Moscow Circus - Resounding

The band that were originally called Critical Hippo had been together just three weeks when they played their first gig at The Garage in Nottingham in January 1988 after forming just over the border in Long Eaton. Changing their name to Moscow Circus and then Stigmata, the band moved to Nottingham in May 1988. They played several more gigs at venues around the city before disbanding in 1989. They then reformed in 1990 as Bloodsugar and continued to gig at venues around Nottingham such as The Narrowboat and The Newshouse before splitting once again in 1991. A long way away from that in January 2008 the band reformed to play a fortieth birthday show for two of the band members, and shortly afterwards Moscow Circus received their first ever US radio play when their 1989 song 'Princess Rainbow' was featured on a show in California. The band themselves comprise of Jonathan Beckett (guitar and vocals), Martin Haddelsey (keyboards and vocals), Peter Temperton (bass guitar) and Tom Parratt (drums) and 'Resounding' is -I suppose you would call it - the band's debut album. It has been released on the group's own Echolocation records. it was recorded at Hypersmonsonic and produced by Tiago Querioz who also plays additional guitar. Although grafting away on guitar and vocals, Beckett is responsible for writing all of the ten tracks on here including the aforementioned 'Princess Rainbow', originally between 1987 and 1991. I suppose they were a typical band trying to get a break at that time as they gigged only rarely and ended up changing their name a lot so never got into first gear. But here they are with a bunch of songs written back in the day. You might be forgiven for thinking this is an album from a bunch of 80's no-hopers, but they are actually darn good. The first track on the album 'Timebomb' and 'Princess Rainbow' are clear winners and 'Between the Lines' is also a standout in an album, which has a distinctive late 80's sound and feel with a slight now-ish edge to it. Housed in a straightforward CD fold-over it sports some nice photo-work by Jim Donnelly. Great stuff!