Circa Regna Tonat are taking part in the Ymateb/Respond project run by National Museums of Wales. Download the band's contribution, 'Atta' for free from www.museumwales.ac.uk
The Band were originally conceived over a telephone conversation between Adam Lewis and Daniel Barnett in November 2005, in which the former party stated that he wanted to "start a doom band" to which the latter party replied, "what the hell is doom?". The meeting of the two had happened a month or so prior to this conversation in a pub called The Railway in their hometown of Caerphilly. Daniel was front man of the three-piece grunge outfit, The Esoterica, who that night were supporting Adam's band, Anna-O. After seeing The Esoterica, Jonny Lee Evans, guitarist in Anna-O stated that "I want to be in a band with that guy", sewing the seeds that would eventually lead to Adam's call to Daniel the next month.
In January 2006, the three came together at Redrock Studios, where they emerged with a few basic ideas that would eventually become the songs 'Lice', 'Hydro/Claw/Ride' and 'Multipleorganfailure'. The initial intentions of the band were to write dynamic instrumental pieces without the aid of bass, choosing the more preferred Boss Octave Pedal to enhance the sound. A sound which inspired the final choice of name. For weeks the three went through the names 'Rape Technique' and 'Spastic Wedding' before settling on three latin words which had been used as an inscription on Henry VIII's throne and also by 16th Century Poet Thomas Wyatt, 'Circa Regna Tonat', meaning 'Around The Throne Thunder Roars'.
The band rehearsed furiously for four straight months, getting the songs as tight as possible to gig with. However, the more the band rehearsed, the more dynamic the songs became and that's when the decision was made to bring in a bassist to allow both Jonny and Daniel to be more experimental. Rhys Griffiths and Daniel had been best friends for years and had started their first band, Franco, together back in 2001, so the decision to choose a bassist was an easy one.
From that point the band started building a strong reputation as a great live act on the South Wales circuit. In the summer of 2006, the band recorded their first e.p. entitled 'Burning Witches For Glue', followed a year later by the highly experimental second offering 'Lightswitch Impulses', which has gathered a cult following in its wake due to the use of two basses and schizo-noise shreaks mixed with progressive, post-rock instrumentals. During the past three years the band have secured high profile support slots with the likes of Taint, Noxagt, An Albatross, Rolo Tomassi and more recently Manatees, Part Chimp and The Airborne Toxic Event. Mikel Jollett of The Airborne Toxic Event has stated that the band were "by far the best band we've played with on the entire UK tour".
Currently the band have finished working on their forthcoming release, 'Dance-off with a Triceratops', which was recorded and produced by the respected Charlie Francis at Music Box Studios, Cardiff, on December 6th 2008 in one ten hour live session. It is set for release in early 2009.
The band love boxing, Irvine Welsh and Mark Foley.
Dan also performs an acoustic project under the name Rescue Party as well as recently creating a new project entitled Samoans (formerly 'Scissorkick Victory') Taliesin Leboutillier (ex Lights to Lead Us) and Calvin Ley and has sporadically collaborated with Nicola Charles, John Ruddick and Kaskie ('The Death of Her Money') for 'Fallen Painting'. He is currently writing and recording new material for his dub project with Darren James Coles under the name The Way The Whale Works. Adam also performs with Tariq Sarwar for All Hail Mother Earth. Busy boys indeed.
Nice Things Said By Nice People
Adam T. Walton (BBC Radio Wales): "Excellent, original tunes" "Pretty Remarkable"
'Buzz Magazine': "(CRT) can lurch out of the light and in to the shade with a snap of a chord, often to fine effect" and have described the music as, "Fat-arsed Instrumental Heaviness".
'Metro': "Whether it's the name of a black metal band or a Tool album, the deployment of Latin in modern music is almost invariably shorthand for po-faced heaviness and absurd portentousness. Happily, though Circa Regna Tonat have a name that would set the darkest of metallers aglow with envy, the Caerphilly quartet are cut from an altogether more colourful cloth. That's not to say they're not loud- they're very, very loud- but their experimental noise rock has as much light as shade, instrumentals marked as much by the subtle build up of tension as the pummelling, drum-dominated roar of their full stride. Their eight-track 2006 EP, Burning Witches For Glue, provides a decent introduction, but CRT are best sampled in the more visceral environment of a live show."
'Silent Words Speak Loudest': "as their name (Around the Throne Thunder Roars) and their friendship with Swansea Bruisers, Taint suggest, CRT make one hell of a racket. Propelled by awesome drumming... they're best when on the attack" (silentwordsspeakloudest.blogspot.com).
Bethan Elfyn BBC Radio 1: "Nice And Heavy"
'Black Cesar' (Taint Spin-off): "A TRULY UNIQUE MUSICAL EXPERIENCE!!! ONE MINUTE AN OBLITERATION OF MACHINE GUN RIFFS AND THE NEXT A PURE MUSICAL BEAUTY THAT SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING BUT DOES!!! SCHIZO NOISE ROCK FROM ONE OF THE U.K.'S MOST PROMISING GROUP OF ROCK FIENDS!!!"
'NP Life': "the drumming was amazing and the vocalist was equally good".
Hi, just thought we'd let you know the mastered version of 'Desire' is now uploaded and after a couple of bad recording experiences over the past few mnths we're finally gonna be getting into the studio of the next few weeks so there should be some new tunes v soon.
Also we're now working with See Monkey Do Monkey Recordings and there's gonna be a whole new look, with new logo and photos coming very soon too.
Anyway thanks to everyone whos supported us over the last year.
Hey sexy monkey it's Jimmy The Fingers! If you haven't seen this video please take a peek... This is me singing my song "Grace." If you buy one mp3 this year make it a jimmy! BUY NOW – CLICK HERE!!!!!
Hey there! Wanted to say hello since it's been a while since we have been by your page ! WASABEEEE!! Love, She Rockstars Glued/Rockstars Glued Radio www.rockstarsglued.com
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I've been alright thanks. How's things with you? Atta is a fucking ace track, by the way. Didn't you have some kind of launch show in January? How did that go? I meant to come see you but my life went all wrong haha. I really need to catch you guys play some time.
