It’s been a while, so we wanted to let you know that we are still here, we have just been locked away busily working on our next record, which we hope to share with you in 2013.
We have a couple of festival appearances this year to say goodbye to the material from Secrets so if you are coming to Hardraw or Beverley then we shall see you there.
Otherwise, wathc this space and we will be back soon…
East Riding folk-rock band CIRCUS ENVY are bringing their special Christmas Show to THE PROCESSED PEA music venue held at The Light Dragoon
Etton nr Beverley on Tuesday 4 DECEMBER at 8.30pm.
For this special show the group dip in and out of their best loved songs mixing them with seasonal gems. These still retain their band sound of guitars, cajon, bouzouki, bass, piano and mandolin supplemented by the tight vocal harmonies that have become their trademark. The group have a self-effacing sense of humour that masks genuine friendship that seems to endear them to audiences everywhere.
Circus Envy are presently recording tracks for their next album after their current CD ’Secrets’ brought them much national attention and Radio 2 airplay this year. The album’s range of subjects includes a local suicide ballad, the Hull Blitz of 1945 and the recent credit crunch. It’s impressive production was due to input from the likes of Andy Bell who has also recently recorded KT Tunstall and Seasick Steve, and top record producer Stu Hannah who recently produced Show Of Hands. Earlier this year the band – once described as ‘a bit Eagles, a bit REM, a bit Fleetwood Mac’, – were runners up for ‘Best Band’ in the prestigious Fatea Awards.
Processed Pea organiser Martin Peirson added “I saw the band’s Christmas show last year and thought how amazing it would be if we could get them to do it in Etton– and they agreed. It will be a great night – and as it’s my last evening there as organiser after 25 years we are buying everyone a drink to celebrate! “
The evening will also feature support slots from FARINO and MICHAEL NAGASAKA.
Tickets (£10) are available in advance from WeGotTickets.com, Beverley Tourist Information & Costcutter Cherry Burton. Telephone reservation /info tel: 01430 810669 or email martin@peirson.karoo.co.uk
To hear Circus Envy check out
www.circusenvyband.com
www.theprocessedpea.co.uk
Circus Envy- ‘Say Something’ and ‘Regret’, singlesHeart catching sorrowful reflective folk, strummed, picked mandolin, passionately bowed, scraped fiddle, strolling, dipping bass , time keeping drums recall essence of traditional folk idioms, refrains and instrumentation, brushed with blues chagrin of Indie ballad, narrated in hazy voice of wafting smoke; beautiful mixture of traditional and contemporary folk’s classically alluring melodies.
We wander into more folky territory with Circus Envy and their catchy “Say Something” single, taken from their recently-issued album, “Secrets”. It’s like The Levellers without the rebel-rousing and benefits from a lengthy instrumental passage, which is bound to go down a storm at any festival with a ‘pop-up’ cider tent. This is drinking music and rather good drinking music at that – I’ll crack open another can just to prove the point. Cheers. 4/5
The album, ‘Secrets’ by Circus Envy is a softly rolling and positive effort from the alternative folk five piece from East Yorkshire. Taking their name from an REM track, it seems poignant to review a band that takes strong influences from the group that have recently disbanded. Although the album is generally folk influenced and shines with acoustic and minimalist roots, there are clear REM harmonies thrown into the mix through, evidently through the track, ‘Regret’. Lyrically and melodically the album really shines throughout the middle of the album and it’s clear that they’ve taken influence from more classic artists from previous eras. Although lead singer shows promise of strong yet soft vocals, he rarely varies from the same sound and the album can become monotonous just over half way in. Most promisingly, Secrets shows maturity and yet again shows talent storming from the North. I truly believe that emotion is everything in music, no matter what that may be. As far as the country is concerned, the North is rising. Circus Envy are a band that seems to be relishing in success from this effort and have absolutely everything to be proud about. This mix of influences hit the album with a sense of originality. Well worth a listen for fans of acoustic folk
Hull-bred folk outfit Circus Envy’s new single Say Something is a double-faced affair. A-side Say Something is catchy as hell, all dolled up in strings and snares, as if threatening to conquer the universe with its fiery, even flamenco-ish guitar visions. It shows the band’s inspirations quite clearly: they take Marcus Mumford, tone down the self-indulgence and add some much needed straightforwardness. “You can’t come in, you can’t come in” is the firm refrain facing the listener, like doors shutting on its nose.
Die hard folkies won’t find the modern innovations to be too much for them, and the kiddywinks will be lulled into a false sense of security, with the up to date arrangements and surfeit of ballads. Incidentally, what is it today with bairns and ballads? When I were a lad, it was Motorhead or be damned. But nowadays, all you see are nearly menfolk sobbing into their teenage hankies. A strange world.
Back on the album, they’ll love the revisit to ‘A New Dawn’, but for me it’s the more chipper ‘Last Cigarette’ and the fiddle drenched ‘Three Score And Ten’ that came up trumps, fully allying the new and the old. The harmonies are excellent, the production is warm and welcoming, and if they’d managed a couple more uptemp tunes, I’d be drolling into my whiskers, instead of merely nodding approval.
An alt-folk five piece from East Yorkshire who take their name from REM’s surf rock song and feature a largely acoustic line-up that includes mandolin, bouzouki, cajon and flute, their debut album captures my attention immediately with opening track Regret, a wearily reflective ‘wish I was a better man’ number with a great singalong chorus, a hint of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, and Leigh Hirst’s soft burr vocals recalling a young Iain Matthews.
Unfortunately for them, it’s so good it overshadows even something as strong as the choppy folk pop of Snakes And Ladders with its catchy chorus and the fiery fiddle driven Say Something while weaker numbers such as strings drenched ballad A New Dawn, flamenco hurried Last Cigarette and Betty Watson, a run of the mill trad styled tale of a fallen woman suicide, are thrown into starker relief that might otherwise be the case.
There’s a slight problem too in that, while Hirst has a pleasant voice, he rarely flexes it beyond the soft comfort zone, so that whatever the instruments may be doing, many of the songs tend to sound a little samey.
There are a couple of other high points though. Combining lyrics from different versions and tweaking the tune, the rousing Three Score And Ten is a traditional number based on the poem of the same name detailing the 1889 storm that took the lives of some 60 to 70 Grimsby fishermen while, sticking with local history, The Burning Sky recalls the bombing of Hull in 1945.
It’s a listenable enough set, but next time they’ll either have to up their consistency or remember not to put their best track at the start.
A British alternative folk band
