Circle - "Taantumus"
(Bad Vugum 2001, BAD-93CD)
Circle - "Taantumus"
(Bad Vugum 2001, BAD-93CD)
From Aural Innovations #17 (September 2001)
This is Circles second CD in less than a year! My wife and I found the last one (Prospekt) a little too repetitive and sometimes boring, although I really liked the first track, 'Dedofikition' a lot. The new CD is a bit different as it has 10 tracks, most about in the 4-7 minute range, rather than the long stretched out numbers. The CD also features quite a few guest musicians. The CD opens with 'Kultaa' (which they played live - see review in this issue) and is very repetitive but features some freaky electronics and some vocal chanting as the bass just pounds away at you. 'Kekkone' brings it back down and the band enters into a more laid back groove of spacey sounds. Here some of the guests add a little violin and other things. Great song. 'Valtaisa Hahmo' is next and actually has a sort of regular rock and roll riff to start off but then gets into a hypnotic CAN like rhythm with some flutes layered in. Cool. The middle part of the song gets quite intense with the singing and might even remind me a little of Vagtazo Halottkemek from Hungary. I won't describe the rest of the songs but I think this CD is one of the best the band have done since Pori and will probably attract a wider audience than many of their CDs as they show many diverse styles and have shorter, less repetitive songs. Excellent stuff that is clearly influenced by the Kraut rock masters but stands up on it's own. Great stuff.
Taantumus is distributed by Bad Vugum. You can visit their web site at: http://www.lpg.fi/badvugum/.
The mother of all Circle web sites can be found at: http://www.phinnweb.com/circle/.
Reviewed by Scott Heller