CIRCULUS "During my short visit to this earth it has become clear to me that as well as being people, we are spirits. Playing medieval music helps me satisfy my longing to part of a timeless universe, where I can feel the spiritual highs of the ancients flow through me. Through music anyone can become a Time Lord. Psychedelic music, often created through the use of halucagens, suggests the feeling of mind travel in a secret world. The term "folk" I like to think of as "home spun music passed down through the generations". By combining these three elements I have found a way to be free." Emerging from in and around the London area, Circulus plays a unique firebrand style of progressive, acid influenced folk-rock, and it presents a considerable dynamic and stylistic range -from lyrical and pastoral-folk typified by 60's psychedelica and progressive rock to medieval using all kind of old string instruments. Circulus have a new album out this summer, called "Clocks Are Like People" and will be fairly baroque in places. "Clocks Are Like People" is slated for an August 7th release through Lee Dorrian's Rise Above Records. Words | Michael Tyack The album title comes from a song from the childrens television series "Trumpton." Although the puppets had no mouths and were only capable of looking surprised by throwing their hands in the air, you knew they were always happy. This is the look we were aiming for on the album cover. The album was recorded over two weeks in March. Since the last album was done in nine days we thought we might be alright for time... never! We'd never worked with a producer before. It's a bit like having your baby snatched by an extremist religious cult leader who assures you that he can improve your child. I'm sure I'd be the same if I was a producer! So Kit Woolven gave it his thirty years in the business golden touch and that's the way it happened. CLOCKS ARE LIKE PEOPLE> On to the songs... Dragon's Dance A pagan pop song to inspire wishful thinking. Rauschpfieffer and moog solos, the fast middle section is where the dragon is most likely to be felt. The melody of the song is borrowed from somewhere but nobody has come knocking at the door yet. Song Of Our Despair It is with great shame upon me that I must admit to playing to a click track. Our trousers were down and our legs were apart, we had to do what the man said, because he was making it sound like it could be on the radio. A fitting title. I love the way Will pushes the flute at the very end. Willow Tree This track is pretty prog / folk. The moog melted in very nicely at certain moments. We got to record this one live without a click. Because time was running out we left the original guitar on there instead of replacing it with a monster. Time wouldn't allow it. Wherever She Goes Since Lo didn't have a lead vocal on the last album, she at least deserves a song on this album. This song was built around a guitar piece in an open D minor baroque tuning. I have a weakness for D minor. Velocity Races I don't know how this track ended up sounding like a 1970's sitcom theme but it did. The telephone number mentioned in this song was spotted on the side of rubbish clearance lorry. To The Fields Another D minor lament. It's not a real harpsichord although next time hopefully it will be. The song is meant to mirror the shimmery transcendence of a mushroom experience. Bouree This piece was published by Michael Praetorius around 1610. When I was a boy I'm sure I remember hearing a rock rendition of this tune on the radio. This is the only traditional tune on the record. This Is The Way Again, more open D minor guitar tuning. I drove myself half insane trying to piece together this song, hence the non-sensical 'Ride The Horses' refrain at the end. D minor is such an addictive key. Reality's A Fantasy This track is eight minutes long. The vocal effect was achieved using a plug in called Cosmonaut. Again, due to time constraints, the Moog part was all done in one take. This is the only song on the album that shifts time signatures. Inspirational albums... THE ELECTRIC PRUNES | "Mass in F Minor" When you combine devotional chanting with sweet feed backing guitars and striding rhythms you are sure to arrive in heaven. The best way to hear this album is, like most music, on headphones stoned whilst walking through a cemetery. If you can find a freshly dug grave to lie in then all the better. Hello God! MOYSCH MCSTIFF AND THE TARTAN LANCERS OF THE SACRED HART | "COB" Listening to this album is like voyaging on a distant sea in an ancient galleon. I never knew where this hybrid of music came from until recently when I heard an odd recording of 1930's dance hall songs, one of which was very COB. Every song on the album is timeless, theres a few Old Testament references which creat vivid pictures of far away lands. The rhythms are heavy English and Scottish folk. FRESH MAGGOTS | "S/T" Made by two guys both still in their teens, this album mixes simplicity and complexity, folk guitar and fuzz guitar and huge orchestrations and a song about being 'on the dole.' This is acid folk if ever there was. VANGELIS | "The Dragon" An entirely instrumental album. This is how the bazouki should be played, fiercely, defiantly and relentlessly. If you want your party to have a dirty orgiastic feel then play this record and watch your guests writhe around as if they are in a lavish Arabic smut house. FERN HILL... MICK WILLS This album sounds like it was made in the early seventies but was actually recorded in the early nineties. Amazing folk guitar playing, out there in a spooky care free world of it's own. Circulus on myspace.