CIRCLE OF DUST - Full Circle: The Birth, Death & Rebirth Of Circle Of Dust (DVD)

For those who have been following the resurrection of Circle Of Dust since 2015, as well as for those who were mesmerized and inspired by this cutting-edge, ‘90’s techno/metal hybrid phenomenon back in those days, Full Circle represents the culmination of everything – both wonderful and tragic – which has transpired over the past two and a half decades. This 2 DVD set (also available in HD digital download) is packed with great documentaries and videos (both past and present). And while I confess that at the end I was still left hoping for more (still so many more questions to be answered), this set is an extremely satisfying viewing experience on many levels – one which takes a lot of time to digest and process.

Disc 01

The main documentary (76:50) focuses on the entity of Circle Of Dust and is presented in chronological order, beginning with Klayton as a kid pounding on his drums and progressing through the teenage years as he develops into a multi-instrumentalist/vocalist and songwriter. From basement (“Celldweller”) creativity to signing his first record deal, Klayton (along with great eyewitness accounts of friends/bandmates/label guys, etc.) carefully details the successes and failures, in a humble and honest/transparent manner (you just want to love this guy and see him succeed!), of his musical journey. Produced by FiXT’s own James Rhodes, the quality of the recording is excellent and the flow of story-telling perfectly paced to hold the viewer’s interest for the hour and a quarter duration. The chapters are laid out in an intuitive progression, but most will want to just watch it “start to finish” without interruption. For me, it was over too fast, but I think for the average viewer the length is good. While Klayton does discuss his approach to and vision for the music with each release, I would have liked to hear more about his approach to writing lyrics and the inspirations and ideas behind some of these mind-bending and provocative themes.

The Argyle Park featurette is presented as “bonus” material (how appropriate, right, for a retro ‘90’s documentary) but it is fairly short. Again, it would have been nice to have a bit more depth about this release and the lyrical inspiration and approach. Great to hear input from guys like Jeff Bellew, Mark Salomon and of course Buka, who contributed on a conceptual level but isn’t a musician.

Finally, for all the metal nerds and technological music geeks, Klayton divulges the secrets behind the production of the music of Circle of Dust in the final “bonus” documentary, “Making The Music: The Gear & Production Of Circle Of Dust.” This feature is fantastic as Klayton takes label-mate and collaborator Bret (Blue Stahli) – along with the viewer of course – on a detailed tour of his studio equipment, to include rows of ADAT and DAT tapes, samplers and the vaunted Mac (which still works!), plus much more. For those of us who grew up in the 70’s and worked our way through the technological advances in music and computers from the mid 80’s onward this is like a trip down memory lane!

Disc 02

While the documentary is incredibly informative and interesting, this is definitely the “fan disc” because it contains over 90 minutes of VHS quality “bootleg” material – 17 songs in total spanning the 1992-1995 era. Options are available for “Play All” or “Songs” but it should be noted that the songs in the root menu are in no particular chronological order, nor are they grouped by venue, so you are really just getting a somewhat random list of songs to watch. Furthermore, the individual songs are identified only by song title and date, as there is no venue/location listed on the DVD menu or at the beginning of the song during playback. The tracks are nicely blended “in sequence” and so this plays out something like a concert. Video quality is about what you would expect from bootleg quality material circa mid 90’s – good but not great. And while the audio quality is fair, Klay’s vocals are very discernable on the majority of these tracks, so the overall listening experience is really quite satisfying for what this represents.

There are quite a few songs included from both the ’92 and ’95 Cornerstone Festival performances, including the ’92 “Exploration” where Klayton starts the song pounding on his half of Tilton’s drum kit and then makes the somewhat awkward transition to guitar (struggling with his guitar strap). On “Consequence” (‘93/’94) there is a really cool effect as the two performances are spliced together as one song. And fans will be glad to have the live performance of “Technological Disguise” here as that track (along with “Senseless Abandon”) was not included on the 2016 remake of the debut. Watching these performances more than two decades later is fascinating because this techno/metal hybrid (never envisioned to be a live band) was not only pulling off a credible live musical performance with a definitive metal edge, but with their futuristic sound samples, eerie TV monitors and light show they were paving the way for a whole new style of music and live performance.

In stark transition to the primitive/raw VHS videos, the music and lyric videos included here (which many may have already experienced on You-Tube) are simply mind-blowing. And while these are available on-line, it is great to have them all in one compact format where they can be up-scaled to HD and enjoyed on a full complement surround system.

The “Alt_Human” video is stunning just from a videography standpoint and disturbingly illustrates the “we play God” concept. Of the lyric videos, while all of them are great, I love the new song “Dust To Dust” and the incredibly inspiring (lyrically) “Outside In.”

The Case

Just a brief note about this as Klayton is always one for details. I love the retro ’90’s plastic DVD case and presentation. The brilliant, yet simplistic, cinema quality front cover/artwork is complemented by the overly complicated back cover. There is a nice synopsis of the scope and breadth of the product at the top, followed by the DVD menus in the middle, and then the banner below listing all of the participants. Over-crowded with information for sure, but isn’t that how it was back then? There is a nice 12 page booklet with the “then and now” album covers and photos of Klayton and the band. A listing of all of the venues/locations for the live videos would have been a nice edition, but not essential.

Circle Of Dust fans will want to check this out in detail, as will most students of the techno/industrial/metal revolution. On one level this set nicely serves as a summary of the scope of the band’s impact to the world of heavy music and electronic music. However, on another level, the story of the genesis, demise and resurrection of Klayton’s musical dream is both distressing and inspirational – one which serves not only to warn and educate young musicians (or anyone with hopes, dreams and aspirations to excellence for that matter) but also one which reminds us that anything is possible with perseverance, hard work and faith.

Fixt

Release Date = Out Now

DVD 1

Full Circle: The Birth, Death & Rebirth Of Circle Of Dust (76:50)

Argyle Park: Misguided (11:59)

Making The Music: The Gear & Production Of Circle Of Dust (32:46)

DVD 2

Circle Of Dust Live: VHS Bootlegs (91:40)

(17 songs from 1992-1995)

Circle Of Dust Music Videos

Contagion (2016) (5:25)

Alt_Human (2016) (5:01)