Flying Circus
s/t

Label: Fastball Music
Three similar bands: Led Zeppelin/King Crimson/Dixie Dregs
Rating: HHHHHHH (4/7)
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm
Tracks
1. The World Is Mine
2. Dystopia
3. Fire (I Wanna Go)
4. Seasons
5. Bedevere’s Wake
6. Cut It Deep
7. Derry
8. Follow the Empress
9. Carpe Noctem
10. Living a Lie
11. The Hopes We Had (in 1968)
12. Voices in the Rain
13. Pride of Creation
14. The Edge of the World
15. The Jewel City


Band:
Rüdiger Blömer - keyboards, violin
Michael Dorp - vocals
Michael Rick - guitar
Ande Roderigo - drums
Roger Weitz - bass


Discography:
Seasons (1997)
Out Of The Waste Land (2000)
Pomp (2002)
Forth (2010)
Ones And Zeros (EP 2013)
Starlight Clearing (2016)
1968 (2020)


Guests:


Info:
Produced by Flying Circus
Re-recordings of tracks 1, 4, 5, 9, 10, 13, 14, original recording of track 2, and overdubs recorded at the band's various home studios in 2020.
Track 7+11 recorded at Dierks Studis, Pulheim-Stommeln, Germany 2019
Track 12, and re-recording of track 15 recorded at the London Recording Studio
Track 6 recorded at musicube, Bonn, Germany in 2015
Tracks 3+8 recorded at Roger's Farm House Studio, Bedburg, Germany in 2012
Mixed or remixed by Rüdiger Blömer at Blömer Audio, Stolberg, Germany
Track 11 Mixed by Wulf Hanses-Ketteler at Huby Road Studios, Bedburg, Germany
Mastered by Steve Corrao at SAGE Audio, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Artwork by Michael Dorp and Norbert Kehren
Photos by Rainer Leingraf
"Collage Photo" by Franz-Josef Graß

Released 2021-02-26
Reviewed 2021-02-26

Links:
flying-circus.com
youtube
fastball music


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The circus has been flying for thirty years now, a pretty impressive stretch that has given us six albums where we reviewed the latest one with positive remarks. This self-titled release sees them remastering some songs, remaking other songs and compiling it all into a kind of best of release. I could think that they perhaps should have selected something more interesting for a cover, a gang of old men isn’t something that would invite a spontaneous purchase, at least not to me – I buy albums with more interesting covers if I buy something for chance.

We are given progressive rock with strong melodies and classic sounds, good vocals and really well produced. The fact that they have rerecorded all the songs from before 2011 and remastered all but the songs taken from the latest album gives the album a coherent feel, almost like a normal album. It is a bit longer though, with fifteen tracks and eighty minutes of playing time – the good variation makes it seem shorter than that. And on the song selection I think it is a good representation of the band’s career all freshened up to their sound today.

It is a good album with really good songs, I really like Fire (I Wanna Go) and The Hopes We Had (in 1968) that are the standouts for me on a strong album with no weaker tracks. It is an enjoyable album to listen to, though I have to say that I prefer last year’s 1968 to it as it feels fresher and more exciting, this is something we have heard before so it can never have the same impact. Still, I think it is a very good way to look back at thirty years and still offer the fans something more interesting than just your everyday compilation of songs.

A good introduction to this really strong band, a good and enjoyable album that should be appealing to anyone who like melodic music, and especially the progressive rockers. I think that fans of the band will find this a good album, and while I like 1968 better I don’t think anyone who buys this album will be disappointed – it illustrates the band’s thirty years really well.

HHHHHHH