FULL CIRCLE

Full Circle is very similar to the debut epnymous album , but does take things a little further (but only slightly so). The music still hovers around the late 60's folk somewhere around Fairport Convention and Incredible String Band but almost without percussions.

There is slightly more room for the instruments than on their first album: the tracks are noticeably longer leaving more space for interplay. Highlights are the instrumental for Julie, Gypsy Girl , Graveyard and Autumn Childhood.

If a proghead unfamiliar to this group would like to investigate them, I can advise them to start with this album. Not that it is intrisically better than the debut, but one will find more elements that a proghead can relate to in this album. Not Essential listening in the frame our this site but quite enjoyble , nevertheless.

This album synthesizes both brutal and beautiful elements, and the raw acoustic tunes create weird and very enchanting music. There are much medieval influences as a basis, but the overall aesthetics are not luckily much idealized or fantasy related, but sincere and realistic, filled with mystery, misery and violence. Music is peaceful but partly disturbing too. "Bluebell" was quite good track, and the last song "Autumn Childhood" is very weird with strange rhythm changes and several compositional parts. "The Midnight Hanging of A Runaway Serf" was also quite affecting in its ancienct sinister realism. "Graveyard" is also very beautiful and quite accessible song, but maybe best of them for me would be "Gypsy Girl & Rambleway", describing a love affair via very raw medieval sounds, in the end getting lost of psychedelic haze. Before this number there is also a fine instrumental track named "To Julie", which could have been performed by real ancient bards due the authentic feeling of it. This record is recommended sincerely for fans of depressing middle age music. As a hint, at least for me this album took several spins to open up properly, and worked best for setting up moods for sitting down to feast table, carrying ancient gastronomic delights.

The thing that actually kind of creeps me out about this album is how similar the sounds are to any number of paisley underground bands from the early eighties. Green on Red, the Long Ryders, the Leaving Trains, Rain Parade, the Three O’Clock, and even the Golden Palominos to a certain extent. These are bands that I took a liking to when progressive music went to sh!t around 1979. Asia and Marillion just weren’t enough to quench the thirst for new music, and R.E.M. only put out an album every year and a half or so, so the proto-alt.country sound of the Paisley Underground set was a great appeal for a kid from the mountains who’d grown up with plenty of American country music and had an appreciation for steel guitar and psych treatments on Heartland folk standards. Imagine my surprise the first time I listened to this reissue of a Woodstock-era Abbey Road record by a trio of British wyrd folk and heard some of those same sounds a full decade before they appeared in Los Angeles studio’s with American country rockers playing them!

There are a few obvious reasons for the comparison. First, the opening track “Hawk the Hawker” features the late Gordon Huntley on steel guitar, not the kind of instrument you’d expect from an early seventies British acoustic folk band. There’s also a noticeable thread of harmonica and whistles floating across the arrangement, and the net effect the first time I heard it was to instantly remind me of “Honest Man” from Green on Red’s 1985 album ‘No Free Lunch’. Sure, the vocal accents are different and the paisley bands tended to have a rougher edge since most of them came out of the west coast punk days of the latter seventies, but the folkish guitar, slightly off-key vocals, and character sketch lyrics have an uncanny resemblance to the first couple of tracks on Forest’s last album. Huntley by the way was much in demand as a session player around this time, having appeared with Whistler, Elton John (‘Tumbleweed Connection’), Rod Stewart (‘Never a Dull Moment’), and as a member of Ian Matthew’s long-standing project Southern Comfort. I didn’t realize he had passed on until I listened to this album and did a bit of research. Rest in peace Gordon.

“Bluebell Dance” also has a slightly psych sound that was so prevalent in the eighties paisley music, although again this is undeniably folk-inspired and much more mellow than most of those bands. Same goes for “The Midnight Hanging of a Runaway Serf” and “Do Not Walk In The Rain”. The vocals on those two songs have driven me a bit mad trying to recall who they remind me of, but there’s definitely someone. Maybe somebody who reads this can make the connection. The electric harpsichord from the band’s debut is present here as well, and makes for a much more folk-leaning sound than the traditional piano that is also present.

Apparently the trio took a different approach on this last album, with each of the members contributing ideas and compositions that led in slightly different directions. The result is an album that plays much more like a sampler than did the contiguous theme of their debut. This isn’t nearly as much of a folk album as the first, although the mandolin, acoustic guitar and flute keep the sound in that general vein. This is especially true of the acoustic guitar-driven instrumental “To Julie” and the mandolin-heavy “Gypsy Girl & Rambleaway”.

“Much Ado About Nothing”, “Graveyard” and “Famine Song” play more like traditional British folk, especially “Famine Song” which is mostly a capella and leans a bit to a Celtic bent.

The closing “Autumn Childhood” is a bit of a throwback to the late sixties, with bard-like story-telling vocals and gentle acoustic guitar and mandolin that pick up for a while and add harmonica for a coffee-shop folk mood. This is also the longest track Forest ever recorded to the best of my knowledge, clocking in at more than six minutes.

While the first Forest album is undeniably British folk steeped in sixties sensibilities, this one is more forward-looking and experimental. It’s a good album, but I can’t say it is great. Three stars for the courage to take some chances, but not quite as good as their debut. The band hung on for a year or so after this released, but the times they had a’ changed and the direction of progressive and folk music had already passed these guys by the time they released this album (although the spirit of the music seems to have resurfaced on the American west coast a decade later). Recommended to prog folk fans mostly, and worth a spin or two if you come across it.

peace

"Full Circle" is the second full-length studio album by UK acid/psychedelic folk rock act Forest. The album was release through Harvest Records in December 1970. It follows-up the release of the band´s enonymously titled debut full-length studio album from October 1969.

The influences from artist like The Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention are still present on "Full Circle", but it´s overall a slightly more original sounding release compared to the debut album. Forest use instruments like mandolin, whistle, harmonica, violin, cello, piano, harmonium, electric harpsichord and percussion in addition to the more regular rock band instruments of guitar and bass (although predominantly acoustic). There are no drums on the album.

"Full Circle" is an album featuring folky songs with an uplifting mood but also (and maybe more predominantly) features more sombre tracks like "Bluebell Dance" and "To Julie". So there´s a good balance on the album in terms of exploring different atmospheres. The band are well playing and the vocals are well performed too. "Full Circle" is a well produced album featuring an organic and detailed sound production, which suits the materal well.

So upon conclusion it´s a good quality sophomore release from Forest and a definite step up in quality from the debut album. It may not be as essential a listen as the best material from artists like The Incredible String Band or Comus (who Forest resemble a bit at their darkest), but less will do, and "Full Circle" is an album worth investigating for fans of the genre. A 3 - .5 star (65%) rating is warranted.