CIRCUS 2000

Circus 2000 were an Italian band that released two albums at the turn of the seventies. Listening to this you'd have no idea that they came from Italy, bearing no resemblance to the soon to be burgeoning prog scene that was about to explode there. Their sound had much more in common with the American west coast sound that developed in the late sixties, made all the more authentic by the use of English vocals.

The band centres around the powerful vocals of Silvana Aliotta, an excellent singer not unlike Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane and indeed parallels can also be drawn on a musical level to the San Francisco band. Their sound is very derivative of the west coast scene playing bluesy psychedelic rock. They have a duel guitar line up with no keyboards, the guitars generally on the clean side leaving an uncluttered sound and there's some good if unspectacular playing going on. It sounds a little dated at times now but there's some more than decent songs here. All are on the short side though, often under the three minute mark. Best of the bunch being Try To Live and Sun Will Shine, both with insistent catchy melodies. Despite the obvious competencies of the band they'd be nothing without Aliotta's emotional vocal delivery which benefits from a high range, making the album a cut above the average.

Not an essential release by any stretch but nevertheless, despite their Italian origins an album that anyone who has more than a passing interest in the late sixties/early seventies USA west coast scene will be advised to check out.