Hisham Bharoocha, the peacenik behind Soft Circle, used to drum in Brooklyn's Black Dice, a neo-tribal powerhouse ... "Sundazed" saves face by taking the same impulse as the crashing-drums crowd--rhythmic, hypnotic--and dissolving it into a tangle of synth marimbas, tricky off-rhythms, and reverberant shades. Turns out new age is something like the Cretaceous, just with hairier lizards shimmying around.
If I had a million dollars I would comission Hisham Bharoocha (aka Soft Circle) to come work magic on my house, and like some post-postmodern Michaelangelo, he would transform the place into an acid-tripping Sistine Chapel of bright, kinetic shapes... Aside from being a vital visual artist (with skills honed at the Rhode Island Institute of Design), Hisham can count himself as a founding member of Lightning Bolt and Black Dice. Those are lofty creative heights to say the least and Full Bloom is a strong indicator that we are seeing an artist in the warm light of spring... Full Bloom is a triumphant solo debut; shining and incorporeal, its one for your mind, body, and soul.
Bharoocha played so many different things at one point, triggering sounds with a kaos-pad type apparatus and what I think were some mini-synths. He veered the long, trance-like songs through various tempo and mood changes, never stopping for more than a few seconds... it was beautiful to listen to... He was feeling a musical vibration, in a big way, and translating that to everyone in the room.