CIRCLE

CIRCLE have such a large discography and they've changed styles many times over the years, so for me it's been about finding that period in their history that clicks with me the most. Found it ! This 2000 release and the later 2003 release called "Guillatine" hit the spot for me. Man when these guys are "on" they are incredible to say the least.

"Dedofiktion" has this repetitive beat as the guitar is picked over top. Great sound ! Violin after 1 1/2 minutes then the guitar changes to riffs as the tempo picks up after 3 minutes. Vocals 4 minutes. Insanity ! It settles back 7 1/2 minutes in to end it. "Gericht" sounds so good. Just a great sounding beat with what sounds like a cow bell of some sort helping out. The guitar starts to rip it up before 3 1/2 minutes. It settles down 6 1/2 minutes to the end. "Stimulance" has an intense rhythm and sound throughout.

"Varhain" is good too. I like the way the keys play over the heavy drums. It kicks in fuller and more intense after 3 minutes then the guitar sets the soundscape on fire. "Aarre" has this repetitive groove throughout. Organ before 2 minutes but it's brief. It's back though again at 5 minutes. Spoken words come in during the final minute. "Eripwre" also has a catchy rhythm. It's heavier 5 1/2 minutes in and vocals follow.

I have the most recent re- issue with an almost 18 minute bonus track that does the band proud. There's a different album cover on mine too.

This two disc set was released by CIRCLE in 2006 and is quite a change from the previous albums where they had become increasingly heavy. This in fact is quite the oposite. Very ambient and low key with lots of sparse piano melodies along with effects, percussion, bass and guitar. This is all so laid back and considering there is 2 hours of music here it's a long listen.

I must admit things do not start off very well for me as the first three tracks are my least favourites, so we're talking 50 minutes of music right there. If I was to rate the rest of this recording minus these three tracks it would be an easy four stars for me.Things improve with the fourth song called "Manni" which is still minimalistic but for some reason I like it a lot better. "Salenius" has piano and bass standing out early. Effects and more join in and it's building after 4 minutes. Good track.

"Sophie" starts off disc two with beautiful but sparse sounds including piano. It settles even more after 9 minutes as the main piano stops. It does get fuller again though. "Muhle" has lots of atmosphere with a spacey pulsating soundscape with sparse piano. Great sound here. "Cornelia" is again sparse piano and atmosphere. "Bakkis" has this atmosphere that shakes the soundscape then it settles back late. "Viitane" has a motorik feel to it then it settles back tempo-wise around 9 minutes.

So lots to like here but once again I wish they had stuck with a single album instead of a double.

This is a live recording from the Finnish band CIRCLE recorded in Germany in 2003. It's a double album with over 2 hours of music on it. It's cool that Dave Schmidt from SULA BASANNA guests on bass on the final 33 plus minute track.

"Matka" is laid back with what sounds like keys, synths and other strange sounds. A catchy beat arrives 2 1/2 minutes in. Vocals join in after 4 1/2 minutes and they will come and go. This is great. Guitar to the fore after 20 minutes. It starts to wind down before 27 minutes. "Metsan Henget / Tavaton" opens with percussion and we can hear people talking in the audience which is very annoying. Shut up already ! Keys before a minute and guitar a minute later as it picks up. A calm just before 10 minutes as reserved vocal expressions come in then keys and drums as it builds around 14 minutes. "Huurre" builds slowly as we get this repetitive rhythm. It settles back 4 1/2 minutes in with vocals. It's picking up around 8 minutes and the vocals become more prominant. An instrumental section follows until around 14 minutes when the vocals return to the end.

Disc two begins with "Ajannopeus" which builds with guitar and a beat standing out.Vocals after 9 minutes and keyboards are prominant around 11 minutes. "Teraskylpy" has this repetitive groove of drums and guitar as the vocals join in. The vocals eventually turn aggressive. It settles down after 10 minutes to the end. "Kaarre" is my favourite. It's laid back and dreamy with vocals, keys and more. The vocals stop then it picks up after 5 minutes. The vocals are back but not for long. It settles with vocals around 9 minutes as this song continues on it's long journey.

If I could make a single disc out of this it would easily be four stars but I guess I say that a lot with double albums. Still worth checking out because this is a good one.

This is my first taste of CIRCLE. They are a Finnish band who i've known about for a long time but only took the plunge recently and man i'm so glad I did. A lot of credit goes to Guldbamsen for that. These guys play a modern style of Krautrock that is experimental, psychedelic and at times it really grooves. We get about 75 minutes of music over these 12 tracks in this 2003 release.

"Metsan Henget" is a favourite of mine with the percussion and intricate sounds standing out. Vocal expressions come and go and it turns fuller after 4 minutes although it does settle back again. "Harva Maa" opens with what sounds like picked guitar as percussion joins in. Weird spoken words follow a minute later. "Parton Mies" is a freaky soundscape. "Ojar Pitkin" again has picked guitar much like song 2 but with atmosphere this time.

"Teraskylpy" is another favourite of mine. It's fairly uptempo with a beat and vocal sounds. It turns more intense around 3 minutes then settles back before 5 minutes but the intensty begins to mount again. "Majakkasaari" is dark and atmospheric with some laughter. "Saapavat Ne Merelta" has a beat with bass and guitar and it blends into "Syva" where voices and other strange sounds come in. In fact I thought I heard someone say "My precious" in that Lord Of The Rings style (haha).

"Salar Opi" has pulsating sounds that beat away and what sounds like violin or another stringed instrument. It blends into "Armo" where it's even more stranger. I like it ! "Alta Rautatammeen" has some amazing sounding Fender Rhodes with bass. It's picking up before 5 minutes then spoken vocals join in. Love this song. It blends into "Takaisen" where it settles right down and weird vocals join in sounding like Captain Beefheart.

Man this was a trip that was so well done. I will be checking out more of this band's music for sure. Highly recommended.

This early record of Finnish group Circle caught my attention from their large discography, as it was interestingly released trough a profilic Finnish Bad Vugum label, focuing to punk scene in 1980's (for example early CMX records, "Liimanarina" and "Paska", a solo artist which was disbanded due internal tensions of the members). Album cover art promises some archaic and raw approach, a promise which is fullfilled well on this mainly instrumental record.

The album opens as mystic, dreamy, dark, hypnotic and pleasant aural voyage. The drums have nice groovy touch in them, creating with the group a calm vortex sucking the listener to the grey realms of Finnish winter ("brilliant colours, heh). Second track introduces the "punk / heavy" elements of the group in hard guitar riffings, the composition follows the repetitive stoner rock style. Critical treble sounds are dominant in "Warszawa", waiting patiently and growing tension before opening. Next song has menacing minimalistic groove with nice quiet bass solo and some singing too. "Argont" builds a tense tunnel with soothing synths and distracting guitar riffs, reaching really powerful climax, resembling little a horror movie soundtrack. Next songs contain a stagnant dark ambience, relaxed open mantra, and then more oppressing with interesting rhythm layers and swithces with guitar and drums position in the front. "Re-Masturbated" opens with quick acoustic sounds, leading to more mellow downer/stoner passage with some chantings. This is followed by intense tension building and really dirty sounds, and album closes with a track having interesting rhythms, leadig to a long minor-key ambiences.

The record is a very good compact entity, none of the tracks jump forward as clear favorite or evident filler, so the whole album is a pleasant trip to listen trough from start to end (if this style is favoured) I am not yet very familiar with the group, but I have known the name long, and saw them on stage in spring 2009. My impression has been they partly do not do stuff fitting my taste, and partly doing that very fine, and evidently they are very talented musicians and performers. Some later recordings I heard from them had very straight drum beat, which is not luckily present in this fine album, containing impulsive, artistic and not too much produced sincere psychedelic rock moods from Finland. I recommend it warmly to fans of hardcore music, and will check out their other ablums out too.

One of the later releases of circle that has drawn my attention is Tyrant and its neat little cardboard casing to be placed in the "Latitudes" collection. The artwork is provoking curiosity as you'd want to know what these Afghani burqas are all about on this disc, but there is little info as to whether this is linked of not. Also their consistent use of NWOFHM is a bit anal I find, especially that there is little metal outside some gory vocals often provoking a mocking smile than the awe-striken faces they'd search for.

Three "epics" around the 15-iminutes mark, with that usual Circle sound, somewhere between Krautrock, Hawkwind and Post Rock, and mostly hovering on the Calvert/ Turner nest, although the Opeth/Dying Bride-like vocals is certainly not doing it any favour, but it's all down to each and everyone's landmarks in their own musical landscapes. Besides its puerile title, Steel Tormented Warrior (sounds like Stacia pounding the [&*!#] of Molly Hatchet), the track is an interesting bruitist collage of interminable intro that actually lasts the length of the track, but it's actually the most interesting of this lot, sometimes ogling towards the chaos of Ghost, the Japanese band that makes me most think of Circle. The whispered vocals still have that deathly guttural feel, bur it's not laughable this time around.. The charmingly title Amputation Crusade is a again very laughable (but not any less than the picture where all four display their freshly acquired clouted/spiked wristband in front of Stonehenge) is again more of this ambient post rock, then later, there is a slom-pace crescendo that can remind of Anekdoten, eventually finding its place in the middle of the other two tracks' soundscapes.

If after some 15 years of existence, Circle is still playing at getting dressed as Vikings or warriors of doom, you'd guess that they'd have a fantastic fellowship and if not numerous, probably loyal enough to keep the band floating and buying spike bracelets. Whatever flows their buckets, musically, this album is definitely worth throwing an ear on it, but once you'll have spun it three times, it'll collect dust for decades.

Well, Circle is one of those groups that flourishes in the obscurity of the depth of prog and Kraut rock. Indeed the Finnish combo could never possibly deny having been influenced by the Cologne group that charms so many younger generations still nowadays. Gentle slow mostly acoustic grooves, very repetitive, but forgets to be as weird or even disturbing as the legendary Krauters were, especially in the vocal dept, where they don't even come close to being as intrusive as Damo Suzuki was.

Starting out on a drone, slowly evolving into Can-like minimalist groove, this track, like the whole Forest album, has some rather hypnotic qualities (ala Tangerine Dream); especially once the electric guitar gets into the groove. The third (and by far shortest) Ydinaukio takes a few minutes to hump into its groove, fitst starting on toilet flushes and other bizarre idea. Again the mostly acoustic nature of the music makes me think of the other group Ghost (he Japanese outfit) and without warning Ydinaukio morphed into Jaljet, an 18-mins raga Can-like groove. It slowly dies out, a bit like the album started, into some deep bass drone-like sounds.

Not that Forest is any better than the rest of Circle's albums (at least the ones I heard a few years back), but Forest tends to have a little je-ne-sais-quoi, that gets my attention.

Circle's take on Black Metal?! Now I've seen everything!

It's official. We can't deny it any longer. Circle is the most eclectic band that Progressive Rock has seen since King Crimson. Over the course of 6 albums and 2 years this band has covered genres as wide as Psychedelic Prog Metal, Avant-garde, Minimalism, Krautrock Metal, Fusion, Progressive Electronic, "Kraut Punk" and now Black Metal (and don't get me started on their earlier releases...). How diverse can a band possibly be! In this year alone they've changed to most of those genres mentioned and they don't look like they're going to slow down any time soon.

In Katapult we see Circle in another weird combination of sounds. While their Krautrock influence is still very omnipresent (as well as their Prog influences) they've added the rawness and heaviness of Black Metal. The music may sound like a novelty (heck!, they may even be turning into a novelty band since late 2006), but they've made it clear that they take their music very seriously even though they don't sound intellectual or don't take themselves seriously at all. When Circle takes a genre under their wing don't expect it to sound exactly like it, they transform it into their own little lab experiment. The results depends on whether you have high speciation or not and if you're already acquainted with their drastic changes in their musical style.

Now to the music. First of all this is Circle's heaviest album to date (it isn't saying much compared to other bands, but it's the heaviest they've done). The vocals have been switched on this album. Mika isn't the main vocalist on this album, Jussi is and he's growling! (well, sort of). The vocals sound very engaging and makes the music much more enjoyable than if Mika was the lead vocalist (No offense to Mika, but his high-pitched vocals wouldn't fit well with this music), although he does sing in some places. The music sounds very layered on this album. There are tribal drumming like their "Forest" album in the background while at the same time there are acid-like synth washes (or even a piano like in "Fish Reflection") and on top of that the rest of the band (drums, guitars, bass, vox) pummeling through. There's one exception though, it seems that they really enjoyed making those Tangerine Dream influenced songs of their "Panic" album so they made one for this album as well named "Four Points Of The Compass". There are also some songs that are quite different from the rest like "Skeletor Highway" and "Tree On The Higher Mountain" which has Circle's trademark sound, but still sound nothing like what they've done before (perhaps their next sound?).

Another successful hit from Circle. It's more consistent than their previous effort, "Panic", and actually more visionary too which merits a higher rating than Panic. I still think they have time for improving their sound, but this is still a solid album that's very enjoyable and worth getting. But beware! Listen to the album first before purchasing it, that's how I listen to Circle's new albums.

3.5 out of 5

And again there's only Chamberry's review about a Finnish experimental product. As I said on my Magyar Posse review, he succeeds to describe the music superbly and with unbelievable patience, whereas a lazier reviewer might just summarize it all in a single sentence. Miljard is indeed an album that a casual listener is tempted to handle with the least possible effort and judge it merely as nearly two hours of minimalistic Ambient, all the same from start to end. I'm not truly impressed by this music, as delicate as it is in the chosen style. It's not that it would be too strange and difficult to get into. Yes, one can say I'm lacking the PATIENCE this music requires. But I've heard this kind of music before, by Brian Eno and many other explorers of his invention, Ambient. Now, you should think only of Eno's MOST minimalistic Ambient works, and maybe the minimalistic/experimental music done earlier in the art music field (John Cage and such), not to get wrong expectations.

I haven't listened to CIRCLE before, but I read them to be very unpredictable band shifting from noisy, experimental rock to almost any kind of stuff, and this album was VERY unpredictable as a Circle album if I understood. So I guess being their long-time listener gives no other device than maybe patience to digest this 2-CD. But if you're a connoisseur of Minimalism, there shouldn't be any difficulties to enjoy this album whether or not you've heard of the group.

The tracks are from 8 to 22 minutes long with two shorter exceptions, and they all pass as 'wallpaper music', that is, with no clearly notable changes during their lengths - or between each other, to generalize cruelly. But that's probably only the surface impression. To a patient listener there is constantly some tiny sonic activity to feed one's inner visions. Forget the usual rhytmic playing of guitars, bass and drums. It's all like abstract painting that at first sight looks empty but with a closer look responds to viewer's own inner space. Chamberry described the piano notes as snow flakes touching the ground, and my impression was the same.The leaflet includes pictures of the band members on a summer cottage surroundings on a snowy winter. Not a word is given to form any exceptations of the music, and the titles don't help much either. Most of them seem like persons' names; first name, surname or an unofficial calling name.

Is it all worth of two hours is a useless question, because the sense of time is better to leave aside when listening to this kind of music. Quite possibly the band improvised and taped many many hours of material and worked the best of it into two hours, instead of stretching a handful of sonic ideas into two hours, as it might seem to many listeners.

The Krautrock of the 21st century.

Guillotine is by far Circle's druggiest album to date. We know that these guys have been doing krautrock influenced music since their early years and with albums like Pori, Hissi, Prospekt, Zopalki, Alotus and Taantumus they've stunned and impressed fans and newcomers everywhere with their simple-yet-effective song writting. Problem is, nobody expected this will come out next.

Over the course of 10 years Circle has changed their musical style quite drastically. Their last detour was heavy metal with their "Sunrise" album and before that the intricate "Taantumus", which many fans consider it to be their best effort. Guillotine is in another different world that they haven't even touched before or after this release. It seems that they were using alot of drugs when recording this album and it can be clearly heard. Song structures aren't really the focus here. The main focus is experimentation. On this album you can see the band at their most "playful" (in the sense of trying new things out) and they aren't shy about it either making this album one of their least accessible, if not the least accessible, album in their discography.

As said earlier, the focus on this album are the experimental tracks and they take the most space on this recording. First of all I have to warn that these tracks aren't all that happy hippie fun stuff that we mostly assimilate to when hearing "psychedelic". These things will scare the hell out of you! These tracks flow together like one long piece with the only pauses are the longer and actual songs. They take you to the scariest mind-altering places you'll ever come across with, like being in a bad trip. Slowed business man conversations in Finnish (not understanding it makes it extra weird) with disturbing electronic bleeps and drones in the background; Directionless out-of-tune jams while manipulated screams assault you; A guy rambling about drugged out of his mind; Screeching and scratching electronics with echoed moans that sound like other worldly creatures. All of those things are executed with a lo-fi sound quality making the experience alot less nicer (in a good way, though). The only adjective that comes to mind when listening to these experimental tracks is disturbing and the album reaches its zenith in creepiness in "Armo". Believe me that you'll have nightmares listening to it while trying to sleep.

The only tracks that can be considered "songs" here are the longer ones. Songs like "Metsan Henget", "Teraskylpy" and "Alta Rautatammien" are all in the 10+ minute mark and show standard Circle song structures (hypnotic melodies played over and over again until loosing the sense of time). While these songs aren't the major on this album they do bring some sort of discipline and order to the whole album. I think of it as the sober moments of the album. My personal favorite of them is "Teraskylpy" which gets more and more intense, distorted and twisted by the minute. It's creepy psychedelic atmosphere adds alot to this song and it feels like if you were in the head of a mad man or a serial killer before making its move.

Listening to this album takes me back in time to Germany in the early 70's. Of course, I wasn't even in the mind of my parents back then, but listening to it reminds me of the Krautrock bands in that era. Sonically speaking, those guys went to places that people only dreamed about (or tripped about...) and Circle is continuing that tradition in the 21st century. Guillotine is an album that will leave you in awe and shock by either its weirdness or sheer creativity. Definitely not for the faint of heart and aimed at the more experimental music adventurers.

It's hard for me to express the feelings I have for this album or even try to express what this album is truly capable of doing. Justice isn't served with this review and one can only understand it by listening to it.