It's been a long, winding, weird road from Beat Circus' avant-garde circus roots to their current incarnation.
Brian Carpenter still helms the band on their third release, "Boy from Black Mountain". If you haven't checked in on the band in awhile you may be surprised to find them not in center ring but somewhere along the appalachian trail.
The album starts off by featuring the group's chamber music foundation, but the lyrics may be a bit misleading. Carpenter sings that he "lost his way", well if he lost it he's clearly found a wonderful new way on this recording. It's clear from the second track on, the country rave-up "The Life You Save May Be Your Own", that Brian is willing to follow his muse anywhere. This includes deep into rural america.
There's a gruffness and bluegrass swagger infused into these songs that is frequently counterpointed by gentle strings and a verdant lushness to the arrangements. "The Sound and the Fury" brings to mind jazzy movie music, like the vocal pieces Ennio Morricone wrote for many of his films. But this time funneled through the tastes of Slim Cessna to create something that would've been at home on the "Carnivale" soundtrack.
Beat Circus isn't even afraid to "bring the rock" as they do on "Nantahala" which conjures memories of the Concussion Ensemble with it's piercing guitar and orchestrated offset.
All of these normally disparate elements might never fuse elegantly in a lesser composer's hand but Carpenter is more than capable in this regard. Every song is a cohesive piece, not a cobbled together mess. It all comes together on the fifth track found here: "Petrified Man". This song comes out like oompah mountain music, but in the best way possible.
In the end the best part is that this is a true album: a complete, united collection of songs. Beat Circus takes us on a wonderful ride through a strange, gothic backwoods landscape. "Boy from Black Mountain" is the perfert soundtrack to get lost in the woods to.
