CANVAS SOLARIS Sublimation (Tribunal) cd 15.98
Whoah! Amazing instrumental aggro tech metal from Georgia.

CATAPILLA Changes (Akarma) cd 15.98

CATAPILLA s/t (Akarma) cd 15.98

CHERRY FIVE s/t (Cinevox) cd 16.98
Fans of Italian prog rockers Goblin, listen up. This is a reissue of their very first album, recorded in 1974 under their original name Cherry Five, before they started their career as horror movie soundtrack specialists (Profondo Rosso, Suspiria, Zombi, etc.). It's symphonic keyboard prog rock with English vocals, so you have to be into wanky prog rather than just soundtracks to like this. There's suggestions of their later horror-fixation, though, with some spooky interludes and morbid song titles like "Country Grave-Yard" and "The Swan Is A Murderer". The five lengthy song-suites on here go from fairly sweet and melodic to jagged and intense at the drop of hat. Very grandiose, and of course instrumentally kick-ass. A worthy addition to the Goblin cd canon.
RealAudio clip: "Oliver"

CHEVAL DE FRISE Fresques Sur Les Parois Secrètes Du Crâne (Frenetic) cd 13.98
Yay! This import fave from last year is now back in stock, in a new domestic edition released on our pal Duncan's Frenetic label. Here's more-or-less what we said about the import:
Second album from the French instrumental post-rock duo Cheval De Frise. (With the help of an free internet translator and my meager high school French, I can confidently proclaim that their name means, uh, "Horse of Curls" in English. Hmm. Furthermore, the title of this record, I am sure, means "Frescos On The Secret Partitions Of The Skull".) Their previous album on Sonore was a fave 'round here, falling somewhere between Don Cab and Gastr del Sol... This new disc is, we're happy to report, more of the same: acoustic guitars (and electric) vs. drums, both very active and complex yet quite pretty too, the tangle they make. Dynamic and detailed, Cheval de Frise rock out with the elegance of a math equation scribbled on a doily. Imagine an introspective, high-end-eq'd Ruins, or a Hella with hitherto unrevealed, somewhat mellow and romantic qualities.
So if you missed this before, now's your chance to pick one up, just in time for their upcoming US tour which includes some shows hereabouts with Hella, appropriately enough. There's no bonus tracks (as was incorrectly rumored), it's just the same as the Ruminance version we used to stock. But we've learned what their name means -- a customer clued us in to the fact that even in English a cheval de frise is the term for spiked obstacles employed in battle (to deter cavalry charges and the like) and also can refer to barriers of barbed wire or broken glass on the tops of walls.
MPEG Stream: "Lucarne Des Combles"
MPEG Stream: "Chiendent"

CHEVREUIL Chateauvallon (Sick Room) cd 13.98
Maybe it's the Slint reunion (just ask Andee or Elliott about how awesome that show was!!) or those for-now-aborted Bastro releases we were waiting for, but we've been kinda been feeling the post-rock 'round here lately. So this disc by French instrumental post-rock outfit Chevreuil showed up at just the right time. They remind us of a comforting Don Caballero, a slightly scatterbrained Circle, or a more warm n' relaxed version of AQ faves Feuhler. And the use of synth brings in comparisons to local boys Crime In Choir too. First released in 2003 by the French label Ruminance (the same folks who brought us the last Cheval de Frise when it was an import), now slightly updated and released domestically by Sick Room, Chateauvallon consists of eleven instrumental post-rock jams that just do us right. We especially like how their hypnotic grooves and repetitive riffery are allowed some wobbly breathing room...they're far from sloppy but seem to get intentionally off-kilter and fucked-up sounding, like a dizzy Discipline (King Crimson), while paradoxically remaining tight as an Albini-recorded drum (which some of the drums on here are, in fact). Even math rock, sometimes 2 + 2 = 5 can work, it seems. These derailments and double-exposures that they work into their songs serve to increase the pleasurable tensions that are always a post-rock calling-card...as is the mixture of mellow and pretty with the sudden on-rush of the hard and metallic which Chevreuil also expertly employ herein.
So, if you've got a soft spot for the post-rock, or want to try some on for size, this is our latest fave in the field for sure!
MPEG Stream: "Turbofonte"
MPEG Stream: "Rocknrollgarnison"
MPEG Stream: "Forteressecourage"

CHROMA KEY Graveyard Mountain Home (InsideOut) cd 17.98
The following is taken from the Chroma Key website, but was in fact written by our own Andee Connors! ...
Graveyard Mountain Home is a filmic, expansive musical exploration from Kevin Moore AKA Chroma Key, founding member of progressive metal legends Dream Theater. Recorded in Istanbul, Turkey, where he now lives, this third release from Chroma Key is an entirely different musical beast than Moore's previous musical work, and -- created as an alternate audio track to a surreal educational film from the '50s -- the result of quite a unique approach to album making.
All three Chroma Key releases to date have been self-produced recorded in Moore's home studios, the location of which changes album to album. After leaving Dream Theater in 1996, Moore relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where much of the first album, 1998's Dead Air for Radios was written. 2000's You Go Now was written and recorded in Los Angeles, right before another move to Costa Rica, where Moore lived for 3 years. In Costa Rica he began writing and recording ideas for a new Chroma Key album, during the day producing a bi-weekly, activist, musical radio program for Radio for Peace International, a shortwave station based in San Jose. Last year Moore released a compilation of the program -- a mix of original music and politically volatile spoken word recordings -- as a downloadable album on chromakey.com as The Memory Hole 1.
Long distance Memory Hole collaborator (and fellow CalArts graduate) Theron Patterson was teaching film and doing his own radio show in Istanbul when he invited Moore to visit and collaborate on a show last year. Soon after, Moore relocated to Istanbul and the pair began collaborating on new material for the weekly radio show Music Lab. Moore was also commissioned to score Turkey's first horror film, and the resulting soundtrack Ghost Book was released by InsideOut earlier this year.
The experience of scoring a film inspired Moore to take a new approach to composing the next Chroma Key album. "Instead of just developing song ideas out of nowhere and trying to make them all relate somehow," he explains, "I thought I could find an old film that already had a particular mood and texture to it, and then let that film dictate the songs' themes and structures, and even the song lengths. I eventually found this gem called 'Age 13' in an online archive of public domain films."
One of the many "social guidance" films produced in the 50's and early 60's for schools and police departments, Age 13 proves the perfect subject for Moore's musical ministrations. It is a strangely surreal moral tale of a boy who loses his mother and is convinced that if he can repair the radio she always listened to, he will somehow be able to bring her back. The film is beautifully distressed, on fuzzy film stock, with all sorts of chemical degradation and staticky imperfections caused by aging and exposure. Like a grade school filmstrip or an unearthed home movie, Age 13 is a mysterious glimpse into another life and another time.
"The subject matter and the look of the film was really suited to the kind of music I usually find myself writing," recalls Moore, "and I knew as soon as I watched the opening scene -- which is a burial scene -- that I wanted to get under the surface of those images and play against them."
Moore slowed the film down to half speed, stripped away the sound and crafted an alternative audio track, which is Graveyard Mountain Home. The film's original dialogue and score occasionally bubble up through the songs, playing off and against them, and hinting at the unseen film's space and conflicts.
The Chroma Key accompanied version of the film is included as a DVD in the Special Edition of the CD release, and as a Quicktime file on the standard edition CD. Watching the hybrid version of the film, the songs alternately support, upset, and recast the accompanying scenes. Occasionally, character's dialogues are replaced with unlikely sources -- for example deep south AM radio samples (in Give Up) and a darkly comical Krishnamurti parody (in Human Love).
By design though, Graveyard Mountain Home is just as sonically compelling when removed from its visual element, a slowly seeping, darkly dramatic, series of epic musical vignettes: Sweet, sun-dappled vibraphone melodies over fuzzy, glitchy throbs; a dreamy, Tortoise-y post rock filtered through the Eastern rhythms of Muslimgauze and layered over a rumbling drone; ambient street sounds and muted minor key melodies obscure distant vocals, ethereal and indistinct; Sparklehorse-like melancholia, with tinny shortwave vocals and arid desert twang; displaced, lost and lonely voices, snatched from the ether, a warm jazzy shuffle, revisiting earlier sonic themes -- all a framework for Moore's world weary vocals.
In addition to writing with the film in mind, the album was also written to be played in front of an audience, and Chroma Key expect to stage an European and American tour for the first time this winter.

CILIO, LUCIANO Dell'Universo Assente (Die Schachtel) cd 24.00
Yes! We're glad to have this back in stock. 'Twas originally limited to just 500 copies when it came out last year and thus quickly went out of print, but now due to demand the label has pressed more. So if you missed out, get it now. Highly recommended. Our review from the first time around on list #199:
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 [again], 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...
MPEG Stream: "Primo Quadro..."
MPEG Stream: "Interludio..."

CIRCLE Alotus (Klangbad) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Right on schedule, the prolific band that The Wire insists on referring to as "Finnish Metal Minimalists" and who of course are all-time AQ faves, have come out with another disc (they're in the double digits now!) of the mantric, repetitive space-rock music that's our addiction. Granted, their previous album, the amazing "Sunrise", did dabble in the devil's music. But while on this one Teemu and Jyrki's guitars do get heavy at times, and vocalist Mika does an Udo Dirkschnieder impression at least once, "Alotus" is primarily about plenty of late-night rhythmic slow-burn stuff that references prior Circle discs like "Hissi" and "Pori" -- recalling as well their krautrock forebears Neu! and Can, as always. Circle's grooves simmer here, brooding yet pretty, only exploding with heavy prog/psych power towards the conclusion of a track, if at all. With Mika whispering and crooning weirdly more than screaming, "Altous" is driven by ticking clock tension provided by drummer Janne's metronoymic pulse. Some songs are dark and spooky (though Mika's vocals to some might verge on silly, which is ok with us), instrumentally relentless and ominous, while others have a more gleeful exuberance, as captured (for instance) by the repeating Magmoid bass riff from Jussi as the title track percolates along... The tension is resolved when "Potto" ends things with the disc's most potent eruption of "metal" (actually just loud rock) mayhem. Both of the tracks just mentioned might actually sound a little familiar to Circle fans, for they've been aired before in live form on their recent "Raunio" disc!
Released on Faust's label Klangbad (and produced by Faust's Hans Joachim Irmler, who had a hand in the arrangements as well), this boasts liner notes in German and English by Rolf Jaeger that highlight the connection 'twixt classic Krautrock and Circle's modern day take off on the form. Comes in a digipak with purple-tinted photo of a wall and a hedge or tree to puzzle over.
MPEG Stream: "Tyolaisten Laulu"
MPEG Stream: "Potto"

CIRCLE Andexelt (tUMULt) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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!!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Andexelt"
MPEG Stream: "Odultept"
MPEG Stream: "Humusaar"
MPEG Stream: "Lisaapui"

CIRCLE Arkades (Fourth Dimension) 2cd 19.98
BACK IN STOCK! At last... not sure if this actually got repressed, or if our supplier just found a few in a misplaced box or something, but we've got about a dozen of these now, and may or may not be able to get more. Probably not, actually. So if you missed it before, don't sleep on it now. Here's our review from back last summer....
Finland's mighty masters of metallic hypno drone rock, Circle, have slowly transformed into a sort of musical Jeckyll and Hyde. Beginning life with a twisted take on motorik murk, hypnotic riffing, relentless rhythms, and circular song structures, the band gradually became obsessed with metal, and thus Circle records got heavier and riffier, with more wild vocals and metallic bombast, resulting recently in a wildly productive explosion of Circle releases and Circle related side projects, the sludgey rifflords Pharaoh Overlord, the forthcoming Steel Mammoth records, and the most recent Circle release, Panic, perfectly reflecting their split personality split evenly between ambient whoooosh and grinding old skool punk rock. Confusing sure, but also wild and glorious and completely and totally kick ass.
But as Circle records generally got heavier and riffier, they were balanced by a series of lp only releases, all of which seemed to be meditative and droney and dreamy. But for listeners sans turntables, a whole side of Circle must have seemed like it was simply fading way. Well, now one of our favorite vinyl only releases from Circle has gotten re-released on cd, and with a bonus disc to boot (3 tracks, 40+ minutes). So those of you who were wondering what was going on over in Circle lp land, now's your chance to get a glimpse, and obviously all you Circle obsessives who have the lp already, will probably have to pick it up for the extra disc, essentially an entire new (live!) Circle record!
Here's a retooled version of our review of the lp when it first came out (folks who already own the lp, skip down to the end to read about the bonus disc):
Finland's mighty masters of metallic hypno drone rock return, with yes, another brand new record (previously lp only, now on cd), and their obsession (one of their many strange obsessions) 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 a year or two back is a monster. Two epic and massively long tracks, combining the metallic leanings of their later records (albeit subtly), with the murky propulsiveness of their earlier records, as well as their droney improvised abstract side (most noticeable 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 tray card 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 printed like an old weathered Western town wanted poster. 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 one cd, and the crossed bandoleers on the other (the discs are labeled Rebel Platter and Bullet Platter after all).
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.
The first track, "The Greatest Kingdom", begins as an abstract soundscape of spacey effected 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 renaissance faire sounding festive folk, which dissipates quickly into a swirl of speaking-in-tongues vocals and insect like electronics before drifting off.
Track two, "The Ghost Of The Highway", 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!
This double disc reissue tacks on a whole 'nother record, three more loooong tracks, the shortest ten minutes, the longest sixteen plus, and starts off sounding as Western as the artwork would have led us to believe. Lots of random shuffling, crowd noise, recorded live, a murky haze, like smoke in an old West barroom, then the riff kicks in, somewhere between classic spacey krautrock and Morricone spaghetti Western twang, the drums simple and propulsive, the riff slowly drifting and changing shape, while the vocals growl over the top, things like "Sixxxxxx, sixxxx, sixxxx" or "Kaaaaaaay, kaaaaaaay, kaaaaaay" and assorted other mumblings and guttural whispers. Very ominous and evocative. Right smack in the middle, the riff gives way to a strange chaotic interlude of sustained chords, simple rhythmic pulses, swooping synths, and wild nearly operatic vocals, before giving way to a simple drums only coda.
The second track begins with some strange rave-y synthesizers, wrapped around the same growled vocalizations, building and building, but never completely rocking out, instead, lingering in some endlessly repeating world of tension and no release, the synths looping, the drums mirroring the synths, and a wild array of vocals, some breathy and earnest, some wild and over the top, and of course plenty of mysterious grunting and growling.
And they close out the record with one of the highlights from their live sets, not the song necessarily, but the RIFF, a super kick ass, super rocking MEGA-riff, can't remember what record it's from, but what a riff, live it's the sort of riff that induces immediate headbanging, with a killer dynamic stop start "DAH DAH.... DAH DAH.... DAAAAAAHHHH", it's the kind of part in a song, you NEVER want to end, but leave it to Circle to confound, and after a few run throughs, the band pulls back and blisses out, into some strange, super extended FX drenched free floating jam, guitars hover and swirl, the drums a distant shuffle and skitter, the keyboards tinkling abstractly, vocals crooning dramatically throughout, like some theater production gone well off the rails, all culminating in a dense cloud of drum splatter, FX chaos, super affected vocals, and thick swooshes of instrumental buzz and blur. But just as you think it's over, in true Circle fashion, they explode back into action, and finish off with a blistering blast of THAT riff. Awesome.
So it seems that maybe 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...
MPEG Stream: "The Greatest Kingdom"
MPEG Stream: "The Ghost Of The Highway"

CIRCLE Circle b/w Elcric (Fonal) 7" 6.66
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
New 7" from our favorite Finnish masters of hypnotic rock groove, that's right, Circle! Two tracks that find the circlular ones continuing in their more rocking trajectory with side A being a bouncy groover, like a smoothed out AC/DC riff, that slowly builds into a psychedelic squall. Side B is a bit sludgier, a sort of MC5 / Stooges dirge with muttered spaced-out vocals and dirty distorted guitar. A good teaser for their upcoming Guillotine album which we should have soon!

CIRCLE Earthworm (No Quarter) cd ep 8.98
Four new songs from AQ faves Circle! Maybe that's all we need to say... but perhaps foolishly we'll go further. After many years of cultish obscurity in this country, Circle are at last beginning to get some wider recognition. They've managed to briefly tour in the States twice in the last year or so, most recently playing a handful of dates (not in San Francisco, unfortunately) centered around their appearance at the South By Southwest music convention in Austin, Texas just a few weeks ago. So more and more people are getting to see and hear 'em, and that means more and more converts to Circle fandom. They're an amazing live spectacle -- a hypnotic, headbanging, minimalist metallic post-krautrock juggernaut that doesn't stint on the hair and the sweat. And their many albums are equally incredible. We'd always wondered why they weren't the latest post-rock big thing...well maybe it's 'cause they're so dang weird! Which, of course, we like. Bands that sing in their own made-up languages (a la Magma) and do other unashamedly "prog rock" and sometime metal things too are definitely cool with us. But does that get them signed to Thrill Jockey or Matador? No. Not yet anyway. And as popular as they've become in recent years, Circle (you know) are still weirdos. Just take a look at the cover of the live LP we listed here last time! So, what do you suppose they decided to do for the cdep that was intended to be released to coincide with (though, it got delayed) their SXSW appearance and surrounding tour? Unsurprisingly, something strange. But very Circle. You see, Jussi from Circle is a HUGE fan of a band from LA in the '80s called Jesters Of Destiny. As are Andee and Allan. Chances are, if you're an AQ customer who's heard of them, it's because Jussi reissued an album of theirs on his label Ektro a few years ago. Crazy, catchy alternative metal/new wave/punk/pop music. Jussi loves Jesters of Destiny so much that, having met up with their former singer Bruce Duff in LA when Circle played the Arthurfest last year, Jussi got Duff to sing on this here ep! Since we're fans of Jesters too, we were stoked, and hoping for a 30 minute jam on the JoD's big hit (not really) "Diggin' That Grave"! But that's not what they did. What you get here are four tracks, three of 'em featuring Duff on vocals, one an instrumental. It definitely sounds like Circle, but the usual mock-operatics sung in Meronian by Circle keyboardist Mikka Ratto have been replaced by Duff's equally unique vocal stylings. It's maybe a bit like the 3 Dead People After The Performance album that Circle recorded with Can's Damo Suzuki, except that these are real songs with lyrics (written by Duff) in English, not improvs. We're not really used to understanding the words in a Circle song, so it's all very strange. Musically, though, it's the repetitive hypno-rock these guys do so well. First track "Earthworm" is hectic and heavy, the second one "Connection" is almost more of a pop tune, and the third track "Taking It Back" is calmer and more Can-like, with Duff delivering his lines in a whisper. And then the instrumental "Coda" wraps things up in fine Circle fashion. Because of Duff's vocals, this is definitely one of the odder Circle documents. But not a bad concept for an ep, just the sort of thing an ep is for!
MPEG Stream: "Earthworm"
MPEG Stream: "Connection"

CIRCLE Empire (Riot Season) lp 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This went out of print not long after we first listed it in October of '04. And it's still out of print. But one of our suppliers somehow found 15 copies. Which we promptly snatched up. So... our previous review gets a one-time-only-rerun:
Vinyl Only. Limited. 750 copies. Circle. Did you get that? Circle. Vinyl Only. Limited. 750 copies. And we only have 15. That said, here follows a possibly superfluous review... Anyone who liked the last cd we listed by our Finnish friends Circle, Forest, ought to also like this live recording. It's all new material -- two side-long cuts, "Dragon" and "Empire" -- but they are definitely in the hippified, semi-acoustic jamming vein of Forest, all dark and psychedelic and Can-like. Both tracks are epics, with peaks and valleys, the second side eventually building up into a guitar riff-repetition thing that's classic Circle indeed. Frickin' gorgeous and hypnotic.
MPEG Stream: "Dragon"

CIRCLE Forest (Ektro) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY. BUT WE SHOULD HAVE THE DOMESTIC NO QUARTER VERSION, SEE NEARBY!
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.
MPEG Stream: "Havuportti"
MPEG Stream: "Luikertelevat Lahoavat"

CIRCLE Forest (No Quarter / Ektro) cd 14.98
This 2004 Circle album is now available domestically on the No Quarter label (who've recently also brought us Psychic Paramount's debut and the Earth remixes cd)! Same tracks as the Finnish import version on Ektro that we previously stocked, and very similar (but modified) artwork -- the cover now boasts a "flame job" that wasn't there on the original. So, here's our review from before of this quite recommended Circle album:
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.
MPEG Stream: "Havuportti"
MPEG Stream: "Luikertelevat Lahoavat"

CIRCLE Golem / Vesiliirto (Kevyt Nostalgia / Super Metsa) 2lp 29.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Circle. Vinyl. Limited. Those three words ought to be enough for many of you. But for the sticklers who want a bit more from us, read on: AQ faves and Finnish friends Circle present a brand new vinyl-only (as yet) double album, one disc entitled Golem and the other Vesiliirto. Golem's got titles in English ("Salamander Sword", "At War With Mercy", "Forbidden Steel Patriot", "True Incubus From Beyond" and "Destination Thunder"!!!) that are all very metal-sounding, though in actuality these two sides are quite far from metal (even Circle's previous stab at metal on their Sunrise cd). Golem is all recorded live, and is the most free-form, ambient, fucked up, droned-out, abstract Circle document we've yet heard, unique in their catalog though hinted at by parts of their previous album Guillotine (and possible Circle side-project Doktor Kettu). Whereas, the second LP in this set, with all-Finnish titles, is a studio session, and is much more in Circle's tradition of tight, rhythmic, repetitive rock riffage. Of course, we like 'em both. In a glossy, beautiful gatefold sleeve with attractive yet macabre collage graphics. Nice!

CIRCLE Guillotine (Ektro / Scratch) cd 15.98
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.
MPEG Stream: "Paaton Mies"
MPEG Stream: "Teraskylpy"

CIRCLE Katapult (No Quarter) cd 14.98
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!
MPEG Stream: "Saturnus Reality"
MPEG Stream: "Four Points Of The Compass"
MPEG Stream: "Understanding New Age"

CIRCLE Katapult (No Quarter) lp 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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!
MPEG Stream: "Saturnus Reality"
MPEG Stream: "Four Points Of The Compass"
MPEG Stream: "Understanding New Age"

CIRCLE Meronia (Ektro) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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.
MPEG Stream: "Ed-visio"
MPEG Stream: "DNA"
MPEG Stream: "Hypto"

CIRCLE Miljard (Ektro) 2cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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!!!
MPEG Stream: "Duunila"
MPEG Stream: "Salenius"
MPEG Stream: "Muhle"
MPEG Stream: "Viitane"

CIRCLE Mountain - Live At The Holy Trinity Church (Leeds, UK) (Kevyt Nostalgia / Super Metsa) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
If there was ever a show worth flying 6000 miles for, it would've been this one. In fact Allan and Andee were seriously considering doing just that. Not only was this show unmissable, but we were imagining how completely nuts it would have been to just stroll into a show and say hi to our friends there all casual-like, as if we lived down the street instead of on the other side of the globe! Clearer minds prevailed, but thankfully we're able to experience at least part of the show in the form of this lp. The show of which we're speaking took place in Leeds, in a big old church and featured AQ faves Circle, the amazing prog duo Guapo (formerly on tUMULt, soon to be on Ipecac), the gloriously drone-y Jazzfinger, whose most recent record we reviewed here a couple lists back, Like A Kind Of Matador, who sound like a more prog-tastic Boris, and have a flute player, and who have a record coming out on tUMULt later in the year, Ultralyd, featuring Kjetil Brandsal from Noxagt, and a couple more! Holy crap! Damn those clearer heads! From what we heard it was totally amazing, and everyone seemed to focus on Circle's epic and broodingly ambient set. And rightfully so, as this here slab of wax proves. An ultra slow-building Krautrock roar, airy clouds of ambient flutter, sizzling cymbals, simple plucked guitar rhythms, bleeping and blooping barely-there melodies, looping and clattery, a gorgeously swirly, roiling miasma of sound. Gets more dynamic as it progresses with rough industrial whir and hellish howls. Side two is much more aggressive, noisy and rhythmic, very much akin to later Boredoms, manic percussion underneath billowing sheets of murky guitar blur, before the whole thing slowly decays into an ambient wash of tribal chants and muted drumming. SO NICE. Very reminiscent of the recent spate of Doktor Kettu cd-r's, in its simmering slow shifting murkiness. And for Circle fans who have had issues with the presence of more and more vocals on recent Circle records, Mountain finds the vocals settled way back into the mix, careening wildly -amidst- the music not -atop- it. We have a whole bunch but it's VERY LIMITED. In fact according to the label it's already out of print. So act fast!

CIRCLE Panic (Ektro) cd 14.98
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.
MPEG Stream: "State Powder"
MPEG Stream: "U.M.F.G. Horsemen"
MPEG Stream: "And Far Away"

CIRCLE Sunrise (Ektro) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
BACK IN PRINT!!! Here's our review from when we first freaked out about this back on list 143:
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 indecipherable, 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 Pharaoh 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.
MPEG Stream: "Nopeuskuningas"
MPEG Stream: "Vaanen Valtiatar"
MPEG Stream: "Kylan Suurin Miekka"

CIRCLE Sunrise (Headspin) 2lp 38.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We sold through all one hundred copies of this we got direct from the label (25 percent of the entire pressing!) in a matter of days, but folks kept ordering it, so we managed to get another 30 copies from a distributor who had a handful in stock. These are almost certainly the last copies we'll be able to get. Since we had to get them from a distributor this time instead of direct from the label, the price went up a bit (the middleman getting their cut), but don't let that deter you from picking this up, if you haven't already. Why you ask? Just read on...
NOW ON VINYL, WITH A SIDELONG BONUS TRACK NOT ON THE CD!!!! This long out of print Circle cd, one of our favorites, finally gets resurrected, at least on vinyl, a double lp actually, of which all of side 4 is taken up by an previously unreleased 18 minute bonus track. And the already amazing cover art looks even better in the 12" format, a gorgeous thick gatefold sleeve to boot! WOW. SUPER SUPER LIMITED. Supposedly limited to 400 copies worldwide, of which we got 100!!! So act fast, these are gonna fly out of here.
What we said about Sunrise when we reviewed the cd:
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.

CIRCLE Telescope (Sunhair) 2cd 23.00
When it rains, it pours. And when Finland's Circle is concerned, there certainly has been no drought of releases lately. Fine with us though, we say bring it on! Last list, we reviewed their excellent new live disc, Rakennus. We mentioned that there was *another* live release upcoming, and this is it. Dare we ask, do you need another live Circle album so soon? Silly question. And Telescope IS quite a bit different from Rakennus. While that cd documented an hour-long show recorded on Circle's 2007 US tour, Telescope contains an epic 131 minutes of music, spread over two cds, captured in 2003 at a show in Wurzburg, Germany. And it's all looong tracks, several of 'em jams in the 20-30 minute range, which means there's only six individual tracks here (three per disc) as compared to the eight songs found on the single disc Rakennus. Circle's lineup of four years ago is the same as it is now, but the material they're doing here differs somewhat. Maybe it's 'cause they were playing in Germany, but the "krautrock" side of Circle (as opposed to, say, their "metal" side) is to the fore here. Total jammed-out space rock grooves in the usual ultra hypnotic, ultra repetitive, trance-inducing Circle tradition. The air is thick with amped-up psychedelic guitar textures, some of this recalling Spacemen 3, or more accurately, since it's heavier than that, Loop.
At moments you'll think you've stepped back in time into a San Francisco '60s hippie ballroom concert (or krautrock commune)... at others you'll be surprised by the angular, garage-rock guitar shards flying from the stage. Much of this is totally flowers and beads pretty, while some of it breaks into a dervish frenzy. Circle's cyclical riffs and beats are certainly in full effect, and due to the happily stretched-out durations of these songs, the band can really develop shifting patterns of their seemingly endless pulsations... also having many minutes to build from spaciously mellow, minimalist meandering to more urgent, energetic explosions. We can only imagine that being in attendance at this concert, if you really let yourself get into it, would have resulted in some sort of altered state of consciousness, time slowing down or even seeming to stop completely. What, it's over already?? Some "Circle-casualties" might never snap out of it, spending the rest of their days in a head nodding daze, communicating with others only in an approximation of Circle vocalist Mika Ratto's nonsensical but beautious babble... And if this happens to YOU as a result of purchasing Telescope, consider it money well spent!
As far as we can tell, most of the tracks are exclusive to Telescope, being previously unreleased/unrecorded compositions or improvisations, while the couple we do recognize are derived from their album Guillotine, which was Circle's current studio release in 2003. And on the final, 33 minute mega encore track "Kaare", Circle is joined by a special guest, from the German psych rock bands Sula Bassana and Zone Six, on "space bass". Not that they need any help in that department...
FYI this is limited to 1000 copies, not to be repressed... we got 100 and that's it.
MPEG Stream: "Matka"
MPEG Stream: "Metsan Henget"
MPEG Stream: "Ajannopeus"

CIRCLE Tulikoira (Ektro) cd 14.98
BACK IN STOCK! Circle's next-to-newest is finally repressed and available again (sorry, the newest, Miljard, is currently out-of-stock, but back soon, we hope)...
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 (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!
[And by the way, that show was AWESOME! Circle destroyed! No spikes though.]
MPEG Stream: "Rautakaarme"
MPEG Stream: "Tulilintu"
MPEG Stream: "Berserk"

CIRCLE Tyrant (Latitudes 0:10) (Latitudes / Southern) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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...
MPEG Stream: "Screaming Luovutus"
MPEG Stream: "Steel Torment Warrior"

CIRCLE Zopalki (Bad Vugum) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Bizarrely enough, I don't believe that we've ever listed this before, one of our favorite records by one of our favorite bands. This, the second album from these Finnish space/prog rockers, from 1996, sees them really delving into neo-Krautrock sounds and psychedelic hypnosis complete with sinister string arrangements. This one's dark and murky and heavy and a contender for our favorite Circle record ever, and that's saying something! If you don't have this one already, you should get it!

CIRCLE Zopalki (Bad Vugum) 2lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Bizarrely enough, I don't believe that we've ever listed this before, one of our favorite records by one of our favorite bands. This, the second album from these Finnish space/prog rockers, from 1996, sees them really delving into neo-Krautrock sounds and psychedelic hypnosis complete with sinister string arrangements. This one's dark and murky and heavy and a contender for our favorite Circle record ever, and that's saying something! If you don't have this one already, you should get it! While the CD is terminally out of print, we have the very last copies of the vinyl... don't blame us when they're gone.

CIRCLE (FEATURING VERDE) Tower (Last Visible Dog) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What? Another disc ALREADY from our favorite Finnish psych/space/prog/metal/drone/wtf? rockers, the one and only Circle? Good grief, we're still reeling from their amazing Miljard two cd set on Ektro, and their even more recent, mindblowing Tyrant disc in the limited edition Latitudes series! Who do they think they are, Acid Mothers Temple? Well, to be fair, this new album Tower wasn't actually supposed to come out until April. But it seems that one of the Last Visible Dog label's distributors, gripped perhaps by Circle-mania, accidentally jumped the gun on the release date and started shipping it early -- so, well, here it is! And we can't complain, who wants to wait when a new Circle is concerned?? Especially when we're all trying to keep up with (as it says on the face of this cd) the "NWONWOFHM", in other words, the "New Wave Of" the "New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal"... which, as it turns out, isn't in any way metal at all! Nope, the all-instrumental Tower follows Miljard in exploring the really really pretty side of the Circle sound. But unlike Miljard, which was slowly unfolding, almost stately, Tower has much more of an uptempo, rapid pulse.
The album seems to divide into two parts. The first four tracks flow together in sort of suite, burbling beautifully and hypnotically...just so so pleasant. No heavy riffs, nothing edgy at all. Then there's a pause, and the remaining two tracks reveal something of a darker, more mysterious sound. Just a bit though, like a bright sunny day edging towards twilight, the knowledge of the coming night starting to seep into one's consciousness, some clouds drifting in as well, but the sun still shining...
Also, you'll note that this album is billed to Circle "featuring Verde" -- referring to special guest Mika Rintala, who has played with Circle and their jazzier cousin Ektroverde as well, and whose solo albums, recorded under the Verde monicker, we've raved about here before. We're not sure how to judge the "Verde-factor" here, but we do note that in addition to playing on this album he also recorded and mixed it. Maybe this does remind us a bit of some of Ektroverde's output, come to think of it... there's definitely a spaced-out, jazzy fusion groove here, of shuffling drums and chiming synths, that makes for a relaxing soundtrack we wouldn't feel foolish recommending to fans of The Necks and Miles Davis as well as Ektroverde, Verde and Circle too of course...
Now we wonder, what will the NWONWONWOFMHM be like? At this rate, chances are we'll find out sometime soon...
MPEG Stream: "track 4"
MPEG Stream: "track 5"

CIRCLE / MARBLE SHEEP Live: Surface / Marble Zone 2 (Metamorphos) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Split cd from AQ faves Circle and Japan's Marble Sheep, recorded in 1996 (Circle) and 1989 (Marble Sheep) and released 1998. Circle contribute a stellar live set of their perfect cyclical drone rock including a haunting and breathtaking cover version of Hank Williams' "I Saw The Light". Marble Sheep pitch in 3 early tracks (2 live, one studio demo) of spacy psychedelic drone rock, more Ash Ra Tempel than Grateful Dead (the band they get compared to most these days). Essential for fans of Circle, Faust, Ash Ra Tempel and psych/krautrock in general. We've had these for a while but we've never had enough to list until now. But that doesn't mean we won't run out soon, so if you haven't picked this up already, don't dawdle!
RealAudio clip: CIRCLE "Brilliant Colours For Bright Ideas"
RealAudio clip: CIRCLE "I Saw the Light"
RealAudio clip: MARBLE SHEEP "Good Old Marble Sheep"

CLARK-HUTCHINSON A=MH2 (Sunbeam) 2cd 25.00
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).
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation On A Modal Scale"
MPEG Stream: "Impromptu in 'E' Minor"
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation On An Indian Scale"
MPEG Stream: "Crow Jane [from bonus disc]"

CLARK-HUTCHINSON A=MH2 (Sunbeam) 2lp 34.00
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).
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation On A Modal Scale"
MPEG Stream: "Impromptu in 'E' Minor"
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation On An Indian Scale"
MPEG Stream: