These filthy French freaks are back!! A while ago we listed their self-released 4 song demo cdep, and it kinda became a minor sensation among AQ customers into, well, doom, but doom of the most psychedelically fucked, primitive rock 'n' roll variety. In that review, we mentioned "magical dirtbag psychedelic metal anarchy... wasted heaviness, psychomaniacal alcoholic sludge". And yeah, that, um, description would apply to this their debut full-length as well!! So queue up and get ready to guzzle CoD's high octane, wah wah crazed, Vitus-worshipping, greasy hippie biker brew.
Doom, Be Doomed, Or Fuck Off consists of six new songs, filling 42 minutes with this trio's unique, over the top onslaught of hypnotically crude riffage, distortion, widdly guitar, and wailing vox (not quite so strange as on the demo, but still...not normal). And these songs are fairly hooky, too. Drugged out and doomy, but rockin'. Also, they show some signs of musical progress since the demo (not that we were hoping for any!!), getting just a bit more sophisticated sounding in their playing and compositions. Maybe. One sign of this: according to the credits, somewhere, supposedly, there's even some saxophone on this disc!! Ah, must be in the final track, the album's longest, a 12 minute excursion into tripsville, called "...Mia's Desert...", Children Of Doom sounding more like Children Of Krautrock here, all cosmically synthed and sinister, though there is guitar fury unleashed around the halfway point... oh, and then, there it is, some melancholy saxophone over krauty drum beats, how 'bout that? An interesting and unexpected ending to this eccentric album, nice.
Also nice is the cover and other artwork here. We said before that CoD reminded us a bit of Julian Cope's Brain Donor band, and definitely JC would approve of the artwork on the lyric sheet/poster in the cd, a drawing with all sorts of psychedelic biker shit growing up out of an upsidedown helmet, one of those German WWII bucket style ones that outlaw bikers like to wear (if they're gonna wear helmets at all). And you'll be happy there's a lyric sheet, they're quite amusing, once again, a lot of talk about who they are ("we are evil, old school, and brutal") and plenty of swearing in the process. You gotta suspect it's all a bit tongue in cheek, but we're not gonna say that to their faces, you never know...
Oh, and the one song here sung in French, "1916", is not in fact a Motorhead cover, despite the title - though these guys are in their own way, a Motorhead for psychedelic doom lovers. And like Motorhead, they love their umlauts too (our website, having apparently been programmed by posers, won't support umlauts easily, so we left 'em off, but there's supposed to be one over the "o" in "or", of all words, in the album's title...).
FINALLY back in stock!
As soon as we spied the cover art of this self-released cd from this obscure French doom (natch) trio, we knew it was gonna either be really awesome... or really terrible. We were hoping for awesome, though, some kind of magical dirtbag psychedelic metal anarchy that could live up the crude cartoonish line drawing of a skeleton biker riding through an apocalyptic landscape, with the band's tattooed skull logo floating in the air above him... As you can guess 'cause we then ordered a bunch and are highlighting it on our list, we think it was pretty rad indeed! Though, surely not for everyone. You gotta appreciate wasted heaviness, psychomaniacal alcoholic sludge... Named after Saint Vitus' most obscure, underrated release, it should be no surprise that C.O.D. sound a heck of a lot like Saint Vitus. But even more primitive and unpolished! They're a band that's being damn redundant when they title one of the four tracks here, "We Are Bestial And Raw". Other titles indicative of their mindset: "Hell's On Wheels", "Hangover" (a track which starts with a cheap clock radio alarm going off, a clever contrast to the tolling church bells most doom bands would use), and "Rusty World" (when he sings it, it sounds like "Fucking World", though - in fact every other word sung on this disc sounds like fuck or fucking, even when it's not). Speaking of the singing, the vocals are definitely strange, like there's something wrong with the guy (nothing to do with being French). But we like 'em. Everything here goes towards creating a messed up but hypnotic effect, the psychedelic distortion, the crude riffs, the crashing cymbals, the weird vocals, the demo production quality, the extended song lengths (it's 4 songs, as we said, but 32 minutes). In addition to those into Saint Vitus style doom (like Blood Farmers too) this might well appeal to fans of such acts as Brainbombs, The Heads, and Julian Cope's Brain Donor...
The only thing cooler than this, would be to have it on cassette... which it once was, but they only made 250 of those, and probably not many more of these!
While we're still wringing a lot of reading enjoyment out of the 120 pages of the most recent issue of this cult metal 'zine, #3, reviewed here last list, we also have been excitedly perusing the two back issues we got in as well, #1 and #2, collect 'em all! As we said in our review of the latest, this is a great 'zine - the kind of 'zine that makes us wanna do 'zines again, actually. Edited by the inimitable Stewart Voegtlin, whose drunken hesher gone grad school writing style is the standard for all the magazine's enthusiastic & clever contributors, Chips & Beer's non-ironic love of underground metal past and present, the real good stuff, is abundantly evident throughout these first two issues.
#1, at 96 pages, features the likes of Manilla Road (an interview AND primer), Pentagram, Christian Mistress, Negative Plane, Cauchemar (with cocktail recipes), Vanhelgd, gore artist Matt "Putrid" Carr, and more! Buy this to read about the time Bobby Liebling met Iggy Stooge...
Issue #2, is up to 120 pages, crammed with stuff on Twisted Tower Dire, Thrones, The Mentors, Deceased, Midnight, Obsequiae, and much more, including a chat with our pal Ian Christie, of Bazillion Points Books. Plus, the primer this time is on King Diamond/Mercyful Fate.
And both issues of course feature editorial rants, peurile cartoons, clever comix, and plenty of opinionated, if sometimes cryptic reviews. We don't always agree with 'em (when we can even figure out if they like something or not) but find their viewpoints worth considering, and certainly amusing to read.
Blogs are great and all, but, well, screw 'em. Nothin' like a real 'zine! And especially nothin' like Chips & Beer.
While we're still wringing a lot of reading enjoyment out of the 120 pages of the most recent issue of this cult metal 'zine, #3, reviewed here last list, we also have been excitedly perusing the two back issues we got in as well, #1 and #2, collect 'em all! As we said in our review of the latest, this is a great 'zine - the kind of 'zine that makes us wanna do 'zines again, actually. Edited by the inimitable Stewart Voegtlin, whose drunken hesher gone grad school writing style is the standard for all the magazine's enthusiastic & clever contributors, Chips & Beer's non-ironic love of underground metal past and present, the real good stuff, is abundantly evident throughout these first two issues.
#1, at 96 pages, features the likes of Manilla Road (an interview AND primer), Pentagram, Christian Mistress, Negative Plane, Cauchemar (with cocktail recipes), Vanhelgd, gore artist Matt "Putrid" Carr, and more! Buy this to read about the time Bobby Liebling met Iggy Stooge...
Issue #2, is up to 120 pages, crammed with stuff on Twisted Tower Dire, Thrones, The Mentors, Deceased, Midnight, Obsequiae, and much more, including a chat with our pal Ian Christie, of Bazillion Points Books. Plus, the primer this time is on King Diamond/Mercyful Fate.
And both issues of course feature editorial rants, peurile cartoons, clever comix, and plenty of opinionated, if sometimes cryptic reviews. We don't always agree with 'em (when we can even figure out if they like something or not) but find their viewpoints worth considering, and certainly amusing to read.
Blogs are great and all, but, well, screw 'em. Nothin' like a real 'zine! And especially nothin' like Chips & Beer.
This is super cool. Chips & Beer is a real 'zine, on newsprint for goodness sakes, 120 pages, chock full of more metal than thou madness, deeply nerdy, enthused about an aesthetic that most ordinary metal fans let alone regular folks don't 'get', but if you do, this is for you!!! Not sure how this rag got all the way to issue #3 without us knowing about it, it's totally up our alley, being all about the type of truely cult, truly METAL stuff we dig. Fortunately we got a clue and got it in, with this brand new ish hot off the presses. It's just the thing to be reading when cranking the great new Dawnbringer album (which we just got in, to be reviewed next list) loud, 'cause there's a big interview with 'Professor' Black in here. It's also good readin' to go with crankin' just about ANY old school (or new wave of old school) metal: thrash, death, doom, true, etc.
Along with the interview with Dawnbringer/High Spirits mastermind Chris Black, in this issue Chips & Beer also kicks back with Finland's Krypts and Swallowed, Australia's Cauldron Black Ram, and others... The historical side of things is also well-represented, one of the features being a lengthy piece on the epic '80s metal legends known as Cirith Ungol. And the issue's centerpiece is a massive "New Yawk Street Metal Special", a lovingly in depth look at NYC's (and Long Island's) contributions to the majesty of metal, including interviews with Twisted Sister's Jay Jay French, Manowar's Ross The Boss, the band Frigid Bitch, Dan Lilker of Anthrax/SOD/Nuclear Assault/etc.; also there's a run-down on all the KISS albums up through Music From The Elder (just like we did!), a piece about the movie Maniac, and more.
Plus, Chips & Beer's got all the other usual stuff you'd expect in any self-respecting 'zine: tons of uber opinionated album reviews (we don't always agree with 'em, but they're fun to read), a letters page, ads from underground labels, and even some comix! And C&B boasts an excellent stable of headbanging writers, including noted scribe Stewart Voegtlin, the editor in fact, whose fevered writing is always abstruse but amusing, a hesher beatnik academic hybrid. Recommended!
So, not only are we looking forward to issue #4, we've also gotta hunt down the back issues...
Hell yeah! Break out the chips and the beer - and crank the metal music LOUD - 'cause it's already time for the fifth installment of Chips & Beer, our favorite idiosyncratic underground cult metal (and more) 'zine. If you've got the earlier issues you know what to expect, if not, how do we explain the charm of Chips & Beer? Well, imagine a metalhead version of the old Bananafish 'zine - cryptic, creative, obviously intelligent, often absurd, and sometimes (especially when it comes to the comix) quite crude. Chips & Beer's writers, whether being straightforward or pseudo-intellectual or just plain weird, always manage to amuse, confuse, and (sometimes) enlighten, and definitely fulfill the FANzine's chief imperative of being enthusiastic admirers of whatever subject they chose to celebrate - in this issue, ferinstance, you get a piece on original Saint Vitus singer Scott Reagers ("Reagerding Reagers") that's practically a prose-poem in its effusive praise of that neglected vocalist's one of a kind talents (sentiments with which this writer can only agree).
This issue is the "Italian Metal Special", and as you may already know, the Chips & Beer crew don't half-ass these "specials", nope, you'll find stuff here about every damn crazy Italian metal band you've ever heard of and many more you hadn't, the big features being on Death SS, Bulldozer, Dark Quarterer, and Mortuary Drape, but lots of obscurer Italo HM obscurities get covered too, from Adramelch to Zess - plus there's even an interview with truly obscure AQ fave and former Record Of The Weeker, Tony Tears! The Italian theme continues into in-depth coverage of Italian '80s Z-grade swords & sorcery cinema, and the works of erotic auteur Tinto Brass.
But that's not all - also this ish: Betsy Bitch, Morbus Chron, Borrowed Time, Bone Sickness, Moss, Blue Oyster Cult (sort of), Lester Maddox, Longmont Potion Castle (yeah!!) and plenty more, including lots of hard-to-grok music reviews, and also reviews of modern straight to video (well, dvd) horror films, that part including a sidebar interview with director Ti West whose films Triggerman and The Roost we just listed the soundtrack to. 136 action-packed newsprint pages all in all, and recommended - nay, required - for anyone into this shit.
Oh boy, oh boy it's another issue of Chips & Beer, The Magazine. 128 newsprint pages packed with esoteric wisdom pertaining to cult metal, movies, and more� Humorous and irreverent, cryptic and confusional, enthusiastic and informative, pretty much a must read for anyone into heavy shit that's not bullshit.
#7 continues Chips & Beer's run as one of our favorite 'zines. This issue contains a massive special section about everybody's favorite '70s Irish rockers, including a primer on their discography, a Thin Lizzy comic strip, and in-depth interviews with former Lizzy guitarists Scott Gorham and Eric Bell. Fascinating for any fans for sure! That should be reason enough to get this, but of course there's more: stuff about other cool bands old and new like Riot, At War, Cemetary Piss, Helstar, Holocross, Ritual Chamber, and more. Even a chat with Nocturnus drummer/mainman Mike Browning.
Meanwhile, on the cinematic side of things, you get a big section all about Chips & Beer's favorite Westerns, yippie ki-yay! Oh, and then interspersed throughout there's funny bits like the page filled with "100 words & phrases to be retired from music journalism" (no chance there, we couldn't do the list without most of 'em!) and the page heralding "the most important sub genres to watch for in 2014" (among our favorites: "Non-Violent Death Metal" and "True Detective Machine Gun Arsenal Cache With Jameson Stash Metal"). Plus, no issue of Chips & Beer would be complete without the completely hard-to-grok reviews section; we don't always agree with 'em, or understand what they're even trying to say, but still they're fun to read.
First, a couple things, we doubt that these rockers are Christian, and the only lady in the band seems more like a "Ms." than a Mistress. But, yeah, that's a very metal sounding name ain't it?? Now, we know that '70s and '80s influenced heavy metal isn't everyone's cup of tea, but then neither is doomdronedirge or lo-fi garage pop or groovy porno soundtracks or lots of other things... and we wouldn't be being true to ourselves if we didn't make this a Record Of The Week! After all, some of us here have done nothing but listen to this non-stop since it showed up. Plus, maybe this IS your cup of tea and you wouldn't have known that if we didn't really push it.
For those of you who are into traditional metal sounds, like those of the NWOBHM (and thus know what NWOBHM stands for), Christian Mistress should be an immediate hit. Everyone else, well, if you're gonna get just ONE heavy metal record this year, it'd be pretty cool (for you) if it was this one.
The debut from Olympia's Christian Mistress, actually looks more crusty punk than heavy metal, and comes out on a label better known for doom and sludge than "True" heavy metal. Yet this is true all right. Not only boasting shredding twin guitars, but melodies and SONGS, and a singer, Christine Davis, who not only can sing but has a "VOICE". Sorry for the all caps, and quotes, but we're excited. What we mean is, she's got a voice that is unique and memorable, as well as being able to carry a tune. Pretty special in this day and age. We'd probably have to compare her, among female metal vocalists, to Kate De Lombaert from '80s Belgian band Acid, not that we expect everybody to know who that is... Davis could also appeal to fans of Hammers Of Misfortune, and Jex Thoth, though she doesn't sound like those female singers, her voice much more raw, deeper, with a slight rasp in fact. But sweet enough for us! It's powerful yet melancholic character goes well with her lyrics, serious ones about such subjects as love and (we think) addiction, she stays away from trite metal cliches. Meanwhile, musically, the band shows itself to be steeped in the "old ways", dedicated students of Judas Priest and early Iron Maiden, the NWOBHM, Metallica, Megadeth, etc... plugging into the timelessness of the best traditional metal, while still sounding fresh and vital. Exciting, and emotional.
Christian Mistress go for quality not quantity here, offering up six killer songs in just over 27 minutes. From opening track "Riding On The Edges" onwards, the listener is treated to sheer headbanging joy, adrenalized gallop, heavy riffs, spiralling spires of intertwined lead guitar, and both melody and energy in large doses. All six songs are excellent, with maybe "Desert Rose" especially standing out come chorus-time... and we'll mention how the last cut, "Omega Stone", starts off in gentle, acoustic mode, Davis singing quietly, wearily, for several minutes, building into some psychedelic soloing, before the band bursts into frenetic, triumphant, rapid riffing for the track's final moments. It's probably the song on this album that an audience would be most likely to raise their lighters for, and we mean that in a good way! And then as soon as it's over, we're already hitting play to hear the disc again once more, to get another Christian Mistress fix. Here, and elsewhere, they achieve a sense of drama without being at all corny. Instead, this disc comes off as classy, majestic, and inspired. And about as hooky as can be. We're always talking about how this or that black metal or ambient drone or whatever band is "actually" writing pop songs underneath all the buzz, distortion and/or screaming. Well, here's a band that's heavy and metal... and DEFINITELY writing pop songs, of the stick-in-your-head variety. Your head that's banging at the same time. Basically, the current crop of retro metallers (not to mention all indie rock bands, if we look at this from a metal-centric perspective) just got their asses handed to them by Christian Mistress. Old school, but original.
We're not the only ones freaking out over Christian Mistress. 20 Buck Spin, obviously. And, Fenriz loves 'em! In fact, we might have first heard of Christian Mistress 'cause the Darkthrone drummer mentioned them in an interview or something. And while we don't agree with Fenriz about all his many cult band crushes, he was right about these guys (and girl). Also, the other day we happened to be playing this in the presence of Mike Scalzi from Slough Feg, who volunteered that "this band is awesome"... and he usually doesn't like ANYTHING. So consider that quite an endorsement, for what it's worth... along with us making it Record Of The Week.
Always so many reviews to write, and we've pretty much saved the best for last, it's the night before the list, and we've got a date with the Christian Mistress!! So stoked on this, the second strike of instantly memorable, uniquely atmospheric, old school galloping trad metal greatness from these Olympia, WA gods - and, ahem, goddess!
We at Aquarius - and many of you, we know - can be considered Christian Mistress early adopters. We boldly made their debut album Agony & Opium a Record Of The Week back when it came out in August, 2010, after all. Joining the chorus of such fans as Fenriz of Darkthrone, and the guys in Slough Feg, we sang their praises to the skies. Needless to say, this new full-length, a year and a half later, is eagerly anticipated. And being released on Relapse, is bound to get a wider audience, which is quite deserved. Having seen 'em slaying live, every time they've come to town, we've heard a few of these songs already and that further whetted our appetite for this album...we didn't know if they could top their debut, but we think they maybe just did!
Analog-recorded at Louder Studios by Tim Green of The Fucking Champs, Possession offers up nine new tracks of Christian Mistress' classic sounding riffing and rippage, inspired by '70s Priest, the toughest NWOBHM (Diamond Head, Angel Witch), and early '80s speedmetal. Songs full of exquisite shred, catchy choruses, doomed-out power, acoustic adornment, and most significantly, such compelling melodic singing. While the dual guitarists are whizzes for sure, throwing out licks in passing that lesser bands might base whole songs around, the band's main attraction remains singer Christine Davis, who as we have said before, possesses a serious VOICE. Charismatic, commanding, husky, raw, melancholic. It's the X-factor that makes CM's music sound so special, so timeless, even transcendent. A crucial component to these carefully crafted songs, which range from rapidfire off-the-rails rockin' to utterly emotive & epic. CM are so totally metal - rooted in the genre's finest traditions - yet their songwriting is pop enough underneath it all for anyone to enjoy, who likes good, real rock music.
So the deal obviously is, those of you already into CM are getting this for sure; but folks who haven't checked 'em out, please do, even if you're not a metal "regular", particularly of the old school variety. When we made their first album Record Of The Week we said something like, if you were gonna buy just one metal album this year, make it this one, and while of course we think you should be buying MORE than one metal album a year (that's ridiculous!!!), put this new CM at the top of your list. It's definitely a contender for best heavy metal album of 2012; at least, there's so many songs here, like "Hunted Haunted" and "Black To Gold" and their cover of obscure '80s Swedish doomsters Faith's "Possession", for instance, that we just can't stop spinning over and over and over. Good thing this is the last review we've got to finish before the list...
Christine 23 Onna is a collaborative effort between Fusao Toda and Maso Yamazaki, better known as Masonna. While the presence of one of Japan's most frightening noisicians should be enough the scare away all of the too-hip-and-too-stoned kids who only care about 'rare grooves,' Christine 23 Onna's "Shiny Chrystal Planet" is actually a pretty damn funky record. Yeah, it's noisy, but in a swirling, synth-overload, super psychedelic way, not like Masonna's usual electronic scream-skree. And really uptempo breakbeats set the rhythmic backbone for some awesome trance-rock much like the latest grooves from their countrymen the Boredoms (a la "Super Are" and "Vision Creation Newsun)". The phase shifting fuzz guitar and cosmic space dusted synthesizers get jammy, but fortunately never too wanky. Those of you familiar with the '60s spy thrillers of Jerry Van Rooyen may recognize one of his tempestous songs covered by Christine 23 Onna (we think we do, anyways, although it's not credited as such...). Wild, spacey groov-adelia. All around great stuff! Amazing cover art recreating Ash Ra Temple's "New Age Of Earth"!
BACK IN PRINT! Previously this was an import from the Japanese label Leafhound, sadly now defunct. But fortunately someone has just reissued it, domestically! Here's what we said about this essential anthology back when we first listed it in 2004:
Will the Japanese stoner sludge serial killer onslaught never end?? We sure hope not. We're finally able to list this double cd collection of old, rare, unreleased and out of print tracks from one of the heaviest bands in Japan. Corrupted may have the market cornered on sludge, and Boris definitely has the drone-dirge segment all sewn up, but that leaves Church Of Misery to duke it out with the equally brutal Green Machine for the groovy, druggy, sludge-y stonery BIG RIFF contingent. Early Works definitely helps the cause, with two discs bursting with splattery serial killer soundbites, plague-of-locusts riffery, skull crushing drumming, and a truly hellish howl of a lead vocalist. Plus unlike many of their metallic brethren, CoM can indeed SHRED, and whip out squiggly acid soaked leads at the drop of a hat, giving the proceedings a classic psych-rock / drug-rock feel, on top of the already suffocatingly heavy sludge already oozing from every crack. Disc one collects the long out of print split with sHEAVY, featuring odes to Manson, Charles Whiteman, and Jim Jones, as well as the Taste The Pain mini-album with songs about Dahmer, Graham Young, and Ed Gein, as well as an insane version of Iron Butterfly's "In A Gadda Da Vidda." Disc two collects lots of random compilation tracks including a Trouble cover, a Black Widow cover, a Death SS cover and an unreleased track. Church Of Misery are so amazing, it's too bad that their singleminded obsession with serial killers, and their continued use of serial killer soundbites keeps them from appealing to a wider audience. It is too bad, but who can argue? The music is strangely and perfectly suited to CoM's tales of murder and mayhem, victims and killers.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
We'd never heard of Luciano Cilio before, but of course Jim O'Rourke has. The ubiquitious O'Rourke (Wilco/Sonic Youth/you name it) contributes liner notes to this beautifully presented deluxe digipack cd reissue of what amounts to the collected works of Cilio, an Italian avantgarde composer from the '70s whose music is indeed experimental but less academic than you might expect. But even without O'Rourke's endorsement, a listen to the cd should reveal to you that Cilio was exquisitely talented, and maybe something of a genius. This disc is a simply fantastic document of what we might consider a hybrid of 20th century classical, minimalist psych-prog, and folk music, not entirely of this world. The all-white cover perfectly echoes Cilio's lovely, quietly haunting compositions for acoustic guitar, cello, piano and flute, sometimes visited by wordless female vocals. Achingly melancholic, immensely deep, truly beautiful. Limited to 500 copies, this cd consists of Cilio's sole album, Dialoghi del Presente, originally released on EMI in 1977, along with several previously unreleased tracks. Apparently he more or less abandoned music after the album's release, and sadly committed suicide in 1983. Allan's favorite new long-lost reissue after the Flamen Dialis disc reviewed on list #194...
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!!!!!
Finalnd's mighty masters of metallic hypno drone rock return, with yes, another limited LP only release, and their obsession (one of many obsessions they have) with Southern Rock has finally reached critical mass. Not so much musically, although there are subtle hints here and there, as visually and conceptually. This set, recorded live on Brian Turner's radio show on WFMU when Circle were in the states last time is a monster. Two side long tracks, combining the metallic leanings of their later records, with the murky propulsiveness of their earlier records, as well as their droney improvised abstract side (most noticable on the LP only Mountain). It's kind of remarkable how all of Circle's disparate musical personalities fit so well together. But before we get to the music, let's talk about the sleeve. And the Southern Rock. The cover features a knotty pine background, riddled with bullet holes, two crossed pistols above the band name. Very Sergio Leone... The reverse side features a band photo seemingly branded into the wood, with Circle donning cowboy hats and sombreros, whooping it up like that last freeze frame in an episode of Bonanza (maybe it was CHiPs, but Bonanza makes more sense here). Then there's Brian Turner's eyewitness account of the musical showdown that occurred when Circle showed up at WFMU to record their set. Woe was the pasty British garage band that felt Circle's wrath. Broken glass and tobacco spit figure prominently. And let's not forget the Confederate flag on the LP label.
Thankfully (or maybe not, some might be thinking) this Southern Rock doesn't filter all the way down to the music. Instead we've got more of that Circular genius we just can't get enough of.
Side one begins as an abstract soundscape of spacey affected riffs, sort of blurry and drifty, above strange mumbled mutterings and what sounds like alien scat singing. The vibe is strangely dubby and Middle Eastern sounding. Eventually a warm wash of woozy distorted guitars builds into a monstrous swell of sound, warm and thick and sort of heavy, while buried beneath is a burbling cauldron of electronic squiggles and gurgling vocal sputters. Out of nowhere, like a beam of sunlight with a small flock of faeiries flitting about, comes a strange dreamy drift of almost rennaisance faire sounding festive folk, which dissipates quickly into a swirl of speaking-in-tongues vocals and insect like electronics before drifting off.
Side two is a bit darker, with faux throat singing over ominous psych sludge riffing like classic Circle but slowed way down. Groovy and dark, peppered with subtle tribal percussion. Weirdly enough, that weird dreamy stretch of faerie flecked folk sunniness that surfaced briefly on side A, shows up again here in a slightly different form, and disappears just as quickly, returning to a VERY Circular propulsive groove. Drums skitter instead of pound, while a guitar drifts and stutters, sounding a bit like the guitar line from the Smiths' "How Soon Is Now" but way more druggy and psychedelic!
So we'll all have to keep waiting for the inevitable, that record they keep threatening us with, when Circle finally become a bizarre krautrock psychrock dronemetal version of the Marshall Tucker Band, but for now, just crack open that Jack Daniels, throw those boots up on the desk (careful with those spurs!), pull the brim of your ten gallon down over your eyes, put a little pinch between your teeth and gums, turn it up and drift off...
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.
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.
Ok, this is going to take a lot of explaining... Our favorite Finnish hypno-rock band Circle got this funny idea to change their name to Falcon (Ex-Circle), supposedly due to the pressures the musicians in Circle were feeling about the expectations of their audience, in continuing to operate under the "Circle brand" after so many years and releases. So, they became Falcon (Ex-Circle), under which guise they could follow their newfound dream of making poppy, retro-'80s hard rock - see our review of Falcon (Ex-Circle)'s Frontier album, simultaneously released with this Circle disc, below. No longer using the Circle name, they then "leased" the brand to a totally different bunch of musicians, who now have released THIS cd, Incarnation, as Circle. There's more to the plan, apparently the contract is for a year and then Circle will revert back to the original Circle guys, who will then supposedly be called Circle (Ex-Falcon). Right. So this is just the kind of ridiculous stunt we'd expect from our friends in Circle, we mean Falcon. And maybe they're just being silly and confusional, or trying to get extra publicity, but we do think it's a kind of a neat idea, certainly one that hasn't been tried before (wonder why?). And it raises a lot of interesting questions, some of them philosophical, and some of them musical. Like, is the new Circle still "Circular"?
So, first off, what you need to know about Incarnation: it's a DEATH METAL album (sort of). Make that, an experimental death metal album. But made by real deal Finnish death metal musicians, most of 'em from the band Stench Of Decay, also members past and present of thrashers Speedtrap and Pyrotoxic (the latter old faves from the Thrash Clash series).
Stench Of Decay have a pretty killer album of their own out on the Jussi of Circle's Ektro label that we've previously reviewed. And in that review, we actually said: "It remains to be seen if Jussi's interest in death metal heralds a harsh new direction that Circle and the NWOFHM might take, hmm? And while they sure don't sound like Circle (yet), in their own way, Stench Of Decay are quite brutally hypnotic, with repetitive riffs pulverizing repeatedly." Little did we know how prophetic that was, in a weird way. 'Cause now Stench Of Decay, more or less, ARE Circle. The heaviest Circle ever.
We're pretty impressed, 'cause when we first heard about this Circle/Falcon switcheroo idea, we thought that probably it was just a ruse, and the Circle record would be made by the Circle guys anyway, just under pseudonyms or something. But nope, they really did hand over the reins to these death metallers, who even made a new logo themselves, and did the cover art. It would appear that Jussi & Co. had no hand in it at all... But the new Circle lineup DOES rise to the occasion of being "circular", somewhat. Incarnation is both a brutal slab of crushing death metal, and also a unique, experiment in tranced-out avant-death-drone sonics, that embodies the Circle penchant for mantric repetition, in its own way. The drumming is quite different, of course, motorik beats replaced with double kick blasting, and the vocals are more extreme on the low end than anything Mika used to do on the high end, and the guitars unleash gnarly shredding solos also previously unheard from the Circle camp. But, it is hypnotic, in the most dense, droney way possible.
We're pretty sure open minded death metal fans, those into stuff like Portal, will dig this a lot. Open minded Circle fans too of course (is there any other kind?). Some of the five tracks thrash it up in proper metal fashion, others leave the realms of DM to sound more like Skullflower or Sunroof - like track three, "Transcending", with its building, crashing waves of doomed-out sound, almost like some imagined "extreme" 20th century classical composition, or the Gnod-like track five, "Burden", super dense and layered and propulsive, sounding like everything is going all at once, almost like several tracks overlaid, a mesmeric monster of abstract extremity. As is this whole album. So that's one question we CAN answer: yes, this is damn good and worthy of the Circle name. Also damn good and worthy of the death metal name, just imagine Incantation or Disma doing music for a Hermann Nitsch aktion. Here's another question we've got, though: will Circle, when the band is back to being the actual original Circle guys again, ever have to learn these songs that they didn't write, and try to play 'em live?
As regular readers of the AQ New Arrivals list might guess, we're pretty much always in a state of simmering enthusiasm for Finland's Circle here at AQ. But our fannish obsession has gotten even more feverish this month, as our favorite band of far-out Finns is taking their amazing hypno-kraut, repetitive pseudo-metallic space rock on a rare US tour and will be playing here in San Francisco on September the 27th! And if all goes according to plan, they may also be doing an Aquarius in-store performance (we'll keep you posted). So naturally we're excited, it's always great to see them, and also it's gonna be cool to hear material from this amazing new album of theirs live and in person. New album? Yes indeedy. Their fourth this year, or fifth if you count the recent compact disc reissue of Arkades too. Prolific they are, but have yet to disappoint. So, what's the deal with Katapult? (Assuming you need to know and didn't already just "add to cart" like we guess most folks will.)
The press material that the label has been circulating makes reference to influence from the likes of seminal black metallers Venom and Celtic Frost. And we know that these boys do like their metal, witness the Steel Mammoth side project reviewed last list. But while they've always championed their own so-called New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal, they're always far from being an actual metal band (even in the case of Steel Mammoth). And Katapult brings them no closer, even as it displays a definite ease with metal idioms. Sure it's got heavy guitars and the eccentric vocals sometimes approximate a black metal rasp -- there's even a few trademark Tom G. Warrior style death grunt "unghs!" in there -- but the only people who would think this really sounds like Venom and Celtic Frost are those who've never actually heard those bands. Opener "Saturnus Reality" does start with riffing that Norwegians churchburners wouldn't turn up their corpsepainted noses at, but the use of keyboards is much more Tangerine Dream than Dimmu Borgir. Later on, you'll hear as much Can and Goblin as anything Frosty. Song titles like "Torpedo Star Throne" and "Skeletor Highway" also seem a bit metal, don't they? But what about "Snow Olympics" and "Understanding New Age"? It's Circle being Circle, the NWOFHM an unserious moniker for their own, uniquely Circle style, that here takes what they were doing on Tower and Miljard and goes evil hard rock with it. Or not even hard rock, just evil -- ferinstance, track six, "Four Points Of The Compass" is a throbbing, suspenseful instrumental totally in the John Carpenter/Zombi vein, with stabs of guitar, spooky synths, and burbling rhythms like a diabolic version of the tracks on Circle's Tower album.
Circle bassist and bandleader Jussi Lehtisalo had told us in an email that Katapult was "sixties black metal"... which he followed up with a characteristic "hahahahahaha". Sixties black metal? After hearing it, what we think he meant is that it's a mix of psychedelic space rock effects (as usual, and especially in the vein of the synthy ambient zoneouts on their recent Panic album) with a dark, heavy, maybe mystical moodiness. The rhythms have all the usual mesmerizing motorik Circle urgency, moreso than usual even. And the spiked fist of metallic chug is always gloved within an astral ambience of shimmering trippy bliss, sinister bliss. Part of the proggy psych / Nordic black metal crossover here can be ascribed to the primitive recording conditions -- they tracked it at a summer cabin in the Finnish countryside -- for an especially raw and live feel.
No other band in the realms of post-rock, modern day psych, and/or NWO-anyplace-HM sparks our imagination and instills such a gleeful response in us as much as does Circle. They've always got a left-field, extra-dimensional, conceptual something that makes us shake our heads and wonder what next? even as we press repeat again and again on their current disc. Again, can't wait to hear this live!
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.
Ok, you could be forgiven one of these days for saying, "Hey Aquarius, if you love Circle so much, why don't you marry them?" (We'd consider it, would be get Finnish citizenship?) It's true, we love love love this astonishing prog/space/psych/metal/wtf? band from Finland, and aren't afraid to say it. Our love affair got even more heated if possible these past few weeks when not only did we have a great new album (their collaboration with Sunburned Hand Of The Man) to list last time, and another great new album (Katapult) to list the time before that, but also as you probably know, they were just in town on tour, blowing minds at the Bottom Of The Hill this past week. And we also hosted a Circle in-store performance and helped arrange a secret show for them inside our friend John's bus!! Andee even flew up to Portland to see them (and help drive their van down to SF so they would get here in time for all these events). Totally worth it, they certainly put on a show to see...
They're back in Finland now, but they left us with a whole bunch of copies of this at-long-last reissue of their debut album, originally released on the Bad Vugum label in 1994. It's been out of print for years but now Circle has just regained the rights and put it out again on their own Ektro label. Yay! (FYI, if you already have Meronia, don't worry, there's no extra tracks or anything, the artwork somewhat revised but otherwise no significant changes from the original so you don't have to buy it again.) We probably don't need to say too much about it, basically if you love Circle and never had a chance to get this before, get it now, it's essential. This IS the stuff that made us fans of Circle in the first place.
Actually, we could be all snobby and be like, so, you think you like Circle, eh? ha you haven't even HEARD Circle. But of course we're not like that. However it's true, if you're a Circle fan unfamiliar with Meronia, you're gonna both be instantly satisfied -and- in for a surprise (isn't that always the case with these guys?). Back in '94, they had a rather different lineup to the one that just played here (or on many of their other albums... bassist/bandleader Jussi has been the sole constant in Circle over the years). But their trademark "circular" repetitive pulse was of course fully formed, and some other things haven't changed either (it would seem that their favorite keyboard patch has remained the same for a loooong time, that synth strings sound is just like what they used on the tour that brought them here last week). What is different is the emphasis on angular heavy guitar rock riffs, washes of symphnonic magnificence, and the choral vocals -- which sound like monks chanting! Like Magma, Circle created their own "language" in which to sing, called Meronian. Pretty incredible.
This album links Circle to so such late '80s/early '90s alt-metal influences as Gore and Helmet, even Voivod. Turns out, Circle's metal leanings go way back, though of course this weirdness isn't really metal itself. It's some kind of monk-prog that oddly creates a mood that reminds us a bit of Swedish goth/doom metallers Katatonia, if they were a no wave Magmoid motorik space rock ensemble, perhaps.
Meronia is one of those albums that while we were listening to it, revisiting it while writing the review, ALL other thoughts and worries and everything was washed away. The head starts uncontrollably nodding, feet tapping in time, and ... huh, what, where were we? Yep, hypnotic Circle to the core.
Obviously, recommended. And we're also happy to report that several other long-gone Circle titles are also soon to be reissued by Ektro, including this album's similar but krautrockier successor, and arguably our favorite Circle album ever, Zopalki. So keep it tuned.
Delicate? Calm? Circle? Yes. Listen up. You'd think that for a band with, no less than, what, twenty albums to their name AND who always write songs with an invariable central musical concept (circularity, natch, the repetitive pulse that all their songs share no matter what else is different betwixt 'em) we'd by this point feel like we'd heard it all from them already -- even if their all is ALL really great. But no. This new album surprised even us. And it too is great. Really great. If you're expecting the NWOFHM (New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal) stylings of Tulikoria or Sunrise, or the motorik krautrockiness of Alotus or Guillotine, or the heavy prog of Prospekt, or the spacey jazzy dubbiness of Pori, or all of the above (as these descriptors actually apply to pretty much all their albums to varying degrees), well that's NOT exactly what you get with Miljard. There's really no comparisons this time to Neu!, Can, Tortoise, or Hawkwind, let alone Judas Priest! Instead we'll mention Thuja, The Necks, Morton Feldman, Bohren und Der Club Of Gore, Philip Jeck, 3/4hadbeeneliminated... But it's still definitely Circle. It's just that, as Ektro's website puts it, "rocking has been traded for some quiet reading on the couch at home". And boy is this hauntingly atmospheric, instrumental music PERFECT for such activity.
Miljard NEEDS two discs, because this music is so spacious and expansive, a slow-moving stream, or the ripples in a pond. The pond, perhaps, frozen in the Finnish winter, in a twilight landscape softened with snow... The first track on the first disc, "Parmalee", is a twenty minute piece that sets the relaxed and gorgeous tone of this record. Meandering, pretty piano, reminding us of Rob Reger's playing in Thuja, quietly joined by abstract electronics and guitar...and Circle's usual repetition and pulses are still there, at about 11 minutes the pulse becomes more noticable, by that time you're absolutely entranced... already we're convinced, this is a fantastic record, and there's still 1 and 2/3rds discs to go!! The next track, "B.F.F." is slightly more uptempo, but still has the classical vibe from the piano. And then another twenty-minute cut "Duunila" comes on, a whispery dark drone, hushed, with some sparse clatter, and gentle bass notes. Oooh, sheer beauty. And on it goes, all the way through to the gauzey, vaguely gamelan-like 20-minute "Viitane" which closes out disc two, nearly two hours of amazing music, the soundtrack to a limpid dream from which we'd never hope to wake.
Out of the whole Circle discography, the atypically riff-less stuff here comes closest to the material on side one of Mountain, a very brooding and unusually ambient live set which not everybody got to hear 'cause it was a limited, LP-only release. This at least is not so limited.
Geeze, what *can't* they do? With Miljard we're pretty sure Circle have cemented their status as just about the best band ever, as far as we're concerned. Ok, the AQ universe of best bands ever is pretty big, but Circle might just be the best of the best... Recommended, people!!!
Ah, Circle. We love 'em. You love 'em (or, if this is the first you've heard of them, then please do an artist=circle search on our website for plenty o' info). And we've all come to expect the unexpected from these freaky Finns, yet also always expect the "Circle" sound: rhythmic, krautrocky, "circular". And they always deliver. Yet we'd have to say, with this new record Panic they've also managed to come up with the Circle album that we doubt -anyone- would quite have predicted, nosiree.
Spoiler warning! Since we know that the legions of Circle fans reading this pretty much don't need us to tell 'em that they want this or any new Circle cd and will be all over this like stink on a pig regardless, we should mention that this review contains something in way of a "spoiler" about the album's contents and if you're already planning on buying this you might want to read no further. Not that the surprise is, y'know, like The Crying Game or anything. So read on if you want.
Looking at this, you might be wondering, what do the apocalyptic, crusty-punk looking black-and-white graphics mean? And why'd they call it Panic? And what's with the sticker on the front, proclaiming Circle to be "Finland speed-kraut pioneers" and telling us that they consist of ex-members of Sorto Ja Riiso, Saaste, Nyrkinen Kehitys, Spiders, and Suomen Ruutivarasto? Are those even real bands? Ultimately, you're wondering, what's this gonna sound like??
So, let's put it on... it starts off with "Black Tape", reminiscent of their recent lovely Miljard set: minimal piano plinking amidst spacey organic washes of synth, sort of Circle in an ambient Aphex Twin / Terry Riley mood. As that track flows into the next, and the next, the tone becomes more urgent, ominous, and busier... And then, without warning (well, unless you've read this) track number four ("Neverending Dinner") blasts from the speakers, a loud n' raging PUNK rock shock to the system, 38 seconds long. Seriously retro '80s styled hardcore punk, boots and spikes and all that, with vocals angrily shouting subversive political diatribes, the music uber-distorted and as catchy as a veneral disease. Wow. That's what we mean by a surprise! Thus begins this mayhemic middle portion of the album, six tracks, averaging not much more than a minute in length each, is Circle's teenage punk rock rebellion reborn and moshing hard. But since it's Circle's version of punk, so you can still hear the sci-fi prog rock keyboards layered in there, twittering and swooshing amidst the purely punk noise. Weird weird weird. Then, like a summer thunderstorm, all that's over with... and we're back to the vast, instrumental reaches of deep, dark space, the disc coming to a conclusion with its two longest tracks, the 12 minute "Tunnel" and the 14 minute "And Far Away", both even dronier and spacier than the synthscapes that began the album. Wow again.
If you think about it, those two extremes -- spacey prog and quasi-metallic rockin' -- are both integral parts of the hard-to-define Circle sound. So it's as if on Panic, they've taken the "usual" Circle thing and pulled it apart, like taffy. The opposite ends of the album are stretched out into a bleak and beautiful drone-zone, while the heaviest densest craziest stuff settles into the middle.
Some might criticize Circle for what might appear to an indulgence in high-concept joking around... post-modern appropriation... punk playacting... taking the piss... whatever. But what we think is that they're all the more amazing for it, for deciding to do a "punk" record yet keeping it Circle. After all, if you're gonna make as many albums as these guys have AND always have to make sure you stay true to the very distinctive sound they're established (the "circular", repetitive thing), you've gotta be creative, which they are. So their solution here is to sandwich their warped '80s punk pastiche between something completely different -- cosmic electronics like '70s Schulze or maybe a John Carpenter soundtrack. The jarring juxtaposition is brilliant and maybe even meaningful, somehow tying in with the nuclear nightmares depicted on the album graphics. And there are many clever details in the graphics dep't by the way, from the collaged riot pics to the fonts used to the barbed wire borders and the Ektro flag-logo... tight. In fact, we might wonder which came first, the graphic notions or the music...!?
By the way, while we've got your attention, may as well let you know to look forward to another new Circle album coming out on No Quarter in September. Haven't heard it yet, but Jussi from Circle tells us it sounds like "60's black metal"... whatever that means! No doubt more surprises in store.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY. However, we now have the identical domestic version of this disc, which you should see listed nearby!
Circle is comprised of six classically trained Finnish musicians whose signature style over their past six albums has been to construct ever-shifting, hypnotic, repetitive structures (hence the name Circle). The immediate comparisons to Circle would be to Can's Tago Mago or the prog-rock equivalent of Trans Am, with intricate grooves that are intertwined with simple & melodic guitar riffs, antiquated synthesizers, and deep Teutonic male chanting, that doesn't sound too far off from some of the more bombastic black metal attempts at Viking lore. As with all good prog rock albums, this is a conceptual album of sorts about the Pori River in Finland and a regiment of the Finnish army who fought at that river in the Finnish War of 1808. A very highly recommended album from Aquarius!
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...
It's here! Saturnus Reality is the first ever dvd release from the amazing & unclassifiable (prog? space rock? metal? psych?) Finnish band Circle. And being Circle, the dvd is unclassifiable too. It's not any sort of straightforward live concert film, or even interview-style documentary. Instead, it's more of an art film, a subverted, semi-pretend DIY documentary, with a lot of "meta" elements, ostensibly showing the band recording one of their recent albums (apparently Miljard? we didn't even figure that out) at a remote cabin in the Finnish mountains. For the pristine winter scenery alone, with snowy forests and a frozen lake, this is wonderful to watch. So lovely, it really makes us want to visit Finland!! And making the visuals even more strange and beautiful, director Esko Lonnberg has crafted this film in a visual approximation of Circle's trademark "circular" musical style, that is, with lots of repetition, certain shots recurring again later... it's all quite dreamlike, also because of his extensive use of cinematic layering, ghostly images double or triple projected over what you think is the "real" scene, which shifts in a hallucinatory fashion.
Meanwhile of course, the documentary's "subjects" themselves, Circle, also provide much weirdness. Making the seemingly mundane into something mystical and mysterious, they get up to all sorts of bizarre, ritualistic antics, that seem inspired both by religious ceremony and old silent film comedies. If we hadn't met these guys before, we might think it was a big put-on... well it is, sort of, but not really. They DO act like this, we know! Silly people, with serious purpose. Or the other way around, maybe. In any event, a lot of it is really funny. At our screening, some folks in the audience were laughing out loud. But it helped that they were some of the biggest Circle fans in the room. Others might not have been paying close enough attention to what's going on to notice the humor.
But more than being amusing, Saturnus Reality is simply gorgeous. With all the trippy visuals and Circle's hypnotic music on the soundtrack, it's quite mesmerizing. We've seen it multiple times (we helped host a pre-release screening party for it at a local bar back in February, and also watched it at home more than once), and haven't been bored. But someone who's not already a Circle fan might have trouble getting into it (unless they're big into avant-garde cinema). And even Circle fans have to realize that they're not going to see much live footage of the band in action. They do perform - but not always music! The actual rehearsal scenes are NOT the focus of the film. Instead they're busy filming the filming of this "documentary", indulgently creating their own cryptic Circle mythology in the process, playing characters that may or may not be themselves. Really, rather than thinking of this as a film "about" Circle, it's more like another Circle album, just in a different than usual medium.
It's in Finnish, but with English subtitles, thankfully. And the dvd specs are: NTSC, all region, 98 minutes in length.
Brilliant, shockingly brilliant! Herewith we present to you what we can only say is the headbangingest record yet from our Finnish friends Circle (containing also, paradoxically, a couple of their most gentle numbers). The Circle concept is one of repetition, and while ALL their records are in fact great, one can find some of them to be a lot like another. So it's nice that this new Circle really goes out on a limb, with so much success, while totally managing to remain Circle to the core. How do they do it?
The album opens with "Nopeuskuningas", seemingly Circle's answer to Judas Priest's "Breaking The Law"! Down and dirty hard rock riffing (cyclic and repetitive in the trademark Circle way, of course) with keyboardist/vocalist Mika Ratto -- a relatively recent, and significant, addition to Circle's lineup on their past three or four discs -- simultaneously channeling screechy metal gods Rob Halford (Judas Priest), Klaus Meine (Scorpions), and Brian Johnson (AC/DC), but in an indeciperable, or Finnish at least, babble. It stretches to nearly eight minutes after the space-rock effects and swirly keys kick in. But then, when you think this is going to be The Heavy Metal Circle album, track two gets all mellow and pretty and folked-out, even MORE unlike any previous Circle we've ever heard. Acoustic guitar, and lots of la la la's from Mika. Unbelievable -- and lovely. But then the next song triggers the dormant motorik Circle drum pulse, overlaid with heavy guitars and vocal histrionics akin to the opening track. Plus new wavey/Axel F keyboards. Hit material here! Following that, track four, "Vaanen Valtiatar", heads back to the forest glade where Circle do that hippy jamming again a la track two, but more plugged-in, turning into a spacey jam session. And then, as you might now expect, it's back to the mosh pit for the monstrous rifferama of the next song, "Kylan Suurin Miekka". Evil stuff. This is True Circular Metal indeed. From then on the album maintains the heaviness, getting spacier and spacier though, culminating in the droning fifteen-minute "Lokki".
Wow. An amazing album, making effective use of Mika's unusual/unique vocals -- he's developed some sort of exotic (Middle Eastern? American Indian?) meets metal style, delivered in a manner as over-the-top as the most insane Italian prog of the '70s. Throw in some violin and moog and of course all the heavy metal moves, and you've got a bizarre blend of, uh, Yoko Ono, Hawkwind, Judas Priest, and of course Circle's krautrock forerunners Neu! and Can.
While "Sunrise" is in many ways a departure for Circle, it can also be seen as an album harking back to their hard-rockin' roots (they've nodded that way on the guitar-heavy "Prospekt" and Jussi's Kyuss-ish Pharoah Overlord side project, but you've got to also remember that the very first Circle album, "Meronia", drew quite a few comparisons to Helmet at the time). Recommended.
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.
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 do threaten to do so for real live on stage at their show in San Francisco THIS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2nd, THAT'S TONIGHT IF YOU'RE READING THIS THE DAY WE SENT OUT THIS LIST!! SO GET DOWN THERE!!). Ahem. 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 (sadly now out of print). 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 eccentricies, from Sunrise to Guillotine to Forest to Empire, you'll be happy to add Tulikoria to your collection too!
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...
Why are we highlighting this fairly obscure, UK prog/pop/jazz band's one-off album from 1969? For an AQ prog-pick this Circus reissue is not all that weird, it's not really heavy (though there's some moments of killer fuzz), not from some exotic locale, not "cosmic", not a lot of other things that we normally get off on regarding this genre of music, no, BUT it's one that we found very appealing regardless, when we first randomly encountered this record some years ago. It's simply a classy, enjoyable album from a bygone era, combining pleasant psych pop rock with the freeform exuberance of jazz improv. Generally laidback and melodic, it also grooves hard when it wants. We were probably initially won over by the way the album opens, with an awesomely fuzzed out (and also swingingly jazzy too, somehow) version of the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood". Especially towards the end of this lengthy jamming track, the guitarist really wails in full fuzz-garage fashion, while elsewhere non-sucky sax soloing is actually incorporated quite effectively. As Beatles covers go, it's a keeper, and almost alone worth the price of admission! That track is followed by the much mellower "Pleasures Of A Lifetime", and indeed as we said a lot of the rest of this album is rather laid back, with gentle vocals and a melancholic vibe, though some tracks boast funky flute and groovy percussion as well, not so melancholic those, more sunny really, even with a tropical island feel.
Another highlight is their version of "II B.S." by Charles Mingus. Again, a groovy launch pad for improv, which apparently was a big part of the live Circus show, whose performances of "II B.S." and "Norwegian Wood" each could stretch out for 20-30 minutes on stage we're told. (They clock in at 7:20 and 6:34 here, respectively.)
So it's neat that this has just been nicely reissued again, as it's a minor classic in a genre that doesn't really exist anymore (though there were a spate of SST bands in the '90s exploring some of the same jazz crossover elements, we're thinking of Hotel X in particular, who also covered "II B.S." on their debut A Random History Of The Avant-Groove in '93, but we digress). Anyway we'd recommend this to those that liked previous prog-picks of ours such as Bachdenkel and East Of Eden, NSU and Luv Machine. For fans of Caravan and King Crimson too - in fact, Circus features future King Crimson member Mel Collins on flute and tenor saxophone. You can definitely hear here why/how Collins would wind up in KC, playing on several of their early/mid period albums that had a sort of pastoral vibe to 'em. Collins' career actually started before Circus, and continued far beyond KC, his quite impressive c.v. including appearances over the years on a myriad of records from such diverse artists as Camel, Caravan, the Alan Parsons Project, the Rolling Stones, Eric Burdon, Baron Rojo, Dire Straits, Tears For Fears, David Sylvian, the Stray Cats, the Small Faces, Uriah Heep, Phil Lynott, the list goes on and on... In Circus, though, he's not just a sideman but definitely one of the stars, though the guitarist gets his share of the spotlight too!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
While supplies last, cheap copies of the first two Cirith Ungol classics, Frost And Fire (1981) and King Of The Dead (1984)! True heavy metal cult material here, epic, rockin' and Elric-style doomed.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
While supplies last, cheap copies of the first two Cirith Ungol classics, Frost And Fire (1981) and King Of The Dead (1984)! True heavy metal cult material here, epic, rockin' and Elric-style doomed.
True '80s metal doesn't get much more cult than the late great Cirith Ungol, they're up there with Manilla Road and Brocas Helm in the realm of eccentric, epic-er-than-thou Swords n' Sorcery style metal mastery. With ripping guitars and rasping banshee wails, Cirith Ungol tore it up on four albums from 1980-1991, to little commercial avail. They weren't the mainstream of '80s metal that's for sure. If you're into traditional metal that is both hot rockin' (they were from LA after all) and also gloriously doomy, with a definite '70s vibe, and you haven't yet delved into the works of Cirith Ungol, then we'd recommend finding copies of their debut album Frost And Fire, and its 1984 follow-up, King Of The Dead... But, those are both sadly out of print at the moment. Which brings us to this, their rarities collection, an archival anthology entitled Servants Of Chaos. Originally released only in Europe, ten years ago, it's just been reissued domestically, in a digipack, now with an extra dvd disc of live video footage in addition to the two cds of unreleased demos, live tracks and other early ephemera dating back to 1978 that already comprised this set.
Obviously it's for fans. And if you're not (yet), well, maybe it's not the place to start - but then again, maybe it is! 'Cause we know there's a certain type of absurdity-loving AQ customer who will probably dig this MORE than Cirith Ungol's proper albums. Such as, those of you into the wackiness of the NWOFHM (Steel Mammoth, Pharaoh Overlord, Krypt Axeripper, etc.). And anyone who digs the somewhat trippy, outsider metallic stylings of such private-press gems as White Boy And The Average Rat Band or Dwarr, too... This will be right up your alley, 'cause a bunch of the tracks here, some of 'em songs that later did appear on later CU albums, are, in these demo versions, outrageously overloaded with psychedelic sci-fi synthesizer insanity! As the amusingly self-deprecating liner notes by original guitarist Greg Lindstrom put it, these date from "before [he] grew out of the 'I think this could use some more synthesizer' phase". Raw and ridiculous, these are. We played some of this stuff on Brian Turner's WFMU radio show a few years back, and we know that turned Brian, whose metal tastes run to the "weird" exclusively, into a rabid Cirith Ungol fan. Or at least, a fan of this collection!
Elsewhere, you'll find plenty of long lost tracks that were never again recorded, including several even synthier instrumentals, along with (on disc 2) lots of killer live cuts from the band in their heyday. Oh, and a couple quirky covers, including a version of "Secret Agent Man"! Though maybe the oddest track on this anthology is "Ferrari 308QV On Dyno At 8000 RPM", which is nothing but a 23 second recording of a revving Ferrari sports car engine. These guys loved Ferraris.
So, though some of this is a mite more bizarre than "real" Cirith Ungol, it'll give even the uninitiated a good idea of how and why these fantasy metal madmen ruled. Definitely check out their actual albums if you can, wherein they eliminated the silly synthesizer excess, but the songs themselves are rad either way, and always, in any case, pretty darn over the top. (As is the dvd footage, mostly from a show in '84, when metal was METAL!).
Heavy progressive electric raga psychedelia here folks!! And it's soooooo good. All the songs here are long (there's five of 'em, between 7:16 and 13:09 in length) and you'll only wish they were longer. Described as "a two-man, all-British electric symphony orchestra", this album was originally released in 1969 on Decca and is utter nirvana for those into psych headswirlers. The lead electric guitar on here is incredible (and the bongo playing isn't bad, either!). While this duo came out of the '60s British blues rock scene, Mick Hutchinson's guitar playing displays tripped-out, classically trained chops and certainly also a strong sitar influence... percussionist Andy Clark plays guitar at times too, and between them they switch back and forth on a number of instruments.
The first track, "Improvisation On A Modal Scale" has got a heavy-riffing acid folk sound, sounding like early Wishbone Ash, sitting crosslegged off on an Indian ashram, or Comus if they ever plugged in and cranked it up. "Acapulco Gold" (hmm, the only song here not given a technical musical title is named after marijuana!) follows in a more acoustic, Spanish-guitar flavored mode. Lovely. Then "Impromptu in 'E' Minor" is another mellow number, yet darker, incorporating tribal percussive throb and jazz-inflected piano improvisation. "Textures In 3/4" also has a moody, jazzy vibe, with some saxophone coloration, and of course extended electric guitar improv, gorgeous and glorious. Very krautrocky, stuff that fans of Amon Duul II and Agitation Free would certainly love. And then Hutchinson's playing gets even more sitar-y on the epic "Improvisation On An Indian Scale", the track that wraps up this amazing album of Eastern-tinged, psychedelic instrumental interplay. He's endlessly spinning out slippery, sinuous melodies over a quietly galloping beat that brings to mind Spaghetti Western soundtracks. Wow. We'd been wanting to list this for a long time, but the previous cd edition on Repertoire has been out of print for years and years. Stoked are we that Sunbeam has reissued it again, on compact disc and vinyl, both versions coming with an entire bonus disc to boot!
That second disc, however, is full-on 12-bar blues rock, total chooglin' boogie stuff, with song titles like "Bad Loser" and "Someone's Been At My Woman". So... maybe for blues lovers only, that one. If you're really into Clapton/Cream and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. But it's just a bonus disc, the A=MH2 album on disc one is worth the price of the package alone. And the guitar playing on the blues disc is of course ace.
It always kinda seems like the British blues rock bands, the ones we really like anyway, we like 'em especially for the one album they did where they got away from the basic blues template (stuff they might have done really well) and weirded out, got all beardistic and beyond-blues improvisational and Eastern and freaky and proggy. Say, Steamhammer's Speech. Or the Groundhogs' Split. There's always one. In this case, it was Clark-Hutchinson's debut, A=MH2. But, beforehand they'd been way more bluesy, as that bonus disc here proves (it's material from their unreleased -first- first recording sessions in March of '69, laid down just a couple months prior to the two days in the studio they spent recording their actual debut).
EVERYONE we play A=MH2 for, or who hears it in the store, has been blown away. You know how the "ragadelic" acoustic folk guitar playing of folks today like Jack Rose and James Blackshaw is something we love? If you like that sort of thing too but want it a bit more druggily psych-rock, Clark-Hutchinson doing it electric way back when should satisfy! So very recommended (along with another obscure classic of the era, by T2, also reviewed this list).
Nope, never heard of 'em before either. Glad we have now though! The oddly-named Classical M were a psych-pop trio (consisting of brothers Guy and Andre Maruani, and Henri Bratter) who flourished in France circa 1966-1970. Well, maybe flourished isn't quite the word. They did play on TV, and opened for Steppenwolf once, but only sold a meager number of the handful of singles they released, before heading off in separate musical or non-musical directions and disbanding. A crime really, since they were so good!! I mean, the singles tracks they left behind, as documented on this collection, are awesome. Songs like "Love, Love Is There", "Music Of The Rain", "Gog Magog" (with lyrics originally written with hopes of King Crimson using 'em!), "Such A Lovely Voice", and others are a '60s psych pop fan's dream. "Such A Lovely Voice" could be a lost Colin Blunstone/Zombies classic, and there's also a definite, well-put-to-use Beatles influence at play here. These tracks are intimate and adventurous, with Guy's strong voice and superb psychedelic instrumentation including flute, 12-string guitar, oud, violin, congas, a variety of exotic instruments.
It's interesting to note in Guy Maruani's confessional liner notes that they didn't do drugs, or even smoke or drink. "Music being for us perfectly psychedelic in and of itself". Hear hear. This disc convinces.
Vincent Tornatore of Lion Productions is especially thrilled about this release (saying Classical M are "perhaps the best, and certainly the most intriguing French band of all time"). Not sure if we can go that far (ahem...Magma) but we can see why he got so excited n' enthused when these tracks showed up out of the blue, the former band members soliciting a label for a reissue. Blown away is probably the size of it. What loveliness! What atmosphere! Press play and immediately be enthralled by the melody, the melancholy, the creativity this band displays.
Lion did an nice job packaging this, with a thick booklet of lyrics, notes on each song, photos, and reminiscences. There's 24 tracks total -- singles, demos, rehearsal recordings, live stuff. And the first ten or so with the English lyrics are the truly crucial cuts, almost all of 'em amazing... but nothing on here isn't at least enjoyable, the rest of the disc ranging from groovy, orchestrated French-language "chanson-pop" to ethnic improv stuff. Too bad they never got to do a real, entire album, but we're still lucky to have these tracks. Highly recommended.
Originally released as a deluxe 5lp boxset for this year's Record Store Day, this amazing collection, gathering up the first three albums from this seminal eighties indie pop outfit, is now also available as a triple cd set (and as individual lps, which we'll list/review soon), and reveals once again, to a whole new audience hopefully, what an amazing and influential band Cleaners From Venus really were.
Bandleader Martin Newell, who was bitter after some bad record label experiences with his previous band, became obsessed with doing everything himself (a real DIY band for sure), which meant recording records on a 4 track in his bedroom, dubbing the tapes himself, and releasing those tapes in super limited editions, of course distributed by Newell himself, which probably has a lot do with why these guys didn't get more attention than they did. But masterful pop music like this with such incredible songwriting was bound to work its way to the surface, and this stuff did manage to make its way into the ears of obsessive pop nerds, and quickly attained a cultlike status, and for good reason. Listening to this stuff now, it's easy to hear what a huge influence these guys had, and that their lo-fi pop was years ahead of groups like Ariel Pink, who would trawl the same sonic territory, albeit a bit more ironically. Jangly outsider pop, with strange homebrewed production weirdness, bizarre edits, twisted little intros and outros, brief snippets of conversations, sudden fade outs, that inexplicably fade right back in, the programmed drums, gorgeous vocal harmonies, hooks galore, definitely a product of the early '80s, with a different production and a less skewed take on pop, it's not hard to imagine this stuff on the radio or on MTV alongside groups like the Style Council or Human League or any of the other bands popular at the time, but Newell's Cleaners had it's own twisted take on the sound of the time, channeling Elvis Costello, XTC and the rest, but transforming that commercial pop sound into something much more personal and urgent, and without any restrictions, or any hopes of mainstream popularity, Newell never shied away from trying anything, no matter how weird it may have seemed, and the results definitely speak for themselves.
The first record, 1981's Blow Away Your Troubles, is the rawest of the bunch, and might still be our favorite, it's definitely the weirdest, with even this meticulously assembled reissue replete with those weird edits and damaged tape dropouts, all of which merely adds to the mood and mystery of the music. The second record, 1982's On Any Normal Monday, might be objectively the best record though, for a home recorded album, it sound incredible, still rife with all sorts of weirdness, whether that meant dubbed out snares, or strange spoken word segments, thick sinewy basslines or xylophone melodies, the sound is lush, and so fully realized, and the songs, catchy and meticulously crafted, in different circumstances, another instance where some of these songs definitely could have been hits.
The final record in the set, Midnight Cleaners, also from 1982, found the band's sound shifting once again, the vibe a bit more new wavey, the recording still polished, but but a bit more raw than On Any Normal Monday, still warped and weird, and reminding us a LOT of Guided By Voices, who seemed to fancy themselves a sort of imaginary Cleaners From Venus, a lost unsung genius pop band, GBV would after all manufacture a sort of faux Britishness that definitely approaches the Cleaners dreamy eighties pop sound, especially on Midnight Cleaners. Some of the songs here had us seriously thinking GBV might owe these guys some heartfelt thanks, if not actual royalties.
We had been subsisting for years on a worn out mix tape of Cleaners tracks, so it's thrilling to have all these songs in one place, many of which we're only hearing now for the first time, and we have been gleefully immersing ourselves in The Cleaners From Venus' twisted pop world, and we're hoping that the designation that this is in fact volume one, means that volume two is on the way...
No, there's no singing, and these ARE instrumentals...'The Nels Cline Singers' is just Mr. Cline's clever name for what's really the new version of his fantastic Trio. Nels on electric guitar (of course, for he is the master of that instrument), plus bassist
One of the great things about doing our list, is reviewing reissues of stuff we LOVE that we never got to list before. Old faves from the pre-list days. Of course, it's always tough too, when you want to explain just WHY something is so amazing and essential. When it's a record you've loved for years and years, there's a lot of pressure to do it justice. This list, for instance, you'll find our review of Oxbow's King Of The Jews, These Trails, and surely a few other old faves, this Nels Cline album most definitely among them, and its hard not to just say, in all caps, BUY THIS DAMMIT, YOU WON'T BE SORRY, IT'S THE BEST!!!
That's our feeling about this for sure. The very first Nels Cline album we came across, and the first by his Trio, originally released on Enja in 1992, out of print for ages, now finally reissued in a spiffy new digipack. Nels Cline then was an underground jazz guitarist, who has since become an alt-rock guitar guy too, playing in Wilco, and with Thurston Moore, Mike Watt, Carla Bozulich, and others, amassing a diverse and impressive discography.
Silencer is "jazz" all right, and jazz too, without the quotes. Ten tracks, epic and exquisite instrumentals, full of out-there skree and sublime beauty, performed by Nels on guitars, with Michael Prusser on drums and Mark London Sims on bass.
This album eases the listener in, beginning with a take on Gil Evans' "Las Vegas Tango" (all the other tracks are Cline compositions), that's just lovely, Cline's guitar with soft edges on it... then as the album progresses, the "dangerous" side of his playing is revealed. The soft edges remain, but there's jagged ones too. But even when things get tangled and noisy, it's gorgeous, and still swings. The trio has great chemistry, it's not just all about Cline's guitar (though he's definitely the star). Some highlights: the bumptious "Broasted" (which gets heavy/distorted enough to almost pass for a Stinking Lizaveta track!), the spacious 14+ minute "Lapsing (Part 1&2)", the subtle skronk of "Silencer", and the moody hum/hush of "Exiled" (one we think Bohren fans would appreciate)...
This came out not long after the late, great guitarist Sonny Sharrock's final, brilliant album Ask The Ages (which really needs to be reissued too!!), we'd probably just discovered him about the same time we got clued into Cline. If you like Sharrock, Cline is certainly one of his spiritual descendants, in the realm of "free" "jazz" "fusion".
Maybe 'cause it was our first Nels disc, but also 'cause it's so good, this has always been our favorite, though you can't go wrong with anything the man has ever done as far as we're concerned. So very recommended, as if you couldn't tell already.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
This underground Japanese band surprised and delighted us with this crazy fuzzed-out stoner-rock meets grind metal release. Clotted Symmetric Sexual Organ (let's just call 'em CSSO) really kick 'em out, wallowing in total wahwah-happy heavy psych guitar overdrive. It's wild and distorted and super-energetic, a blend of '60s garage, '70s hard rock, and '90s noise-thrash. Forget Acid Mothers Temple, this is the real Japanese freak-beat! Indeed, CSSO could learn Kawabata Makoto a thing or two about over-the-top motorpsycho guitar. Imagine AMT or High Rise with a garagey Guitar Wolf edge, going nuts with that style of psychedelic freakout, then breaking into a speedy grind part with blast beats and cookie monster vocals! It's like a weird, wonderful mix of The Groundhogs and Napalm Death or something. When CSSO's stoner/grind rock attack isn't going full-tilt they throw in spacey sections of shoegazing drone tones, trippy electronics, and other cosmic krautrock inspired soundz -- sometimes sheer, blissful noise. Then it's back to the catchy rockin' stuff, like Hendrix gone grind. Like AMT or the Boredoms, they can be quite playful and confounding -- for instance, one song features what might be the world's longest fade-in, it's two minutes before you can really hear anything at all!
Partially 'cause this was so unexpected (we thought they might be a good but generic grindcore band) but also because it's so great, this just totally blew us away. A new favorite in the long line of genre-bending, rule-defying bands from Japan (Boredoms, Melt Banana, Boris, et. al.), and thus highly recommended!
At last, this wonderful wonderful album is back in print on cd! Water gets a big AQ thank you for reissuing one of our favorite Krautrock, or heck, just plain ol' records ever, the first of two collaborations between art rock / "ambient" music pioneer n' generally acknowledged genius Brian Eno and Krautrock electronics legends Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius aka Cluster! You know that's got to be good, and it is, paving the way for the likes of Aphex Twin so many years later. This self-titled disc (the one with the microphone stand silhouetted against a blue sky on the cover) dates originally from 1977. Water also just reissued the other Eno/Moebius/Roedelius album, 1978's After The Heat, which comes equally recommended (see our review elsewhere this list). On this one, they're joined by guests including Asmus Tietchens and Can's Holger Czukay, and construct warm, organic instrumentals utilizing both acoustic instruments and analog synths. This is soft and mellow and melodic but at the same time these songs are no push-overs, however gentle. To be honest, I (Allan) had never heard *anything* quite like Cluster before these got reissued on cd the last time that happened, on the Gyroscope label back in the mid '90s, but I very quickly fell in love with 'em (these Water reissues are much nicer, by the way, with liner notes and photos in the cd booklets -- the Gyroscope editions didn't even have booklets!). The discs with Eno are good starting places to get into the extensive Cluster and Cluster-related discography, and certainly they're Cluster's best-sellers... but anything with Moebius and/or Roedelius involved is worth hearing, we'd say. These new reissues haven't been accorded the fanfare of the Neu! discs on Astralwerks or the recent Can remasters, but we'd rate them just as highly.
The quietly menacing, and curiously mesmeric, NYC trio Coconuts (that's plural, not to be confused with SF band Coconut, singular... nor should it be confused with what you probably THINK a band called Coconuts might sound like, either!) offer up what we'll assume to be their debut, on the always interestin' No Quarter label (home to Burning Star Core, Circle, Psychic Paramount, and many other faves). This self-titled disc comprises 5 tracks, mostly all but one of 'em pretty long (but not in the double digits or anything), 34 minutes or so total. When it's on, though, you'll sink pretty deep into their sounds, that it'll seem like it would take much longer to swim back to the surface, helplessly drifting with the wave-action of their heavy plodding rhythms, Coconuts' semi-skronked, but not un-melodic, keening guitars like the plaintive calls of homeless, strung-out whales...
We noticed they thank Blues Control, we can see how they'd fit in with those guys, this has got an abstract, similarly droned-out vibe, darker though, and more spare, maybe like void-travelling Moon Duo, stripped down and spooky, a downer-dosed slo-mo krauty psych groove, spacey and druggy. The vocals are hushed moans, drafty exhalations to go with the droney murk and mope of the music, which slowly throbs and buzzes, the percussion an echoing thud, the electric guitar an avant acid blues wash... The confusional element of all this is perhaps accentuated by the digipak packaging, which is oriented with the spine on the longer side, what's normally the top, or bottom... some of us here (ok, it was Allan) griped that this means when you file it on a standard cd shelf, you won't be able to fit it there with the spine facing out, you'll have to have it facing either up or down, so the name of the cd won't be visible, which is normally one of the functions of the spine, but whatever, not a big deal, at least it fits on a cd shelf at all unlike a lot of other cd packaging options. In any case, it's a cool disc!
While we wait for the repress of the entire awesome 6lp+3cd When I See The Sun Codeine boxset, and while we're still reveling in their recent visit, and mind blowing Great American Music Hall reunion tour performance, we might as well take a second to focus on this, their breathtaking debut, now re-released individually, separate from the boxset, fleshed out with a handful of bonus tracks, Peel Sessions, demos and rarities, thus totally essential for obsessives like us (or you?) - well, at least those among us who haven't already gone whole hog and bought the boxset. But for all you vinyl freaks who have been waiting to check these guys out, this is the perfect introduction, to one of the most beautiful, intense, moving, and hauntingly lovely chunks of slowcore indie rock EVER, the 1991 debut from Sub Pop slow-core specialists Codeine. Definitely one of those records that Andee, Allan, et. al. here will tell you, if you don't have it already, you oughta get one now...seriously. Emo, indie-rock, post-rock, whatever this is, it's a classic. A classic of majestic melancholia. For the Frigid Stars LP, this NYC-based trio consisted of Stephen Immerwahr on bass and vocals, Chris Brokaw on drums and guitar and John Engle on guitar. They employ the soft-loud dynamic that their former Sub Pop labelmates Nirvana already made famous (or would around that same year). Not that they sound much like Nirvana. They sound a bit more like Low, albeit a lumbering downtuned Low. Codeine's own brand of moody, melodic misery wouldn't, couldn't be an MTV hit. Indie-pop it was, but so sad and slow... The songs here share slowly crawling tempos, and echoey drum hits and big distorted guitar chords crashing down to give extra weight to Immerwahr's weary vocals and love-lost lyrics. We've always wanted to hear a metal band do a cover of some track from this record, maybe "D". But even though this isn't really "heavy" in a metal sense, it still IS heavy. A great record for when you're sad and alone. Strange how something like this will make you feel better, but it will.
As a side note, one aQ-er first heard this album over the phone. Not the whole album, but sound clips much like the ones on our website. That's right, way back when before the internet and the mp3 and all that, somebody got the idea to do a dial-up music service where you'd get to check out new music over the phone, by calling a 900-number, and using a touch-tone phone to choose what you wanted to hear. It had something to do with the old Factsheet Five 'zine as we recall. We have vague memories of looking at the album cover reproduced in the 'zine - a negative photo of black stars floating in white emptiness - and hearing the long-distance sounds of those Frigid Stars like a transmission from that deep space void... even under those circumstances, maybe especially under those circumstances, Codeine were so effective. We might just have selected it to listen to on the basis of the album cover and title alone, and were not disappointed.
As we've mentioned in the past, the music of Coh, aka Ivan Pavlov, is quite difficult to describe. Which is probably why he tends to be one of our favorites of the many modern electronic minimalists. He releases records on Raster-Noton, yet his sound manages to both embrace R-N's signature minimal glitch and click, while at the same time subverting it, creating something simultaneously warm and familiar, alien and totally original. Every record is thematically and sonically unique, whether he's collaborating with other musicians, or simply creating a song suite based on some random idea, even a whim, once it works its way through Pavlov's brain into the computer onto disc and into our stereo, the resulting sound is more often then not transcendent, minimal in sound sure, but with maximum impact, his music emotional and personal where others creating similar sounds are cold and clinical.
For Strings, Pavlov has decided to take the sounds of certain stringed instruments, which played some part in his musical upbringing, and in some way to enrich and expand those sounds, to twist and transform, allowing the instruments to be recognizable, and sound like they sound, but to create a whole new setting for those instruments. The focus here is on the 4 instruments that Pavlov played throughout his life: piano, guitar, saz and oud.
The opener is all piano, and sounds the most at home on Raster-Noton, simple melancholy melodies are suspended in smeared shimmers of reverb, the notes stretching, stuttering, blurring into washed out whirs of dreamy chords and long drawn out tones. Sounds bent and stretched, layered and allowed to hover in long expanses of distant high end flutter. Hushed and gorgeous, the digital manipulation deftly applied so as not to distract from the gorgeous hushed drift. Really quite lovely. The piano continues on into the second track, where the sounds are much more manipulated, looped and layered, but this time into a swirl of Melnyk-like flurries, which are augmented by a stuttery techno like pulse, the whole thing skittery and hypnotic, peppered with streaks of buzzy squelch, until the final few minutes when the beat drops out and the various notes are allowed to swirl like sonic snowflakes.
The next few tracks are like a suite, beginning with what is either a saz or a lute (sorry we can't tell for sure), locked into s super rhythmic strum, and processed into a propulsive minimal almost-techno, which is soon wrapped in thick sheets of low end buzz and glitch, almost synthy sounding fuzz, eventually building to an almost metal riff, all blown out and wreathed in crumbling distorted buzz, finally erupting into a confusional tangle of crunchy riff, processed hum and rumble, and Middle Eastern sounding melodies. This leads directly into a lumbering doomy digitized metal workout, the main riff grinding its way through clouds of swirling effects and smears of squelch and buzz, distant soaring sort-of-strings, all very dramatic, until the guitars fade, leaving just a skeletal rhythm, and super dramatic slow burning electronic swell and skitter.
The next track is all Middle Eastern melody, laced with bits of glitch, a muted electronic throb, a bit like a slightly more techno Muslimgauze, but as the track develops, the sound becomes more digital, the original melody chopped up and wrapped around a propulsive beat before fading out into a shimmer of pixilated piano, which gives way to the record closer, beginning again, with moody, simply strummed strings, before being swallowed whole by a massive buzzing electronic drone, gorgeous and layered and so thick, while the strings below continue to unfurl. The track gets all old school techno briefly, skittery and stuttery, clipped notes, until again, near the end, that howling buzz drenched drone returns, this time all chopped up and even more corrosive and blown out.
It sounds all over the map, and it is, but all the tracks, as disparate sounding as they are, slip in and out of each other so perfectly, a definitely sonic suite, with more in common than just the stringed source material. The second disc features a single 17 minute track, that starts out sounding like Machinefabriek, all dark bell like tones and deep blackened shimmers, soft whirs, stretched out almost-melodies, some strings do pop up part way through, sounding again quite Middle Eastern, and again wreathed in a brittle techno stutter, before a long drawn out stretch of near silence, and a brief coda of soft strings over distant drone. So awesome. Maybe the best thing we've heard from Coh, which is saying a whole lot.
And the packaging. Holy moly! Super elaborate, die cut fold out multi panel printed sleeve, the cds held in place by various slots and slits, revealing the curved silver edges of the discs as part of the design!
