Review: Jack O’ The Clock – The Warm, Dark Circus (2023)

The Warm, Dark Circus is Jack O’ The Clock’s ninth studio album.

The American Jack O’ The Clock is probably one of the most closely guarded secrets of progressive rock over the last 20 years. Led by multi-instrumentalist Damon Waitkus (guitar, dulcimer, flute, etc.) and formed in 2007, the band has quietly released nine fine studio albums combining folk and prog, and one very powerful live album. Despite a quality and extensive catalogue, very few listeners, even those familiar with progressive rock, are aware of the band.

Jack O’ The Clock (henceforth JOTC) has at least gained some attention among the narrow following of the progressive rock subgenre avantprog. JOTC does fit reasonably well into that subgenre. The band’s music is at times very complex and avant-garde, but on the other hand, Waitkus’ compositions are also often considerably more accessible than the genre’s music in general. While avant-prog often draws mainly on influences from modern art music or avant-garde jazz, for Waitkus it is precisely American folk music that is a key tool alongside these influences. Instead of avant-prog, JOTC could be called americanaprog!

JOTC is one of those bands that doesn’t dilly-dally from album to album, experimenting with different genres, but instead the band’s style evolves slowly without major departures. Sometimes they even take stylistic steps backwards. This is due to Waitkus’ rather unusual way of making music. He tends to compose a huge amount of music, some of which is inevitably left on the drawer waiting for the right moment to be recorded. Some of the music on The Warm, Dark Circus was also composed years ago. Oldest drafts date even back to 2005! So The Warm, Dark Circus does not offer any major new paths, but builds on the familiar JOTC elements.

The total lack of new angles might seem boring if Waitkus’ style (the music in JOTC is almost entirely his) wasn’t so original. So what if every album by a band doesn’t break new ground? Yes, there can be nine or even two dozen albums in the world with JOTC’s distinctive style!

Speaking of outliers; the band’s previous album Leaving California (2021) seemed to veer more towards folk, but The Warm, Dark Circus sort of takes a step back in the direction of Repetitions Of The Old City I (2016) and Repetitions Of The Old City II ( 2018), again offering plenty of complex progressive rock. And at times with a more ferocious and heavier touch than ever before. Folk, however, remains a central part of JOTC’s music. And I believe it always will be.

Leaving California also seemed to be a watershed in the band’s line-up. Jack O’ The Clock’s style emerged from their second album How Are We Doing and Who Will Tell Us? (2011), it relied not only on Waitkus’ own multi-instrumentalism, but also on Emily Packard (Waitkus’ partner) on violin, Kate McLoughlin on bassoon and flute, and an extremely strong rhythm section of Jason Hoopes (bass) and Jordan Glenn (drums) (Hoopes and Glenn also play in Fred Frith’s improvisational trio). This core line-up was in jeopardy when the couple Waitkus and Packard moved from the west coast of the US to the other side of the continent in Vermont. Leaving California indeed! McLoughlin had already moved to the East Coast and was therefore unable to join the Leaving California album. It seemed that the move would also make Leaving California the last album Hoopes and Glenn would play on. Somewhat surprisingly, however, The Warm, Dark Circus reunites the classic JOTC quintet; McLoughlin is back and Hoopes and Glenn continue to keep the band’s not-so-smooth rhythms going. Waitkus told me in an interview that before the move, Hoopes and Glenn had time to play the backing tracks for as many as three albums. Leaving California, The Warm, Dark Circus and a yet to be released album! However, the next album will be made with a new rhythm section and Waitkus will return to the material recorded by Hoopes and Glenn at a later date.

But let’s move on at this point to The Warm, Dark Circus, which is almost an hour long.

Read me: Jack O’ The Clock – Leaving California (2021)

The album opens with the seven-minute long ”The Ladder Slipped”. A rapidly hushed harmonica introduces the song, followed by an upbeat, intricate banjo ostinato that takes the lead. The banjo is soon joined by Waitkins’ vocals, which are again charmingly slightly nasal-sounding. Combining progressive rock and folk, the song also features long electric guitar notes, a slashing violin, a complex bass pattern and a rich variety of exotic percussion, as well as a controlled use of counterpoint. Karl Evengalista plays a gloriously ringing, low-key electric guitar solo, and towards the end, Victor Reynolds’ finely played harmonica returns angrily. The insidiously complex ’The Ladder Slipped’ navigates from one section to the next with admirable smoothness. A great start to the album!

The next song, just over two minutes long ”Division Blues,” is a slightly different kind of JOTC. However, in its own way, the furiously rumbling and growling blues song represents the traditions of American music that run deep in the band’s DNA, so it’s not an aberration. And of course, it’s not about a dime a dozen blues either, with microtone acoustic guitars and Ben Spees’ microtone electric guitar from Waitkus’ other band, Ventifact, adding a nice twisted side flavour. ”Division Blues” is a good example of Waitkus’ ability to work on short songs that are still multi-dimensional in content. This is one of the many ways in which JOTC resembles Gentle Giant.

The third song, ”Stuck Inside Of Elvis,” is the most playful of the album. The song relies on a fun, swaying bassoon riff and sharply snapping, intermittent percussion. The instrumentation also includes Waitkus’ whispering flute and Art Elliott’s strongly resonant and heavily reverberated piano. Stylistically, ’Stuck Inside Of Elvis’ would have fitted well on the band’s previous album.

”Sage’s Song” is a lullaby less than a minute long, with Waitkus’ vocals accompanied only by a 12-string guitar, a glockenspiel and a Packard’s violin. ”Sage’s Song” (Sage is Waitkus’ four-year-old daughter) also serves as a kind of intro to the first really long composition on the album.

Beginning with an ethereal and beautifully quiet section, the 13-minute epic, ”Dürer’s Rhinoceros,” gradually builds into a proper rattle, doing justice to the rhinoceros in the title. The rhinoceros on the album’s cover comes from a famous woodcut of a rhinoceros (1515) by Albrecht Dürer, who had never seen a rhinoceros or even a proper image of a rhinoceros when he made the drawing. The rest of the artwork on the plate booklet was created using artificial intelligence based on Dürer’s work. This is quite apt, as the AI has never seen a rhinoceros either!

On ”Dürer’s Rhinoceros” it is refreshing that some of the lyrics are sung by Thea Kelly which is a welcome change to Waitkus’ voice. But the best thing about the song is its long instrumental section.

The instrumental section that starts about halfway through the song is one of the finest in the band’s history. Not only does it feature a really great bass pattern thundering in the background, but also one of the album’s finest and most emphatic melodies, played to the accompaniment of rattling percussion on violin. Josh Packard also plays a small, dark and tasty cello solo.

After a short sung section, the eight-minute mark returns to the quiet and curious moods of the intro, from which the song slowly takes off again, led by a fun, bouncy bassoon and a delicate flute. The last few minutes of the song open with a steady, pounding rhythm, the music becomes more intense and the suspense builds. Holloway’s saxophone plays softly in the background of Waitkus’s anguished, emphatic vocals. Eventually the song just fades away. A great song, but I’m not entirely convinced by the ending.

”This Is Just What It Seems” is a low-key song, sung with a strong vibrato at times by Waitkus, and is mostly accompanied by different guitars. The guitars include acoustic guitar, piccolo electric guitar and Myles Boisen’s elegant pedal steel guitar. Here and there, the sound is punctuated by a high-pitched harmonica. Hoopes, playing his bass with a bow, creates a delightfully buzzing backdrop for everything. ”This Is Just What It Seems” is a beautiful and light three-minute snack between two long tracks.

Subscribe newsletter

Next up is the longest song on the album. ”How Are We Doing…” lasts just over 13 minutes. Starting with an abstract and atonal section, the composition quickly moves into a strong rhythmic, complex and semi-chaotic percussive section. The clarinet plays intermittently among the boisterous percussion, and the violin joins in tastefully.

The song, which sounds very much like a through-composed song, contains a number of different parts with skilful transitions. Either they are so smooth that you hardly notice them, or the changes are sudden, but even then always in an appropriate way.

The vocals do not finally start until five minutes in. Even then, the singing takes a back seat, as the music remains so active and complex that my attention, at least, is focused on the music rather than the singing. The strong instrumental nature of ”How Are We Doing…” is a good thing, because there is a lot of singing on the album, maybe a little too much.

A little before the nine-minute mark, we return to somewhat similar moods as in the rhythmic section of the beginning, but this time led by a quirky bassoon riff. An interesting sequence of recitative vocals is heard in between the music.

”How Are We Doing…” is a really rich and downright head-spinningly complex, yet seductively addictive song. Based on my interview, I think Waitkus himself has mixed feelings about his multi-directional composition, but I think it’s one of JOTC’s most stunning tracks.

After a very tightly played ”How Are We Doing…”, Waitkus and Hoopes co-composed ”…And Who Will Tell Us?” is a much more airy sounding piece of music. After a gentle, floating beginning, it also becomes more aggressive. Including even guitar riffs that are otherwise not heard much on the album. And again very interesting percussion work. Judging by sleeve’s ”pots and pans” credits, some of the percussion storm instruments in the song are played with kitchen utensils!

As a side note, the pair of songs ”How Are We Doing…” and ”How Are We Doing…” of course refer to the band’s second studio album How Are We Doing and Who Will Tell Us? (2011), but I have to admit that I haven’t yet figured out if the songs have any specific musical connection to that album.

The album ends with the quiet and short track ”Snowman On A Ledge” where Kelly’s sonorous vocals are accompanied only by Waitkus’ hammer dulcimer. A calm and beautiful end to an often very intense album.

Read also: PoiL/Ueda (2023)

Someone might have noticed that I haven’t mentioned the lyrics of the album at all. This is because, at the time of writing, my attention has so far been almost entirely focused on the music, which is very dense, rather than the lyrics. Waitkus’ lyrics are often narrative and downright cinematic. But what the story is really about is often a little unclear. In my opinion, Waitkus’s lyrics, which follow a dreamlike logic, are akin to David Lynch’s films. Both evoke strong images and emotions, but how the pieces fit together often remains a mystery. And that’s perfectly OK! My own experience is that with The Warm, Dark Circus, Waitkus’ lyrics are even more abstract and difficult to unfold than average, but that may indeed be because I’m not yet familiar enough with the subject matter.

The Warm, Dark Circus doesn’t quite reach the top of the band’s catalogue in my opinion, along with Night Loops and Repetitions I & II, but it’s another really strong album. And a testament to the almost inexhaustible creativity of Waitkus and his talented musicians. Once again, Jack O’ The Clock deserves far more attention than it has received so far. Hopefully The Warm, Dark Circus will change things for the better.

Best track: ”The Ladder Slipped”, ”Division Blues”, ”Dürer’s Rhinoceros”, “How Are We Doing…”, ”…And Who Will Tell Us?”

Author: JANNE YLIRUUSI

Tracks

The Ladder Slipped 7:27
Division Blues 2:22
Stuck Inside Of Elvis 4:45
Sage’s Song 0:49
Dürer’s Rhinoceros 12:55
This Is Just What It Seems 3:29
How Are We Doing… 13:16
…And Who Will Tell Us? 8:21
Snowman On A Ledge 3:31

Musicians

Damon Waitkus: vocals, acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, piccolo and baritone electric guitars, dulcimer, hammered dulcimer, piano, chimes, mbira, banjo, tongue drum, bass guitar, 17- and 22-EDO acoustic guitars, electric taishogoto, bass guitar, flutes, melodica, pianos.Synthesizer Emily Packard: violin, viola. Jason Hoopes: bass guitar Jordan Glenn: drums, accordion, synthesizer Kate McLoughlin: bassoon Thea Kelly: vocals Victor Reynolds: guitars, records, harmonica, harmonica, vocals, etc. Ivor Holloway: saxophones Jonathan Russell: clarinets Keith Waters: baritone saxophone Karl Evangelista: electric guitar Art Elliot: piano Josh Packard: cello Ben Spees: microtone guitars Myles Boisen: pedal steel guitar

Producer: Damon Waitkus

Label: Indepentendly released