album // The Two Ring Circus
Erasure followed-up The Circus with
The Two Ring Circus, a quirky mix of remixes, re-recordings
and, if you plump for the CD or tape editions, the majority of a
live concert recorded in Hamburg. It's just different enough to
escape being just another stop-gap remix album, and includes some
of the best available mixes of tracks from The Circus.
The sleeve was designed by Me Company, who also
provided the bold big-top design for the 'parent' album - this time
it's sketches of circus animals and related items. It's gloriously
simplistic, but equally a stripped-back design based on the main
Circus sleeve - much the same as how the mixes and re-recordings
are reinterpretations. All of the studio versions were specially-commissioned,
so this album is not a convenient repackaging of previously-released
material.
Erasure and Flood provide an excellent remix
of 'Sometimes', something of a slow-builder. Many of the background
sounds and melodic lines are pushed higher up in the mix, and Vince
Clarke 's acoustic guitar is much more prominent. Pascal
Gabriel (later to produce Inspiral Carpets and a future
member of Bomb The Bass and Peach) offers a near-electro
mix of 'It Doesn't Have To Be', all big beats and what sounds like
a razor being taken to the bassline.
Acid house pioneer Little Louie Vega remixes
'Victim Of Love', notching up the bottom end and emphasising the
percussion, occasionally messing with the vocals. Vince and his
old production partner Eric Radcliffe provide an outstanding
mix of the bleak 'Leave Me To Bleed', which is a wholly different
structure with a new, caustic melody...when you've listened as many
times as I have, you begin to realise that the melody is actually
the original track's final bassline, played on a different synth.
The second Little Louie Vega mix is much better,
converting 'Hideaway' into a hi-NRG electro-disco number for the
1987 dancefloor. The melodies are all still there, but it's the
beat and bassline that drive this along. Mute MD Daniel
Miller teams up with Flood for their edgy mix of 'Don't Dance'.
Their mix adds new percussion sounds and processed vocal snatches
(which sound like they're pushed through an analogue synth), and
also replaces the original bass tones with an electric guitar sound.
The three re-recordings ('If I Could', 'Spiralling'
and Wonderland's 'My Heart...So Blue') are beautiful orchestral
arrangements by Andrew Poppy, who would later work with Nitzer
Ebb and is now releasing his own material. The arrangements
draw out the emotion in Andy Bell's saddening vocals, rendering
the listener numb. Interestingly, Andy delivers his tortured live
vocal on 'Spiralling', which drops a couple of words ('without you')
from the end of the line 'How can I avoid this pain without you'
for some reason. The take on the 'Safety In Numbers' reprise is
strangely optimistic too. The same can also be said of 'My Heart...So
Blue', which in Poppy's hands sounds strident, positive - somewhat
at odds with the lyrical content, perhaps.
The live concert was recorded on April 27 and 28
in 1987 at Hamburg's Knopf Halle, and provides latecoming Erasure
fans (guilty as charged) with an opportunity to hear their early
stage sound. The 3x12" set of 'The Circus' single includes
additional tracks from the concert, and there is always the Live
At The Seaside video which captures a live performance in Brighton
the same year. Live Erasure tracks are disappointingly rare - a
surprise given that they've always been an excellent live act. Here
you get to experience Andy Bell's playful banter with the audience
- in German - plus the sheer breadth of his vocal range. Vince and
Andy are joined on stage by backing singers Derek Ian and
Steve Myers. They run through precise and dynamic versions
of 'Victim Of Love', 'The Circus', 'Spiralling' (complete with falsetto
conclusion), a rousing 'Sometimes' - all taken from The Circus.
These are joined by an excellent version of 'Oh L'Amour', wherein
the track breaks down into it's component layers, Andy introducing
each instrument as they are added back in ('Oberheim Xpander!'
he cries, synth fetishists), as well as his 'geliebtest' ('favourite')
- Vince - in the campest possible voice; the shy Clarke also introduces
Andy ('Introducing...Mr Andrew Bell!'). You've got to love
it.
'Who Needs Love Like That' follows, as does a take
on Abba's 'Gimme Gimme Gimme', with the addition of an accapella
section from the Ulvaeus' 'Money Money Money'. Erasure's studio
version seemed to me icily mysterious - not simply a camp rendition
of a seventies discopop track - and I happen to think this live
version beats the studio counterpart hands down. Andy simply fills
the track, while Vince's thudding beat and arpeggiating syths keep
the pace. The speeding-up at the end is fun too. Throughout the
set, Clarke's keyboard and guitar playing is rich, deep, providing
certain changes and applying new flourishes.
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