Today, there is a review of an album that has been available to the public for 4 years but has only been purchasable again since October 28, 2011, as the first edition from 2008 has long been sold out. Nevertheless, I believe the band deserves more than just a few lines about their current album “Potpourri des Herrn Baron von Gunzenhausen” on ramtatta.de ( http://www.ramtatta.de/reviews,id-1266,go-gankino+circus+_+das+potpourri+des+herrn+baron+von+gunzenhausen.html ), but also about their first album “For the First Time in Their City”.
GANKINO CIRCUS plays, in short, a mix of folk, polka, Eastern European music, German Schlager, and a potpourri of the best that music has to offer. The band from Middle Franconia has composed their own little style gem and has been touring with it for several years.
With their music, they manage to perform at village parades as well as being the opening act for Eläkeläiset. They are quirky, they are different, and they are very entertaining.
This album includes four cover songs. The other ten songs are all of traditional origin and unknown to me. However, I do not come from Middle Franconia but from Prussia, and traditional folk music is not exactly one of my specialties. However, it is one of GANKINO CIRCUS's.
If you expect a band that merely plays old traditional songs, you are completely mistaken. The band has processed all the songs in their own style and demonstrates great musical skill alongside the arrangements themselves. There are jazzy interludes next to folk and polka rhythms alongside Schlager influences. This fits perfectly for a summer festival in a caravan park. The traveling people are, after all, the focus of the album. There are songs about the circus, such as “Hereinspaziert, Hereinspaziert” or “When the Circus Was on Fire” (a cover version of Georg Kreisler), but also very traditional songs presented in dialect, like the sad yet somehow very moving “Kerwa Madli”.
Many songs have little or no lyrics, which does not detract from the fun one has with this album.
The CD comes in an elaborate wooden case, which I have not seen with other bands so far. Thus, this album is the first total work of art by the band, which has paved the way for further great albums, such as the current “Das Potpourri des Herrn Baron von Gunzenhausen”.
