The Retinal Circus | ||||
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Live album by | ||||
Released | September 30, 2013 | |||
Recorded | October 27, 2012, at Roundhouse, Chalk Farm, London | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 128:58 | |||
Label | HevyDevy | |||
Producer | Devin Townsend | |||
Devin Townsend chronology | ||||
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About.com | [1] |
The Retinal Circus is a live album by Canadian musician Devin Townsend. It was released on September 30, 2013, in Europe, [2] and on October 29, 2013, in North America. [3] The audio and video material were recorded at Roundhouse, London, on October 27, 2012, when Townsend performed a special one-night-only concert celebrating and covering his 20-year musical career. [4]
In November 2011, after performing a series of special Devin Townsend Project shows, Devin Townsend revealed his plan to perform a one-off concert in London, England, that would cover his musical career from mid-1990s up to that point. [4] Townsend stated that he wanted to create a "more than musical" show which included a storyline, multiple performers and special effects. [4] Later he said that the concert would be recorded for future release. [5]
The concert lasted approximately two and a half hours, and it was divided into two parts, with an intermission in between. [6] The band consisted of the same personnel as the recent years' Devin Townsend Project line-up, and the special guests were Anneke van Giersbergen and Jed Simon, with Steve Vai hosting the show via pre-recorded video projected onto screens. The setlist was focused heavily on material from Epicloud and a few other albums from Townsend's catalogue; the setlist included no songs from Terria, Accelerated Evolution, Ki and Ghost. Townsend also performed, against his then-current principles, [7] two Strapping Young Lad songs. He later stated that this was because of the career-spanning nature of the concert, and playing those two songs was a "closure for him and Strapping Young Lad". [8] He also wanted to "respect the legacy of the band" and to reconnect and perform again with Jed Simon. [9]
The concert was one of the most prepared Devin Townsend shows ever, with over a year of pre-production, and it was recorded in high definition with a higher budget and a more professional approach to production than the previous live release, By a Thread. [4] 5000 people saw the sold out performance, and the concert was also streamed live through Livemusicstage.com. [10]
The Retinal Circus was released as six different versions. The standard editions feature either a double-CD, double-DVD or a Blu-ray. The Blu-ray version includes the whole concert on a single disc. The digipak edition features both the CDs and the DVDs. Two limited edition box sets were also released: a "clown box" featuring all five discs of the standard editions, limited to 5000 copies worldwide, and a "monkey box" featuring all five discs with a 40-page book, signed lithography print and fan merchandise, housed in a vinyl sized box with a pop-up of the Retinal Circus stage. The "monkey box" edition is limited to 2500 hand-numbered copies worldwide. [11] [12] The album was a chart success in some countries, with the double-DVD version peaking at No. 1 in Finland. [13]
All track lengths taken from the CD release.
All tracks are written by Devin Townsend
No. | Title | Album | Length |
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1. | "Effervescent!/True North" | Epicloud | 6:23 |
2. | "Lucky Animals" | Epicloud | 3:33 |
3. | "Planet of the Apes" | Deconstruction | 11:02 |
4. | "Truth" | Infinity | 3:59 |
5. | "War" | Infinity | 6:09 |
6. | "Soul Driven" | Infinity | 1:08 |
7. | "Planet Smasher" | Ziltoid the Omniscient | 6:19 |
8. | "Babysong" | Synchestra | 5:30 |
9. | "Vampolka" | Synchestra | 1:36 |
10. | "Vampira" | Synchestra | 3:42 |
11. | "Addicted!" | Addicted | 5:32 |
12. | "Color Your World" | Ziltoid the Omniscient | 9:48 |
13. | "The Greys" | Ziltoid the Omniscient | 4:55 |
Total length: | 69:36 |
No. | Title | Album | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Hyperdrive" | Ziltoid the Omniscient/Addicted | 4:44 |
2. | "Ih-Ah!" | Addicted | 3:58 |
3. | "Where We Belong" | Epicloud | 4:18 |
4. | "Detox" ( Strapping Young Lad) | City | 6:03 |
5. | "Bend It Like Bender!" | Addicted | 3:36 |
6. | "Life" | Ocean Machine: Biomech | 4:52 |
7. | "Kingdom" | Physicist/Epicloud | 5:09 |
8. | "Juular" | Deconstruction | 3:59 |
9. | "Love?" (Strapping Young Lad) | Alien | 5:23 |
10. | "Colonial Boy" | Infinity | 2:58 |
11. | "Grace" | Epicloud | 6:52 |
12. | "Little Pig" | Epiclouder | 7:30 |
Total length: | 59:22 |