Review: Flange Circus - Abandoned Glow
Flange Circus have made an album! This is joyous news indeed. After two exceptional EPs; 'Ekranoplan' and 'Overexposed' (read my reviews of them here and here), they have taken the plunge as it were and recorded an album that is everything I'd hoped it would be. The band are: Pete Collins (Bass, Keyboards, Programming), Bon Holloway (Guitar, Keyboards, Programming) & John Taylor (Keyboards), and damn fine fellows they are too.
The album starts in fine style with 'Great Divisions'...ethereal sampled vocals and a hazy drone open up into a smorgasbord of delights; a Kraftwerkian beat, kosmische synth and pulsing bass. It channels the spirit of the Berlin scene to perfection...on hearing blind you would expect this to have Baumann's name writ large on it. A spectacularly good way to open an album. 'Fucko The Space Clown' (awesome title) sees the band change tack and veer more towards Carpenteresque soundtrack territory, except maybe a tad more uptempo. The synth work, again, imbues the track with an authenticity that many bands strive for and fail miserably. 'Strange Hairy Airport' continues the soundtrack vibe and throws in an atmosphere of dread and suspense for good measure. The bass positively throbs throughout, providing a structure around which rich swashes of synth and drone combine to make the soundtrack for...well...wandering around a 'Strange Hairy Airport'. 'Homunculus Gardens' is a hauntological number...eerie spoken samples mix with backmasked effects and retro electronica resulting in something that is unsettling and yet weirdly comforting...brilliant stuff! 'In The Pestilent Folds of Chub 909' sees the band revisit kosmische but with a contemporary programmed beat that evolves into something tribalistic. More spoken word samples and the driving beat again make this ideal fodder for a soundtrack. 'Moloch By The Sea' opens with the mutated strains of 'Scarborough Fair' before atavistic drums beat out a tattoo over which more hauntological electronica weaves a tapestry of restrained eeriness, aided and abetted by some 'impromptu' flute courtesy of Anna Billett. 'Dehibernation' is heavier than what has preceeded...the guitar is in the forefront, knocking out some riffs accompanied by some funky drumming and more of the now familiar electronica...it is a heady mix, one that would seem incongruous on paper but works well on many levels, while 'Kwak' brings the intensity down again in style. More lush drones and primal drums provide a backdrop for another pulsating bassline and kosmische synths. The addition of more spectral moans..vaguely audible..add a modicum of preternatural ghostliness. 'Zerodom Heritage 2016' is a reworking of a 2013 demo, an hypnotic combination of bass and motorik beats draw the listener in before a huge drone of Lustmordian dimensions adds a whole other dense but hazy level to the track. Over its eight minutes it builds into a krautrock based opus....all retro synths and metronomic rhythms that you just don't want to end. 'Gnu Fantasy' closes the album with more luxurious drones that come to a sudden end after two minutes to be replaced by a pure krautrock rhythm courtesy of the bass and beats and then the guitar enters...some fine, fine guitar it is too. It gives the track another new dimension and changes the character completely; it becomes more urgent and more strident and provides a counterbalance to the everpresent kosmische synths. In an album of standout tracks, it is a definite highlight.
I knew this album was going to be good, based on the previous EPs, but was not expecting this masterpiece. In this year of so many fantastic albums, 'Abandoned Glow' is easily one of my favourites....it ticks so many boxes that I've lost count. The artful way in which the band have mixed krautrock, kosmische, hauntology and synth driven soundtracks is frankly spectacular...it is the work of artists who obviously have a deep knowledge and love of music and, more importantly, have the nous to utilise this knowledge appropriately and respectfully. At the risk of waxing panegyrical I love this album and could easily run out of superlatives, so I'll leave it there and just urge you to head over to the band's Bandcamp page here and order it....it comes as a download and CD (and a super swanky bundle of the "CD plus three pieces of Abandoned Glow artwork in a posh envelope, signed and sloganned by the band themselves.") It is officially released on 27th October and those luckily enough to be in Manchester on November 11th, there is an album launch gig at AATMA, supported by the mighty Colossloth.
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