SUNBURNED CIRCLE – the blaze game

(CD / album, conspiracy)

What happens if you combine two, in each other loosely connected collectives of freaks, into one bigger combination and then tell them to do whatever they think fit in the way of creative and artistic expression. From a cybernetic viewpoint, a lot of complex re-structuring and accomodation will occur, until the overall system has balanced out into some kind of quasi static status. This event and its consequences might leave the new form completely changed, so depending on the complexity and kind of connections within each system the sum of the two might neither be more or less than each of the two alone, but something altogether different.

Sometime early autumn 2006 just that happened when the freak folk / weird noise / avantgarde rock improv collectives Sunburned Hand of the Man from the USA and Circle from Finland were unleashed unto each other to form a new band with a headcount of eleven. There are some risks to that. The improbability of the situation and the unforseeability of its outcome might have resulted in the whole city being of Tampere being burned down. But you have to take some risks, right? No ashes without fire, as they say. Other things might have happened as well, for instance the outcome might have been boring and dull. A rehearsal in self-indulgence and self-reference without meaning. Fortunately, neither of the two happened, but “the blaze game” is a wonderful par force ride through modern, fringe psychedelia that ranges from rock to noise to jazz and back and rubs the dirt of a hippie’s back by sheer sonic impact.

In an ensemble as big as this one, with at least four guitarists and three percussionists and many other instrumentalists, the main thing for each participant is to hold back. Solo rides won’t do the overall atmosphere and dynamic any good. There are parts and some open spaces for solos as well, but they usually soon turn into another layer that holds pieces of the music together. The rhythm is, for the most part, tribal in the broadest sense with manifold instruments adding their layer of intuitive shades and forms. When all people seem to be on the ride together the various levels are almost impossible to tell from each other. The effect is somewere close to a post-modern hippie-version of “Bitches Brew”. The languid development of dynamics and the complete missing of discernible melodies adds another notch in the direction of the same connotation. Other tracks convince with big holes and noises from all kinds of machineries, back ground shouts, little bursts of various instruments all weaving a big, communal net of sounds.

“the blaze game” needs to take its time. During the first listens the trancelike effect of falling into the players groove will take some time, probably even up to the last minutes of the 40 minutes something that the session had been cut down for this album. The more listenings the easier it is to settle into the right mood to tune in to the same wavelength the players had. In our times of a thousand downloads of mp3s per day and none ever really listened to, in our time of superficial copy and paste music reception, this is a lot to ask from listeners. Everybody seems to be on the lookout for the new big thing, and it always has to be something grand that punches you in the face with what makes it so extra-ordinary. This kind of self-marketing is a true bastard. So it is good to hear something that has to take its time to work, that is not up and ready to do a choreographed dance for the jury you, as a listener, sit in and where you give the highest points to the most bland, obvious and easily understandable piece of crap being thrown at you. But where you lean back and try to get into sounds, music and atmospheres.

The hyperrealistic coverfotography of some telephone booths being burned down, is a sight to behold on its own. By the way, the vinyl version of this record is a true beauty. And limited. So catch one if you can, you won’t be able to download coloured vinyl, a poster and fold out covers from the internet, you know.