Thank you so much, Kev Rowland and Progressor (Uzbekistan), for this five-star review for C.O.R.E. !!
Here is the entire review, reprinted in full below:
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It has been way too long since we last heard from Circuline, with ‘Counterpoint’ being released eight years ago, and the live ‘CircuLive: New View’ coming out in 2020, but finally they are back with a new album. I am not sure why it has taken so long, but I know Andrew Colyer has been very active with both Robert Berry and The Tubes, and then on top of that we have had some line-up changes. The core of the band since 2014, Andrew (keyboards, lead & backing vocals), Darin Brannon (drums & percussion, keyboards) and Natalie Brown (lead & backing vocals) have now been joined by bassist Shelby Logan Warne (Kyros) and multi-instrumentalist Dave Bainbridge (The Strawbs, Iona, Lifesigns) who this time around provides guitars and additional keyboards. Ex-member William “Billy” Spillane provides backing vocals, while Joe Deninzon (Kansas, Stratospheerius) plays violin on one song. The band describe their music as “modern cinematic rock” and if by that they mean they provide classic symphonic prog with modern twists then they have nailed it on the head. Harmony vocals are a key element of what they are doing, and there are times when they come across as being heavily influenced by Yes, but Dave has a very different approach to the guitar than Steve Howe, and this combined with the less bombastic and more delicate keyboard playing from Andrew, and some lovely fretless bass from Shelby (who often stays far more in the background than one may imagine) means they very much have their own identity. I have been listening to Dave for more than 30 years, and he is one of those musicians who provides additional quality to any band he is playing with, and given I was already a fan of Circuline prior to hearing this I was smiling before this even hit the player. This is only their third studio album, and I certainly hope it is not as long to the next one as yet again Circuline have produced an album that lovers of Seventies prog will get a great deal from with luscious music and vocals throughout.
Circuline – International ProgStock Festival Announcement #2
Michael Gauvreau (Willie Aames, Jumptown, ColyerBrown) will be joining Circuline for our performance at ProgStock on Saturday, October 19th, at 4 pm! Mike has been singing and playing drums, percussion, and many other instruments since his childhood years. He has known and sung with Natalie Brown since the 5th grade! In his early 20’s, Mike moved to California and toured the United States with the Willie Aames (Eight is Enough) band. Continuing to perform throughout his life, Mike now fronts his own 20-piece Motown-style horn band Jumptown, produces the Crossroads Music Festival in Leesburg, Virginia, and has been performing with the ColyerBrown Group since 2016 up and down the East Coast.
Mike will be singing lead and background harmonies with Circuline, as well as contributing to the Groove with his percussion rig. We’re so excited about our new lineup – we can’t wait to see you at ProgStock 2024!
Circuline is so excited for our upcoming 90-minute show at the International ProgStock Festival!
We’re grateful to have been asked back for the second time, and we’ll be performing our new album, “C.O.R.E.” in its entirety, along with some previous favorites and new live features!
The Bad News: Due to overwhelming demand of her own band Kyros, and her recently acquired and remodeled London-based recording complex Sensible Music Studios, Shelby Logan Warne has decided she cannot be “performance ready” on bass for 10 days of travel, rehearsals, and the Circuline show at ProgStock. We as a band are sorry that is not a possibility at this time, and we hope to perform live with her in the future, when the time is right. We support her decision, and will be seen in the audience at Kyros’s Friday night performance at ProgStock. Shelby will be available to sign autographs with Circuline at the merch table, following our Saturday night performance on October 19th.
The Good News: Having toured with Circuline in 2014, playing on and mixing our first studio album “Return”, appearing as a Guest Guitarist on our second studio album “Counterpoint”, and co-writing two songs on our new album “C.O.R.E.”, Matt Dorsey has been an “almost-band-member” since the inception of this band. Matt will be filling in for Shelby on bass and acoustic guitar for our 2024 ProgStock performance!
Thank you so much, Dmitry M. Epstein and Let It Rock (Canada), for this wonderful review of C.O.R.E. !!
Here is the entire review, reprinted in full below:
Turning international, progressive rock pursuers explore inner light and expand sonic panoramas to shine it on.
Ages seem to have passed since “Circulive: New View” found this band taking stock of their early creative achievements, yet while the collective started working on “C.O.R.E.” soon after coming off-stage when that performance was over, it took them about five years, and recent remodeling, to finish the album. No wonder, then, in the subject of time and impermanence serving as a principal motif here and running from opener “Tempus Horribilis” to centerpiece “Temporal Thing” to “Transmission Error” which forms the record’s finale. What’s wondrous is the ensemble’s newfangled adventurousness and elegance – a possible result of adding two British musicians to the American core and one of the fresh members being a woman who must enhance the group’s sensibility, previously expressed primarily via singer Natalie Brown’s perspective. And though the listener’s left wondering as to why there’s an acronym in the platter’s title, the presence of a riddle could never get in the way of delight.
And delights on display are bountiful. They float into focus once “Tempus Horribilis” has unfolded a cinematic soundscape that’s stricken with effects and full of effervescence, and refract initial excitement through the insistent, reggae-tinged groove of Shelby Logan Warne’s bass which Dave Bainbridge’s scintillating guitar and Andrew Colyer’s ivories flesh out tightly enough to make snippets of spoken word and splashes of vocal harmonies feel like a mere lead-in to dramatic scenes lying further down the road. As Brown and Colyer’s voices mesh to create tension, and Bainbridge’s [guitars] join in, the entire stunning scope of the quintet’s current fantasy flight and their delicate dynamics come to the fore. So if the acoustically tinctured, melancholic ballad “Third Rail” flutters across serrated riffs towards raga, the piano-rippled “Say Their Name” offers more nuanced, Renaissance-scented elegy only to turn it into a funky symphony, with Darin Brannon’s thunderous drums directing the overall storm.
As the rhythm section drive the rapture of “All” to banish a Jon Anderson-shaped shadow from the frame until the nervous, albeit opulent, strands of “Temporal Thing” bring it back, the ensemble masterfully balance instrumental images and enunciated poetry to land on a triumphant plateau. However, “You” is where heavy figures, exquisite passages and folk oratorio blend most perfectly, and “Blindside” is where the players’ souls are laid bare in the most vulnerable, sincere, and hymnal manner. With Natalie aiming for celestial heights and leaving faux-orchestral epic “Transmission Error” – given Joe Deninzon’s violin attack – to flex their progressive-rock muscle into a lyrical fiber, “C.O.R.E.” emerges as a major work that should shed a light on the now-Transatlantic band’s alluring future.
*****
Dmitry and Let It Rock – Thank you so much for these kind words.
Here is the entire review, translated and reprinted in full below:
The US band Circuline was founded in 2014. Behind the name are experienced musicians with a clear plan in which direction their collaboration should go. And so it is not surprising that their debut album “Return” was released a year later, followed a year later by their second studio album “Counterpoint”. That was it for a while but with new output, because in the next few years only live recordings were released on CD or DVD (“CircuLive::Majestik” from 2018 and “CircuLive:: New View” from 2020).
There were line-up changes and ultimately a very promising line-up, which produced the current album “C.O.R.E.” played. The core still consists of singer Natalie Brown, keyboardist and singer Andrew Colyer and Darin Brannon. New additions include Shelby Logan Warne on bass (Kyros, Synaesthesia) and the busy Dave Bainbridge on guitars (Iona, Strawbs, duo with Sally Min, daughter of the legendary Gentle Giant keyboardist Kerry Minnear, Lifesigns). Of course that makes you curious.
And the Symphonic Prog fan will not be disappointed! It may take a few listens, but sooner or later it becomes clear that this is a very varied, high-quality album that will hopefully lead to a significant increase in the level of awareness and popularity of this (now multinational) band - this would be deserved anyway.
Plus points can be collected with the vocal melodies and performances. They are quite melodic, although the melodies don't necessarily stick in your ear canals straight away. The interplay between front woman Natalie Brown and singer/keyboardist Andrew Colyer works flawlessly. They are able to sound a bit like Yes, like on ‘Third Rail’. But Moon Safari also comes through in some songs with a lot of background vocals. ‘Temporal Thing’ also contains arrangements reminiscent of Yes, here through the steel guitar and the beautiful Mellotron sound.
'Blindside', on the other hand, shows that they have mastered powerful vocal arrangements that even go as far as gospel-like.
They put the monster track 'Transmission Error' (albeit “only” about ten minutes long) at the end. It would also be a perfect end to a concert, because there is one climax after another. It starts right away with a crisp bass and a fast guitar and shows that they can also cut a good figure with slightly harder tunes. Bainbridge in particular shows his strengths here, and it doesn't have to be a Latimer-like guitar, but rather something completely different, like in this case a short Allan Holdsworth memory passage. But the keyboards are also very versatile here, sometimes as a fine organ, then with beautiful piano playing and finally with a wild synthesizer duel with the fantastic violin by Kansas violinist Joe Deninzon. As I said – a monster track. If you want to get a quick idea of the qualities of this band, listen to this song straight away - then no questions will be left unanswered.
Great album from a great band that has been given an additional breath of fresh air by the new members. Big recommendation for the symphonic rock fan! Rating: 12/15 points
Teapot of the Week “Teapot of the Week” on Supervised Progging in week 38/2024
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Supervised Prog and Juergen – Thank you so much for these kind words.
