We know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but c'mon!!! When that book is a cd by a couple of Finnish primitive black metal weirdos called Aanal Beehemoth and said cover features one of the members getting all Nosferatu in shades of green and white under a scrawled metal logo, with a little circle in the corner that reads "In Nekro Satanik Stereo Paranoia Sound"!! And on the other side you'll see both band members in ultra creepy clown-like corpsepaint, tongues out, shooting up, next to some ransom letter text that reads "100% Ultra Misery Blackout Metal Nekropunk Psykosound", and then let's not forget the inside cover, that features again both band members, in crazy corpsepaint, their names now revealed to be Deathly Fightar and Crazy Bomber (umlauts over the vowels of course) who play respectively: Deathbeat, OD guitar, bass and BG vox (that's Deathly) and Exorcism, bass, fuzz guitar and organ (!) (that's Crazy)...
You see what we're getting at, we knew this would rule before we even threw it on, it was just a matter of HOW it would rule, and just how much. The answer of how much is easier to address, cuz it's a WHOLE FREAKING SHIT TON, that's how much it rules, but exactly how might be a bit harder to explain. Needless to say, these guys are fucked up and freaky, their blackness not so much of the blasting buzzy variety and the pounding punkish lo-fi raw and primitive variety, think Akitsa, Malveillance, Ash Pool. Ancestors, but even more punk rock, and weirdly poppy. Just check out the kick ass opener (after the ubiquitous creepy intro) "Dirty Soul", it almost sounds more like Turbonegro or Brainbombs, bounding punk rock rhythms, looped stripped down riffage, but then they paint it black and wrap it all up in tangled squiggly leads, the vocalist delivering his hellish sermons in an awesome croak / bark vokill, totally wrapped in reverb and seriously unhinged. The reverb sometimes going haywire making the vocals sound all dubbed out.
As the record goes on, the blackness recedes and these guys sound more and more punk rock, which is not a bad thing at all, the sound is maybe like Darkthrone at their punkest, but this is Finnish after all, and these guys are nuts, so tracks slip into washed out woozy ambience, guitars explode into squalls of atonal Greg Ginn-ish freakouts, fuzzy organs drift in and out giving some of the tracks a weird underground garage psych vibe (check out "Witch Hunt"), that said, there are definitely some moments of full on frenzied classic sounding blackness, it's just that more often than not those parts lead directly into something much more fucked up and off kilter and WAY bizarre.
This got released as a free download a while back, but it's way cooler to actually finally have the cd, with all its garish freaky green tinted artwork and weird scrawled lyrics, and of course with the download you would never have know that this was "recorded in stinky misery cubic helvete during period of total black morkness, mental distortion & painful agony of ghouls with the helping hands of Satan (naturally) $ Ass Lipstick, Pelvis, Onslow, under the influence of HELL!!!!".
Wanted to get a bunch of these, but alas, only a few came into the shop. Strange elliptical tape loop manipulation of glittering tones hung against the black sky and laced with ample amounts of tape hiss from one of the few from the black-noise imprint Vaald who has stepped outside the veil of anonymity. Even so, the Finnish sound-artist Olli Aarni doesn't offer much in the way of context, though the title from his native tongue does translate as something rather poetic and effusive: "Sunrise In Pixels".
Limited to 30 copies. Sold out at the label.
Electronic. Muysic. Finland. When we see those three words, which appear in small type on the top right corner of the cover to this album, we get pretty excited. Even when Music is spelled Muysic. ESPECIALLY when it's spelled like that. 'Cause that's means it's an Aavikko album. The mostly instrumental Finnish synthesizer/synthesizer/drums trio's new disc, Novo Atlantis, is finally here! Now, each album of theirs has always been a little bit different, but we've always loved Aavikko, from their early "maniacal monkey jazz" days as a lo-fi Casiocore band circa 1997's Derek to their more recent and polished productions of space age bachelor pad exotica like 2005's Back From The Futer.
So what's in store for listeners on Novo Atlantis? Initially we were struck by this album's even MORE electronic sound, taking Aavikko into techno-disco territory, more computery, less live band sounding. Though human metronome Tomi Leppanen (also the drummer for AQ faves Circle) is still behind the drum kit, there's plenty of purely electronic beats and rhythms on here it seems. Yet at the same time, this album also features French horn, trombone, trumpet, tuba, and even church pipe organ!! So while on one had it's all very futuristic (in a spaced out cosmic disco way), this also takes inspiration from way way back, the pre-electronic, classical music era in fact. You could call Novo Atlantis the "switched-on Bach" version of Aavikko, or more precisely, "switched-on Hoppel", Egil Hoppel allegedly being an obscure Finnish composer of the baroque period, discussed in the sleeve notes of Novo Atlantis. Supposedly he was some sort of child prodigy (he only lived 1722-1737!), an organist whose music has apparently become a major influence on Aavikko's new direction. We say allegedly and supposedly since we halfway suspect they made him him up, that he's a hoax much like those "funerary violin" fellows. Probably some quick Googling would resolve the question, but we prefer not to know for sure. If Aavikko invented him, they certainly were thorough about it - there are two purported Hoppel compositions included on the cd format as a hidden bonus track (we won't tell you how to find it, but check out our review of the most recent Agoraphobic Nosebleed disc for a clue!). And having heard those, it does seem like you can hear Hoppel's purported influence right in this disc's very first track, "Syntaksis", which definitely has an Aavikko goes classical feel, like a lot of the stuff here having shades of the "classically trained" approach of all those Moog-laden '70s prog keyboard bands a la ELP and krautrockers Novalis... But don't let that make you think this is somehow stuffy, over-serious or highbrow or whatever, nope not at all, far from it as any Aavikko fan would guess. While it's got its moody moments, most of Novo Atlantis is percolating, infectious electronic fun. Super groovy, quirky, krauty - in the Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder sense of krauty.
The album ends with what must be Aavikko's longest track ever, the 15 minutes of "Novo Atlantis II". Wow, quite an epic, with echoes of Joe Meek's "Telstar" in its melodies, and long mesmeric burbling sequencer trance-outs, something like early '80s Tangerine Dream, Wolfgang Duren, or Zombi's "Sapphire". A Lindstrom remix seems to be in order, where is it? Certainly Aavikko's new album fits nicely into the current disco craze. It also goes well with our obsession with skweee, too. Electronic muysic Finland, hooray!
Yay! We LOVE Aavikko. This would belong at the top of the list even if their name didn't start with two A's. It's been a long four years since Aavikko last entertained us, with 2009's Novo Atlantis, and we've been jonesin' for more of this trio's delightful Finnish synthbeat krautgroove "monkey-jazz" weirdness, or as they put it, "Synthesator Disco Muysic Finland". True, this new release is but a "mini-album", but it'll do. It'll do nicely. Six new tracks, totaling 27 minutes, of spacey synthy discofied burble from another planet - Planet Fun-Fun! Two of the tracks feature some vocal parts, a rarity from this usually-instrumental outfit, they're provided by guests including Swedish singer & "Pop-Sensation" Slobyn. With vocals or without, electronic synthesizer sounds whoosh and swoosh and zap and zip - and form catchy melodies - whilst precision drum beats percolate incessantly & infectiously. Those beats are of course provided by the "human metronome" known as Tomi Leppanen from those other Finnish aQ faves, Circle (he's also in Pharaoh Overlord, K-X-P, and a bunch of other bands too). Meanwhile, Tomi Kosonen and Paul Staufenbiel both man the synths, with Staufenbiel being the band's main songwriter - which is why he gets his bust on the cover, as if he were a classical composer, this bit of hubris merely an example of typical Aavikko absurdity. (Busts of the other two appear on the back cover.) Kosonen also plays the "electronic wind instrument", some kind of a synth-sax, adding an extra jazzy touch. There's some electric guitar on at least one track too, apparently for the first time ever on an Aavikko recording, from another guest, a guy from a death metal band we think (?).
All all it's what we want from Aavikko: quirky, poppy, synth-laden good times!! They mix together Moroder-esque Italo-disco, space age bachelor pad exotica, cosmic experimental electronics, skweee-like video-game funk, faux-classical motifs, and more into these fun-fun tunes that you'll be flipping over repeatedly (both you and the record we mean) as you play it again and again. Or so we assume you will, unless you a have a cold, serious heart of stone. And this might even fix that.
Limited-edition 12" vinyl only. Includes an mp3 download card, however!
Longtime readers of the aQ list probably remember a strange lp by a group called Sperm, a mysterious collection from 1970 of experimental sound from the Finnish underground, the project of a man named Pekka Airaksinen, who under the moniker Sperm, created a series of haunting soundscapes, and 20th century tape music, experimental landscapes of wild skronk and skree, out-jazz, lots of drones and weird rhythms, that as we said at the time puts the modern noisemakers to shame.
Well this little artifact was just unearthed, or at least, finally reissued/released, a recording made by Airaksinen in 1972 as his Sperm project came to a close, shortly before he gave up music for a decade. And its proximity to the Sperm record timewise definitely reflects the sonically similar sound, an extension of sorts of the recently laid to rest Sperm, if anything the sounds here more intimate and reserved, less noisy, and more electronic, more rhythmic, with long stretches of barely there minimalism peppered with haunting electronics, disembodied melodies and murky percussive thumps.
Like the Sperm record, the sounds are all over the map, with some strange ineffable something linking them all together, mysterious mechanical rhythms that sound almost like some sort of primitive home brewed techno give way to droned out free folk reminiscent of countrymen Avarus and Anaksimandros, chaotic drumming and layered high end tones, which drifts into more of a moody futurescape, all swirling effects and muddy electronics. The flipside begins with a long stretch of warm subtle ambient drift, which splinters into some awesome, but awesomely maddening looped high end skree, before slipping into some strange cosmic crunch, and then finally some blissful spaced out drift.
Gorgeous, strange stuff, anyone who bought the Sperm record will probably want this, and all you Finnish weirdo music obsessives, this one is for YOU.
It's no surprise that we like this a lot, as it's a collaboration bringing together some big aQ faves (and friends of ours), Aktor consisting of Jussi and Tomi from Finnish prog weirdos Circle, joined by American metal musician Chris "Professor" Black of Dawnbringer and High Spirits fame! Wow, what a great idea! Jussi, Tomi and the other Circle guys already can do no wrong, their unique brand of "NWOFHM" quasi-metal weirdness being hugely popular around here. Put Professor Black into the mix and you've got gold!
This debut 7" features two songs, about three and a half minutes each, of hook-laden, sadly majestic, melodic rockin' heaviness, definitely inspired by the '70s likes of Blue Oyster Cult (a reference made by the title of the A-side song), there's A LOT of synthesizer keyboards all over this, getting a little R2D2-ish with the sci-fi bleep and bloop.
Darkly poppy, rhythmically driving and suspenseful, with the keyboards and catchiness it's sorta like the recent Falcon (Ex-Circle) album, but much more metal and more prog too. And of course with a different, very distinctive vocalist - Professor Black's emotive, softly weathered voice always a pleasure to hear. Great existential lyrics too.
If you're already a fan of High Spirits or Dawnbringer, you'll be right on board with this, 'cause it basically sounds like the most melodic gallop of either of those bands given an extra dose of WTF? electronic action. As the label (i.e. Jussi) says: "Aktor plays Top 40 Heavy Metal with a delicious psychedelic flair". Meanwhile, if you're coming at this as a Circle/NWOFHM fan, well, the extra-proggy B-side has a "lalalala" part that's very Circle-ish...
And while it's unlikely we're gonna sell you on this import 7" if you're NOT already into one side or the other of the Aktor equation, any random BoC fans reading this, oughtta give the sound sample a listen!
We REALLY hope there's gonna be a full-length.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
A beautifully packaged display of contemporary (but retro-flavored) pop-psych from Finland, from a band some might recall from that swell Fonal label comp Surrounded By The Sun. Alien Heat's Awake In A Dream is the brainchild of Teemu Elo, formerly guitar-player for (y)our Finnish faves Circle. This isn't at all like the space-prog weirdness of Circle, though. It's rather more like Swedish band Dungen, who mine similar influences: Syd Barrett and '60s SoCal sunshiney soft sike pop. Sometimes it's dusty and folkish and a little dark, and there's a wee bit o' flute which always appeals to us. Alien Heat's gentle, toe-tappingly melodic songcraft is certainly less "damaged" and abstract than fellow Fonal folksters Kemialliset Ystavat, but we'd imagine a lot of the same people'd like this as well, though it might be too "normal" for some of the real avant-folk heads out there...
Lal Lal Lal sent us these, though technically it's private release not on that tiny Finnish label, the reason they had 'em being that Nuslux is a project of Roope from Lal Lal Lal, who's also in Maniacs Dream, Pylon, and Avarus. Meanwhile the Amon Dude (haha) is Arttu, also from Avarus, Anaksimandros, etc. It's limited, it's weird, it's vinyl, and it's Finnish. We only have a handful. What else need we say? Oh, what's it sound like? Well the Dude's side, "In Full Flight", is a live recording of their distorted, danceable (?) electronic shenanigans, while Nuslux jam on the flip, using mostly self-built analog instruments to make their "good-humored and chilled out" electronic minimalism. Basically if you liked that Lal Lal Lal festival cassette we listed not long ago, this is for you too.
Pan Sonic's Ilpo V. and partner in crime Dirk from Schneider TM return with another Angel-ic recording, their follow up to last year's excellent and epic Kalmukia, which we likened to both KTL and Earth circa Hex. This time around they're not quite so much in that digitaldoomdrone mood... There's still plenty of digital glitch and distortion, and the 20-minute "Mirrorworld" is a loud n' lovely, humming white noise dronewerk, as is the shorter and sparser "Unsymmetric Distance", for instance, but many of the 10 tracks on Hedonism indulge in electronic noise and clatter that's a lot more active and buzzing.
The broken rhythms, grinding textures, and piercing pulses of tracks like "Holding Loose" and "Dropping The Ego" contrast with the more contemplative nature-sounds field recordings heard in the mix towards the end of the album, for a much more varied listen than Kalmukia.
If you're a fan of Finland's Circle and/or their various offshoots (and if you're an aQuarius customer, chances you are!), then you know all about the NWOFHM (New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal), the invented sub-genre self-classification that many of those bands embrace, as a somewhat tongue-in-cheek way of incorporating various heavy metal signifiers that they're fans of, into their sound and image. Although even at their most "NWOFHM", Circle, Pharaoh Overlord and the rest still usually come across more proggy and poppy and WTF? than actually metal in most cases. Very few of their records could be mistaken for "real" metal albums, in their entirety - maybe Steel Mammoth's Nuclear Rebirth lp?
But this new NWOFHM unit, a project of Circle mainman Jussi Lehthisalo and his pal Samae Koskinen (a live member of Finnish grind freaks Xysma), is definitely (in our authoritative opinion!) a real metal band. A weird one perhaps, when you read the lyrics and look at the artwork, but metal first and foremost. The iron gauntlet is thrown down right on the opening track, the pounding "Cult Of No Return" (you'll find a video for it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjlLMCSZ_kk), which reminds us a bit of the the "black n' roll" approach of Norwegian kings Satyricon, circa such albums as Volcano and Now, Diabolical. Or at least, this sounds more like Satyricon than Circle, for sure. We're also reminded a bit of the Finnish melodic death metal band Sentenced, back on their long-forgotten NWOBHM (note the B, not an F) influenced Amok opus from '95. And this aggressive (yet also atmospheric) attack by the Akhamin Kirjasto duo continues, for ten varied tracks in total on Torches Ablaze. There's hella old school evil riffing a la Venom, some lashings of symphonic synths, and a dose of (melodic) death metal brutality in the form of the gruff (but intelligible) vokills from Samae, singing in English about such subjects as "Synthetic Death", "Knights Of Torment", and a "Bitch From Hell". Though, he changes up to a more clean style on the likes of "Sea Of Madness" and others, giving a whispery death-gasp on the speedy "Thousand Snakes", a track that could possibly have fit in on Circle's Katapult album. The Lovecraftian thrasher "Speed, Yog Sothoth" is another blazing ripper, albeit laced with unexpected weird noisy breakdowns, Jussi's avant-garde/experimental leanings coming to the fore without violating the essential metalness of this one.
Overall, Torches Ablaze is certainly something that Circle fans should check out, but is maybe more for actual metalheads. Since we're both, of course we're digging the results here, the weird atmosphere that arises from Arkhamin Kirjasto's unusual blend of chugging metal shred, majestic spacey psychedelic synthwork, and the harsh but catchy vox doused in reverb. As NWOFHM goes, if their tongues are in cheek here, they're well hidden. Hail!
Better be ready to bang your head, 'cause here's a brand new 7" single from this badass band, the (self-proclaimed) "Finnish Kings of Lovecraftian Hard Rock & Death Metal". It contains three tracks, about such subjects as undead priests and sadist wizards, recorded during the same sessions that produced their debut full-length Torches Ablaze that we reviewed not long ago (cds and vinyl of that are both still in stock and highly recommended too). Arkhamin Kirjasto, if you didn't know, is a(nother) side project of Circle, featuring Jussi Lehtisalo, a man as prolific as he is talented, and whose Collected Solo Works cd is in fact our Record Of The Week this week. This band basically combines the the spacey Gregorian monk chant sound of early Circle with what the crusty heshers in Darkthrone have been doing lately, so it's for both space rockers and church burners - but definitely on the more metal side of that equation despite some experimentation. The filthiest of '80s and '90s extreme metal is referenced, trad old school metal too, and we hear a hint of Ghost B.C.'s successful Satanic pop sound as well, at least in the incantatory title track here, which utilizes both slowly grinding evil riffage, and epic vocal choirs to hypnotizing effect.
Limited to 500 copies, adorned with cool cover art depicting the Lovecraftian 'Arkham Library' which is what their name means in Finnish.
It's been several years since we last got a numbered vinyl missive from these Finnish free folk forest dwellers, II and III are both long out of print, and not sure we ever even saw number one, but IV takes up right where II and II left off, creating a woozy, trippy, psychedelic sound that only these Finns seem able to conjure.
Simple stumbling drumming underpins cyclical looped out riffage, that teeters on the verge of losing control, but manages stay the course, the sound thickens and grows more and more tripped out, the effects getting more and more dense, the guitars peeling off in strange twisted melodic flares, before slipping back into the beginning of another slow build, more chaotic percussion, another drone-y looped riff, but before it builds too much, it gets all mellow, and woozy and dark and meandery, eventually breaking down to a rickety campfire lope, the guitars spidery and skeletal.
The flipside is one sidelong track, which begins with what sounds like strings over a sea of drifting scrape and scrabble, warm swooshes of druggy effects, the whole thing warm and languid and laid back, building to almost orchestral sounding swells here and there, interrupted by brief soft squalls of blurred psych buzz, but always shifting back into that far out smoldering Avarus-y abstract shimmer. So nice.
Awesome eye popping cover art, that includes ice covered asteroids, flying popcicles, hot rods, totem poles, miners, wolves, lizards, lonesome highways, cacti and all sorts of other drugged out weirdness.
It's been ages since we've heard from these Finnish forest freaks, four years in fact. And these days it sounds like that Finnish forest is on some other planet, their ramshackle campfire-kraut sound still perfectly intact, bit this time around, even more electronic, bouncy and playful, sounding a bit like it could be a rejected theme song for some twisted Finnish children's television program, you know the kind adults watch when they're super stoned? Woozy and whimsical, droney and psychedelic, a loping bassline anchors the otherwise freeform sound, spidery melodies in looses tangles drift heavenward, abstract percussion, some coalescing into proper rhythms, others tribal and primitive, lots of electronic bits, damaged FX, warped swirls, slow shifting textures, and lots of voices too, but not singing, more just talking, and snippets of conversations, as if the whole thing was super casual, recorded while other folks just went about their business in the background, occasionally joining in, but just as likely making dinner, or playing cards. The vibe is super loose and laid back, but also weirdly cosmic, some of the melodies sound like effected kazoos, everything is sing-songy and playful, but as the track progresses, constantly shifting and morphing, the sound grows more abstract, the electronics gradually taking over, until the sound splinters into something wholly other, the upbeat bounciness reimagined as something almost jazzy, Eastern and exotic, before finally, a slow stretch of hushed muted mesmer unfurls, murky and mysterious, and yet somehow retaining some of that childlike playfulness. The whole side sounds like just part of an even more epic jam, a days long musical ritual, of which we were only privy to a tiny glimpse.
The flipside delivers more of the same, as if really it was part of the same epic jam, but here it gets even more groovy, sounding almost African at times, tranced out and hypnotic, super rhythmic, the sound building momentum, growing even more dense and droney, buzzy and layered, blossoming into a druggy psychedelic swirl, that is downright divine.
SUPER LIMITED!! Get one before they're gone...
Yeah, it's a bit price-y, but then for some reason Ultra Eczema lps always are. The thing is though, they're generally also gorgeous looking, deluxe sleeves with wild wacked out eye popping covers, ultra thick vinyl, and in most cases, especially this one, the grooves are packed with sounds to match. That is to say wild and wacked.
The newest record from forefathers of the Finnish free folk scene Avarus, is not in fact a new record, but instead a document of Avarus' recent trip to the states, in particular a live on the radio session for Brian Turner's show on WFMU. Two side long jams, the ever fluctuating collective trimmed down to a mean lean trio, on the first, they capture here their most primitive side, lots of rattles and percussion, thumps and clicks and creaks and moans, all accompanied by strange inhuman vocalizations, sounding like humans discovering speech for the first time, howling, crooning, mewling, grunting, all that tangled up with some super abstract free jazz drum skitter, some detuned string plucking, which builds to something much more substantial, a cacophonous squall of horns and even more strange vocalizations, a garbled transmission of alien folk free jazz confusion, that manage to some still sound hypnotic and cohesive. The final few minutes are an awesome skittery croaking looped outro, that we sort of wish would have gone on for longer.
The flipside starts off with more caveman jazz, strings scraped and plucked, drums splattered here and there, those alien vox, but peppered with warm reedy buzz and all manner of other abstract sounds. After a brief bit of garbled gurgling, the song sprawls into a gorgeous super skeletal, percussive workout, this too with the feel of proto-humans discovering rhythm, primal, primitive, tribal, super spare and spacious and weirdly mesmerizing.
The sleeve as mentioned above is indeed eye popping, green on orange eye torture, a killer super tripped out psychedelic illustration, mirrored in black and white on the lp labels, and of course extremely limited. ONLY 300 COPIES!!!!
SKWEEE!!!! Fans of that special brand of mostly Scandinavian B-Boy retro '80s video game hip-hopped electro synth sound, check it out...
We've got like just 4 copies left of this, the latest vinyl offering from celebrated Skweee artist Randy Barracuda (he's been one of our faves ever since we heard his classic skweee jam "Rick James Is Dead" on the first Museum Of Future Sound comp back in 2007). Random Works Vol. II is, as the name sort of implies, his 2nd full-length album, following a self-titled record for Flogsta Danshall a few years ago. This one's got eight new tracks of Randy's skweee genius - super groovy, stuttery lo-fi funk full of fat synths. There's more tracks with vocals than we expected, kinda soulful like DamFunk... though lots here are the usual skweee style instrumentals.
LIMITED TO 101 COPIES, each one hand numbered.
This week, we've got two recently released cds from Jussi of Circle's Ektro label. They couldn't be more different (though both are cool). One of 'em, Leviticus, is a reissue of a melodic '80s Swedish Christian heavy metal artifact. Then there's this, Baxter Stockman (not person, a band). Out of the present-day Finnish underground, Baxter Stockman are a trio making damaged (and damaging) artpunk that's harsh but regimented, a disciplined noiserock attack whose pounding rhythms and vicious guitar skree should cause a pleasant ringing in your ears, during and after. Ektro references Rapeman, Swans, and G.G. Allin in describing this. Dunno about the latter (we haven't seen or smelled 'em live) but the first two make sense; there's definitely something very Albini about this for sure, also ugly '80s downtown NYC pigfuckery, yeah. With relentless battery, ranting vokills, throbbing bass, cameo "junkelectronix", and monomaniacal riffs worthy of KK Null's Zeni Geva, this is quite a compelling, claustrophobic debut from a band that must rank amongst Helsinki's sickest (and not just 'cause they came up with the clever song title "Poltergeist Pussy").
Finally, a full length from these Finnish post punks, fronted by none other than Mat 'Kvohst' McNerney, who also fronts aQ beloved avant black metal weirdoes Code, as well as apocalyptic psych-folk combo Hexvessel. Fans of those Code records no doubt dug the many Interpol-isms, woven into the group's black buzz, and for us, it's what made that band so weird and special, and that brooding, post punkiness takes center stage in Beastmilk, whose sound falls more in line with groups like the Holograms, Iceage, Grave Babies, Cold Showers and yeah, Interpol. Fans of that sound, that sort of modern, Joy Division beholden, gothic gloom punk, will flip their shit over Climax, which is chock full of noisy guitar squalls, angular minor key melodies, angsty, dramatic vox, pounding drums, angular riffage, all woven into tight, taut, tense, Wire-y jams that push all those same buttons. There's even a sort of Woven Hand vibe happening, McNerney's vocals a dead ringer at times for David Eugene Edwards, and Beastmilk's sound not that far removed from WH's more rocking apocalyptic swampy swagger. Noisy, punky, sinewy, hooky and still pretty heavy, Climax is a pretty perfect chunk of modern post punk gloom rock that we can't seem to stop listening to, although we haven't been trying all that hard either!
Second single (we have a few copies of the first, just ask) from this Finnish apocalyptic post punk combo, which features members of Hexvessel, Code, DHG, and sounds a lot poppier than we expected, reminding us a bit of the Holograms (whose full length is reviewed elsewhere on this week's list), or like a punkier Interpol, which is not a bad thing at all, the music is murky and washed out, the guitars a buzzy blur, driving drums and cool crooned clean vox, making this sound like some goth pop new wave artifact, doomy and melodic, propulsive and cold wave-y, at times a bit like a gothier post punkier Katatonia, the same sort of super hooky melody but still plenty heavy hybrid, the track "Void Mother" might be our new favorite jam, a seriously hooky and heavy slab of gloom pop that in a perfect world would be a post punk mixtape staple. Super rad. And very limited!
We really wish we could tell you more about the Billy Boys. Other than that they're Finnish, and they're batshit bonkers (we suspect some causality there). Leave it to Jussi from Circle to unleash this sonic weirdness on an unsuspecting public. Ostensibly only of interest to the nerdiest of Finnish music historians, and of course aQuarius Records and all the weirdo Finnish music obsessives that sail with her, the Billy Boys were a super obscure Finnish outfit, featuring one member of legendary Finnish punk band Terveet Kadet, formed with the idea of creating a "country influenced trash rock band", which to a certain degree was a success. There are moments that definitely could be described that way, but as the label explains, that sound "mutated into something more grotesque". But then if you believe Jussi, the radiation from the Chernobyl meltdown poisoned the drinking water in Finland in the eighties, and did irreparable damaged to the Billy Boys, aka Mr. Hank Morlock, and Mr. Johnny Helicopters, actual brothers in fact.
Grotesque it is, label misinformation be damned, but gloriously grotesque, in that way it seems only Finnish music can truly be. Sure lots of you love Circle and Pharaoh Overlord, Avarus and Kemialliset Ystavat. But what about Aavikko, Deep Turtle, Death Trip, Liimanarina, Worms, Sperm, Chainsmoker, Radiopuhelimet, Dr. Gunni, Sweetheart, The Vacuum Cleaners, weirdo one man band Keuhkot, the haunting outsider psychedelic folk of Pekka Streng, the Cleaning Women (a bunch of Finns who dress up like housewives and play all manner of kitchen appliances and implements), Mieskuoro Huutajat (the Finnish men's shouting choir, who wear ties made from old innertubes and shout national anthems)?? Now that we read over all of that, maybe there really IS something in the water over there. Cuz what else could account for so much whatthefuck music being created in one little country? Whatever it is, we're grateful - we can't get enough of Finnish musical weirdness, and the Billy Boys are definitely right at home on that list, and are definitely toward the WTF? side of the Finnish sonic spectrum. Sure, take that "country influenced trash rock" thing, add some primitive synth blurt, some insanely low-fi production, crappy drum machines, probably throw in a lot of drugs, and go from there.
The collection starts off with the group's 1984 single "Mystery Train", which could be a sort of catchy pop ditty, had it not seemingly been recorded in a tin can, in a bus station bathroom - the resulting low fidelity as much a part of the Billy Boys' sound as the music itself. Tinkling melodies, yelped vox, a bloopy bleepy rhythm, all doused in blown out white noise crumble, which as you listen reveals itself as either a guitar or a keyboard, so distorted it just becomes a blur of sonic gristle, but somehow, it manages to be a kinda catchy ditty. From there on out, all best are off. "Get It On" takes a sonar ping rhythm, adds some weird electronic glitch, and some mumbled Finnish vox, not to mention some buzz and weird malfunctioning effects. The suddenly you realize, it's a cover of T-Rex's "Bang A Gong", but only once you hear the title moaned in heavily accented English, over what sounds like a primitive pong machine. WTF indeed!
Some tracks do actually do sound like countrified trash rock, with jangly guitars, crooned vocals and galloping rhythms, but in some cases, like on "Lonesome Train" after a minute or so, the track devolves into something else entirely, in this case a speaker blowing squall of noise, before transforming into a creepy slo-mo dirge, female vocals over stumbling drums and constantly shredding guitars way down in the mix. Elsewhere, that 'trash rock' devolves into an electronic flecked dirge, laced with all sorts of random sounds, detuned guitar strum, pulsating synthesizers, howled shrieks. And then check out "Harley Man" with its twang guitar and handclap rhythm, wrapped around enthusiastically belted out cookie monster vocals, or "The Spider And The Fly" which is a haunting sprawl of experimental minimal pop, that sounds a little like the Residents, or "My Wild Love", which is about as close as these guys get to a heartfelt ballad, croony and creepy, but weirdly beautiful.
The rest of the record unwinds just as confusionally, with blurts of damaged honky tonk, Teutonic echo-drenched industrial throb, warped drugged out damaged blooze blowouts, some cool twisted sort of rockabilly grooves, stumbling cold wave minimalism, a disturbing slo-mo cover of "Love Me Tender" that sounds like the soundtrack to a particularly twisted nightmare, some electronic flecked minimal dirge punk, super abstract experimental pop, that occasionally consists of motorik drumming over, hushed whispers and woozy low end thrum, or super spaced out glitch and skitter, flecked with fragmented vocals, and heck even some almost straight ahead pop, but of course the Billy Boys add some creepy ghastly vocals, and suddenly it is transformed into something "more grotesque".
There's so much going on here. Total warped whatthefuck outsider genius. There are moments of serious sonic brilliance for sure, peppered amidst some mouth breathing, knuckle dragging, confusional, demented sonic damage, but somehow, those two sides of the Billy Boys balance, and the result is a twisted, and valuable artifact of outsider Finnish underground music genius.
Not for everyone, obviously, maybe not even for most people, but we're pretty into this stuff, and have been listening to it like crazy. If you dig any of the weirdo Finnish outfits mentioned above, or just love totally twisted warped outsider sounds, these guys might be your new (old) favorite band. And odds are you can drive everyone else in your house batshit at the same time!
Includes a massive fold out booklet, with extensive liner notes, IN FINNISH, and lots of photos.
Yep, this is one of those that barely needs a review, besides our thumbs up (we like it!) and a few other crucial facts of the matter: it's from Finland, it's doom metal, it's on the cult Shadow Kingdom label. And perhaps unsurprisingly, sounds a heck of a lot like the late great Finnish doomsters Reverend Bizarre. Which is not to say it's unoriginal, any more so than Rev Biz, 'cause both bands worship at the altar of old school traditional Black Sabbath derived doom. This is what they're SUPPOSED to sound like: epic and emotive, dire and depressive. The debut full-length from Cardinals Folly (cool name, we think, but shouldn't there be an apostrophe in there somewhere?) is appropriately sloooow and heavy, adorned with dramatic deep voiced vox, that for sure recall those of Albert Witchfinder. If you miss the ol' Reverend, Cardinals Folly will be right up your dark, cobblestoned alley. But not only do they have that "sound" (which they do very well), they also work in enough interesting, creative moves of their own to make this a worthy doom endeavor in its own right, too.
The album begins with an atmospheric intro track, "The Hammer Speaks", featuring a militaristic drum beat amidst distorted ambience, eventually joined by deeeep vocal intonations. A bit Current 93ish, really. That's a fine way for this to slide into the full-on amped-up doom metal of track two, the title track, oven ten minutes of slow majestic riffery, dissonant downer psych leads, loosely-strung low end bass, and more of those droning deep but melodic vocal stylings... Things speed up a bit for the chugging "Valkyries I Avenge", energy matched by maniacal laughter from the vocalist (who has his insane side, heard later in the album as well), but it's the very end of track four "The Spear Of Destiny" that got everyone in the store staring at the stereo, when they start in with some studio trickery, messing with the tape speed, for a moment making this druggily "drag", like a 45 played at 33, but even more warped and warbly. Nice!
And so it goes, seven tracks, well over an hour of rumbling heavier-than-thou true doom wretchedness from up near the Arctic, like we said, definitely for anyone into fellow Finns, Reverend Bizarre (RIP). Also Lord Vicar, Procession, Gates Of Slumber, Condenados, Garden Of Worm, The Wounded Kings, that sort of thing. You know if this is meant for you, or you for it...
Our favorite Finnish label and perhaps one of our favorite labels anywhere on the globe go into the vaults for this one and we're so happy they did. Chamellows (aka Sleeping Bags) is the scrappy, playful, naive pop side of Lau Nau (Laura Naukkarinen, whose Locust release from a few years back was a big AQ favorite!) and visual artist Mikko Kuorinki. Pulled from various limited edition 7"s and cassette only releases these are recordings that date back as far as a decade ago. This is sweet and demented lo-fi pop with lively experimentation and an answering machine quality recording that suits these songs so perfectly. Had us thinking of what Ariel Pink might sound like if he were from Finland. Or The Shaggs and Daniel Johnston brought into a vacant house in the middle of Finland with some ragtag equipment and some yummy psychedelics on the tip of their tongues. So warped and wonderful!
Most aQ customers by now are familiar with (and fanatic about) both Circle and Pharaoh Overlord. Kind of like Parliament-Funkadelic, the two Finnish groups are more-or-less the same band really, making more-or-less the same kind of music, the Circle-Pharaoh Overlord thang all about repetitive, "circular", psychedelic sounds. Sharing members and a mesmeric M.O., both Circle and Pharaoh Overlord are masters of spacey hypno-rock, often heavy, sometimes "metal", frequently quite WTF?, all of which is what you get here for sure, in both cases, on this pair of vinyl-only live records with similar, sharp cover graphics and the same dang title. Turns out these are the first two in what promises to be a series of "high quality, multi-channel 'live' recordings" under the 6000 km/h banner (a name meant to connote "speed, dynamism and goal-orientedness" according to the tongue-in-cheek corporate jargon employed by the label's press release).
Circle's entry in the series was recorded on tour in Europe, Spring 2014. The set list must have been a strange one, indeed, so you get a diverse six tracks, including a couple minute-or-less hardcore blasts sourced from their 2007 Panic album. Going to the other extreme, duration-wise, there's also a version of a song, "Se Jonka Nimea Ei Mainita" that had only previously appeared on ANOTHER vinyl-only live Circle album, 2011's Maxim, where it took up the entire second side, as it mostly does here as well. Plus there's also a ten-minute track entitled "6000 km/h", presumably exclusive to this release, also one from a rare 7", and to open the album, they do a track originally from another 2007 Circle album, Katapult, called "Fish Reflection" - an operatic, over the top thrasher that morphs into shimmery drone-bliss in the course of its ten minutes. Indicative, really, of the "dynamism" of the entirety of this exciting document.
Black vinyl is what we've got, limited to 350 copies only!
AVAILABLE AGAIN!!!
Finally one of our all time favorite Circle records back in print! We first listed this way back in 1999, and it was for many people their first exposure to this amazing and mysterious, dreamy and hypnotic, modern spaced out krautrock band from Finland. By now, Circle is practically a household name, at least for those of you living in a seriously cool music household, having released about 15 or 16 records since Andexelt. But way back in 1999, Circle were a a brand new discovery for most American weird rock fans, and Andexelt knocked everyone on their asses.
A delirious dose of droning, hypnotic neo-kraut rock that effortlessly managed to out-post most post rock bands and out-space most spacerock bands. Circle were (and are) the northernmost heirs to the Krautrock tradition. On Andexelt, the band were taking basic riffs, stretching and reshaping them, twisting them into brand new shapes, creating bleak, ever shifting underwater grooves and dizzyingly repetitive rhythms, sounding like an otherworldly This Heat or a more damaged Can. A mesmerising wall of sound delivered with the sheer force of Loop or Godflesh, but with dark precision and melodic restraint. Mellow, delicate jazzy passages intersected with crushing Bonham-esque beats. Fans of Circle's other great records, past and present, can already guess that this is completely amazing and absolutely essential!!! While fans of Salvatore and Tortoise and Mogwai and�TransAm and all other practitioners of epic bombastic hypno-rock, mesmeric math rock and even the current crop of sludgy metallic post rock, would do well to pick this up if they missed it the first time around. Andexelt is the perfect mix of their current more metallic drone rock pummel and their older more mesmerizing krautrock groove bliss. So absolutely brilliant and completely and utterly essential.
Exactly the same as the original tUMULt pressing, including the 10 minute bonus track and kick ass secret song not included on the import version, originally released on Finnish weird-prog label Metamorphos. SO AWESOME!!!!!
New 7" from our favorite Finnish masters of hypnotic rock groove, that's right, Circle! Two tracks that find the circlular ones continuing in their more rocking trajectory with side A being a bouncy groover, like a smoothed out AC/DC riff, that slowly builds into a psychedelic squall. Side B is a bit sludgier, a sort of MC5 / Stooges dirge with muttered spaced-out vocals and dirty distorted guitar. A good teaser for their upcoming Guillotine album which we should have soon!
There's probably not that much we need to say about this new Circle 7", other than to ask, are you familiar with the band JESTERS OF DESTINY?? 'Cause our Finnish friends Circle really really want you to know about that obscure '80s LA "alternative metal" band. They've already reissued the Jesters' 1986 album Fun At The Funeral on their own Ektro imprint some years ago, and former JoD vocalist/bassist Bruce Duff has appeared as a guest on several Circle-related releases (Circle's Earthworm ep and Hollywood full-length, and the Pharoah Overlord record Out Of Darkness). Plus another Circle side-project, Rakhim, put out a disc, Crimson Umbrella, named after a Jesters song. So yeah, the Circle guys really love Jesters Of Destiny.
Circle's fanboy obsession with Jesters Of Destiny continues with this limited 7" single, featuring cover versions of two Jesters Of Destiny tracks, "End Of Time" and "God Told Me To", both from the Fun At The Funeral album ("End Of Time" also being the Jesters' contribution to the Metal Massacre V comp alongside VoiVod, Overkill, Hellhammer, and Metal Church, among others!). They're great, uber-catchy songs, very representative of the "gleefully gloomy" blend of punk, psych, and metal that the Jesters made uniquely their own, and that helped inspire a certain Finnish band to come up with their own weird genre-hybridizing style (no, Circle don't actually sound much like JoD, but they share a lot of the same spirit, that's for sure).
So, if you've never heard JoD before, you'll get a good idea from this 7" of what they were all about - Circle do these songs pretty straight (no motorik krautrock detours or anything), hewing close to the original versions, and they also brought in ex-Jesters Bruce Duff and Ray Violet to sing and play on this recording. So it's almost more a Jesters 7" than a Circle one. While usually we like bands doing covers to reinterpret 'em in their OWN style (and we still would love to hear a 30+ minute Circle jam on the "Diggin' That Grave" riff, c'mon guys), the respectful way Circle did these songs here makes sense given their mission being to turn people on to the under appreciated greatness of the JESTERS OF DESTINY!
Limited to 500 copies only, we only have a handful.
It's incredible how AQ's Finnish faves n' friends Circle always manage to maintain their trademark sound -- repetitive, hypnotic post-prog grooves -- even as they produce new albums with such distinct, different identities. Their latest disc, Forest, is another great, unique Circle effort. This time around, they've gone semi-acoustic, kinda folky. Also spooky and sinisterly-synthed. In a way, Forest is perhaps Circle's most "hippie" album. We know Jussi's a big Dead fan after all. And the krautrock stuff they've obviously always been inspired by was hippie rock too. But there's a back-to-the-land, pot smokin' jam vibe here, although night-shrouded and mysterious, NOT rainbow-colored and dippy. This a Forest of nightmares, with whispering and groaning in the trees. Maybe Jussi and Co. have been listening to the likes of Kalacakra and Siloah and Amon Duul... and Goblin, and early Tangerine Dream... For sure it seems that the four lengthy tracks on here (shortest six+ minutes, one nine, the other two in the double digits) owe a lot to Can (maybe moreso than other Circle albums do) and also to...the blues! That's the biggest shock. Vocalist Mika Ratto's love 'em or hate 'em operatic vocals are shucked in favor of a mumbling, moaning, singin' the blues style. And, equally shocking, he's singing in English this time! Not that you can make sense of much of what's coming out of his mouth. And of course most of the time Forest is all-instrumental, spacious, suspenseful, grooved-out, darkness. The final, longest track dabbles in ambient, experimental witch-project drone before those Circle rhythms return and Mika moans his last. So good.
Another blast (two blasts, actually) from the past, from our favorite Finns. It's been a long time since we've had copies of these, Hissi and Fraten, the 3rd and 4th albums respectively by the now-near-legendary hypno-rock outfit Circle. Originally released on the Metamorphos label, they've been out of print for ages. Ektro Records has finally arranged to put out remastered reissues, for those that missed 'em the first time around. It's interesting to have 'em back, considering them now in context of Circle's subsequent, prolific career in the years since they first appeared. When Hissi came out in 1996, we saw it as a major stylistic shift, but that's before we learned that Circle would amazingly morph through so many unexpected styles as they progressed over album after album - all the while keeping it quite "Circular" though. At the time, we stated that if their first full-length (Meronia) could be described as AmRep grunge meets Gregorian chants, and if the second (Zopalki) entered into a kraut-rocky chamber music realm with strings, etc., then Hissi was Circle's stab at post-rock electronica... The vocals are gone on all but one or two tracks, and Circle's trademark repetitive sound is less about riffs on this record than beats. And it's true, Hissi was mostly instrumental, there's no "Meronian" chanting (and certainly none of the faux-metallic operatics of latter-day Circle vocalist Mika Ratto, as found on many more recent albums). The whole "NWOFHM" thing that Circle & friends later invented is also far from evident, this isn't Circle in any of their bombastic, heavy modes at all. It's not truly electronica either, really, but there are a lot of keys, and effects. Synth sounds insinuate everywhere amidst the nervous percolations of the drums and percussion. It's low-key and motorik, moody and atmospheric, quite creepy even (in keeping with the cover and interior photos of a grotesque, grimacing old man marionette). '70s avant or krautrock bands like This Heat and Faust are assuredly influences, and the darkly suspenseful, slightly jazzy results align somewhat with the likes of '90s post rock contemporaries Tortoise and the Kammerflimmer Kollektief. But, as we also said, about Hissi's original release: still like nothing else, exactly. And quite recommended. This new, remastered edition features additional graphics, and a brief 2012 note from sole constant Circle member Jussi Lehthisalo, looking back, saying "this album was the starting point for calmer and lighter days that lasted until the end of the decade", also letting us know that Hissi was indeed written as instrumental puppet theater music!
Then there's Fraten, from 1997. What at the time we referred to as another album of "beautiful repetition" from Circle that was "not quite so heavy or dark as previous releases" but that nonetheless "explores (somewhat) mellower territory with equally hypnotic results as before". Indeed it does. While Hissi had its frightening moments, on the effects laden build up of "Kuukaarme" for instance, Fraten is a sunnier proposition to an extent, bright and playful, though it definitely has some dark undercurrents too (with the doleful double bass and plodding beats of "Kentta = Areend" for instance). But the gentle, lazy groove of something like "Hytti = Ser Ozm" is hardly sinister at all. Circle are clearly keeping powerful forces in reserve, operating with care and restraint. The glitchy electronics and dubby FX explosions that infiltrate these rhythmically propulsive tracks are mysterious, perhaps, but not threatening. Lovely, lovely. We certainly can't decide which album, Hissi or Fraten, we like better, and why should we? Both are great, and definitely (despite some slight lineup differences) belong to the same crucial creative era of Circle output, when the mesmeric art rock ideas of their landmark 2nd album Zopalki were being developed in various new musical directions.
The booklet for the remastered reissue of Fraten includes various graphics (show fliers, set lists, photos) not seen in the original. Also there's brand new liner notes, written by the bass player on the album, Tomi Harrivaara, who was with Circle from 1996-1998. He provides an interesting glimpse into Circle's past, from his perspective. In his essay, the likes of Bernard Hermann, Witold Lutoslawski, Arnold Schoenberg, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich are cited as compositional influences on the songs of Fraten, not such a surprise really.
When we first listed this way, way back in 2004, our review started with the words "Circle. Vinyl. Limited." And we really didn't have to say too much more. Though we did, a bit, of course. All of which we'll repeat here in a sec, and add a lot to, 'cause Circle's label Ektro has FINALLY gone and reissued this, the band's uh, maybe 14th or 15th or so album (how do you even count, since it's a double?), released the same year as Forest and the live lp Empire. Awesome to finally have it on cd, 'cause it was so limited and has been gone so long, we almost forgot about it. But it's a good one. AND there's bonus tracks!
It's one half live (Golem), one half studio (Vesiliirto). Of course, we like 'em both. Golem's got titles in English (such as "Salamander Sword", "At War With Mercy", "Forbidden Steel Patriot", "True Incubus From Beyond" and "Destination Thunder"!!!) that are all very metal-sounding, though in actuality these tracks are quite far from metal, even Circle's own weird brand of metal. Having been recorded live, it was (and possibly remains!) the most free-form, ambient, fucked up, droned-out, abstract Circle document we had yet heard, unique in their catalog though hinted at by parts of their previous album Guillotine, and Circle side-project Doktor Kettu. Rife with jazzy piano plinking (shades of Circle's mellow masterpiece Miljard from a couple years later), demented echoing operatics out of Mika Ratto's mouth, damaged druggy harmonica blowin', throbbing fuzz, and FX laden percussive skitterscapes, it's a wild woozy sound world, suitable for some serious, dedicated late night listening, with the lovely final track, "Forbidden Steel Patriot" a sweet lullaby to send you off to sleep as the audience (forgot about them) softly applauds at the end.
Whereas, the second disc in this set, Vesiliirto, with all-Finnish titles, is much more in Circle's tradition of tight, rhythmic, repetitive rock riffage. Though it's got a loose, live feel to it too, even though it's the studio session. There's definitely a ramshackle, rustic vibe on opener "Korahteleva Haapa", like Circle are channelling some of the old bluesmen on the Fat Possum label or something, also getting crazy with skronky guitars threatening to overwhelm the "Circular" order of things. Monstrous mumbles segue into the second cut, a light groovy number adorned with blurts of spacey FX, warbling organ and echoed vox. And so it goes, Vesiliirto sharing much of Golem's far out freeform aspects, fitting in too with the hippie blues bad drugs feel of Forest, but also bringing in a lot of what we'd have to call spaced out sci-fi funk, influenced perhaps by Sun Ra and psychedelic '70s era Miles Davis?
That organ comes to the fore later on the exotic, carnivalesque freakout of "Haulikko Ja Kivaari", which also seems to feature UFOs hovering overhead, everything locked down though by the drummer's ticking motorik pulse that picks up over the course of the track's eleven minutes... Dang that's a good one, reason enough for any Circle fan to be happy this was reissued.
Not to mention that for this cd version, they've added one track to the Golem disc, while Vesiliirto boasts two bonus tracks, for a total of 34 minutes of Circle that you've never heard before, even if you already have this on vinyl - so true obsessives just might need to get it again.
Our favorite Finns are back, again. After a dozen or so albums, this one is perhaps their tribute to entropy, wherein Circle's characteristic clockwork mechanisms wind down into uncharacteristic disorder. Their last album on Ektro was the phenomenal headbanging hard rock production Sunrise, an album that got The Wire to somewhat misleading refer to Circle as "Finnish metal minimalists". The metal stylings of Sunrise are not to be found on Guillotine (despite this new album's much more metal title) but our friends Jussi & co. continue to innovate while remaining true to their trademark "circular" sound. A good portion of Guillotine finds them venturing in a hazy, oft-noisy primitive psych direction (hinted at by the few tracks on Sunrise that didn't rock you like a hurricane). But it's a varied album, equally likely to offer up 'classic' Circle repetitive-rock pulsations and noodly fusion. So, quite different in parts, yet with enough of the same Circle of yore to satisfy stogy old fans as well.
Guillotine starts off with the incredibly authentically '70s sounding kraut/fusion of "Metsan Henget". A very very Can-like ten minutes right there. Soon the listener's ears are graced by Mika Ratto's absurdly amazing, amazingly absurd vocals. Babbling goofily operatic, probably a love 'em or hate 'em component of the current Circle sound. Then, Guillotine takes a low-fi turn into what we might consider Circle's version of Jewelled Antler's psych-folk. Perhaps they've been influenced by countryfolk like Avarus, Kemialliset Ystavat, and Doktor Kettu (the latter being a likely source of cross-contamination, as their recordings appear on Jussi's cd-r label). Circle create a mellow caveman hippy jam of sorts, followed by an example of twangy acoustic psych that leaves Circle's classic motorik machine stylings far behind. Except that then "Teraskylpy" kicks in with a totally Circle krautrock beat, shuffling like David Shire's Taking Of Pelham One-Two-Three noir funk soundtrack. It's a 12-minute-plus build-up that devolves into some maniacal noise drone. Surprises continue, with "Saapuvat Ne Merelta" being waaay more spastic and chaotic than we'd ever expect from Circle. Normally they're so mechanically precise and repetitive, but so much of this sounds improvised and unpredictable. There's even a track that could be an ambient version of a rap record intro, complete with police siren. Weird. So Guillotine is quite possibly the most 'organic' and 'free' sounding Circle ever, clanking and primitive. And the '70s vibe is palpable, our obscure music geek peanut butter/chocolate analogy being: like Captain Beyond meets Neu! stoner prog kraut.
Another blast (two blasts, actually) from the past, from our favorite Finns. It's been a long time since we've had copies of these, Hissi and Fraten, the 3rd and 4th albums respectively by the now-near-legendary hypno-rock outfit Circle. Originally released on the Metamorphos label, they've been out of print for ages. Ektro Records has finally arranged to put out remastered reissues, for those that missed 'em the first time around. It's interesting to have 'em back, considering them now in context of Circle's subsequent, prolific career in the years since they first appeared. When Hissi came out in 1996, we saw it as a major stylistic shift, but that's before we learned that Circle would amazingly morph through so many unexpected styles as they progressed over album after album - all the while keeping it quite "Circular" though. At the time, we stated that if their first full-length (Meronia) could be described as AmRep grunge meets Gregorian chants, and if the second (Zopalki) entered into a kraut-rocky chamber music realm with strings, etc., then Hissi was Circle's stab at post-rock electronica... The vocals are gone on all but one or two tracks, and Circle's trademark repetitive sound is less about riffs on this record than beats. And it's true, Hissi was mostly instrumental, there's no "Meronian" chanting (and certainly none of the faux-metallic operatics of latter-day Circle vocalist Mika Ratto, as found on many more recent albums). The whole "NWOFHM" thing that Circle & friends later invented is also far from evident, this isn't Circle in any of their bombastic, heavy modes at all. It's not truly electronica either, really, but there are a lot of keys, and effects. Synth sounds insinuate everywhere amidst the nervous percolations of the drums and percussion. It's low-key and motorik, moody and atmospheric, quite creepy even (in keeping with the cover and interior photos of a grotesque, grimacing old man marionette). '70s avant or krautrock bands like This Heat and Faust are assuredly influences, and the darkly suspenseful, slightly jazzy results align somewhat with the likes of '90s post rock contemporaries Tortoise and the Kammerflimmer Kollektief. But, as we also said, about Hissi's original release: still like nothing else, exactly. And quite recommended. This new, remastered edition features additional graphics, and a brief 2012 note from sole constant Circle member Jussi Lehthisalo, looking back, saying "this album was the starting point for calmer and lighter days that lasted until the end of the decade", also letting us know that Hissi was indeed written as instrumental puppet theater music!
Then there's Fraten, from 1997. What at the time we referred to as another album of "beautiful repetition" from Circle that was "not quite so heavy or dark as previous releases" but that nonetheless "explores (somewhat) mellower territory with equally hypnotic results as before". Indeed it does. While Hissi had its frightening moments, on the effects laden build up of "Kuukaarme" for instance, Fraten is a sunnier proposition to an extent, bright and playful, though it definitely has some dark undercurrents too (with the doleful double bass and plodding beats of "Kentta = Areend" for instance). But the gentle, lazy groove of something like "Hytti = Ser Ozm" is hardly sinister at all. Circle are clearly keeping powerful forces in reserve, operating with care and restraint. The glitchy electronics and dubby FX explosions that infiltrate these rhythmically propulsive tracks are mysterious, perhaps, but not threatening. Lovely, lovely. We certainly can't decide which album, Hissi or Fraten, we like better, and why should we? Both are great, and definitely (despite some slight lineup differences) belong to the same crucial creative era of Circle output, when the mesmeric art rock ideas of their landmark 2nd album Zopalki were being developed in various new musical directions.
The booklet for the remastered reissue of Fraten includes various graphics (show fliers, set lists, photos) not seen in the original. Also there's brand new liner notes, written by the bass player on the album, Tomi Harrivaara, who was with Circle from 1996-1998. He provides an interesting glimpse into Circle's past, from his perspective. In his essay, the likes of Bernard Hermann, Witold Lutoslawski, Arnold Schoenberg, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich are cited as compositional influences on the songs of Fraten, not such a surprise really.
Reviewing new Circle albums is one of the very very pleasant tasks to crop up regularly here at Aquarius. 'Cause the ever hypnotic, always weird Finnish band is one of our all time faves as we're sure you already know. Although, it's difficult too, after writing umpteen different Circle and Circle side project reviews, what's left to say but "buy it"!? Well, this time, we might have to qualify that recommendation just a bit.
There's a definite 'your mileage may vary' element to this new Circle, due to the presence of a certain Bruce Duff on vocals. (He also plays lead guitar, and dulcimer on here too!) Duff's the guy from the '80s alt-metal band Jesters Of Destiny, who had their album reissued on Circle's Ektro label some years ago (a fantastic disc, sadly now out of print again). He also sang on Circle's 2006 Earthworm ep, the first two tracks of which inexplicably also reappear here, hmm, why? And presumably Duff's participation is why they called this album Hollywood, as he lives in LA. Of course, Circle's WFT?! factor is always pretty high, so with Duff on board it's just bumped up a few notches more. Let's examine...
The disc starts of with the energetic and remarkably melodic "Connection", also on Earthworm, where we noted it was "almost a pop tune". Well heck it IS a pop tune. Though backed with Circle's usual hypno-rock and some indecipherable grumble-mumble from regular Circle vocalist Mika Ratto. Pretty cool, but we're not sure we'd want a whole album of that... and we're in luck, as Hollywood is a REALLY diverse (and thus hard to grok) platter, although we won't know it until after the second track, "Mercy And Tuesday". Again it's a pop tune (with a lovely, jangly all-instrumental second half). However, the first half has Duff spinning a rhyming tale of sex drugs and rock n' roll, and sorry we might just have to hit skip on this more often than not, the vocals/lyrics just aren't what we think when we think Circle. Instead, they make us think Tom Petty, sort of! But maybe we'll come back around on this one if give it a chance... Next is the other Earthworm track, "Earthworm" itself. If you haven't heard it before, we'll tell you it's frantic and metallic and certainly strange, in the eccentric "New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal" style that Circle has been championing. If you like side project Steel Mammoth, you'll like it.
But better yet for NWOFHM is the following track, "Sacrifice". Definitely Hollywood's most metal moment. A catchy, chunky gallop with fierce vocals and fleet fingered guitar shred soloing. It sounds something like Swedish retro-metallers Wolf, actually. Horns up from us! Maybe Circle's most successful stab at true metal yet. Of course, there's a sudden change of pace with the very next song, the much moodier and mellower "Spam Folder". Is Duff actually singing lyrics taken from the subject lines of junk emails? Yes, it sounds like he is, but somehow the conceit actually works, they're like 'ambient lyrics'. And then, this disc gets even further from the metal, with the semi-acoustic, ramshackle backporch country-ish ramble "Hard To Realize", some Lee Hazlewood gravel creeping into Duff's voice, cool!
After that, yet another stylistic shift occurs, as we come to the final two tracks on the album, lengthy epics both of 'em. Penultimate track "Madman" is a sort of suspenseful kraut/prog/metal jam, stretching out for 15+ minutes, with Duff doing a sort of Iggy Pop or Leonard Cohen spoken-singing-whispering. Keyboards hover in the background over a repetitive guitar lick and chugging, gear-shifting rhythms. And then finally the disc reaches a glorious climax with "Suddenly" (clocking in at a not so sudden 11:33). It's a massive, melodic, powerful prog masterpiece, a reworking of "Murheenkryyni" that appeared previously only on Circle's live album Rakennus. So much multitracked guitar, that solo and harmonize to the heavens as this track builds and builds. Duff's vocals are also quite effective here, adding to the melancholic, MAJESTIC mood. Wow!
By the end of this, we're quite convinced, and we'll say it for sure: "Buy it!!" Heck we'd get this just for "Suddenly" alone, but there's plenty else on here that makes the all-over-the-place Hollywood a worthy, weird addition to the Circle discography, despite a few missteps.
In addition to the new Circle (Ex-Falcon) full-length album reviewed this list, the prolific Finns have also unleashed a new 7" single. Unlike the gentle, folky "atmos-psych" of the Leviatan album, on this 7" Circle take on capitalist society with two tracks of raging punk!! Kinda like the short, sharp hardcore punk tracks that erupted in the middle of Circle's Panic album a few years ago. Intense shit, meant to "reveal the plight of those exposed to the idiocies of blatant consumerism" and probably also to spark some slam-dancing. Rabid vocals in Finnish spit words of societal critique over surprisingly catchy guitar-heavy tunage (the chorus to the A side reminding us of a song by Faust, oddly enough). Wow, Circle, they've kind of become the Everything band - eventually there won't be any musical style or subculture that they haven't dabbled in and made sincerely Circular somehow.
Although of course we like to say that EVERY day is Record Store Day, officially Record Store Day 2012 was a couple weeks ago - but that doesn't mean we're entirely done with the special limited edition RSD stuff. That's right, thankfully, we managed to get more copies of this, the album from one of our faves, Circle, that came out, on vinyl only via Hydra Head, for Record Store Day. (Hard to believe they had any left, but just maybe Circle is a little more popular with our customers than at other record stores?). So, yay, now we can list it!
Manner is Circle's latest studio album, and it's a doozy. Naturally. Like the last one of theirs we listed, Rautatie, there's a distinctly '70s prog vibe to some of the proceedings, and in fact they do a cover here (their first ever cover, on an album?), of Brian Eno's "Here Come The Warm Jets", which comes across as very suitably "circular" in its pulsations here.
Fans of Circle know that the band's output is as as diverse it is prolific, and it would be far too simplistic to say that there's two basic types of Circle albums. But, maybe there are, at the extremes. There's the pensively moody & atmospheric (Miljard, Infektio, Hissi), and the metallicized & rockin' (Sunrise, Katapult, Tulikoira). Of course, most of their records somehow display both tendencies at once. Manner leans towards the latter, there's definitely some heavy duty hard rock action going on here, stuff that could even have fit in on alter-ego Pharaoh Overlord's stadium rock Out Of Darkness album, like the triumphant, full on prog/metal opus "Blue King" that precedes the Eno cover on the first side. A lot of this has that epic intensity, also familiar from Rautatie.
Frontman Mika Ratto's wiggy operatic croon is in full effect, on album opener "Lintu Joe", soaring up n' out nonsensically over dramatic crashing guitar chords, restrained rhythms, uneasy synth squiggle, and in general, weird Yes-like proggery. As an introduction to Circle for the masses of Hydra Head fanboys & fangirls who perhaps have never heard these freaky Finns before (this is Circle's first album for HH), it's a bit of a bold move, but heck why not jump in at the deep end?
Like we said, this is vinyl only, but four of the six songs here also appear in more recklessly thrashed live concert renditions on Circle's recent Serpent cd, which we had in stock very briefly at about the same time we originally got Manner. Eventually we'll get more of those back in.
Of note, the die cut cover art, which looks amazing. Limited to 1000 copies in three different colors. We had the "red eye" colored vinyl for Record Store Day, but aren't sure what color the additional copies we got are, probably black.
Oh lord, what will the mischievous mind of Circle mainman Jussi Lehtisalo come up with next? Not long ago, there was the conceptually confusional arrangement under which our Finnish space rock faves Circle changed their name to Falcon (Ex-Circle), and then recruited a completely different group of musicians to record an album under their former name of Circle (which was great!), after which the original Circle guys switched back to being called Circle (Ex-Falcon). Whew. And now they're just Circle, again. BUT, how's this for another confusing idea: Circle, and their not-all-that-different-really side-project band Pharaoh Overlord have now simultaneously released albums with the titles "Circle" and "Pharaoh Overlord", no, not self-titled albums, the Circle one is called Pharaoh Overlord and the Pharaoh Overlord one is called Circle. And they have very similar art/graphics. Yep. That's what they do for laffs up in Finland, although knowing Jussi, he probably has some very serious, meaningful reason behind this scheme, but the explanation would be impossible to understand. It makes a circle or something. Regardless, what we've got here are TWO NEW Circle and/or Pharaoh Overlord albums, however you slice it, and that's a good thing! Of course, they just showed up yesterday, the day before our list, but we already have spun these a bunch of times and know we will spin them lots more, so sure let's make 'em both Records Of The Week!
The Circle album is quite, well, it's pretty much redundant and superfluous to say in a review of a Circle album that the music is "mesmeric" but goshdarnit, this is indeed mesmerizing. They don't try to sound especially like Pharaoh Overlord, by the way, whatever that would entail, not of course that they don't, either. Instead, the quick takeaway here would be that this is "the Circle album with horns". (Oh, wait, there's a PO album called Horn, maybe that's the weird connection, hmmm??) Anyway, the horns are the big X-factor here, tooting along syncopatedly and cyclically Circle-like. A little jazzy, certainly proggy, those horns, along with the wordless vocal choirs, make us think of Magma and other '70s large-ensemble prog symphonics. We're also put in mind of some suspenseful '60s/'70s film soundtracks, like David Shire's The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three just a bit. It gets intense, with stabs of distorted guitar chords to further intensify the mood. Meanwhile, the vocals, which include some impressive caveman freakout screams, are also crucial, and hark back to the early days of Circle, when they did the monk-chanting thing in their own made up language (a la Magma as well) on albums like Zopalki.
Ultimately, it's really gorgeous and, again, super mesmeric, these tracks all of course built around endless repetitive grooves, simple (deceptively so, we're sure) and effective in the usual Circle style. And the only reason one track ever ends, it seems, is that another one needs to begin. And we wouldn't have it any other way. This Circle consists of circles within circles to spin the mind around. Wow, nice. Recommended, as is the other one by the other band.
FYI, vinyl versions of both of these are forthcoming in a month or two...
One of the more recent Circle records finally released on vinyl by our pals at Static Caravan. Good thing too since the cd is out of print. Double lp, colored vinyl in a nice gatefold sleeve with some of the most tripped out artwork we've seen in a while, different from the cd version. Here's what we had to say about the cd when it first came out.
Is there such a thing as Circle overload? We don't think so. In their case, you can't have too much of a good thing. A brand new disc of their hypnotic avant-rock compositions. Newer than their recent "Andexelt" album, and just as good. Not as sparse and dubby as that disc, "Prospekt" is rather heavier and denser, mesmerizingly repetitive as always, and kinda startling, with some incredible vocal acrobatics / operatics in the opening track "Dedofiktion". Really great!
Our favorite predictably unpredictable, hypnotically rockin' Finnish band, Circle, have made so many amazing albums (dozens of 'em!) that they're essentially an institution now, an integral part of our lives, an eternal manifestation of the creative energy of the universe. In other words, we can count on 'em to come up with something wonderful on a regular basis. They're kinda like Christmas, or your birthday, or something, except sometimes Circle gift us with more than one album per year. Sure, some Circle albums (like some Christmases) are better than others, of course, but we've yet to be disappointed. Though their last one, 2008's Hollywood, was a bit of an odd duck, what with featuring special guest Bruce "Jesters Of Destiny" Duff on vocals... This new one, however, we can recommend without any warnings about unexpected vocalists, though you do have to be into Mika's trademark faux-operatic excesses, which Circle fans should certainly be used to by now. And in fact, while he croons in his usual over-the-top manner some of the time, there are also songs here where the singing is much more "normal", making for some of Circle's most conventionally melodic pop moments ever, relatively speaking. Well, make that prog-pop. Rautatie is an EPIC effort from Circle indeed. Or maybe "effort" isn't the right word. 'Cause they make it seem effortless. So natural, the unique Circle sound just surging through 'em as soon as they enter the studio. In any case, it's epic, especially grand finale "Kaasukello", 8 minutes 18 seconds long, which builds from a sheen of shimmering rhythmic patterning in the style of Circle's possibly prettiest album, Miljard, into soaring waves of massive majestic choral prog triumph, causing all within earshot to raise their fists in the air, and look to the skies with a shared sense of exaltation. Wow. We kept putting that one on repeat, but the whole album is compelling, worthy of, like, infinite spins too.
And it's a varied experience, lots to grok... the opening, title track starts off with some heavy "NWOFHM" riffage, immediately making us think this is gonna be one of Circle's "metal-ly" efforts, perhaps like Katapult or Sunrise. But then that song suddenly switches to a repetitive (natch) '70s prog sounding section, adorned with weird wordless vocal outbursts from a (seizure-suffering?) Mika, before the guitars get kinda punk, and then return to the metal majesty with which it began... all that in under 5 minutes. And it's catchy, too. As is a lot of this, such as the rousing "Vaellus", sure to be a hit, that is if they'd play a 7:58 song on the radio, with lyrics in Finnish (or is it their own language "Meronian"?), some of 'em sung in a chipmunk-metal shriek. The synths are laid on thick on that one, and elsewhere, ferinstance on the equally epic "Kohtalon Sormi", from which we're getting a nice Ennio Morricone-ish vibe. Propulsive rhythms, incongruously placid piano parts, atmospheric interludes, and distorted guitar wailings are also all part of the proceedings on Rautatie. Especially those propulsive rhythms, of course.
It's definitely a proggy album, in more of an overt classic '70s prog style than some Circle albums have been, though of course they're ALL quite proggy and krautrocky. Plus those metal moments crop up more than once too, so those into Circle's heavier, leather and spikes side will get their fix as well. (However tongue in cheek that "NWOFHM" aspect of Circle is, it cannot be argued that they don't rock hard, and we know 'em to be true metal fans for sure.) And, as we said, it's practically pop at points too. And experimental. And... well, lots of things, as only Circle can do.
Furthermore, with a week's exposure to Rautatie so far, we feel it's been getting better and better with every listen, always the sign of a great album. Yay, go Circle! Heck, hyperbolically speaking, if they ever stop, it'll be like the end of the world...
We listed this last time, on the same day we got it, so we thought we'd list it again now after having had some time to give it a few more spins... though really we don't have much more to say - it's Circle, it's great! Here's what we said last time, with a little bit more commentary added in:
This new lp with the sibilant all caps title, by our & everybody's fave Finnish hypno-rockers Circle, just showed up at the shop TODAY, and is thus being treated to a fairly brief "first impressions" review so we can get it on the list, not that it really even needs a review cuz heck it's a new Circle lp after all, and one thing about Circle is that they're pretty darn reliable. Their previous record (if we don't count the recent avant-death metal Incarnation album, by the Circle-that-isn't-actually-Circle) was last year's Six Day Run lp, a soundtrack to a documentary by Finnish artist and filmmaker Mika Taanila. This one's also sort of a soundtrack for something by Mika Taanila, but it's a live album, recorded at a museum in Helsinki (the Kiasma Museum Of Contemporary Art), where Taanila was holding an exhibition called Time Machines, a retrospective of his works over the past decade. Circle wrote these songs to perform there, accompanying a film installation of Taanila's, and we get the idea that the visuals have to do with science and technology, experimentation and exploration. Hence, well-respected space rock band Circle makes a good match-up!
About the music on SSEENNSSEESS, there are four exclusive (and long) tracks here, two to a side: "Kudos", "Radiant", "Sleepwalker" and "Terminal". Giving it a first spin, and expecting the unexpected as always with Circle, we're happy to hear actually-not-so-unexpected yearning, surging, epic keyboard-laden stuff that's majestic and mostly instrumental (though keyboardist Mika Ratto does contribute some of his operatic glossolalia at key moments), tracks like the 11+ minute "Terminal" reminding us of Circle's Rautatie album. The volume and energy and slashing psych guitar soloing situates this somewhere between the shoegazing and the Stoogesy. Apparently Circle and Taanila are taking this music/film installation on tour, but probably only in Europe, so this lp is the closest our senses will come to experiencing the entirety of SEENNSSEESS, and while getting the full multimedia effect like at the museum would undoubtedly be cool, there's something to be said for being able to spin this again and again at home, as we imagine will we be doing a lot!
First time ever on vinyl for this great live recording from Finland's Circle, hypnotic space rockers extraordinare. It's from way back in 1996, and was originally released as one half of a split cd with Japanese psych band Marble Sheep. That cd has been out of print for years, so it's super nice to have this newly issued vinyl version, on which (as we said long ago) Circle perform a stellar live set of their perfect cyclical drone rock - including a haunting, breathtaking cover of Hank Williams' "I Saw The Light". Other, original tracks include "Valerian", "Re-Masturbated", "Meronia", "DNA" and four more; all of 'em heavy, mesmeric Circle classics from the early days, drawn from their first three albums: Meronia, Zopalki, and Hissi. Although one track, the moody "Sprinkler", we think *only* appears here (along with that spacey Hank Williams cover).
A long lost Circle album??! Sort of. One of Circle's best albums?! Definitely. The deal with Taantumus is that it came out on the Finnish label Bad Vugum back in 2001, falling betwixt Prospekt and Sunrise (approximately, it's hard to keep track) in the ever-expanding Circle discography. At the time, there was talk of Taantumus getting a domestic release in the US, so we never imported any copies from overseas. Well, that domestic release never ever happened, but thankfully, years and years later, this amazing "lost" (to most folks outside of Finland, anyway) Circle album has been reissued by the band's own Ektro label, now crowned with the 9:21 bonus track "Veitsi"!
Now, you should already be aware we LOVE this hypnotic Finnish space/prog/psych/metal/kraut band. If we could marry them, we would! So of course we're excited by any release of theirs. However, this one is definitely extra-deserving of Record Of The Week honors, as it's really one of their best efforts (though we'd be hard pressed to agree upon a definitive Circle top ten, let's not get sidetracked).
One listen should convince. To one track, even. The first track, "Kultaa", that's IT. Right there. Damn. Hit Circle song, in the universe where Circle could have hit songs, which is our universe, as far as we're concerned. Boom boom on the floor tom, the guitars hitting the same chord over and over again. Repetition, repetition, repetition. But utterly energizing and maddeningly catchy. And then, the vocals - Meronian monks whooping it up.
Track two, "Kekkone", tick tock drums and electronic flutter, with melodic guitar lines tiptoeing across the stereo field... utterly exquisite! Track three, "Valtaisa Hahmo", another monster motorik HIT. With whistling FLUTE, well maybe it's a recorder, and droning synths. Track four... well heck we're not gonna go through 'em all. What's the point, you already know you want this, right?? So get it and listen for yourself, at home, cranked up LOUD. (Not that this is loud music, per se, some of it sure is, but lots of it is subtle, stuff that if listened to at volume will simply allow one to more easily bask in its glory). That way you can find out about the kick ass harmonica jam of track 9, "Morn", all on your own. (Shades of Itavayla there.)
Rest assured, Taantumus is stocked with plenty of Circle's trademark mantric riffs, throbbing bass, precision timekeeping, cosmic shimmer, and curious noise. OK, we'll mention a few more of the many treats to be found on this 66 minute disc... Track 5, "Suopea", brings in extra distortion and heaviness, contrasted with a haunting vocal choir that floats over, of course, a tight percolating rhythm. Track 7, "Lyhytaallosta", is a slab of bass heavy angular postpunk, Circle style, with chiming no-wavey guitars and deepvoiced Viking vox - plus weird glitch and gurgle. Into the more "metal" side of Circle? Try track 10, "Siivet", a killer "speedkraut" cut foreshadowing their later Panic disc, albeit with piano. And Mika's operatic vocals, something first unleashed on the preceding Prospekt disc. Heavier still is "Pelqton", which sounds like Circle doing abstract Isis... but, again, with piano. Oh, and yeah the bonus track is awesome too. Droning density that skitters into deep grooves with some near spoken singing. Actually, elsewhere on the album there's mysterious vocal bits in the background that somehow sound like they could be a song from The Mighty Boosh, if you are familiar with that British TV comedy you'll be scratching your head too.
So, wow. This is the sort of album that leaves us puzzled - why isn't Circle the biggest band in the world? (Maybe they really HAVE hypnotized us.) But really, aside from being really WEIRD, and not widely released, you'd have thought that an album like this would have made Circle megasuperduper stars. I mean really, what do they gotta do, besides being one of the best bands ever? You think that'd be enough. You'd think Taantumus would be enough. Well whatever, in our universe it is.
Certain bands around these parts don't really need much more than a "NEW RECORD OUT NOW" style announcement to get their fans all in a tizzy. Those groups engender a certain sort of slavish worship and maniacal obsession, that used to be reserved for top 40 bands and their teenage minions. But heck, what's wrong with loving a band enough to want it all?! Everything they do, every cd, ep, lp, 7", whatever. A list of those bands will probably look mighty familiar to most of you, and will quite possibly elicit that record nerd Pavlovian response that even we can never quite seem to shake. SUNNO))), Boris, Corrupted, Earth, and yes of course Circle. Longtime readers of the aQ New Arrivals list are well aware of our obsession with Circle, odds are most of them share it, as well as a certain obsession with Finnish music in general, but Circle are for sure our favorite group of musical Finns. And for good reason.
Going on two decades, Circle have managed to take a simple sound, and twist it all up, keeping it fresh and exciting and surprising, a sort of hypnotic and yes CIRCULAR sound, simple arrangements, repetitive riffing, motorik drumming, a little kraut rock, a little space rock, but Circle have taken those sounds and run them through the wringer, transforming them into murky mantra like hypno rock for one record, bombastic eighties style metal for another, long brooding dronescapes for one disc, majestic triumphant over the top prog for another, and never hesitating to mix and blur and blend their various sounds and personas to suit their whim and whimsy.
For those folks who have seen Circle live, they understand the magic of this band, the improvisation, the incredible stage presence, the killer riffing, we never would have thought a weirdo space-kraut-prog rock band from Finland could get US audience losing their shit, but we've seen it. Heck at one show, bass player Jussi Lehtisalo ripped his shirt off midsong, and we were nearly deafened by a gaggle of shrieking girls right in front of us.
But we digress, Circle rule. You know it. We know it. Live especially, which is why there are so many live records in their discography, because those songs that you've listened to a million times, sound totally different live. Thus we have Triumph, a vinyl only double lp documenting Circle's second time performing live on WFMU (the first was released as Arkades back in 2006).
Triumph was recorded in New Jersey, in 2007, on Brian Turner's show on WFMU, and finds the band tackling a couple live Circle classics, and offering up a bunch of new stuff to boot. The record begins with "Virsi", which some of you may remember from Rakennus, another live album, a total live set staple, "Virsi" finds Circle at their bombastic prog rock epic best, totally dynamic and majestic, Mika Ratto's vocals even more unhinged than usual, slipping into an almost black metal shriek, when not crooning dramatically, such a killer part, you kind of want it to go on forever, but the band slip smoothly into a super minimal circular groove, with atonal piano, and the bass and drums locked tight, sounding like some cocktail jazz combo gone krautrock, before returning to the opening bombast to finish it off.
The shorter second track is so awesome, and is either a new song, or a dramatically reworked version of an old one, but finds the band unfurling lush strings and shimmering effects, simple drumming, very proggy and dramatic but understated and smokey, very Scott Walker or Serge Gainsbourg, like some lost sixties ballad, albeit slightly tweaked.
The flipside is all spidery guitars and skittery jazzy percussion, with wild speaking-in-tongues vocals, a massive tripped out psychedelic drift, super spare and minimal, but with a relentless groove hovering right below the surface.
The second record begins with a gorgeous deep resonant shimmery drone, laced with delicate melodies, whispered vocals, spacey FX, the vocals eventually getting deeper and more dramatic, the whole thing building to an abstract almost free jazz sounding climax, a bit like a space rock torch song gradually going haywire.
Flip the record over, and we've got what might be our new favorite Circle song, a looped music box melody (or maybe a toy piano), all tangled up with soft flurries of real piano, a strange push and pull between the fluid melodies of the piano, and the mechanical loop of the toy piano, the end result sounds a bit like some strange hybrid of Lubomyr Melnyk and Pierre Bastien. Machinelike, meditative, repetitive and hypnotic, the various notes and tones building into a gorgeous swirl of melodic fragments and splintering sonic overtones. So awesome.
And finally, the band finish off with another live staple, "Murheenkryyni", also found on Rakennus, but again, it's a whole 'nother beast here, the heaviest of the bunch, a total classic rock prog rock dirge, with crunchy distorted guitars, bombastic drums, and Mika's operatic howl. Yowza!
Packaged in a beautifully designed heavy gatefold sleeve, with all the liner notes printed on the lp labels, including a brief missive from Jussi of Circle about how he's worried that Brian Turner might just be losing his mind haha....
This 2005 Circle album, out of print for a bit, is now newly reissued on cd, this time its jewel case wrapped in a spiffy slipcase, featuring some cool new artwork (and a "no posers" symbol)!
NWOFHM. That's what it says on the inside of the cd booklet, in big bold letters. NWOFHM? WTF? If you don't get the joke, explaining it won't help, but here goes: New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal. Our Finnish friends Circle are apparently referencing the famed NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) that took the rock world by storm circa 1979, giving us Saxon, Angel Witch, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Venom, Samson, and many many many more. What's that got to do with the Can and Neu! pulsed space/prog/post-rock normally practiced by Circle?? Well Circle fans know that these guys have indeed established their very own trademark "circular" sound (repetitive, rhythmic, looping, hypnotic rock) that, whirlpool-like, pulls in all sorts of influences, from the aforementioned Krautrock forefathers to jazz and dub and lo-fi drone improv and, yes, metal. When you get a new Circle album, you kinda both know what to expect *and* never know what to expect. Well we'll tell you about Circle's latest studio effort, Tulikoria. In part, it's Circle donning the leather and spikes (metaphorically, perhaps, though they threatened to do so for real live on stage at their show in San Francisco that was happening the night we originally posted this review). Circle's love of metal, specifically the true, traditional heavy metal of the '80s, has borne fruit before, on several of the songs from their amazing Sunrise album released in 2002. So, the heavy metal component present on Tulikoira is precedented in the Circle discog. But, like Sunrise, this isn't just Circle "doing metal". It's a lot of other things besides! Nobody will confuse it for an "actual" metal album. But heavy metal is definitely, proudly an element here, amongst others. And graphically, too, it's an inspiration, as you'll see from Circle's new fangled, tough-looking symmetrical logo, which even incorporates a lightning bolt!
There's four tracks here, starting with "Rautakaarme", an atmospheric seven-minute cut featuring monkish chant, eerie drone, and energetic bursts of rock action. Second track "Tulilintu" is *entirely* active and energetic, really bringing in the headbanging, fist-pumping metal, complete with guitar leads and soaring screams in the manner of Rob Halford. Seriously. The lyrics are in Finnish (presumably) so we don't know how tongue-in-cheek-or-not they are. Track three, "Berserk", is kinda weird, another atmospheric exercise with some lines in English like "I'm a scorpion" and "I'm a crocodile" spoken over rather spooky, bass-heavy grooves. A lot of tension in this one. Could almost be a noirish film soundtrack from the '70s, but with additional "circular" electric guitar riffing. Then the final track "Puutiikeri" arrives, pretty much taking over the album since it's an epic 24 minute affair, beginning and ending with authentic heavy metal riffing, but journeying far and wide in-between. Creaky improv splatter, lush keyboards, gently whispering vocals, spacey electronic effects, chugging, pulsating rhythms (of course!), and even some quasi-techno beats (!) are stirred into this weird mix. Ranging in mood from calm tranquility to flat out rockin', this is a real trip, as is all of Tulikoira. If you've been following Circle's output in recent years, and rolling with all their eccentricities, from Sunrise to Guillotine to Forest to Empire, you'll be happy to add Tulikoria to your collection too!
We made the cd version of this Circle disc our Record Of The Week a while back, only for it to go out of print WAY quicker than anyone expected. So now, Tyrant is available once again, for a limited time, on vinyl, a double lp to be precise. But again, like all Latitudes stuff, very very limited, and add to that the fact that it's Circle, well, you should know what that means. Here's what we had to say about Tyrant when we first got it WAY back in 2006!! Be sure to read to the end though, as there's some extras with the lp edition....
BRAND NEW CIRCLE ALBUM!!! TYRANT!! INCREDIBLY LIMITED LATEST INSTALLMENT IN THE LATITUDES SERIES!!! IT'S HERE!!!!
Okay, just wanted to get your attention. We've been waiting for this for a long, long time. As have many of you, we imagine. We've all been loving the Latitudes series of ultra limited releases from bands like Ginnungagap, Shit And Shine, the Grails, Ariel Pink, Sir Richard Bishop... so when we heard that Finland's gods of metallic hypno drone rock were going to do one, we were so psyched, and so we waited anxiously, but patiently, until finally, after months of waiting, they arrived, just a few days ago, and as if we even have to tell you, IT'S AWESOME!!!
But this declaration of awesomeness does require a bit more elaboration, as Circle have a wide variety of awesome sounds: murky propulsive modern day krautrock, wild guitar heavy NWOFHM proto-metal, extended ambient drones, loping mesmeric jazzy shuffle, it's really hard to know where the band will head next. As if it were too much to wish for, Tyrant, somehow manages to combine all of their disparate sounds into one practically perfect whole, and some of us are declaring this our favorite Circle record in ages (no mean feat, since their last one, Miljard, was fantastic, a Record Of The Week too). Three 15 minute tracks, each one a slow building epic, droning, dense, dark, hypnotic, but each with its own unique elements.
The opener, "Screaming Luovutus", is an endlessly looping space rock drone mantra, a relentlessly throbbing bassline, haunting little swirls of fluttering keyboard melody, little bits of guitar filigree, simple propulsive rhythmic shuffle, all woven into a endlessly throbbing krautrocky swirl, when suddenly over the top strange whispery demonic growls surface, super distorted, another layer of fuzzy sound, howling and whispering all ragged and harsh, almost like Circle covering Abruptum or a black metal Necks, if that makes any sense. Dizzying and weirdly heavy, a black ambient krautrock drone groove, if such a thing were possible. And if it were, you know Circle would be the ones, ahem, ARE the ones to make it happen.
The second track, with the very metal title "Steel Torment Warrior", is maybe the least metal of the batch. A super creepy, almost jazzy, soundscape, of muted rumble, bursts of super effected dubbed out drums, flurries of spaced out FX, hushed hissed vocals, splattery free jazz skitter, warbly, seasick guitar tangles all wrapped in a druggy blissy ambience. It's like a less propulsive Necks, a damaged jazzy shuffle looping into infinity, but twisted into a uniquely Circular shape.
The closer, with the even MORE metal title of "Amputation Crusade", is the grooviest and space rockiest of the three, a simple darkly melodic guitar figure, loops lazily above a slow slithery bassline and a super laid back, barely there rhythmic shuffle, like Can or Faust in extreme slow motion... you can hear the Necks again, but the band add some extra druggy fuzz guitar, and the laid back riffing is pregnant with the possibility of imminent explosion. Strange vocals lurk below the surface, the whole thing an epic trawl through some jazzy black space rock soundscape. Near the end, things build to a bit of a subdued climax, the guitars ringing and chiming, the drums pounding a bit more, very epic and majestic, but still somehow muted and laid back, petering out into a creepy little coda of guitar FX and gurgling monster vocals...
Wow. Seriously, we love Circle and everything, more than most folks, but this disc is an absolute killer!! Heavy and droney, groovy and jazzy and completely epic and mesmerizing and amazing!!
Comes packaged in the usual black and white Latitudes diecut 12" sleeve, includes the same black and white insert from the cd, featuring the band posing with spiked gauntlets in front of Stonehenge!!! Well, actually, in front of the chainlink fence in front of Stonehenge, which somehow makes more sense. The inner lp label has two strange NWOFHM / Tyrant (the 't's in tyrant are battle axes of course) hooded knights. And as if that weren't enough, the second disc is a PICTURE DISC, one side features the Stonehenge band photo blown up, the other side is an image of... well, an lp, in fact the -other- record in the set, complete with the hooded knights in the center and printed record grooves, which while actually being playable grooves, seem to be there just for show....
Either way, one more chance to pick up this kick ass Circle record, and on vinyl to boot!
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES!!!!
BRAND NEW CIRCLE ALBUM!!! TYRANT!! INCREDIBLY LIMITED LATEST INSTALLMENT IN THE LATITUDES SERIES!!! IT'S HERE!!!!
Okay, just wanted to get your attention. We've been waiting for this for a long, long time. As have many of you, we imagine. We've all been loving the Latitudes series of ultra limited releases from bands like Ginnungagap, Shit And Shine, the Grails, Ariel Pink, Sir Richard Bishop... so when we heard that Finland's gods of metallic hypno drone rock were going to do one, we were so psyched, and so we waited anxiously, but patiently, until finally, after months of waiting, they arrived, just a few days ago, and as if we even have to tell you, IT'S AWESOME!!!
But this declaration of awesomeness does require a bit more elaboration, as Circle have a wide variety of awesome sounds: murky propulsive modern day krautrock, wild guitar heavy NWOFHM proto-metal, extended ambient drones, loping mesmeric jazzy shuffle, it's really hard to know where the band will head next. As if it were too much to wish for, Tyrant, somehow manages to combine all of their disparate sounds into one practically perfect whole, and some of us are declaring this our favorite Circle record in ages (no mean feat, since their last one, Miljard, was fantastic, a Record Of The Week too). Three 15 minute tracks, each one a slow building epic, droning, dense, dark, hypnotic, but each with its own unique elements.
The opener, "Screaming Luovutus", is an endlessly looping space rock drone mantra, a relentlessly throbbing bassline, haunting little swirls of fluttering keyboard melody, little bits of guitar filigree, simple propulsive rhythmic shuffle, all woven into a endlessly throbbing krautrocky swirl, when suddenly over the top strange whispery demonic growls surface, super distorted, another layer of fuzzy sound, howling and whispering all ragged and harsh, almost like Circle covering Abruptum or a black metal Necks, if that makes any sense. Dizzying and weirdly heavy, a black ambient krautrock drone groove, if such a thing were possible. And if it were, you know Circle would be the ones, ahem, ARE the ones to make it happen.
The second track, with the very metal title "Steel Torment Warrior", is maybe the least metal of the batch. A super creepy, almost jazzy, soundscape, of muted rumble, bursts of super effected dubbed out drums, flurries of spaced out FX, hushed hissed vocals, splattery free jazz skitter, warbly, seasick guitar tangles all wrapped in a druggy blissy ambience. It's like a less propulsive Necks, a damaged jazzy shuffle looping into infinity, but twisted into a uniquely Circular shape.
The closer, with the even MORE metal title of "Amputation Crusade", is the grooviest and space rockiest of the three, a simple darkly melodic guitar figure, loops lazily above a slow slithery bassline and a super laid back, barely there rhythmic shuffle, like Can or Faust in extreme slow motion... you can hear the Necks again, but the band add some extra druggy fuzz guitar, and the laid back riffing is pregnant with the possibility of imminent explosion. Strange vocals lurk below the surface, the whole thing an epic trawl through some jazzy black space rock soundscape. Near the end, things build to a bit of a subdued climax, the guitars ringing and chiming, the drums pounding a bit more, very epic and majestic, but still somehow muted and laid back, petering out into a creepy little coda of guitar FX and gurgling monster vocals...
Wow. Seriously, we love Circle and everything, more than most folks, but this disc is an absolute killer!! Heavy and droney, groovy and jazzy and completely epic and mesmerizing and amazing!!
Comes packaged in a super intricate hand screened die cut fold over sleeve with a full color insert (featuring the band posing with spiked gauntlets in front of Stonehenge!!! Well, actually, in front of the chainlink fence in front of Stonehenge, which somehow makes more sense). The cover has two strange NWOFHM / Tyrant (the 't's in tyrant are battle axes of course) hooded knights silkscreened on the front and each copy is hand stamped and numbered. Limited to 1000 copies worldwide, 500 of which made it to the United States, about 250 of which made it HERE. That's right, we got an entire quarter of the pressing. And we're pretty sure that still won't be enough, we guarantee these will not be around for long...
Everybody knows that we at aQuarius are HUGE fans of the Finnish space/prog/hypnorock band Circle, right? We have raved about 'em for years, even had 'em play our 35th Anniversary Party back in 2000. So, naturally we get lots of folks, just starting out with their own Circle obsession, who ask us, which Circle album is The One To Get? 'Cause there's at least, like, over thirty albums in Circle's vast discography, thus far (though not all are still in print), and they're all pretty great. Well, among the longterm Circle fans here at aQ, the answer to that difficult question is, when it comes down to it, if we have to chose: Zopalki, Circle's second album, originally released back in 1996 by the Bad Vugum label. For a lot of us, it's arguably Circle's best ever record, among many great ones. And, significantly, it's also the one that we first heard, that first caused us to totally freak out about Circle, and led us to become such ardent fans, ever after. So, yeah, Zopalki! But, for years and years, it's unfortunately been one of those out of print titles. Kind of a holy grail for latter day Circle initiates. Until now - because we just got the brand new remastered, reissued version on Circle's own Ektro label in the mail. And thus, an automatic Record Of The Week!
Like we said, this is The One that, so many years ago, turned us on to Circle's unique brand of rhythmic psychedelic hypnosis. It's heavy, it's atmospheric, it's tight, it's sprawling, it's incredible. The staccato Helmet-like riffage of their debut Meronia is still in effect, but even proggier experimentation is afoot, with a darker, murkier, neo-krautrock, chamber rock vibe pervading the proceedings. There's choppy guitars, dubby drumbeats, sinister string arrangements, and eerie Gregorian chant style vox (yes, this was many Circle lineups ago, long before current operatic weirdo Mikka Ratto joined the band, but the vocals are still quite unusual).
Originally released on vinyl also, as a double lp (the new liner notes in this edition amusingly explain the "negotiation" with their record label that resulted in this being a double), it's got a dozen tracks stretching over 72 minutes. They range from explosive & percussively propelled to the dolefully droned out (often accomplishing both feats in the same epic composition). "Bonoroid" is among the most blissful, "Sector" the most psychotically hectic, "Argont" perhaps the most grindingly heavy, but heck we just picked a favorite Circle album, don't make us pick a favorite song too!
Our only complaint about this reissue, is we wish they'd have included the bonus track found only on the long-gone vinyl version... for a moment we thought this reissue had the bonus track, but it's just that for some accidental reason the tracklist here says the final song is "Contact" (which was that bonus track) when it's actually "Gregorium Vaernd Valerii", which closed the original cd. Whoops.
Regardless, we're SO glad to have this back. It's remastered (louder!), and the redesigned, expanded cd booklet now contains Zopalki-era photos of the band, as well as brand new retrospective liner notes from former guitarist Teemu Elo, from which we learn that "Zopalki" means "matchsticks" in Polish (though we don't learn why that was chosen for the title, or why the title was in Polish). More importantly, we learn a lot about the young band's struggle to make the record. It's worth noting that he says, "Zopalki caught most of us in the process of widening our horizons more than any other Circle album". It widened OUR horizons too...
WOW. Maybe it took taking a while off, and letting some other guys make a super-heavy (death metal!) album under the name Circle, while goofing around with the ironic '80s pop of alter-ego band Falcon, but Circle, now that they're Circle again, have really managed to blow us away with this one, even entrancing some of us here who aren't the 'usual' Circle fanatics. Despite all the silly high concept stuff they delight in, Leviatan once again proves that these guys are serious artists, geniuses really. No sharks have been jumped as yet.
The sticker on the cover proclaims: "Circle (ex-Falcon) have returned from Falcon-land in exquisite atmo-psych form!" which we can surely attest to and wholeheartedly agree with. Leviatan pretty much became a unanimous store favorite as soon as we first laid ears on it. Yet before we did, we didn't quite expect what they meant by "atmo-psych" to actually be such a beautifully delivered kraut-tinged acid folk record almost entirely played on acoustic instruments, conjuring up legendary associations with Comus (especially on the song "Protectorate"), Fresh Maggots, Faust, The Inner Space, Joakim Skogsberg and other ye olde folky aQ faves and yet also sounding as intense and psychically heavy as the latest Swans album, To Be Kind (though not quite as sprawling!).
Opening with gentle and primeval filigreed acoustic guitar riffs churning like smoke, swirling and building in on each other, anchoring subtle spacey tones taken from NASA satelite recordings and setting the tone for a processional recitation of an old Finnish text. Next, a medieval trio of banjo, bouzouki, and hand percussion and some deep monolithic chanting propel a kind of ritual invocation that nearly turns savage as Mika's vocals get more intense and paganish. But every dark passage on Leviatan is mirrored by some of the prettiest music we have heard from Circle in a while, especially on the Faust-ish ballad, "Post-Kapitalismus" and the sweet instrumental "Rakeita". Elsewhere moody folk jams, deep mystical paeans and avant Finnish-folk group sing-alongs, lead us to a final rounding call of solemn guitar weaving and ghostly breaths in what could only represent a slow-fading chiming forest-y death. Incredible!
