(Progressive rock) [WEB] Greg Segal - Night Circus: part one & part two - 1987 (2014 remastered), FLAC (tracks), lossless

Part one
"Consisting of twelve tracks, only four of which are songs, "Night Circus" is stylistically the most heterogeneous among those albums by Greg Segal that I've heard up till now. Four out of the eight instrumental pieces are here about that original, highly innovative Space Rock, which is a central hallmark of "Experiment Guitar Sampler" (see review above) and all the albums of Greg's project Jugalbandi. These are Introduction, The Center, Running Waters, and Erebus (1, 6, 8, & 11). All of them feature the slow, yet, constantly developing interplay between passages of synthesizer and solos of electric guitar that, being surrounded by echoes and overtones, are actually those unique Segalaces that I've described in still the same review of the "Experiment Guitar Sampler" album. With the exception of Introduction, the narration of either dark or dramatic character is present on any of the said pieces and each of the remaining three instrumentals as well. It also must be said that all seven of the instrumental compositions on the album are filled with a dark, tense, and mysterious atmosphere. Dream Landscapes (2), where a dramatically tense narration is accompanied only by passages of semi-acoustic guitar and echoes, is of a spacey Art-Rock 'origin'. The most unusual musical entities (I'd even say "aliens") are based on the third and fifth 'planets' of the "Night Circus I" system. As the Sky Turns To Fire-1 (3) consists exclusively of various effects and voices, all of which, though, are exclusively of a nightmarish nature. The deterrent effects, slow, yet, highly tense passages of synthesizer, and sepulchral voices are the content of Audience (5). To be honest, if I were in Greg's shoes I would've never included both of these pieces in this album (as well as any other album, though). There is nothing original, etc, on both of these tracks, the first of which, moreover, isn't a musical work. Since now, before listening to this album, I'll have to exclude these tracks when programming my CD player. A total playing time of the remaining ten tracks is equal to 38 minutes, which is enough for a full-length album and quite all right with me as well. Now, it's time to name the best tricks-tracks of "Night Circus", almost all of which are songs, if you remember. Although As the Sky Turns To Fire-2 (4) is an instrumental composition, it shouldn't be described separately from songs, as all of them are in many ways similar among themselves - both structurally and stylistically. Indeed, As the Sky Turns To Fire-2, For Ann, Black Sunsets, Cold Sky, and I Hold the World For Ransom (4, 7, 9, 10, & 12) are the best compositions on this album. Which is despite the fact that, unlike all five of the real instrumental pieces here, all of these contain a few repetitions, and some vocal parts remind me of those of Peter Hammill. Nevertheless, all of them, performed with the complete set of instruments that are listed above, are rich not only in sound, but also in essential progressive features. Musically, the first three of them (4, 7, & 9) are in the vein of Greg's 'firm' fusion of a heavy Space Rock and either a guitar-based or symphonic Art-Rock. The instrumental content of Cold Sky (10) represents nothing else but a real Space Metal. I Hold the World For Ransom (12) is the only composition on the album, the stylistics of which is Classic Symphonic Art-Rock. Also, it needs to be said that all five of the best compositions on the album are marked not only with dark, but also with dramatic shades. As for my personal favorites on "Night Circus", these are For Ann, As the Sky Turns To Fire-2, and I Hold the World For Ransom (tracks 7, 4, & 12 respectively). Finally, I think that Summary should concern both of the "Night Circus"-related albums."

Part two
"Stylistically, "Night Circus II" is probably the most inconsistent among those Greg Segal albums that are about Space Rock, which is despite the fact that Space Rock is a predominant genre here as well. Which, in its turn (and by the way), is a very positive aspect showing Greg's tendency to the constant transformation of his singularly original and unique style. In my honest opinion, the 20-minute opening track of the album, Night Circus-1, is one of the best works, to say the least, ever created by Greg. Musically, it represents a unique (not heavy!) Space Rock with elements of Symphonic Art-Rock and the bits of Prog-Metal. Even though everything is here in the state of a constant development, as a whole, this piece sounds like being thoroughly composed and not only. Although there is enough of a mysterious darkness of spacey depths on Night Circus-1, overall, it has a very distinctive, 'Earthly', dramatic feel to it. And I believe that our earthly problems (not only, of course) are inseparable from universal ones and all of them have an influence on each other. So I'd say that the overall sound of the first epic on the album is in addition quite topical. The musical palette of Night Circus-1 is very rich. With the exception of those of synthesizers, all the parts of the other instruments: Church and Hammond organs, electric, acoustic, and bass guitars, and real drums, were here performed by Greg. Though the same words can be said with regard to the album as a whole. Surprisingly, the 4-minute Night Circus-2 (2) turned out to be nothing else but the Classic Space Rock song. Performed up-tempo, it is certainly heavy and quite dark. While there are the repetitions of vocal themes on this song, the purely instrumental arrangements are here excellent and by all means. The second 'side-long' track on the album, the 26-minute Watcher, was originally devised as an epic. Stylistically, it represents a blend of Space Rock and Art-Rock, both of which are just Symphonic, and consists of several parts, half of which are real songs, while another half of them represent instrumentally narrative pieces. Watcher is also one of the most interesting works of Greg, though it is a bit less impressive than the monumental Night Circus-1. The last track on the album, The Last Ride (4), which, apart from a narration, features the interplay between the slow passages of organ and synthesizer, is much in the vein of the instrumentally narrative pieces that are present on Watcher and sounds just like the outro of this epic. To be honest, I didn't expect that I'll find "Night Circus-1" the weakest album by him, even though this is a good album overall. On the other hand, here's the hero of this review, "Night Circus II", which I regard not only as the best of those albums by Greg that I've heard up till now, but also as a complete masterpiece."