Soundway レコード& CD

Review: Remastered release of Circus Underwater's 1984 self titled outing, including unreleased tracks taken from the original quarter inch tapes. Something of an unsung, DIY prog-electronic masterpiece, Circus Underwater now comes reissued with an insert, which retells the unique story of this oddball duo. An incredibly obscure LP and musical project first conceived under the aegis of Washington DC label Glass Wing, its two founding members are still unknown to us; all we know is that they are/were two friends who set off on a psychic quest - from the beatnik suburbs of their US capital city to the parallel hippie recesses of San Francisco - and produced this ambient prog jetsetter in the process.

Review: Eelco Topper's latest release as FELBM is a conceptual affair, with the Dutch producer delivering a 38-minute piece (here split into two parts for vinyl, each of which finishes with a locked groove to give the impression of the track creating an infinite musical loop) that mixes and matches tape loops, cyclical samples, repeating melodic motifs and pastoral-sounding snatches of flute, bansuri, bass trumpet, saxophone and pedal steel. While the concept, inspired by the artist's thoughts about 'the cyclical nature of the world around him" is important, of more significance is the utter brilliance of the piece itself - a genuinely gorgeous, warming, atmospheric and ambient-leaning concoction tailor-made for imagined afternoons in the countryside and woodland walks at dawn.