Customer Reviews

Banba

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After the necessary head-clearing exercise of their 1990 album "Anam" Clannad make a tentative step back to the world of "Macalla" with this album. It was the right move. "Banba" is probably most famous for "I Will Find You" that became the theme to Last of the Mohicians. If so, it's a real pity, because the surrounding material here is just as good, if not better, than the movie title.

The opening track satisfies all those listeners that think that Clannad makes "spooky music." (A hangover impression from the Robin Hood soundtrack!) But the rest of the album finds the band in a confident soft-rock mode. This is how Sirius should have sounded. The music is firmly grounded in rock, but with a well distilled folky edge. The melodies are good, too. If you're new to Clannad, this album is an ideal place to start.

'We are a fusion of various styles of music, growing out of a traditional Gaelic root.'
- Maire Brennan

For anyone who likes Enya, this group is important, showing both a prehistory of the solo Enya, as well as a side-development in the area of modern electronic celtic-inspired music. Maire Brennan is now the lead vocalist for Clannad, but she has also produced her own solo work.

Clannad is a family effort, having been begun by Maire and her brothers Ciaran and Paul, plus their uncles. Indeed, the similarity between the words 'clan' and 'clannad' cannot be missed. Enya is another sister, having joined the group briefly before embarking upon a solo career.

Banba achieved great popularity for the band Clannad because of the song I will find you -- this song was used in the film 'Last of the Mohicans'. It is a haunting, lyrical ballad of love and longing, of desire and commitment, doing the strains of music and love with a bittersweet that only the Celtic people seem to know how to do properly.

'Hope is your survival
A captive path I lead
No matter where you go
I will find you
If it takes a long long time
No matter where you go
I will find you
If it takes a thousand years'

Incorporating Mohican and Cherokee chants into the lyric structure, this song is truly a cross cultural experience. It reaches deep into the emotive part of the soul.

Other songs on the album are variously in English and Gaelic, including the beautiful and interesting Na Laethe Bhí and Banba "ir, both of which have interesting cadences and can inspire feeling despite being in a foreign language. (My family lineage having Scottish roots, I am no stranger to Gaelic, but even so these are unfamiliar, perhaps made the more beautiful as I can ascribe my own meaning to them).

Banba was released in 1993, twenty years after the group got its start. The previous year, Anam had been released with a track entitled 'Harry's Game', which again was from a motion picture, 'Patriot Games'. The music on both of these CDs are consistently Clannad, which is to say, beautiful, melodious, celtic-inspired gems.

The other CD of theirs in my collection, Fuiam, dates back to 1982. At this time, Enya had not yet struck out on her own, and she and her husband Nicky Ryan were still an integral part of the group. The music shows some immaturity compared with the later work of both Enya and Clannad, but the seeds of the future greatness are here. Fuiam, which means 'sound', features Enya on keyboards and vocals for two songs.

These CDs, as indeed much of the output of this group, is a real treasure for those who enjoy various kinds of music. Prepare to be inspired.

This is my favorite recording by one of my favorite artists. Each track on this albumn exudes a poignantly haunting beauty. The vocals could move an angel to tears and will echo in the minds ear long after the last note has faded from the air. The instrumentals are elegantly crafted and transport the listener to a different world. I don't speak a word of Gaelic but I certainly understand what the music is saying to my soul. I need a new copy as I actually wore out both a cassette and a CD!

No Pol Brennan. A real gem. Some bits good some bits not so good, but if you're a fan then it don't matter, YOU NEED THIS ALBUM, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? BUY IT NOW!!!

I bought this CD when it first came out and to this day it remains one of my all-time favorites. Some of the songs are hauntingly beautiful. I love the lead singer's voice.

For tracks like Na laethe Bhi, Banba Oir, Theme from the Last of Mohicans and A Gentle Place I'd give not 5, but 10 stars. But for the pop-remainings I'd hardly give 2. This is an interesting struggle of Clannad's members in making a commercial album while tradition, roots, imagination and mysterious images are trying to set themselves free from mainstream-listeners' needs. Mike Oldfield called such people "cloth-eared nincompoops". Yet somehow they manage to turn really interesting and respectable performers into worse than average.

Like other reviewers here, I first knew about this group through their 'I will find you' sound track. I went out and bought the CD, and glad I did. I then bought few more of Clannad's, but nothing matched this one. This is a unique album that was made with passion. As a whole, it is very romantic. There is something enigmatic about a song with lyrics I don't understand, yet the music tells it all. Those tracks with English words are simply beautiful, almost poetic. My favorite track is (8) Caide Sin Do'n Te Sin. I've worn out my CD copy like the other reviewer, and am in need to buy a new one.

This was the first Clannad Cd I heard. Now, i've bought 10 ones and i love each. The music is great, the celtic sense goes right to the soul. I'm not from the Isles, I'm from Central America and i can say this music is for everyone.

I recently watched "The Last of the Mohicans" on TV and was caught by "I Will Find You." I did some research and found "Banba" at my library. It has quickly become one of my favorite albums. The Celtic touches give Clannad's music a haunting, memorable sound that sets it apart. My favorite songs were "Na Laethe Bhi," "Banba Oir," "Struggle," "Caide Sin Do'n Te Sin," and of course, "I Will Find You," (the use of the song in "Last of the Mohicans" is lovely)

I first discovered this group after listening to "The Last of the Mohicans" soundtrack. I liked "I Will Find You" immediately upon hearing it and had to check this group out. It was my first but not my last encounter with Celtic music.They are very intimate with their music. The more intimate I feel about a group, the bigger the affect they have on me. 5 stars and a standing ovation for Clannad.