Cornering the Circles
By Reyan Ali
It often happens that the more brilliant artistic movements are the ones that are left to flourish without mainstream attention, as their challenging concepts become relegated to a cultural backdrop, when the truth is that these new ideas deserve a lot more discussion and scrutiny than they end up receiving. The young genre known as “post-rock” is a prime example of this. Composed wholly of bands playing sweeping yet remarkably agile songs entirely without lyrics (with perhaps a spoken word piece meshed into the rare piece), this instrumental movement takes classical influences to a whole new scape, creating savage new terrain using instruments that seemed to have already done everything they can do. In a better world, post-rock would be widely acclaimed for its vast artistic merits and ambitious scope. In a better world, the name of Russian Circles would be recognized immediately.
Birthed in 2004 with the debut of an eponymous EP, the band released the captivating and ornate “Enter” as their first official full length on Flameshovel Records. Russian Circles is the kind of band that epitomizes the best that instrumental music can do without the addition of lyrics, taking tracks that last a minimum of five minutes into valleys and twists that allow the imagination to wander in lushly languid fashion (with a little sliver of metal snuck in). “Death Rides a Horse” uproots any misconceptions of the docility of instrumental music with a chilling rush of latticed guitars that gradually lose tempo to ruminate softly. Then it transforms into a heavier, thicker sprawl, increasing its pace in sordid static before the song levels everything in eyesight as an ending. Every listen marks a change in understanding the song. Every crevice catches a new detail.
The Chicago trio is currently supporting “Station,” released this past May on Suicide Squeeze Records, which was produced and mixed by the extraordinary Matt Bayles (who has previously worked in the studio with names as varied as Botch, Mastadon, Pearl Jam and The Blood Brothers, and can apparently turn any metal into gold). In the past, the Circles have shared bills with acts as varied as Tool, POS, Minus the Bear, and Daughters. Come July 3, they will headline a show at the Ravari Room, promising all of the richly scintillating guitars and melodic moodiness that only the best kind of post-rock can provide.
Originally Published: Issue 657 - July 2, 2008
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