Avant Rock trio Odd Circus will drop “Deus,” the latest EP in their ongoing succession of audio adventures, on August 5, 2022 via Good Idea Music. The band premiere the official music video for the new single “Scoundrel” on our webzine. Watch the video through the YouTube player below:
Odd Circus gave us a short interview about the track and the new album coming out:
The track is part of a free improvisation set that mixes multiple genres and styles, how would you describe this part of the album?
“Free improvisation has always been the core of what we do as a band, and we have a sort of unspoken code between the three of us that nothing is off limits. That process of removing boundaries and running with wherever the flow of our playing takes us seems to push the music into the most interesting places. Sometimes those places are heavy and almost terrifying, which is the case for the particular grouping of improvisations we selected for DEUS.“
How was this album born and how the tracks that compose it were born?
“The bones of these tracks are free improvisations from the same July 2020 sessions as our prior two releases, Mantha and Arch Nova. We improvised basically all day for nine or ten days, so we’re sitting on dozens of hours of stuff in the can. The bassist Crews and I then spent a long time listening back to everything, flagging our favorite parts, and cataloguing them according to what style and vibe it fits. So now when we want to put together a release, we basically just harvest individual sections according to what vibe we’re going for, dial in the mixes, and sequence them together to give some sense of organic flow.“
The entire recording will be released in the new album “DEUS” how did the project come about?
“For DEUS, we knew we wanted to use some sections that were radically heavy, in some cases wandering into doom and noise. The first three tracks, culminating with the new single “Scoundrel,” were kind of the anchor to where we wanted this release to go. “Damager” was another that we were sure had to be a part of the vibe we were going for here. From there we had to go hunting through the archives to find the right stuff to round it out. Finding the right tune to end the album can be tough, for instance, so we spent some time waffling over different options before finally deciding on what became “Manipulator.” Once we realized we could overdub some new melody into that one, it really started to come to life and became one of our favorites.“
How does this record differ from your previous albums?
“In general we hoped to use this release to max out our dark and heavy material. This is the third EP in a series that takes that approach, so by the end of this one we wanted people to feel like within this style and vibe, we had pushed the pedal to the metal and hit the extremes.
From a more technical perspective, “Manipulator” in particular is a new direction for us in that we are overdubbing more substantially than we have on any previous release. The climbing saxophone work there is something that would have been very hard to execute live! But overdubbing in post allows us to reach for some ideas that are crafted specifically to fill a certain role we feel like the track needs. It’s no coincidence we decided to name that one “Manipulator” (laughs).“
There will be the possibility to listen to this project or a free improvisations live, do you have any plans about it?
“We don’t have any concrete plans to take Odd Circus into the live setting at the moment, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen! If I can manage to convince the guys to make the trip up from Florida, I would love to put together a bill with Odd Circus here in DC. My newest project, Last Scene Alive, features me teaming up with synth player and fellow prog-head Zack Be (Pretty Bitter, Mystery Friends) on some stuff that would work great on a bill with Odd Circus. We’ll have to see if we can make that happen.“
Compiled from free improvisations performed live in studio over one week in July 2020, with limited overdubs, “Deus” was recorded by the band, mixed by Crews Carter and Odd Circus, and mastered by Joseph Carra at Crystal Mastering (Melbourne, Australia) and features cover art by Daniel Vega.
“Deus” will be released on all digital platforms. Find preorders at the official Odd Circus Bandcamp page here: https://oddcircus.bandcamp.com/album/deus
Tracklist:
- Tyrant
- Braggart
- Scoundrel
- Charmer
- Damager
- Deceiver
- Reviler
- Manipulator
Odd Circus explores the suspension of space and time. Forged in improvisation, the band’s music navigates boundary-less sonic terrain that embraces the unknown and welcomes the unique and peculiar. The result is an Experimental style of Psychedelic Art-Rock that careens its way into Garage, Fusion, Krautrock, No wave, Post-Rock, Noise, Hard Psych, and Sci-fi Prog.
Lineup:
Graham Robertson / Saxophones, effects
Partin Whitaker / Drums
Crews Carter / Bass, Effects
[…] Today, Progressive Rock Journal brought us all the new Odd Circus video for "Scoundrel" RIGHT HERE. […]
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