As CIRCA: HQ is currently winging its way across the Atlantic to me, I thought it was about time I finished the following, a review of CIRCA version 1! So, let me take you back, back in time to March 2006, when people thought the next President of the United States would be Hilary Clinton or Rudy Giuliani, and having shares in a bank was a safe option...

I first heard about CIRCA: at the gig where I first met my girlfriend (awwwww, how romantic...). This was one of the 3 of the Essence shows with Whimwise, Peter Banks' Harmony in Diversity, and the David Cross Band. Back then, the almost unbelievable plan I was told was for an album involving Billy Sherwood, Tony Kaye, Alan White, Geoff Downes, Trevor Rabin and Peter Banks. As we now know, Sherwood had a plan for an album made by many Yes alumni and even further names were considered, including Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman and Patrick Moraz. Who was actually approached is less clear, although it seems Rabin in particular was been involved in discussions as the project evolved and the album uses two pieces Rabin and Sherwood wrote back in the 1990s. What this 'Family' project, as it was called during development, would have been like, we don't know, for the plan evolved into something perhaps less ambitious in breadth, but more ambitious in depth. For Sherwood and collaborator Tony Kaye decided to focus on building a real band rather than just a project.

Alan White joined on drums, the one band member not living in California, himself in between Yes activity and having had limited success with other Yes spin-offs (the band White, briefly with Geoff Downes on keys, was struggling to get live dates, while the More Drama Tour with Squire and Howe had been cancelled). Completing the quartet was a non-Yesman but a previous collaborator of Billy's, Jimmy Haun, on guitar. Haun was an old childhood friend of Billy's elder brother Michael, and was together with the Sherwoods in early band Lodgic, as well as many subsequent collaborations. He does in fact have a Yes connection too: when Jon Anderson and producer Jonathan Elias were putting together ABWH's second album (which became their contribution to Union), they used multiple session players over Bruford, Wakeman and Howe, and it was Haun who ended up playing most of the guitar on the Union ABWH tracks. Haun and White joined in on material already developed by Sherwood and Kaye and an album was recorded in late 2006, with a few extra parts by Michael Sherwood and Cole Coleman (who previously guested on the debut solo album by Daniela Torchia, Kaye's wife).

One can make a comparison between CIRCA: and the reunion Asia, both Yes-related supergroups, both quartets with singing bassists, both active around the same time with albums out (CIRCA: 2007 and Phoenix). I suggest the comparison because the two have taken very different strategies to the marketplace: the reunion of the original Asia line-up began with touring firmly based on a nostalgic set list. Only after securing success as a live act did they secure a record contract and record Phoenix, and even more recent live dates in support of the album have concentrated on the older material. CIRCA: did almost the exact opposite, starting with an album of new material that they recorded and released by themselves, and then seeking live dates in support, with a set focused on the new material, although with a Yes component as well.

It was Asia, who of course had the advantage of an established name and better known musicians, who have been more successful commercially. Phoenix, with strong promotional support, sold well, charting in the US and Japan. I'd guess it sold well over ten times what CIRCA: 2007 did. On the other hand, CIRCA:, with a different economic model, releasing and selling the album themselves, may well be making ten times as much on each unit sale. Whatever the details, both bands have been successful in that both are continuing entities, with CIRCA: on to album number two with tour dates in February, while Asia are back touring soon after.

Musically, I'd also compare the two albums, CIRCA: 2007 and Phoenix. I enjoy and happily recommend both. Both have a few stand-out classic tracks ("Wish I'd Known All Along" on Phoenix; "Look Inside" and "Information Overload" on CIRCA: 2007), both a fair amount of middling material and both a few songs that sound a bit too much as if they're aping former glories.

For most Yes fans, their first encounter with Billy Sherwood was with "The More We Live – Let Go" on Union, one of the few great songs on the album. "Look Inside" has a similar vibe, but punctuated with a tasty keyboard solo by Kaye in the middle. I can't get enough of this song and my biggest complaint is that we don't get many such solos from Kaye on the rest of the album. While Kaye has been intimately involved in the songwriting and lyrics, his compositional voice is not so apparent. "Information Overload", my other favourite, reflects Billy's love of vocal arrangements, with a frenetic paean to living in the modern age. Those vocal arrangements, the lyrics' use of rhyme and rhythm, the manic melody, Haun's guitar tone and Kaye's keyboard choices, all complement each other in this dynamic song.

Other tracks don't have the same impact. This isn't a track-by-track review, but let me give some examples. Take "Cut the Ties" as typical of a more middling track: it begins with a great, repeating bass riff and a pretty catchy tune. Yet, even though the piece is not particularly long, it drags on to my ears, interspersed with occasional bars interesting in their arrangement. "Don't Let Go" is similar: while not without some lovely moments, much of it feels run-of-the-mill (and very reminiscent of World Trade's Euphoria). There's a certain plodding quality to songs like "Don't Let Go" and "Trust in Something" that I also associate with some of Chris Squire's work (like "Aliens are Only Us from the Future") and the first Conspiracy album.

"Together We Are" is one of the weakest tracks for me: it feels like filler. The basic song is uninspiring and the whole thing drags on with too many repetitions, brief snatches of instrumental work by Kaye and Haun tantalisingly promise more but never get expanded.

I realise I've not said much about White: his drumming is good, with moments sounding typical of recent Yes. By and large, CIRCA: have negotiated their relationship to Yes very well, marking themselves out as a distinct and separate band, eschewing talk they are the 'new Yes' or replacing Yes or a prototype for a new Yes line-up. Yet they also sensibly acknowledge that they have a connection with Yes, that, in being true to themselves, they cannot but help sound like Yes giving the common membership. Billy Sherwood has been a one-man marketing campaign, travelling the Web to engage with fans and potential fans, and successfully building up goodwill for the project. Unsurprisingly, that has often meant engaging with Yes fans: most CIRCA: fans are Yes fans. Most of the music broadly does the same: not sounding like Yes, but sounding like Yes. That is, it does not sound just like Yes, but there is a common element recognisable. Except "Brotherhood of Man", which sounds to me like the band were consciously trying to do something like a Yes epic of years gone by. I don't know whether they actually were, but that's how it comes across to me. Like early Starcastle! There's some very nice guitar and bass work at the beginning of the track, for example, but it just sounds too much (to me, at least) like what Howe and Squire would do.

Another weakness is in the lyrics, co-written by Sherwood/Kaye. "Information Overload" aside, they do little for me. There is little wit. Many of the lyrics have a positive (even sappy) outlook, yet a positivity that comes in moving away from past negativity, so that it feels like there's an almost angry tone to many of the songs in how they look at the past. So, the opening lines of the album are typical: "After all the compromise / After the truth and the lies". Other examples are "We've seen so many tragic ends / Starting over again / Denied we've been before / Trust in something again" in "Trust in Something"; and "No more wounded hearts anymore / We've been over and over it all before" at the beginning of "Together We Are". So, although the songs are reaching towards a better future, it feels as if they protest too much in their future optimism as they struggle to move on from a bitter past. That sense of anger peaks with "Look Inside", the music for which I adore, but the lyrics for which I find off-putting in their condemnatory tone. (CIRCA: should get Michael Sherwood to write their lyrics instead – he's great. Try his solo album Tangletown.)

That said, overall this is a good album. I could describe it as a strong debut, yet it does not entirely feel like a debut, with much of the album being familiar fare, like World Trade, or Billy Sherwood's solo albums, or his work in Conspiracy or Yes. CIRCA: 2007 feels like another in a line going from Euphoria (World Trade) to Open Your Eyes (Yes) to Conspiracy to No Comment (solo Billy Sherwood). That may reflect how the band came together, with White and Haun coming in after the main songwriting. I look forward to the second album showcasing more compositional voices. CIRCA: 2007 is also, like Phoenix, an album of pop songs – nice pop songs with interesting arrangements and great playing – but without the more expansive structure of the 10- or 20-minute songs Yes often does. That's not a critique, and I enjoy a good pop song as much as any prog epic, but I would have enjoyed something more akin to "Home World" or "New Languages" (both The Ladder) in the mix as well.

This first line-up of CIRCA: also released a DVD of their debut live show, "CIRCA: Live". What was good on the CD, shines in the live setting and it's their performance here that fills me with excitement for what this band can do. What drags on the CD comes with more energy live. After playing their debut album, the band perform the "Chronological Journey", a lengthy and (largely) instrumental medley of Yes tunes covering (almost) every album. This is well worth seeing. So many things strike me...

This is great music. With debate ongoing about Squire/Howe/White continuing Yes without Jon Anderson (and Sherwood himself has expressed some scepticism at an Anderson-less Yes), it's here that you see that the instrumental music stands up by itself played by a very different line-up. This is a celebration of Yes music that makes one appreciate the band's whole output. (The planned CIRCA: set list for Italian dates in February 2009 disappointingly seems to be reverting to playing Yes standards, and Yes standards without Jon Anderson was, I thought, what they were trying to avoid.)

Another surprise is that the medley works! OK, not every transition is smooth, but it's been assembled well. Many of the transitions are simple but effective: I particularly like those from "Tempus Fugit" to "Changes" and from "Endless Dream" to "Mind Drive". It's wonderful to hear this journey through Yes's history by a band unbothered by ego and who originally played on what. Sherwood had suggested such a medley while in the band: it's a shame they didn't listen to him then, but a joy to hear it now.

Kaye is brilliant. The early part of the medley feels like a celebration of Kaye's history and his key role in the young band. Those who have criticised his ability to cover Wakeman's parts will be in for a nice surprise. With the classic era material (including covering Fragile and Close to the Edge, the only two albums that some member of CIRCA: wasn't on originally), it's Haun and Sherwood who come to the fore, making up, and I mean this in the best possible way, the best Yes tribute album in the world ever. Their love for the music, and their ability to perform it, is palpable.

It's always nice to hear some Drama live. Having stormed through covering Wakeman, Kaye does Downes with equal aplomb (as he had Moraz too). And with the YesWest period, I feel the focus is back on Kaye and White: the opening of "Changes", for example. The medley also encompasses a complete performance of Cinema, with Haun having no difficulty with the switch to covering Rabin.

But the journey keeps on going. The band opt not to include one of the ABWH tracks on Union that Haun originally played on, tackling "Life Me Up" instead. The later period Yes gets a welcome outing, with a chunk of "Mind Drive" showcasing White and again showing Kaye has no problem with Wakeman's role, nor Haun with Howe's. The band finishes with The Ladder (and Kaye zipping through Khoroshev's parts now), before an encore of "The More You Live".

CIRCA: have been very honest about the difficulties in getting live dates. North American dates followed in early 2008 with the same set, but a European tour then had to be cancelled, in part because White was due to return to Yes. In the end, that Yes tour was itself cancelled with Anderson ill, but White subsequently chose to leave CIRCA: to focus on Yes activity with Squire and Howe. CIRCA: found Jay Schellen, a man who has worked with more Yes members than anyone else outside Yes except John Wetton, if that constitutes some kind of claim to fame! He played with Tony Kaye in late Badfinger, then with Peter Banks when Banks was on the West Coast. He then got involved with Bruce Gowdy and came with Gowdy for the second World Trade album, through which, I believe, he met Sherwood. Work in World Trade and Conspiracy, and on Sherwood's debut solo album and numerous tribute albums with him followed. The second half of 2008 saw the new line-up record CIRCA: HQ. That album is now out and, as I mentioned, winging its way to me as I type, so I'll stop there and go check the mail.

Henry Potts, 23.1.09

Originally posted to alt.music.yes, Yesfans.com and ProgressiveEars.com.

Return to Main Page.