(Eclectic Prog) Circus - © 1977 - Movin on, APE (image + .cue), lossless

EAC extraction logfile from 14. September 2005, 15:37 for CD
Circus / Movin' On

Used drive : HL-DT-STDVDRAM GSA-4163B Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache
Read offset correction : 0
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No

Used output format : C:\Programmi\Exact audio copy\wapet.exe (User Defined Encoder)
320 kBit/s
Additional command line options : %d -t "Artist=%a" -t "Album=%g" -t "Year=%y" -t "Genre=%m" mac.exe %s %d -c2000

Other options :
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
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Filename D:\Masterizzazione\cd2\CDImage.wav

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CRC F3CF2CA0
Copy OK

No errors occured

End of status report

Coming from Basle (NW Switzerland on the language border between the Alemanics and the Romands), this unusual quartet of musicians has a strange line-up. Hauser is one of the better percussionists (still playing but in jazz bands nowadays), and bassist Cerletti (the only non-Alemanic in the band) is certainly excellent plays also acoustic guitar. The other two, Fri and Grieder, share the wind instruments with the vocals. That's it! No KB and almost no el. guitars, at least on the first two albums. This group is one of the real gems still unknown to most progheads, developing a fusion between classical and rock much like early MANEIGE did but also includes some influences from VDGG (mostly the sax but sometimes also the singing) and also KING CRIMSON to a lesser extent. While having some success locally, they only managed three studio albums of which the first two are now on CD. Of those two albums "Movin' On" is their best but their debut is also excellent.

CIRCUS is certainly recommended to everyone who loves great interplay between musicians and to progheads not afraid of a little adventure in their musical endeavours.

No one would argue that this band is heavily influenced by Van der Graaf Generator in style – especially through the voice of lead singer Roland Frei who also plays acoustic guitar and tenor sax. Influences from other bands that I see also obvious are: early King Crimson, early Genesis, Gentle Giant and Yes. As I said that Circus is heavily influenced by VdGG in style but in terms of composition, there is a significant difference. I remember reading the history of Van der Graaf, there was a statement that said VdGG wanted to make a difference in their approach to music. As it’s very obvious that rock music was predominantly occupied with soaring guitar effects and sonds (sometime distorted a bit or a lot) and VdGG took a bold idea by not using guitar as main instruments in their composition. They used hammond organ and sax instead. That has become the trademark of VdGG music over time. But, Circus did differently. They did not even use any keyboard and the like in their composition. It’s a progressive act, I would say. This is enough to say that this album is like Van der Graaf without Hammond organ. Can you imagine it? Yeah … it’s a good alternative of VdGG sound. I do enjoy the album very much.

There are three relatively short tracks, one medium (about 8 minute) and one long track called “Movin’ On” the title track. Throughout the stream of music produced through this album I find a true joy as what I’m listening is something really classic and legendary even though I never heard this band in the seventies. There is no such thing as good or bad tracks here as each individual track is excellent and also each of them has its own uniqueness in composition (structure and arrangement). The music sometimes change abruptly into jazz music or sometimes in avant-garde mode. All musicians involved are talented ones. Marco Cerletti who plas multi roles playing different kind of instruments: bass, bass pedals, acoustic guitar, and also backing vocals. Andreas Grieder plays flutes, alto saxophone, backing vocals, tambourine. The flutes part is pivotal in this beautifully crafted album. Fritz Hauser plays drums, percussion, vibes. I remember the Gentle Giant format where each musician plays multi role with different kind of instruments.

One thing I need to mention here is the obvious melody which is similar with “Starless and Bible Black” song by King Crimson when they play the last track “Movin’ On”. It’s not exactly the same but they both share similar nuance and sound. But overall the last track which I consider as epic is a great track with combination of many styles.

It’s a highly recommended album that any proghead should have it in their collection. The album cover is like Garuda Indonesian Airways logo. Keep on proggin’ ..!