Guitarist and composer Neal Casal founded Circles Around the Sun after receiving a commission to create incidental music for the Grateful Deads Fare Thee Well concerts. Rhino released it as Interludes for the Dead the same year and followed it with the funky fusion of 2018s Let It Wander and 2019s Meets Joe Russo, a jam with the keyboard virtuoso. Casal died in 2019 shortly after completing the bands eponymous fourth offering. Bassist Dan Horne, drummer Mark Levy, and keyboardist Adam MacDougall employed a revolving cast of guitarists before hiring John Lee Shannon. The guitarist and composer is a sideman with Zephaniah Ohora and Kenny Roby among others. He released fine solo album In & Of in 2020. As evidenced by the six-track, 40-minute Language, hes a good fit. Shannon is never obtrusive or showy. He is fluid and mercurial, a gifted fingerstyle player, a roots stylist, and an intuitive, lyrical soloist whether playing acoustic or electric. Opener "Third Sunrise Over Gliese 667" is deep psych and nods directly at Pink Floyd (think Atom Heart Mother and Meddle). Swelling organ and a fat bassline set a gently majestic progression as Levy paces with rim shots, angular breaks, and reverbed tom-toms. Shannon fingerpicks, adds leads, and eventually, a soaring solo. "The Singularity" is more abstract, saturated with keyboard sounds that include chimes, bells, ringing electric pianos, ambient noise, and percussion loops. Shannon, Levy, and Horne carry the progressions heft as wizard MacDougall channels more sounds. It segues into one of the sets finest moments. "Outer Boroughs" opens with a tight wah-wah guitar line that loosely recalls Frank Zappas "Peaches en Regalia" before intersecting with jazzed-up fusion keys, string sounds, plodding bass, and an aggressively shuffling drum kit. In the bridge, Shannons guitar aping a sitar reintroduces the theme before it gives way to group interplay, complete with funky clavinet that moves far out on the groove ledge. "Away Team" is a spacy, jazz-funk rave-up with interlocking keyboard patterns meeting propulsive, dancing snares, hi-hats, and kick drums. Hornes gutbucket bassline and Shannons chunky shuffling frame the spidery keyboard vamp as Levy pushes the tempo. The end result sounds like Tangerine Dream playing space disco backed by the Atlanta Rhythm Section. "Wobble" is a showcase for Shannon. Accompanied by a bubbling bassline, four-on-the-floor kick drum, and snare, he intros the tremolo melody with a surf aesthetic and jazz chromatics before dropping in a sunny chordal vamp as the band frames him in fusion, psychedelia, and R&B. The eponymous closer emerges as polished, blissed-out street funk that gets more progressive and spacy before the middle eight. Guest harpist Mikaela Davis begins interacting with the rhythm section, then addresses Shannons spiky vamps and MacDougalls carefully layered keyboards delivering ghostly overtones, choppy chords, and a groove that wont quit. On Language, CATS succeeded in creating a new, wide-ranging, seamlessly interactive musical language that underscores their commitment to groove and improvisation. ~ Thom Jurek

Rovi