OFF: Other Bands - Circle

[Jean Collin]

Hello there!

Quite interesting to find out how the hawkworld gets divided into two or
three taste zones which seem intimately related to time and place...
As a Belgian local gig promoter (last one was Circle!), my top ten I would
die for would be something like : (in no particular order)
- Mogwai
- Neutral Milk Hotel
- Korai Orom (Hugarian ethno psychedelic percussion-based stunning outfit
-promoted them 4 times)
-Ole Lukkoye (Fantastic Russian eastern-folk dance pysych - same!)
-Death in Vegas
-Spacious Mind (one of our first gigs an eternity ago!)
-Afro celt Sound System
-Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
-Asian Dub Foundation
-Ozrics


At 17:19 18/01/03 +0100, you wrote:
>Allan tallied...
>
> > To date, there have been 33 responses to this thread. Here is
> > a list of Artists that received more than one entry - it's not
> > a contest though.  I just thought it might be interesting to know
> > what other artists people listen to & as I have not heard of
> > some of these bands, it may be interesting to have a listen to
> > the stuff that other Hawkwind fans find enjoyable (just for FUN).
> >
> > Pink Floyd (x10)
> > Gong (x7)
> > Ozric Tentacles (x7)
> > Circle ( x5)
>
>Well, it's nice to see that one of my favorite groups (that *hardly*
>gets the distribution that these other three get on a worldwide basis!)
>is so well represented here on this list (ignoring the fact for the
>moment that one of the five was from me!).
>
>Anyway, then (perhaps) my latest concert review (that will appear on
>A-I.com momentarily anyway, but what the hey?) might interest more
>than just one or two people.  If not, I apologize for the assumption.
>
>So here goes...
>
>Circle - Café Cairo, Würzburg Germany, 6.12.02
>
>After touring with the Acid Mothers Temple in their native Finland, Circle
>broke off on their own and made their first trip to Germany (apart from a
>one-off performance at a recent Burg Herzberg) in about six years.  So,
>whereas AMT came through my current homeland of Switzerland to do three
>dates in succession, Circle made it more difficult on me by "forcing" me to
>take a day off from work to ride a train north for about 5 hours into the
>heart of the country in scenic Würzburg.  They were to play the very next
>night (a Saturday) in Munich, which is perhaps a little closer, but I had
>already visited there and already arranged to spend that day visiting the
>city of Würzburg.  Which I then did, including a hike up Ste. Mary's Hill on
>the west bank of the River Main, where one can find the historic castle
>complex of "Marienburg Festung" as well as a great view of the city below.
>And straight down from this overlook sits the Jugendkulturhaus (essentially
>a 'youth hostel') which houses the Café Cairo establishment, the very site
>of Friday night's festivities.  My travel plans weren't quite as
>well-prepared as one would like, given that I couldn't manage to get on a
>bus that took me directly to my hotel (far from the Altstadt since those
>seemed all to be booked up).  I learned the hard way that Bus No. 26 has
>*two* different routes (why are they both called 26 then?), but I improvised
>and did manage to check in and turn back around toward towncenter soon
>enough.  Of course, then there was no bus back at that time, so only after a
>sizeable walk back to town was I able to make my way toward Café Cairo.
>
>At 9:45, I finally walked into the door of the Jugendkulturhaus and heard
>something quite rumbly and hypnotic-like coming from the floors above, and
>swore to myself as I raced up the spiral staircase (two floors) to find the
>club entrance and the cashier at the open door.  So I didn't have to wipe
>the fog from my glasses as I handed over some denomination of Euros to the
>man, who perhaps sensing my concern at perhaps missing much of the show
>(advertised for 9:00 start) as he made change and said, in effect, "They've
>only just started - this is the first song."  Ah, cool - waiting for the bus
>would have been a huge mistake - I'd have missed much more than just four
>minutes or so that way!  I kinda expected there to be an opening act with
>such an early start time, but apparently not.
>
>Café Cairo is a cozy place, obviously a coffee bar by day with tables and
>chairs, but of course these had been taken away leaving just enough space
>for ~100 of us to arrange ourselves as we wished.  I didn't recognize the
>opening piece, but I soon noticed the songlist laying out on the soundboard
>at the back of the club.  Song 1 was entitled "Alotus," so we were hearing
>the title track from the next album due out on Klangbad (Faust's home
>label...interestingly, one Hans-Joachim Irmler was visible in the audience
>this night!) any day now.  The 2002-vintage five-piece Circle features three
>new members compared to when I first saw them in the USA in 2000.  Mikka
>Rättö (of Moonfog Prophet, aka Kuusumun Profeetta) is now the lead singer of
>Circle as well, and he also helps out new drummer Tomi Leppänen on his own
>smaller percussion kit.  Joining veteran Jyrki Laiho on guitars is Janne
>Westerlund.  Jussi Lehtisalo is the lone original member now (still running
>the Ektro label back in Pori) and onstage these days he sticks to playing
>the bass (and doing occasional vocals), though in years past he's played
>guitar and various keyboards as well.  "Alotus" was still going strong and
>building in intensity as I worked my way forward - I was trying to figure
>out where the keyboards were hidden on stage, because I could definitely
>hear freaky sounds and such in the mix.  Eventually I could tell that the
>soundman has a digital playback unit linked up with a small module
>containing several knobs and such, so that he (Teemu is his name, or rather
>just "T-Mu") was actually a sixth member of the band this night, albeit less
>visible.
>
>For the next tune, Jussi took over on vocals (while Mika sat down at his kit
>to drum away) for a track entitled (at least for the moment) simply "G."  In
>not-so-atypical Circle fashion, Jussi's baseline seemed to consist of mostly
>just this one note, but then the great thing about this band is how much
>they can do with so little.  The dueling guitars were uncharacteristic
>though, both doing their own thing in "lead" fashion simultaneously, which
>skewed the sound mix a little too much towards the bass.  But this only was
>momentarily, because the driving rhythm guitars came back soon enough to
>reestablish the proper 'pyramid of sound' that's so important here.  The
>next tune, another 'prototype-in-progress' called simply "Judas Priest" on
>the setlist (some sort of inside joke there I'm guessing), eventually kicked
>into an excellent metallized "chorus" of sorts that indeed had a bit of
>'Stained Class' character to it.  But unfortunately the enhanced volume blew
>the power to the PA stack on stage right during the climactic point.  Oh
>well, an onstage visit by someone-in-the-know quickly solved that problem,
>as the track continued into an extended section with one of the guitarists
>(Jyrki I think) doing some interesting e-bow/glissando-style playing.
>
>The highlight of the night came next in the form of a 15-minute blistering
>version of "Dedofiktion" from the 'Prospekt' album.  After what seemed to
>take an eternity in build-up (only acting to enhance the expectation), the
>break into Riff#2 finally occurred with the five uniformly set into a
>dynamic groove that got many of us up near the front (especially) jammin'
>out to this wonderful hypnotic slurry of sound!  After an interesting
>impromptu sidebar piece that feature Mika and Jussi doing semi-spoken
>vocalizations against a simple traditional melody (complete with
>military-style percussion cadence and copious sonic effects), Circle
>*finally* played a couple tracks from the new album, "Sunrise."  "Vaanen
>vatiatar" started with a laid-back 'climbing' and 'looping' riff as on the
>album, but in the end it became another medium for crazed expression from
>Mika as he did he best Michael Jackson impersonation with one hand firmly
>inside his own trousers.  Not to be outdone, Jussi showed how limber his
>sturdy Nordic frame could be when he literally bent over backwards during
>the final climactic moments of the performance during the album's opener
>"Nopeuskuningas."  An excellent finish to a sonic-blitzkrieg of a set!
>
>Encores were again unfamiliar works (they're never hesitant to try out new
>things each and every night!).  As such, while some interesting moments
>occurred here and there, these works still need a little 'hashing out' to
>get them into proper form I think.  Everyone hung around for this additional
>'rehearsal' though, and the crowd was duly pleased to have them play a full
>110-minute set, high energy throughout.  There's no doubt that this show
>outdid those that they did in the US several years ago, mainly because of
>the extra length and the more enthusiastic audience here that the band
>obviously drew 'energy' from.  With "Sunrise" being such a strong album and
>a somewhat unique from all previous works, due especially to Rättö's very
>peculiar falsetto-ish delivery, Circle continues to be among a short list of
>my favorite currently-active groups in the world today.  Well worth a
>journey of five hours...I'd do it again in a minute.
>
>Set-list:
>Alotus
>"G"
>"Judas Priest"
>Dedofiktion
>Marssi
>Vaanen valtiatar
>Nopeuskuningas
>-------------------
>Potto
>Teolaisten Laulu
>-------------------
>Faarao (?)