#Jack O' The Clock #progressive rock #art rock #progressive folk #avant-garde #chamber folk #avant-prog #Americana #prog folk rock
Jack O' The Clock is fronted by Damon Waitkus who has been a progressive rock fan since the first wave, but also a fan of more melodic and poetic music of that time. Their sound is not your typical folk music, or typical music at all for that manner, being a surprisingly accessible blend of avant garde and Americana, and has been compared to Henry Cow, Gentle Giant, Sufjan Stevens, Frank Zappa and others. They have released 3 critically acclaimed albums as of 2013, with more in the works. A band that is hard to characterize, they have found a home in prog folk because of their inherently folk instrumentation and timbre, their profound take on storytelling, and, well, the tendency for folkies to be an inclusive lot anyway. From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=8552
Jack O’ The Clock continues its exploration of the dark underside of the American psyche on The Warm, Dark Circus. Released 10 years after All My Friends solidified the group’s unique position as a twisted mirror to recent history as well as current events, this new effort is another immersive experience – like a fiction anthology that picks at reality with poignancy and disturbing insight.
Now a virtual band split between the East and West coasts, the lineup features familiar names and a number of new performers. Multi-instrumentalist Damon Waitkus is the ostensible leader and contributes vocals, guitars, hammer dulcimers, piano, and flutes. Emily Packard is on violin and viola, while Kate McLoughlin is on bassoon. The rhythm section is Jason Hoopes on bass and Jordan Glenn on drums (both from the Fred Frith Trio). A number of guests contribute vocals, guitars, sax, clarinets, piano, and cello.
Waitkus’ lyrics do not hold back. The subject of The Ladder Slipped is considering suicide to escape pain and medical debt… or is he actually considering murder? And then there is Dürer’s Rhinoceros – a haunting 13-minute semi-autobiographical slice of life about a human feeding data to computers. It is named after a famous woodcut of a rhinoceros made 500 years ago by Albrecht Dürer, who never saw the subject of his artwork. This is perhaps a fitting analog to how the models of our current AI revolution are able to generate mimicked images and text without truly understanding the content of what they create. Waitkus approaches these topics with empathy rather than judgment – a refreshing approach in our hyper-opinionated socio-political landscape.
Musically, Jack O’ The Clock has always been a treat, and The Warm, Dark Circus stands out as one of their best. An amalgam of folk, rock, experimental, and classical, their being lumped into “progressive rock” is a disservice. There is no other set of musicians with quite the same sound. It is as if they have captured the characteristics of the last 75 years of Western music and reprocessed them into a new genre.
Case in point, Dürer’s Rhinoceros has passages that combine unconventional percussion with a prominent bassoon line and pseudo-chanted vocals, gentle flute melodies, and sophisticated art rock. The piece is heavily composed and yet has a loose and very human feel. There are moments of finger-picked beauty tempered with storm clouds on the horizon.
How We Are Doing… includes aggressive – almost mechanical – drumming overlaid with an angular sax solo. The assertive rhythmic structure continues through a flute interlude, then violin and guitar solos. A short polyphonic excursion leads to the main melodic structure underlying singing. Waitkus’s voice seems to talk to us from a distance as a variety of instruments busily come together and move apart in accordance with unusual timing. Indeed, this is the track that most clearly evokes historical avant-rock, such as Henry Cow, in its complexity and mashup of styles. The lyrical content is obscure but rich in imagery. It seems to be building on a number of themes, including those of humanity’s coexistence with nature and the passage of time, while touching on notions of technology and spirituality.
The music of Jack O’ the Clock is like the weather in Chicago – if you don’t like it now, wait a couple of minutes and it will be very different. But all attempts at humor aside, The Warm, Dark Circus is a stellar release with abundant eclecticism that can be enjoyed on multiple levels. This is a group that explores the human condition through their sounds and words. While melancholic, their approach is also evocative in its honesty, illuminating our shadows with a nod toward what we project on the surface. From: https://avantmusicnews.com/2023/10/17/amn-reviews-jack-o-the-clock-the-warm-dark-circus-2023-bandcamp/
