Electronic Meditation
Thursday September 22nd, 2016 with Sean McFee
Two things only the people anxiously desire...
Some folk, prog, and experimental, and don't we think we're clever. Dedicated to the 2016 election.
| Brother John Bread, Love and Dreams - Amaryllis - Sunbeam |
| Circus was a Swiss progressive rock band who released four albums in the 1970s, almost none of which have seen legal CD reissue. They featured a very interesting instrumentation, as there was neither an electric guitarist or a keyboardist. Instead they had acoustic guitar, bass, bass pedals, and a number of woodwind instruments. Their vocal material is sometimes reminiscent of Van der Graaf Generator due to the presence of sax and the melodramatic vocal delivery. However we are starting with the mostly instrumental sidelong opus (because if you are doing progressive rock, you better make a sidelong opus at some point) that occupies Side B of their second and most well-regarded album, Movin' On (1977) |
| Movin' On Circus - Movin' On - Zytglogge |
| Now we travel back in time one year to 1976 and hit the first album, before moving on to their live album. The first album is not as evolved as Movin' On, maybe more of a chamber-prog sound with the aforementioned Van der Graaf Generator comp.
The live album (1978) is credited to the Circus All Star Band. This group featured the members of Circus, as well as nine other musicians representing other Swiss groups like Rumpelstilz, Warm Dust, Meridies, etc. One of the additional musicians is a keyboardist, Stephan Ammann. All the material on this album is new and the intention was to highlight Swiss music in general, not only Circus. |
| Dawntalk Circus - Circus - Zytglogge |
| Augusta Rauricorum Circus All Star Band - Live - Zytglogge |
| For their final album (Fearless Tearless and Even Less, 1980), the sound is definitely changing towards more conventional progressive rock, as Andreas Grieder leaves the band and Stephan Ammann joins on keyboards. After this album Circus was to break up, but Hauser and Ammann joined with a second keyboardist, Stephan Grieder , to form the group Blue Motion (one album, 1980). This group goes even more to a progressive rock direction with influence from both ELP and modern classical music. The LP was quite rare but has been reissued twice, first by The Laser's Edge in the USA, and then by Belle Antique in Japan. |
| Manaslu Circus - Fearless Tearless and Even Less - Illuminatus |
| Stonehenge Blue Motion - Blue Motion - Laser's Edge |
| From Switzerland we move to the Netherlands, and the great progressive folk group, Flairck. This group was quite prolific from 1978 through the end of the 20th Century, also apparently with a recent reunion live album. Their third studio album, entitled Circus, featured a four-act suite, also entitled Circus, as well as some other compositions. On this particular album they take a more global approach, taking inspiration from cultures around the world in addition to their own. |
| Circus Act 3 & 4 (Na de pauze) Flairck - Circus - Polydor |
| Finally we close the show with the great Maritime experimental rock band ... or as the CD says, "heavy ambient". The Exploding Meet was Mark Carmody's group and I've played them a few times... my uncle also played with them sometimes, as did CKCU's very own John Westhaver of Friday Morning Kartunes. John plays on this material, as does Geordie Haley... it's the addition of a saxophone on the 1993 live performance making up the latter half of this album that gives it another dimension, almost a King Crimson sound. |
| Circus of Disharmony (reprise) Exploding Meet - Circus of Disharmony - Look at the Flare 
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| Carnivalesque Exploding Meet - Circus of Disharmony - Look at the Flare
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| New Tangier N.B. Exploding Meet - Circus of Disharmony - Look at the Flare
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| Quotation Exploding Meet - Circus of Disharmony - Look at the Flare
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