Odd Circus – DEUS
Release Date: 5th August 2022
Label: Good Idea Music
Bandcamp
Genre: Avant-Garde Rock, Progressive, Psychedelic.
FFO: The Mars Volta, Frank Zappa, Mike Patton, King Crimson.
Review By: Anthony Petitt
The Avant-Rock trio Odd Circus has a new EP out by the name of DEUS. Recorded live in studio with minimal overdubs over the span of a week, DEUS has an interesting gimmick: every track is designed to sound like the tortured soul of a different unsavory character (e.g. a braggart, a deceiver, or a manipulator, just to name a few). This is achieved through free form improvisations performed by the trio.
The first of these is the short and sweet Tyrant. The crackling synth fits the doomy vibe perfectly. The tempo starts to speed up, but sadly the track comes to an abrupt end after only a minute and a half. Braggart is hypnotic and incorporates the saxophone to stellar effect. It drones over the frantic drums, but not in a grating way. Braggart is another short song, coming in at just over two minutes. Odd Circus breaks the trend of long-windedness that many other avant-garde artists are prone to.
Scoundrel sounds like you are in the center of a cyclone, as instruments swell and circle around you. And like a storm, it’s gone just as quickly as it came. On Charmer, jazzy sax is accompanied by muted drums, and the piece segues right into the next, Damager. The polar opposite of Charmer, Damager is cacophonous and chaotic, and it doesn’t come together quite as well as some of the others jams here. This is to be expected, however, on an album consisting entirely of improv: not everything will come tied up in a nice bow. That’s part of the beauty of it. Deceiver sounds much more like a proper “composition.” The interaction between the rhythm section is a highlight of the EP. Deceiver is more subdued than some of the others on the album, but it manages to keep attention. The next song, Reviler, is similar but with the intensity dialled up somewhat.
The final track on DEUS is Manipulator, and it’s a great ending: proggy as all hell and bursting at the seams with interesting effects. Odd Circus may have saved the best for last.
(3.5 / 5)
