Circus

Unavailable at all for nearly three decades, then issued in a VHS edition in 1996, the Rolling Stones' legendary Rock and Roll Circus finally gets the full treatment with this DVD release documenting the 1968 event…

While much of Europe was winding down out of the progressive rock era and heading to safer grounds while the flood of punk and disco sounds were trumpeting around the world, the Swiss band CIRCUS continued to swim upstream by cranking out some of the most complex sounds of the entire 1970s. While forming in 1972 in Basel, the band nurtured its intelligently designed art form to the point the four members of Marco Cerletti (bass, bass pedals, guitar, backing vocals), Andreas Grieder (flute, alto saxophone, backing vocals, tambourine), Roland Frei (lead vocals, acoustic guitar, saxophone) and Fritz Hauser (drums, vibraphone, percussion) succeed in carving out an utterly distinct niche within the prog universe that to this day still sounds like no other.

Circus Maximus is a Norwegian progressive metal quintet from Oslo. They employ the use of symphonic and power metal influences that feature synthesizers and occasional keyboards. As of 2012, they have released three albums, The 1st Chapter in 2005, Isolate in 2007 and Nine, in 2012.

Finnish bassist Antti Lötjönen returns in February 2023 with his second Quintet East album on We Jazz Records. With Verneri Pohjola on trumpet, Mikko Innanen and Jussi Kannaste on saxes, and Joonas Riippa on drums, Quintet East is a hard-hitting ensemble of Helsinki scene A-listers. The new release sees the quintet work with Lötjönen’s inspired new music with remarkable spirit, spreading out on a quest for new sounds and ideas, and returning to base with a fresh batch of acoustic creative music, wild to the bone even when sounding completely in control.

The most interesting archival release of the Rolling Stones since More Hot Rocks, 20 years ago, and the first issue of truly unreleased material by the Stones from this period. And the Stones have some competition from the Who, Taj Mahal, and John Lennon on the same release…

It’s almost been three years since the release of Dead Letter Circus’ last full album of original tunes. Now, the group have announced that they’re set to release their long-awaited new album in September.

Orpheus Nine emerged with an instant classic in 2017's "Transcendental Circus". While the centerpiece is a six-part, nearly-22-minute title track, O9 deftly balances virtuosity with emotion and melody in every one of the album's beautifully crafted songs. Listeners to this very impressive debut have cited elements of ELP, King Crimson, Rush, Saga, Styx, Genesis, Frank Zappa, Gentle Giant, Spock's Beard, The Flower Kings, Yes, Marillion, Kansas, Echolyn, Glass Hammer, and Return to Forever - yet any past influence quickly yields to the fresh and original sound of a band focused on future possibilities.

Following on from the disheveled collapse of the Deviants, the wired delinquent garage fuzz monster which propelled him to counterculture superstardom, Mick Farren convened a more-or-less all-star band from the same disreputable circles he'd always moved in. Carnivorous Circus was cut, the first essential album of the 1970s, and its still one of the most unrepentantly nasty, gratuitously ugly records ever made. Rock history loves to bandy those terms around, then apply them to this week's most fashionable long-haired gnarly snarlies. And it's true, the Pretty Things, the MC5, the Pink Fairies, the Broughtons, any of the myriad '60s freakbeat bands captured on sundry Nuggets and Pebbles type collections, they've all dipped a toe into those malevolently murky waters…

Recorded between 1968 and 1970, the tracks on this eponymous CD were not released back then and represent Headstone Circus' complete legacy. Bassist Nick Bonis, drummer Randy Ray Pope and lead guitarist Mike Johnstone formed Headstone Circus in 1966. The group was meant to have a psychedelic rock imprint, but the addition of singer/songwriter Glenn Faria diverted that original intention toward something much closer to Crosby, Stills & Nash, Neil Young or Buffalo Springfield. Upon listening to these tracks released almost 40 years after the fact, it is obvious that the group was doing some things right. Faria has a warm and soulful voice, the multi-part vocal harmonies (the main CS&N tie-in) are beautiful and most of the melodies exert an immediate appeal…

The 4K Dolby Vision restoration of the famed concert film The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus will be released by ABKCO Films and ABKCO Music & Records in June. The newly-expanded, star-laden special will be available on Blu-ray for the first time ever, as well as on DVD and for digital download (TVOD). Among many new treats, it includes an unseen version of The Beatles’ ‘Revolution’ that features John Lennon, Eric Clapton and Keith Richards.