Pär Hagström & Cirkus Transmopol
We are music
Adore Music
I couldn't wait to get my mitts on Pär Hagström & Cirkus Transmopol's debut album after falling in love with "I'm not going home tonight", an empowering, air-punching, hip-swaying highway hit that teeters only a wee bit precariously on the line of 80s anthem rock. "Sing and dance" not only crosses that line, however, it penetrates deep into the heart of Cheeseville, and I don't think I was ready to take that trip. The remainder of the album strays elsewhere – into Eastern Europe, to collect a bit of the gypsy folk that seems to be picking up momentum thanks to Beirut and Gogol Bordello. With Cirkus included in the name of the band, I suppose it shouldn't come as any surprise that there's also a hint of the theatrical, with some songs verging on cabaret, but it wasn't a combination I was expecting from this mysterious Göteborg collective who describe themselves not as a band, but "more like an orchestra, or a joyful funeral procession… a huge mass of people tumbling around on a mysterious stage or as a calm sea of milk with two lonely sailors upon it." Yeah. Weird.
- Stacey Shackford