BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2009 An Emerald City: Circa Scaria (Banished/Border)

 |   |  <1 min read

An Emerald City: Reindeers Running
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2009 An Emerald City:  Circa Scaria (Banished/Border)

Because the previous EP by this Auckland-based group was widely hailed at Elsewhere, and that there is now a profile of the band posted under Absolute Elsewhere, this will be brief.

For my money this band is the most interesting, musically ambitious and creative I have seen in this country in many years. They possess that rarity in New Zealand music, an aesthetic sensibility -- and it manifests itself in instrumental music which exotic, evocative, rides intelligent dynamics and is endlessly evolving.

The instrumentation is based around rock (guitars, keyboards, rhythm section) but into that they pull Persian lute, sitar, violin . . .

It makes for an album that almost seems to grow in your hearing, to take on a life of its own.

It is quasi-psychedelic, improvised world music at one level, but sounds like nothing else in New Zealand's musical landscape.

Pity then that we are losing them to Berlin where they will establish themselves, but in their short time here playing gigs in fascinating places and making each one special, they created great memories, and leave behind an EP and album which will command attention for years to come.

Terrific.


Share It

Your Comments

Chris - Apr 7, 2009

Thanks for the heads up about this band a while back at our liquid lunch. Considering my current fascination with Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky etc. this seems right up my street and the track you've posted is great. Circa Scaria is now on my 'To Buy' list.

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Iggy and the Stooges: Ready to Die (Warners)

Iggy and the Stooges: Ready to Die (Warners)

Iggy -- after that brilliantly intuitive period which encompassed three Stooges albums and The Idiot/Lust For Life solo albums with Bowie -- was always a smart button-pusher. So here -- with... > Read more

The Raiders: Indian Reservation/Collage (Raven/EMI)

The Raiders: Indian Reservation/Collage (Raven/EMI)

When this band emerged as Paul Revere and the Raiders in the Sixties they were a rocking, sometimes salacious and rather terrific garageband (albeit one which dressed kinda funny) and so, quite... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

John Mayall: Tough (Eagle)

John Mayall: Tough (Eagle)

Given this seminal blueman's low profile in the marketplace this past decade or two, it can only be his impending New Zealand tour which has seen the Antipodean release of this, his 57th, album.... > Read more

HISTORY IN A HANDBAG: The Museum of Bags and Purses, Amsterdam

HISTORY IN A HANDBAG: The Museum of Bags and Purses, Amsterdam

Behind a rather ordinary door off a quiet canal-street in Amsterdam is one of the city's most extraordinary museums, and this in a city which isn't short of museums. From the... > Read more