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" Horsie " Music Reviews
Twilight Circus Sound System, Horsie
[M/Soleilmoon, Box 469, 6500 AL Nijmegen, Netherlands]: Swirling, spacy indie dub from
multi-instrumentalist Ryan moore. Righteously raw sound!
Bass Player
HORSIE
The Twilight Circus keeps the show on the road with fresh tracks
completed before his fall '98 tour with the Legendary Pink Dots. In
the
numbered cd with the individually handmade cover drwaings, the Circus's
classic organ-filled dub-reggae skank returns in the forms of "Kik",
"Bord" and "Dance" (with its hint of Black Uhuru's "Guess Who's Coming
To Dinner"). And in a move similar to the dub process in reverse (ie:
versions to songs) a melodic guitar element has arisen, Durutti
Column-like in "Romy", "Horsie" and the shoe-gazing track "Oats". And
what happens when the horsie eats the oats, stylistically speaking? You
get the ultra-trippy circular guitar patterns of "CArousel", which
one-ups the Dot's Mimir tribute to krautrock in amere three minutes and
fifty-one seconds. Someone alert Julian Cope.
EXCLAIM! - Canada
Chris Twomey
TWILIGHT CIRCUS SOUND SYSTEM - HORSIE (CD by M Records)
Now releasing his fifth CD, Ryan Moore, aka Twilight Circus, aka
Legendary Pink Dots bass player, matures beyond the reggae/dub thing
into something that is much more. The dub sound becomes just a vehicle
to create, well... maybe I'd just should call it popmusic. Because if
there is one thing apperent then it must be the good tunes he plays,
the
real catchy ones, as the simple organ melodies in 'Dance'. The guitar
plays a much more dominant role on this CD, thus adding to the already
organic sound. Highlight is for me "Oats" which is almost a
postrock/tortoise/krautrock affair. The dub thing almost disappears
here. But that goes for the bigger part of this CD anyway. Its no doubt
the best Twilight Circus to date. Adding a naive handmade cover, rounds
this of as a highlight for me this year. (FdW)
Address: www.bsg-inc.com/twilight/
VITAL WEEKLY - THE NETHERLANDS
Twilight Circus Dub Sound System
Horsie
Ryan Moore is back in the saddle again with his latest collection from
the dub-rock-electronica file. The best Twilight Circus release to date.
Horsie mixes bone-shaking bass and percussion with liquid melodies to
create a futuristic experimental sound firmly rooted (as it were) in
traditional dub. Recorded almost entirely with live instruments rather
than depending on sequencing and samplers, Moore's music is full of
warmth and wit, best heard on the album's standout track, Kik.
Brian McCloskey
Derry Journal, Ireland
Multi-instrumentalist, producer and engineer Ryan Moore is
Twilight Circus Dub Sound System.Since he started in 1995 he has become
known as one of the most creative and original dub
wizzards in the world.The style of his latest album -Horsie- is strictly
experimental, exploring new directions in dub, postrock and electronica.
He has always had on open mind for influences and this album shows how
innovative he can get. It's not easy to describe the
music, some tracks are reggae dub (Kik), Oats and Carousel are rock dub
and Carousel is electronica dub. It's almost hard to believe that he
uses no programming or computer sequencing, the album is
entirely made with live instrumentation just like his other albums. The
baffling sound collage of 'Horsie' blends essential dub elements with
musical elements from contemporary music styles. Not for the
traditionalist but a brain spinning set breaking new ground.
Teacher & Mr. T.
Reggae Vibes Mag, The Netherlands
http://www.reggae-vibes.com/rev_sin/horsie.htm
Rating : from 5 (excellent) to 1 (poor)
Vocals : -
Backing : 4
Production : 4/5
Sound quality : 5
Sleeve : 5
Twilight Circus Dub Sound System
Horsie
M Records
Multi-instrumentalist Ryan Moore returns with his sixth highly rinsed plate
of dub grooves. With each release, this B.C. native/ Dutch resident has added a new
twist to this instrumental form of Jamaican reggae, while retaining its trademarks:
deep, stomach churning bass and cracking, syncophated drum beats. Whereas 1998's Dub Plate Selection was gigantic tower of sound, drenched in Middle Eastern melodies and with nods to electronica, with Horsie, Moore, whose main gig is as a member of the Legendary Pink Dots, has turned
to the conventions of pop music. Guitars, which in the past were relegated to simply suppling some textural colour along with the keyboards, have been brought to the forefront with Moore drawing on the sad, meloncholic figures of Durutti Column guitarist Vini Reilly for inspiration here. Moore
has even straightened out the beats on a couple of tracks to make them more pop
sounding.
But these concessions shouldn't be a cause for worry. Moore hasn't abandoned the enveloping spaciness that has come to characterize TCDSS. Far from it. Horsie is still bathed in mountains of echo, reverb and delay that make your head swim. Once again, Moore has managed to equally confound and delight while at the same time broadening his vision of what dub should be.
Richard Moule - ID Magazine, Canada
Twilight Circus Sound System
Horsie
Overall impression: excellent! Ryan Moore apparently doesn't fill up enough time in the year with
Legendary Pink Dots releases and tours so thankfully he puts his bass and drum playing/programming
skills to work as a solo artist too. "Horsie" is the 5th full length from Ryan as Twilight Circus, and dammit ... I say this every time a new one comes out but I'm going to say it again: this one's the best so far. Actually, it's another great complement to the backcatalogue and a step forward. "Horsie" continues the magical mystery dub journey that started in 1995 (see also: "In Dub Vol. 1", "Other Worlds of Dub", "Bin Shaker Dub" and "Dub Plate Selection") ... lots of big bass lines, echo chamber drums and percussion hits, organs, keyboards, theremin ... all sorts of groovy textured sonics that make for fun (if you've seen TC live then you know how much of a goof Ryan is) and melodic instrumental Jamaican dub. One big change this time around is the addition of electric guitar to half of the songs which makes for a bit more of a Pink Dot oriented sound. Two of these guitar augmented songs in
particular, "Horsie" and "Oats" are some of the finest Twilight Circus songs to date, the latter being one of the most beautiful songs I've heard this year. Yet another great TC disk ... I'm looking forward to Ryan's first
solo cd under his own name next year and any other future Twilight Circus releases. My only minor
complaint: it's much too short clocking in at just over 41 minutes! But, it was only $10 (the official release
date is Feb 15, 1999 so I guess you can only get it via TC/LPD shows right now) and like "Dub Plate.." each
comes with individualized artwork. Ryan can keep churning these cds out every year and I will never get
sick of them! Real audio and mp3 sound clips are available at the Twilight Circus homepage. Dub while you
may ...
Mark Weddle
www2.southwind.net/~markw/cdreviews/horsie.html
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