CIRCLE 
772965
CD
RAUNIO (SMOKIN' INSTRUMENTAL LIVE SET)

STYLE/LINK:KING CRIMSON

The brand-new Circle album is their debut ‘live’ performance on CD. The set is played and produced brilliantly and sounds just perfect. For nearly an hour 9 tracks are delivered in an almost unbroken fashion as a base line of guitars, synths, keyboards, bass, drums and some vocals generate powerful cataclysmic music that can also be almost trance-like at times. For close on an hour, the band take you on a trip through the musical areas inhabited by bands and genres ranging from classic 70’s Can and Krautrock, through to Magma, Godpseed, Hawkwind and much, much more besides. Along the way the instruments can soar high and the meter needles hit red, as the mighty Circle machine’s working parts warm-up and band hit the turbo button to unleash huge sonic panoramas of monumental proportions. This is music with real power – A truly awesome sound, that I can imagine having a much wider appeal than some might reckon.

The opener is the title track, and it’s very mantra-like, giving an almost “Magma-meets-Can (early seventies)” sound to the proceedings as rippling piano, sparse percussives, barely restrained guitar and chanting, deep vocal cast their spell on the listener, hooking you in some kind of electric trance that soars high and carries you away for close on seven minutes. ‘Alotos’ arrives, and the more you hear it, the more hypnotic the sounds become – The drummer slowly comes to life, the piano chords ripple, the electric bass starts to hum and the intensity begins to rise – You can almost feel the impending electricity pumping and flowing through your veins – Chants swirl, and slowly this mighty five-piece unit that is Circle. At six minutes, the meters peak and the cataclysm is unleashed as the band hit the power button and explode into life with a huge wall of instruments washing over you like a tidal wave - Guitars, synths, keyboards, bass and drums all reach levels you can only but dream of experiencing. Then it all dies away to a languid form, without a break and continuing the feel and mood of the album as two minutes of peaceful instrumentation descends over the soundstage. At this point we have already passed ‘Raunio-Part II’ and we head on into, track 4: ‘Kultaa’, where things really get moving with a vintage rolling Krautrock-esque rhythm meets shards of guitars splintering all over the place, as pumped-up, fuzzed-to-the-max electric bass and a sizzling sea of keyboards hit their stride in a hail of acid rock fusion. As the album moves on through five more tracks, the performance is unbroken - The languid interludes become shorter, while the mighty beast that is the glorious attack of the Circle juggernaut, continues apace. Yes, ‘Raunio’ really is a truly electrifying beat of an album.

Weight: 150.00 g