CIRCUS MIND
Circus Mind (Outhouse Music)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Circus Mind pulled out all the stops for their debut album. The NYC based quartet has big love for New Orleans style funk, so they rounded up the Rebirth Brass Band, Cyril Neville and the Meters' Leo Nocentelli to guest, along with the Rainbow Trout horns, the Marley family's go-to guitarist Earl "Chinna" Smith, Eric Krasno and Neal Evans from Soulive and another dozen or so co-conspirators to punch up the sound.

That all-star supporting cast, so promising on paper, is somewhat less satisfying on the album itself. The group is capable of developing a solid groove, a fact that's most evident on their less guest-adorned cuts, and leader Marck Rechler writes some decent funk inflected tunes for them to set their groove to, but the groove is too often buried by the decorative but often distracting contributions of the guest artists. Hint, guys. You're a good band, and you don't need to outnumber yourselves 4 or 5 to 1 on your recordings to prove it.

All that said, there's plenty of evidence here to indicate a solid spot for Circus Mind on the groove-jam circuit, and this one leaves me very interested in hearing the next one.

Track List:

Opening * Slow Start To Nowhere * Ground Zero * Plant The Seed * Interlude * Home Base * On Our Way * Spy Boy * Waiting To Be Saved * Cigarette Bitch * Song Idea * Telefunken V72 Brain Stimulator * Organ Grinder * ReStart * Closing

[Pick this up at CDBaby.]

© 2003 - Shaun Dale