OFF: Other Bands - Circle

[Henderson Keith]

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 (?)