It takes a large dose of courage and credibility to have the word “great” somewhere in the title of your debut album. Sleepwalk Circus, fronted by “Ringmaster” Francis Lorenzo, alongside Peavey “Sideshow” Nicolas on guitars, Jeric “Jack of All Trades” de la Cruz on drums, and Laurie “Annie Oakley” Maravilla on bass, prove they have not only the guts but also what it takes to live up to their self-proclaimed glory. From “Introduction” to “Wakewalking,” the listener is plunged into a swirling musical vortex, the portal for Sleepwalk Circus’ Great Secret Show. We are thrown somewhere where blank canvases and white walls explode with rich melodies and morph into the landscapes of the band’s eerie imaginings that meld with our own.

Imagine that circus folk are the songs themselves: complex, expressive, and loaded with the magic circuses are known to be teeming with. Imagine “The Start” to be the moment when the red curtains are pulled to reveal an elegant trapeze artist in the spotlight, suspended somewhere, swinging, bending, twirling for our infinite pleasures. Track 5, “Sideshow,” is the song for the Mime, who tries to show us the depth of human gestures (or, in the song’s case, the depth of guitar riffs, licks, and trickles cradled by the beating of drums). “Insignificant Opinions” is the Clown’s song. He is in the spotlight now. We laugh but we do not know that he is handsome beneath the makeup and costume—an Adonis. He is cold to laughter. Untouchable. Track 6 is the “Clown’s Lament,” his revenge. “You little s**t suck on this ice!”

Into the seventh track, little snowflakes start to fall out of nowhere, tickling our noses. Snow Snow. The Clown is gone and in his place are ugly characters dancing, circling a beautiful figure bathed in light. We desire her. Him. It. The tiny snowflakes fall faster and harder until everyone but the beautiful figure is buried under a pile of the cold white stuff. We are left mesmerized by Up Dharma Down’s Armi Millare in “Part 2: For You My King,” her voice enveloping the enchanted stage. She is the beautiful figure at the center and as majestic as she has always been. She is Venus, the mermaid, the unicorn—the ideal woman of our dreamscapes.

Track 9: the stage is now open to the audience and we walk slowly towards where the “Flies are Flying.” We realize our limbs are attached to strings. We are puppets and we are part of the Great Secret Show. We ask big existential questions: “Who chose to bring Man down?” “Will they fall down?” From this track to the very last, we sleepwalk through a wild adventure of dynamic melancholy, an adventure not heartbreaking enough to be called sad but not uplifting enough to be called the opposite. Stuck in dreamland limbo, here is the only time we will ever use our ears to walk and dream.

The beauty of this album is that you can forget everything that has been written and it can still be everything you desire it to be. But you’d need a radical pair of dream-oculars. (Cat Cortes)

Great Secret Show cover art provided by Toti Dalmacion of Terno Recordings.