern promises.

The goal is to keep it tribal. They do better than this just by being individual.