Circle - Katapult

More Circle for my friend Duke.

"Inside the sleeve of Circle's umpteenth album Katapult (there have been more than 25 since 1991) and under the disc are the initials "NWOFHM." They stand for "New Wave of Finnish Heavy Metal." This is the same band who've brought everything -- from their own version of a trance-inducing, circular, overdriven, droning update of classic Krautrock to restrained imaginative acoustic ambience (2006's Miljard), to rugged wily, punk ethos-infused boogie rock (2007's Arkades), to jazzed downtempo fusion à la Miles Davis' In a Silent Way and the sonic grooviness of Tortoise (2007's Tower). But this is no mere heavy metal recording -- death, black, progressive, power, or otherwise. Circle have too much of an individual ethos to downright ape anything. They have a "sound" that they've brought to every single record that bears their name, and even to some side projects of their individual members' (Pharaoh Overlord for one). That said, Katapult is yet another side of the band none of us has heard before. There are big repetitive rhythmic grooves, riffs, and psychedelic space rock moving ever forward toward nowhere but out. The pulse is constant and it breathes. But the vibe on this recording is downright dark and nasty. Hard and crunchy at the outset, "Saturnus Reality" opens with a full guitar throttle on a riff and a percussion throb powered by rumbling basslines you've heard in everything from early Hawkwind to Celtic Frost to Motörhead. But keyboards enter the picture as Jussi Lehtisalo growls à la Andrew Eldritch from the Sisters of Mercy at his most sinister, even as the backing vocals are sung in falsetto! "Torpedo Star Throne" picks up right where it left off, even as skittering snares, electronic loops, synths, and crunchy guitar start pushing from the back to the front and overtaking the tune, making the "circle" (no pun intended) spin faster and faster even as a big church organ plays at quarter speed to deepen the chill. And chill it does. There is something mysterious, and truly nasty sounding, about this album. Katapult is in some ways a return for fans of the old Circle, but it's something further out than the band has ever tried before. As the tracks move on -- all of them are relatively short, between three-and-a-half and six-and-a-half minutes (short for Circle in full-on pummel mode) -- alien sounds and deeper textures start to settle in. They never replace the guitars, bass, and drums, but they lengthen the shadows considerably and make themselves felt. What's left is a completely psychedelic, and seamless, mind blowing affair. Ambient soundscapes creep in on "Black Black Never Never Land," yet even as the title is chanted over and again, the six-string slash and burn and triple-timed drums never cease their incessant struggle for domination -- even as wafting vocals buried in the mix carry themselves forth to float just under the mix. Effects, textures, colors, shapes, and riffs begin to intermingle and entwine; they create a harrowing sonic journey for the listener in and out of tunnels of echo, reverb, weird '70s glam rock-style bridges to angular synth patterns (that are literally next to one another in the closer "Snow Olympics"), and so many other topsy-turvy flips and labyrinthine flops, that Katapult should be a mess. It's not. It's as tight a record as this band has ever pulled off while still sprawling into infinity. This is Circle at a whole new level in an entirely new direction and more focused and frighteningly intense than they've ever been. - Thom Jurek

Skeletor

Circle - Andexelt

Another awesome effort from these Finnish bastards.

Third Eye

Circle - Tower (2007)

This is NOT the same Circle posted by Abe a while ago which featured Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Barry Altschul.
I highly recommend that you listen to this album WITH HEADPHONES.
Here's a review by Mason Jones from Dusted Magazine:
"Finland's highly prolific Circle are known by their fans for delivering the unexpected. Their beginnings were somewhat consistent, with several albums of loping, rhythmically convoluted and fascinatingly repetitive post-rock (for lack of a better term). Since then, the band have defied expectations with each release, not to mention the side projects. It's difficult to think of another band that has remained true to its core while simultaneously becoming both heavier and lighter on various albums. Recently adopting the acronym NWOFHM, a play on the old New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Circle have been, as they say, kicking out the jams.
Thus Tower comes as even more of a surprise than any Circle release thus far. Across six sprawling tracks and 44 minutes, the band and guest twiddler Verde (aka Mika Rintala) channel their inner spiritualists and let loose with a masterpiece of navel-gazing inner-space psych float. Despite the NWOFHM adorning the CD (which in fact says NWONWOFHM, perhaps meaning that this is an even newer wave), and despite the truly puzzling cover art, herein Circle draw from sounds like Alice Coltrane, electric Miles Davis, and Rovo with compelling results.
While the six songs do have their own personalities, they hang together so closely and make up such a cohesive whole that there's really no point in describing them individually. Suffice it to say that flowing synths, warm electric piano, gently propulsive drums, and tinkling percussion are here in abundance, all heavy on atmosphere but not too self-indulgent. The album generally picks up steam a bit as it progresses, with the 13-minute and faster-paced "Geppanen" at the center, but it closes in complete psychedelia, filled with synth washes, trippy cymbals and clattering percussion.
What's tricky is that this all sounds like it should be a bore, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In less capable hands, no doubt the album would be an insomnia cure. You can allow it to flow past as background sound, but if you lay back and focus, it's the details that make it work, that keep it from disappearing into its own navel. Sure, if you want to light up the incense and drift away, it'll work, no doubt about it. But ultimately, Circle have crafted a milestone in psychedelic-jazz-whatever, and it's certain to be one of the year's best albums."

Douche Bag

Circle - Circulus

We all love Chick Corea. The man played on some of Miles Davis' best albums and in the process gave us the face melting Rhodes solo on "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down". For that alone we should all be grateful. Before going on to play fusion with Return to Forever he also gave us this obscure atonal masterpiece. Accompanied by Miles collaborator Dave Holland, Barry Altschul, and a relatively unknown at the time Anthony Braxton, Corea pays tribute to modern composers like John Cage with free improvs that turn into spastic freakouts. True avant garde shit. Few people can make a piano sound like the sky is falling. Corea does it with ease. 

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