Wednesday 29 January 2014

Circus of Life (Magic Pie, 2007)

A suite lasting some 45 minutes... and if you think such a long listening will be tiring, well, yhou're wrong! This Norwegian band succeeded in building up a complex and ever changing musical architecture, including all kinds of prog rock and perfectly balanced, fit to catch your curiosity.  Ethereal atmospheres, heavy rock riffs, keyboard fast progressions, distorted guitars, floydian chords, beautiful sung themes, effective vocal harmonies à la Flower Kings... all is there. Nonetheless, this is not a mere succession of tracks, a miscellaneous display of sounds.

This album features the long title track and two more songs.

This is a suite, a real, coherent one. Those guys arrange very well the electric and acoustic moments and play even better with recurring themes and riffs. All those elements fit perfectly together and they all have the band's original trademark, made of airy melodies and transparent sounds, where vintage and up-to-date flow together. I liked their first album, but this title track from their second one definitely persuaded me that Magic Pie are worth their name: they're magic and, yes, they're a treat!

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