RICHARD DAWSON & CIRCLE

Henki (Weird World)

Good news for all those of you who’ve been unable to sleep wondering what would happen if one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary British music were to join forces with a bunch of Finnish prog-metal oddballs fluent in a language of their own creation to record seven songs named after plants that touch on everything from woolly rhinoceroses, the myth of Midas and the ghosts of the recently departed at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary. The answer is Henki from Richard Dawson & Circle, and it’s quite wonderful.

Aforementioned oddballs Circle function very much as a backing band, allowing Richard Dawson’s unmistakeable Geordie falsetto to take centre stage and lending weight, power and depth to his odd tales. Their influence and input get gradually more pronounced as the album progresses from atmospheric folk (Cooksonia), through jazzy meanderings (Silphium) and sprightly power pop and duelling foot-on-monitor guitars (Methuselah), before ending up baroque System Of A Down (Pitcher).

words BEN WOOLHEAD