THE WARM, DARK CIRCUS

East Coast Prog Folk artist Damon Waitkus is back with his ever-expanding Jack O' The Clock ensemble, here showing us with this amazing album his ever-expanding vision of eclectic, folk-anchored progressive rock music.

1. "The Ladder Slipped" (7:27) Wow! What a surprise! A song that starts out as a solid, great Jack O' The Clock song turns to heavy prog! Awesome! (14.5/15)

2. "Division Blues" (2:22) Microtonals! (Ben Spees!) Wow! I was not expecting this! A hard rocker! So creative and fresh! Pure genius! Great lyric and awesome vocal performance. (10/10)

3. "Stuck Inside of Elvis" (4:45) John Zorn-like in its horn-led syncopation and angular melody lines, Damon manages to make it all work together with a rather amazing vocal performance. Astonishing! (9.25/10)

4. "Sage's Song" (0:49) pretty little atmospheric interlude.

5. "Dürer's Rhinoceros" (12:55) a gentle, dreamy opening is filled with beautiful nuances all softly muted or while Damon sings softly to set up the scene. (And, as we all know, Damon's lyrics all tell very visual stories.) The second motif has European and Asian musical traditions interwoven beautifully as Damon and special guest Thea Kelly adds a "female perspective"; it sounds very 1980s Peter Gabriel ("San Jacinto" and Birdy). By the time the fifth minute comes around we've entered another, more dynamic and "daytime" motif (meaning there is a spirit of working, laboring here--like a smithy's craftshop). I love the industrial percussives with walking fretless bass and assorted strings (including microtonal guitar). Multi-voiced choral vocals take over in the eighth minute before Damon leads us into an eery passage ("the storm"--in Buffalo--as from the great tale about the great Blizzard of 1978 in Buffalo from Repetitions of the Old City, Part II ). Some amazing melodies--both vocally, harmonically, and instrumentally--in the rest of the song--making this one of my favorite epics of 2023 (23.75/25)

6. "This Is Just What It Seems" (3:30) singing in a very delicate, vulnerable voice (amplified by the frail warble in his voice), Damon sings over an assortment of acoustic instruments. There is a rural, old-timey feel to the sound palette and style choices here. Very pleasant and inviting. The music gradually builds beneath Damon and harmonizing vocalist Thea Kelly, introducing new instruments, even replacing ones that the song started with. A very nice song. (8.875/10)

7. "How Are We Doing..." (13:16) wind, distant flutes, and continuous stream of some news show on the television open this one before some psych guitar arpeggi and industrial drums enter and take over. Horns of a variety of sounds and styles arrive together as the drums get a bit unruly presenting a kind of UNIVERS ZERO-like "controlled chaos." Into the fourth minute and it's still all instrumental, but guitars and basses have arrived and come forward to add their muscle. Next tuned percussives take a turn at the fore before strings, reed instruments, and raunchy electric guitars (MIDIed?) take over the presentation of the nontraditional (chromatic) melody. The chromatic minimalist weave continues without rock rhythm section as chorus voice bank enter to present the word and melody. The rotation of instruments is of such a wildly wide variety that it feels as if we're on a merry-go-round or carousel. I don't know if this effect (and its metaphoric significance) are what Damon & Company have in mind, but it's amazing! Plus, there is such a mix of familiar and totally unfamiliar sounds and riffs bombarding us (thanks Ben et al.!) Enter a spoken vocal muted by a horn and yet coming from the derriere, followed by another set of television speakers (including Noam Chomsky), culminating in a fairly cohesive bass-dominated passage with the choral vocals clearing the way from within. Overall, this is an astonishing, awesomely inventive song that seems to bend and reshape time from the linear to the circular but suffers slightly from a lack of engaging melodies: the experience is invigorating and intellectually fascinating but ultimately not as emotionally pleasing to make me want to come back with any great frequency, thus my less-than-stellar rating. (26.75/30)

8. "...And Who Will Tell Us?" (8:21) the title indicates that this song should be considered a continuation of the previous one. Very mellow weave of early GENESIS-like acoustic guitars (and dulcimers?) set a peaceful, pastoral setting for Damon to sing over (sometimes with multiple tracks given to his own voice). This reminds me a lot of the sound presented by WOBBLER's "This Past Presence" from their wonderful 2011 release, Rites at Dawn, minus the Mellotron and piano. Nice melodies established by the third minute as the instrumental content of the weave increases and amplifies. Then, halfway through the third minute, there's a development into a kind of YES feel to the music. This continues for about 90 seconds before a palette of metal-percussion joins in and slowly takes over despite the resistance of rock guitars and power chords jumping in and out. Around 5:30 this coalesces and morphs into a smooth rock palette before an awesome piano- and electric guitar-supported motif supports a dulcimer solo. At the end of the seventh minute the rock instruments begin to back out, subdued by a gentle wave of acoustic stringed instruments woven together to serve as buoyancy for Damon's ethereal voice, which then closes out the song. (18.5/20)

9. "Snowman on a Ledge" (3:31) gorgeous solo hammered dulcimer work sets the stage for Thea Kelly to sing over starting around the 1:20 mark. And that's pretty much it: Damon's dulcimer with Thea's gorgeously emotive vocal. (9/10)

Total Time:

It's taken me a while to get to know this album because it is so full of layers, nuances, and innovations. I am so glad to have this album in my possession as it is truly a creative masterpiece of modern prog fusion (that is, a fusion of many, many elements from many disciplines and sub-genres contributing to and informing the progressive rock genre of music.

A/five stars; a refreshing masterpiece of eclectic progressive rock music from this formerly-folk-rooted ensemble. Definitely a top 10 album for 2023. Easily Damon's best album yet.

Lets start with the album cover a painting done by Albrecht Durer back in 1515, in fact there's a song on here called "Durer's Rhinoceros" at 13 minutes. Just a beautiful picture and very similar in colour and in tone to the cover art on JORDSJO's latest "Salighet'. I've had these two cds sitting beside each other a lot. And with both bands I feel they've just created their best work with their latest records in 2023. JACK O' THE CLOCK's previous record "Leaving California" is the first by this band to disappoint me, so much good stuff on there but the new directions they took mostly didn't work for my tastes. Damon Waitkus the band's leader literally moved out of California to a different state while working on it.

"The Warm, Dark Circus" is a return to form and then some. Back to having double digit guests helping out and while they did try some more new things once again like they did on the previous record, it all works for me this time. My kind of album lyrically as I have Anxiety and other issues and this is about dealing with the anxieties and possibilities of the moment, the present. They mention that they range through some of the weirdist and heaviest stuff they've done yet. And how about the two track attack of "How Are We Doing..." and "...Who Will Tell Us?" two tracks that have been around since the start of the band, and they have finally put the final touches on them refining them and experimenting with them over many years.

This music is so over my head and there are so many sounds, a ton of instruments in play and that's just Damon(haha). His buddy Ben Spees from their band THE MERCURY TREE adds some microtonal guitar on one track which was cool. Nine tracks and all deserve a word or two but I want to talk about some of my favourites. The opener "The Ladder Slipped" shows why I believe Damon is the best song writer around these days. He is a story teller. The lyrics here and elsewhere are meaningful, witty and simply on another level when compared to most bands. Banjo hits us first then the brilliant lyrics. So many amazing ideas on this album and with this opener. I was gushing listening to this while writing notes. Come on!

Really it's between this song and "This Is Just What It Seems" and both are incredible lyrically. This one is more stripped down with guitar, bowed bass, harmonica, steel pedal and vocals. Love how his voice quivers on this one. Emotion here. I mentioned the old duo of songs earlier that combined are worth well over 20 minutes. The second part is more experimental although we have that on the first part too and the way that second one ends with the vocals quivering "I'll be back soon" is moving. Some power on the first part too with bass clarinet and sax helping with that.

I have to mention "Division Blues" with Ben Spees on it because this is out of character for the band, a bluesy and powerful track with attitude. So catchy too. Baritone guitar leads with baritone sax and violin but yeah once again great lyrics and this one is a lot fun. The title of this album comes from a line from the song "Stuck Inside Of Elvis". Quite a bit of bassoon in this one. "Durer's Rhinoceros" also has it's share of bassoon but this 13 minute track is a ride. Haunting, uplifting, emotional, experimental yes just another JACK O' THE CLOCK song really. The way Damon arranges music is bordering on genius.

My new favourite album from this band just ahead of "Night Loops" and those two "Repetitions Of The Old City" records. A top ten for 2023. A beautiful package overall and well worth the purchase to have the physical.