Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is always time to loosen up, to disengage with the static and the absolutions of life and try something new, to be touched by a sound that goes beyond the foggy and the assisted disorder; to loosen up, to unleash the music and not be Undone is a mark of knowing just how far to push the sound without losing the creative bundle of energy that dwells hopefully within us all.

Warrington might not be a town that first springs to mind when thinking of any particular movement or genre, it is a town that sits between two huge musically and artistic influential cities and nobody could truly complain if the populace of the town tended to look down either stretch of the town’s borders and take in the music from Manchester or the ever flowing vibe of Liverpool. Nobody would mind but then The Black Circles might be more than willing to punch harder, to strike out and pummel the thought of what they produce with even more effect. It would be a punch that would delight the fans of the Blues in the area with great satisfaction.

The Black Circles may appreciate the fact that they find themselves being caught in the middle of two big musical influences but also that they are wonderfully adept at holding the Blues end up in the area dominated by Pop, Rock and the Indie craft.

Undone they certainly are not, unbeaten and un-bloodied they refuse to be and it shows in the music created by Sam Bratley and Martin Saunders and their arrangement of guests, Phil Wilson, Jesse Davey and Cat Fullbrook; it shows with the utter strength of performance and confidence that passes between musician and the beating notes, the clout of Blues infused authority that should always be associated with the genre but which at times can be strangled and forced to within an inch of its life.

There is no sign of that forced issue to be heard at all throughout the album and in tracks such as She’s Dynamite, I’m Leaving, Gypsy Girl and the excellent Bad Luck the easy flow of music is both entertaining and illuminating; it is the mighty, leaf filled and green lush tree in the middle of a field of stumps; sometimes the mighty are seen when everything else has been taken to the lumber yard.

Undone unwrapped is as open as you could ask for, The Black Circles stand out because of it.

Ian D. Hall