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LD Beghtol is suggesting I "build a dream and watch it shatter / Tell the world it didn't matter, anyway." Flare's sound, oft compared to The Velvet Underground - with Beghtol's world-weary way-with-words easy-pickings for those quick to compare to Brit gloomsters Curtis and Morrissey - is a reluctant blend of the bowed, the struck and the plucked, a lush mini-orchestra of all-things un-rocked unrolled. Despite resembling John Wayne Gacy's ID parade line-up, the Flare collective are a sensitive bunch, subtle keys and acoustic strings their weapons of choice with Beghtol's ukelele in evidence on all but the tear-jerking closer Save Me, Save Me... Over its 6 tracks and 22 minutes, Circa drifts on a cloud of measured melancholy - leaving an expanse of space for dream-builders.

Matt Dornan
CWAS #6 - Autumn 2000

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