FOREST

Circle going back in time!

Forest is the album where Circle take their hats off and pay homage to their Krautrock heroes. Everything in this album screams Krautrock, from the tribal percussions to the disjointed electronic parts and, of course, the motorik playing. Influences here can be clearly heard on this album. Also the album is aptly named since it keeps a folksy atmosphere through the whole album (albeit a rather spooky one).

If you've done your Krautrock homework well then this album will sound very familiar to you. From the first seconds of the album to the last ones you'll be transfer back into Germany in the early 70's. It all starts with its tribal percussions reminiscent to that of Agitation Free and in the background some quirky keyboards like that from Faust. The second one comes out sounding like Amond Düül II with its acoustic instruments, but with alot of weird voice recordings and electronic collages in the background for a serious mind bending trip. The third one still keeps the acoustic and tribal atmosphere of the previous songs (the album is called Forest after all) along with it's weird keyboard sounds in the background. I would like to point out that Mika is singing in English on this album and not Finnish or that made up language they call Meronian. It's quite dodgy, but it fits the music quite nicely. In the third song Mika is singing the blues (!). It's quite interesting, but fairly unnoticeable since the focus isn't in the vocals completely. The fourth and last song on the album it's the 17 minute closure reminding us how good Can's Bel Air from their Future Days album was. It may start a bit different, but when the song starts picking steam you'll know what I mean.

While my review may seem as if they're plagarising the bands mentioned, it's not. Surely, the influences are there, but they certainly aren't that derivative. The only piece in this album that I think it gets derivative is their last one, Jäljet, which sounds alot like Can.

In the end you get a 45 album full of folksy Krautrock goodness. The album sounds like one single piece and it's perfectly executed giving us an tripping-out-in-the-dark-haunting-woods feeling. The album that I think comes close to in atmosphere is Can's Future Days. If you're a fan of any of these bands mentioned then you owe it to yourself to get this album. It's good to see a modern band keeping the Krautrock spirit alive. The album is still growing on me, but for now I'll stick with the rating of 3.5 out of 5. It's a wonderful album nonetheless, and one of their trippiest!

Well, Circle is one of those groups that flourishes in the obscurity of the depth of prog and Kraut rock. Indeed the Finnish combo could never possibly deny having been influenced by the Cologne group that charms so many younger generations still nowadays. Gentle slow mostly acoustic grooves, very repetitive, but forgets to be as weird or even disturbing as the legendary Krauters were, especially in the vocal dept, where they don't even come close to being as intrusive as Damo Suzuki was.

Starting out on a drone, slowly evolving into Can-like minimalist groove, this track, like the whole Forest album, has some rather hypnotic qualities (ala Tangerine Dream); especially once the electric guitar gets into the groove. The third (and by far shortest) Ydinaukio takes a few minutes to hump into its groove, fitst starting on toilet flushes and other bizarre idea. Again the mostly acoustic nature of the music makes me think of the other group Ghost (he Japanese outfit) and without warning Ydinaukio morphed into Jaljet, an 18-mins raga Can-like groove. It slowly dies out, a bit like the album started, into some deep bass drone-like sounds.

Not that Forest is any better than the rest of Circle's albums (at least the ones I heard a few years back), but Forest tends to have a little je-ne-sais-quoi, that gets my attention.