the music

With each release Beat Circus has introduced a new instrumentation and sound. To hear mp3s of studio album tracks and live shows, please visit our band page on myspace or visit our Dreamland site on myspace.

 

In 2005 Brian Carpenter spawned the second incarnation of Beat Circus, in which he played a pump organ with a small orchestra backing dark narratives. In 2006 they began recording Dreamland with the legendary NYC producer Martin Bisi. Dreamland is the first part of Brian Carpenter's Weird American Gothic trilogy, a 160-page score for 12 musicians and contains macabre narratives loosely based on historical figures from the surreal, turn-of-the-century Coney Island theme park of the same name, which burned in a devastating fire in 1911. Dreamland is scheduled for a January 2008 release on Cuneiform Records.

Dreamland

Cuneiform Records 2008

1: Gyp The Blood
2: The Ghost Of Emma Jean
3: Hypnogogia
4: Delirium Tremens
5: Lucid State
6: Death Fugue
7: The Good Witch
8: Dark Eyes
9: Slavochka
10: The Gem Saloon
11: El Torero
12: The Rough Riders
13: Coney Island Creepshow
14: Hell Gate
15: Meet Me Tonight In Dreamland
16: March Of The Freaks

 

THE BAND
Brian Carpenter (vocals, harmonium, toy piano, mellotron, harmonica, trumpet, slide trumpet, brake drum, spring drum, objects), Alec K Redfearn (accordion, jawharp, vocals), Ron Caswell (tuba), Brandon Seabrook (banjo, mandolin, slide guitar), Kathe Hostetter (violin, viola), Julia Kent (cello), Curtis Hasselbring (trombone), Briggan Krauss (alto, baritone saxophone), Matt McLaren (drums, percussion, washboard).

With special guests Holly Brewer (vocals), M@ McNiss (chorus vocals), Orion Rigel Dommisse (vocals), Michael Hearst (theremin), Invert (string quartet), Brian Dewan (cover illustration, electric zither, autoharp), Jesse Sparhawk (harp), Dj Hazard (outside talker, chorus vocals), Sxip Shirey (triple pennywhistle, bells, breath blasts), Frank Difficult (electronics), and Todd Robbins (piano).

THE MUSIC
Dreamland, the second full-length studio album by Beat Circus, is a uniquely fierce and magical record composed by singer/songwriter Brian Carpenter, who sings dark narrative songs of Deadwood saloons, gangsters from the Bowery, Coney Island sideshows, and the Santa Fe Railway. Loosely based on historical events associated with turn-of-the-century New York, Dreamland is the culmination of a two-year effort by Beat Circus and marks the first installment of Brian Carpenter's Weird American Gothic trilogy. Carpenter leads a 9-piece band featuring tubist Ron Caswell (Slavic Soul Party), cellist Julia Kent (Antony & the Johnsons), trombonist Curtis Hasselbring (Golem), saxophonist Briggan Krauss (Sex Mob), accordionist Alec K. Redfearn and drummer Matt McLaren (The Eyesores), and violinist Kaethe Hostetter. Dreamland was produced by legendary NY producer Martin Bisi (Sonic Youth, Foetus, John Zorn, Swans, The Dresden Dolls).

THE PRAISE
"An ambitious new Brechtian concept album with rich and tight orchestration..." -- New Yorker

Beat Circus evokes a period so distant that it might seem like a Dreamland, transporting listeners to a world that's alluring and eerie." -- Mark Jenkins, Washington Post

Singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brian Carpenter is the nucleus behind Beat Circus' twisted take of weirdo art-goth storytelling through songs that tap into the darkest parts of primitive European and early American motifs...Dreamland churns out an Edgar-Allen-Poe-skulk-meets-Coney-Island-at-turn-of-the-century brand of horrific narratives that could make for good children's stories if they weren't so disturbing." -- Creative Loafing Atlanta

"Dreamland realizes a lushly imaginative American mythology...a surreal melange" -- Time Out New York

"Dreamland uses the most vibrant turn-of-the-century park as a springboard of musical notions that blends gypsy swing, cowpoke twang, circus sounds, and classical rigor...it's feverish, frantic stuff, and cinematic to the core" -- Providence Phoenix

"Even if you've never visited Coney Island or met a haunting spirit, Dreamland sounds authentic, even familiar, like something you never knew you knew...as thrilling and disturbing as any sideshow attraction." -- Noah Schaffer, Boston Magazine

"The music and the wonderfully well-realized arrangements are, if anything, better than on the band's debut...the stylistically varied results make for a wonderfully imaginative record. Instrumental tracks like the opener "Gyp the Blood," and the mad Balkan dance tune "Slavochka" work the same stylistic street as folks like Beirut and A Hawk and a Hacksaw, while the more experimental pop-oriented songs recall the warped imagination of Elephant 6 associated eccentrics the Music Tapes. Fans of any of those acts will find much to love here. " -- Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

"Beat Circus rework a distinctly American mythos, drawing on the dissipated grandeur of Brecht and Weill, urban gothicism, and midway cabaret...by turns utterly familiar and shockingly inventive...." -- Liar Society

"This music so transcends categorization. It's just a beautiful piece of work. And the lyrics are beautifully and weirdly sung. The vocals may be my favorite part." -- Danny Blume, Good & Evil Studios

"With each cinematic piece melting into the next, Beat Circus has managed the rare trick of making a real album that defies genre and expectation. With the backdrop of Dreamland, Carpenter pulls together all the styles that interest him into a cohesive whole. " -- Warren Allen, Northeast Performer

 

 

Ringleaders Revolt was released on Innova Records in 2004 and documents the First Incarnation of Beat Circus. Leading up to the release of Ringleaders, Carpenter led instrumental circus music and group improvisations on trumpet and slide trumpet (a small soprano trombone) with tubist Ron Caswell, accordionist Alec K. Redfearn, saxophonist Jim Hobbs, banjoist Brandon Seabrook, and drummer Jerome Deupree.

Ringleaders Revolt

Innova Records 2004

ACT I
1: Overture
2: Mandalay Song
3: Big Top Suite Pt 1 : March Of The Elephants
4: I Am Not An Animal, I Am A Human Being
5: Big Top Suite Pt 2 : Clowns
6: Contortionist Tango
7: Requiem For John Merrick
8: Intermission

ACT II
9: Big Top Suite Pt 3 : Daredevil Chicken Trapeze
10: Grand Entrance
11: The Mack
12: Escape From The Big House
13: Die By The Sword
14: Ringleader's Revolt
15: Exit Music

 

THE BAND
Brian Carpenter (slide trumpet, trumpet), Jim Hobbs (alto saxophone), Brandon Seabrook (banjo, mandolin, tape loops), Alec K. Redfearn (accordion), Ron Caswell (tuba), Jerome Deupree (drums), Charlie Kohlhase (baritone saxophone -all), Leigh Calabrese (singing saw - 5), Karen Langlie (cello, short-wave radio -12), DJ Hazard (voice - 12). Mixed by Danny Blume at Good & Evil Studios and mad genius illustrations by David Goldin.

THE MUSIC
Recorded at Q Division Studios in August 2003 after a summer-long residency and mixed by Danny Blume of Good&Evil Studios, Ringleaders Revolt rolls through a few gin-soaked versions of music from the 1920s, including Kurt Weill's "Mandalay Song" and American circus music composer Karl King's "Triumphal March". The rest is a Fellini-esque fiction of the past, a crazy burlesque circus spun out of control featuring the formidable Beat Circus with sonic subversion by Brandon Seabrook's surreal tape loops, Leigh Calabrese's singing saw, Karen Langlie's short-wave radio, and an hilarious cameo by legendary comedian DJ Hazard.

THE PRAISE
Boston Phoenix Top 10 of 2004:
"Slide trumpeter Brian Carpenter and his three-ring-theater-jazz troupe The Beat Circus emerged as a formidable virtuoso ensemble with their first CD, Ringleader's Revolt (Innova). Working with Jim Hobbs (saxophone), Brandon Seabrook (banjo), Ron Caswell (tuba), Alec K. Redfearn (accordion), and Matt McLaren (drums), Carpenter created a band with a decidedly Fellini-esque bent who allude to Nino Rota, Kurt Weill, and the American circus music of Karl King." -- Jon Garelick, 12/24/04

"Even at its most aggressively modernist, it remains a love song to a genre that just doesn't get enough credit...an act of minor genius. When all's said and done, you're just going to want more." -- Mike Meginnis, Splendid

"The Beat Circus operates on a musical boundary hardly ever performed live or even heard on record." -- All About Jazz

"Their 2004 Innova cd Ringleaders Revolt is a riotous collage of circus and burlesque and tango which suggest affinities with Willem Breuker, though there's clearly something original going on. Serious fun, references to John Merrick and all." -- Francis Davis, Village Voice

"They could be the house band for the dark carnival in Ray Bradbury's 'Something Wicked This Way Comes', its full-length cd Ringleaders Revolt the accompaniment to some faded old black-and-white cartoon that never saw the light of day because its creator's sense of humor made others...uneasy." -- Weekly Planet

"Ringleader's Revolt is a success on virtually every level imaginable." -- babysue magazine

Recommended cd pick by All About Jazz, Boston Herald, and Modern Humorist.

Featured on NPR's All Songs Considered, WXYC Chapel Hill NC, WMNF Tampa FL, WFMU NY, WMBR Boston MA, WZBC Boston MA, WBCN Boston MA, WNYC New York, KAOS Olympia WA, WPRB Princeton NJ, WTBU Boston MA