AWmusic

Soft Circle

When one wanders through a forest and hears a waterfall off in the distance, they will always be drawn in closer to witness it’s magnitude and velocity whatever the size may be; it’s an invitingly hypnotic, and exciting sound. I felt the exact same way from the first seconds of sound emanating from Soft Circle, as I was off in the distance sitting at the bar waiting for the show to commence.

I approached the stage and seeing Hisham Akira Bharoocha, the lone figure that makes up Soft Circle (by the way; how can you not make awesome music with a name like that?) with his back facing the audience, it really felt like I stumbled upon something amazing by accident. I didn’t feel excluded by this initial position of his, in fact it created great suspense and wonderment.

In the center of the stage laid an epicenter of pulsing electro-warmth; a circle of drums, guitar, various electronics and a vast array of wires forming like musical veins. It seemed I couldn’t quit tell where Hisham’s limbs and extremities ended and where his musical implements began. His set was a continuous flow of power with boisterous drumming, looping instrumental magic, and hauntingly murmured lyrics.

I met the humble and easy going Hisham after the show to share a few complimentary words and also scored a live recorded CD from him as his proper album was not available for sale due to some mix up. Either way as soon as I got home I ordered his album; Full Bloom online. If I ever start up a really cool cult, not one that relies on kool-aid, but champions individuality and positive action, I’m gonna try and get Soft Circle to provide the hymns.

Soft Circle – First Time
Soft Circle – Don’t Just Stand There

High Places

I am unaware of the origin and intention of this band’s name, but I can fashion an easy explanation from personal listening experience; hearing the music with my eyes closed can transport me onto a mountainside in a calm, joyous, and meditative state.

Mary Pearson and Robert Barber created a great sound euphoria for the audience. Between Mary’s beautifully soft vocals popping to and fro mixed with Rob’s electronic wizardry (and Mary’s too), there’s definitely never going to be a fight occurring at any of their performances; even if a quite drunk girl is constantly switching between two male dance partners of which I witnessed first hand… that’s got to say something about the mellow mood that High Places can emit at any given second.

Besides the electronic equipment that each commanded so well, both members also utilized a wooden shaker of sorts, a little hand held collection of meshed together beads. I loved their sense of experimental joy and it’s hard to get that fun rattling sound out of my mind, not that I want to. I mean I did buy their self titled album so I can prolong their lovely playful sounds.

High Places – The Tree with the Lights in It
High Places – From Stardust to Sentience

The Horseshoe Tavern was musically blessed with such a great combination of acts whose sound fit so well with one another. They formed a snug two piece puzzle and the image they made together was quite magnificent. I am glad that I did not miss this brilliant show, definitely one of my favourite music outings in the past while.

Sometimes the cold metallic sheen of the loop-based, electronic and beat-laden can be a little too sophisticated in its modernity to transcend its exclusivity to the dance faction, which is a shame, because often the loop-based, electronic and beat laden can be fairly warm and inclusive, without sounding like a field recording of a toolbox being fed into a washing machine. High Places use an emptied-cutlery-draw-falling-onto-steel-drums kind of percussion, alongside what sometimes sounds like old arcade machines parping in the background, but the organic and human elements of this debut eclipse any consideration of this Brooklyn duo working in a musical ghetto branded with the simplistic “Intelligent Dance Music” acronym.
Clunky bone rattling rhythms stumble forward like the natural sound of objects being hit and Mary Pearson’s wispy vocals, which barely surpass the ethereal or the monotone, combine to present the homemade quality of an album given the “made at home” epithet. Beneath the musical veneer the lyrical content also unveils a literal organic concept, dealing with the wonder of participating in nature and the impact of an inner imagined, or outer natural world. The songs, whether they address the joy of climbing trees or just the beauty of them dressed in lights, convey a sense of childlike awe, which also seems to suit the timid vocal delivery. Similarly, the tinkling electronics, concocted by multi-instrumentalist Rob Barber, patter away like the distant memory of a noisy music lesson at a nursery, as the convoluted clank of (what sounds like) wood and metal jostles among the artificial and the processed.
At times, the tangled tintinnabulations of the individual tracks saturate the album in a crowded and indistinguishable rhythms and the furnishing of an abrasive pulse with a fragile voice is an especially well-oiled mechanism in dance music, but there are enough captivating moments to distract the listener from an over familiar modus operandi. The galvanising momentum of “Namer”, the pleasing eastern twang of “The Storm” and the exquisite atmospherics of “From Stardust to Sentience” all proffer a repeated pressing of the repeat button, as does the chanting cadence of “Gold Coin” in its gleeful revolutions.
Although not strictly their first official release of note (there’s the 03/07 – 09/07 collection of singles and stray tracks) this self-titled “proper” album manages to meld the subject of unselfconscious wonderment to the object of the mechanics of the machine-based, with results that are far from cold, inhuman or exclusive.

High Places – The Storm
High Places – From Stardust To Sentience