Circulus
The Lick On The Tip Of An Envelope Yet To Be Sent

Few times does buying an original album become essential to get an idea of the music it contains. This isn't one of those cases. Browsing through the charming booklet included with this Circulus CD, the reactions can broadly be as follows:

1. Hilarity, bursting into loud laughter and an uncontrollable urge to show the photos to your friends, with the intent of mocking and ridiculing together this bunch of losers.
2. Terror, because you thought that never again (apart from some fantasy-obsessed metalhead) would anyone dare to dress like a medieval minstrel, complete with tights, and even get photographed within an improbable circle of fire with shades of a Sabbath.
3. Veiled curiosity, induced precisely by the band's absolutely unpopular choice regarding clothing, though commendable for its courage, audacious bad taste, and absolute lack of interest in the aesthetic logic of the music biz.

You have to admit that bringing back the golden age of early '70s medieval psych-folk was the last revival expected in 2005, yet the music of Circulus harks back precisely to that period and its related bands, complete with ultra-vintage instrumentation (think of the Moog as the most contemporary instrument they use!). And, somehow, the result is not a farce as one might easily think. If tracks such as “Miri It Is” (where you seem to hear John Lydon disguised as a storyteller) or the sickly sweet “Candlelight” make you want to invade Poland after the first listen, the rest of the album keeps up to good levels. “The Scarecrow” winks at the early Gong, “We Are Long Lost” combines an angelic voice like Sandy Denny with the best Genesis, “Swallow” is a protest song that the early Jefferson could have written, the instrumental “Orpheus”/“The Aphid” send Stereolab on a stroll with Ravi Shankar through the Scottish moors.

If you are in search of medieval music, listen to “Aion” by Dead Can Dance, but if for you the Shannara saga is a modern equivalent of the Jerusalem Delivered, this album is for you. P.S.: my favorite band member is the one with the face of a Liverpool cadastral office clerk dressed in "full plate armor" and wielding a halberd.