Circus 2000 - I Am The Witch - The Anthology

The northern Italy based band Circus 2000 was active for about three years at the beginning of the seventies.  Unfortunately, they really didn’t get a lot of attention at that time, but then all of a sudden in the late eighties collectors started paying big money for copies of their two albums. Now, with the new two CD set I Am The Witch - The Anthology, both of those albums are available in one place along with single cuts, mixes and the only two surviving tracks from what was going to be their third album.  

Vocalist Silvana Aliotta got her start at an early age and had some success, even releasing a handful of singles under both her actual name and the name Silva Grissi.  She started listening to new American and English music, especially psychedelia, and wanted to move towards more rock-oriented music.  At this point she teamed up with Marcello ‘Spooky’ Quartarone on guitar, Gianni Bianco on bass and Roberto ‘Johnny’ Betti on drums, who at the time were playing jazz and more experimental music under either the name Genius or Best Genius (it's debated which name it actually was).  They signed a deal with the Milan-based RiFi, but the head of the label didn't like their name, so they became Circus 2000.  While the Italian progressive rock scene was getting its footing at this time, instead of using their jazz background and going that route, they decided to follow the path of American and British bands with three minute songs and English lyrics.  Their self-titled album, which kicks off disc one, was released in November 1970, and with Aliotta’s strong vocals they were at times reminiscent of mid-sixties Jefferson Airplane.  This is most evident on the standout track “I Am The Witch”, a heavy psychedelic rocker with distorted vocals and some great guitar work (there are some hints of the main lick from Shocking Blue’s “Venus”).  Tracks like the driving “Sun Will Shine” with its fuzzed out guitars, and the swirling “While You’re Sleeping”, which shifts back and forth from a really lazy groove to a more intense chorus, are also more straight-ahead psychedelia, but other cuts find them mixing things up a bit.  While they also have a psychedelic foundation, opening track “I Can’t Believe” and “Magic Bean” (with lyrics about Jack and the Beanstalk) respectively add a really nice folk element and a bit of an Indian flavor (with sitar-like guitar work).  “I Just Can’t Stay”, complete with flute, is a really nice track that sounds more like British Folk rock, and “Must Walk Forever” is a darker, moodier rocker with an Egyptian vibe.  Drawing from their earlier days, “Try To Live” is a more offbeat cut that starts off like raw, noisy jazz before moving into a catchy, funky / jazzy groove with a killer acid rock guitar solo.  Closing out the album is the explosive bluesy acid rocker “The Lord, He Has No Hands”.  Overall this is an outstanding album with one drawback.  The brevity of a lot of the tracks (three of them coming in at around two and a half minutes and two others at two) make some of them sound like they were just cut off short.  It would have been nice to have them fleshed out a little more.  Also included on disc one are six bonus tracks, which include the Italian and English versions of the “I Am The Witch” / “I Can’t Believe” single and a third standalone single “Regalami Un Sabato Sera”, a rather odd poppy tune that is a bit of a mess with horns, a scattered arrangement and vocals that are almost screechy at times.  The flipside is “Ho Regalato I Capelli”, a longer version of the album track “Must Walk Alone” sung in Italian.  Unfortunately for the band, the album only ended up being released in Italy, and later on Turkey.  To make matters worse, once it was released, the band found out that none of them were a member of the collection agency SIAE, so their songs were credited to Bob Michaels, who had played organ with Dave Anthony’s Moods, an Italian-based British group in the late Sixties, and someone named Vermer, who ended up being a music publisher names Marinco Rigaldi, so that’s who got all of the royalty payments.   

Even though their last single wasn't representative of the band's sound, they were shifting direction and playing Italian rock festivals alongside bands like Colosseum, Manfred Mann and The Pretty Things.  At this point, with Franco 'Dede" Lo Previte on board as their new drummer, they released their second album An Escape From A Box.  With only five songs, ranging from five minutes to over eight and a half, this album was quite a departure from their debut.  Kicking things off is “Hey Man” which opens with a nice folk sound before evolving into more of a folk prog tune with some really strong, expansive instrumental sections.  The slow, swirling psychedelia of “You Aren’t Listening” has some Indian undertones and a very eerie quality thanks to the calm, mysterious vocals.  “Our Father” starts with a moody, slow blues groove with a bit of a jazz undercurrent and then expands with some choral like backing vocals before ending with a jazzy instrumental section.  The album highlight is the powerhouse “Need”, a track of twisting, turning bluesy psychedelia, a touch of prog, some really strong jazzy instrumental sections and a great vocal performance from Aliotta.  Album closer “When The Sun Refuses To Shine” is a strange and experimental, yet very interesting, psychedelic space rock track.  Just like with their debut, the band got no songwriting credits here, and therefore no royalties, with Visir (an alias for the album’s producer Alessandro Colombini) and Vermar credited instead.  Following three bonus tracks that are basically an edited version of “Need” that was used for jukeboxes and “Hey Man” split in half for two sides of a single, are two tracks potentially recorded for a third album that was never to be. When label owner Ansoldi listened to the new songs he didn't like them and tried to push them in a musical direction they didn't want to go in, which basically was the end of the band.  These two tracks also mark the only appearance of new drummer Louis Atzori and were both recorded in Italian.  While “Dove Va La Mia Gente” finds them shifting gears again moving in a much more mainstream rock direction, “L’Ultimo Paese” is a really good track that balances both the experimental psychedelic and prog elements of their earlier work with the more melodic rock.  It is actually one of the strongest tracks here and is an excellent showcase for the diverse vocal talents of Aliotta and the musicianship of the band.  Rounded out with an excellent booklet full of pictures, memorabilia and an essay detailing the band’s history, I Am The Witch - The Anthology is an outstanding collection that gives this band the recognition they rightly deserved over fifty years ago.    

(Grapefruit Records)