Friday, April 28, 2006  1:15 pm 

CIRCLE SQUARE EGG: Massimo’s post

This is a post by Massimo one of those people who’s pushing the ’scene’ forwards which I guess means doing his own thing with passion and excellent taste, because people are wise and pay attention, wait, maybe I’ve been reading too much Rousseau, anyway, Massimo has also been making it hard for your 20JFG kids who want to quit smoking to quit smoking. I’m joking, of course, your 20JFG kids don’t have any willpower whatsoever. So there you go people, enjoy and say thanks! Apologies to Massimo for taking so long to get it done as well…

Circle come from Finland and have been cranking out their high velocity space-metal-jazz-folk-kraut-psych mantras since 1991 or thereabouts. They also just seem to get better every year. This latest sees them accentuating the METAL (the inscription NWOFHM appears in large letters in the CD insert) a little more than they have since 2000’s *amazing* Sunrise. While numerous members have passed through the school of Circle over the years, some of whom still turn up on the studio recordings, the touring line-up has now more or less stabilised into a super-tight four piece assault unit. They could well be one of the best live bands you will ever see.

Mainstay and ‘leader’ Jussi Lehtisalo is a large and hairy viking-esque Unstoppable Bass Machine. Current and remarkable drummer Tomi Leppanen sits very, very still behind his minimal kit with the demeanor and posture of a monk practising the Alexander Technique, while playing breathtaking hyperspeed and ultra-precise motorik in eyes-shut meditation; a wry smile occasionally betrays his glee at the controlled chaos being wrought. Guitar man Janne Westerlund fires out effortless eterna-riffs and sick-string invention so casually that you may not even notice what’s happening until you catch yourself rocking like an ayahuasca crazed beserker. And now a permanent member of the band is vocalist / keyboard player / percussionist Mika Ratto, who’s astonishing rock-operatics mode does at times (as others have observed) resemble nothing so much as a cross between Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Rob Halford. What do you mean that sounds horrendous?

When this lot lock into one of their patented future-rock hypno-grooves (which takes them all of around .0001 microseconds as we witnessed in the sound check for their last Brighton sortie), there can’t be many bands on the planet to match them (Oneida? Now? The Necks?.) Can were never this good live, least not on the evidence I’ve heard. So yeah, there’s a big K*******k repetition thing going on here but these guys have the good sense to understand that the ecstatic utopian impulse can sometimes be more effectively communicated when donned up in body armour fashioned from high-tech metal alloys of possibly extraterrestrial origin, and maybe a bit of leather.

We had them over to Brighton for a Superbo! show at the Engine Room in July last year (along with Little Trophy and Burning Idiot Noise), so here’s two tracks from that EVENT. The second one is called ‘Tulilintu’, a version of which appears on the Tulikoira CD recently(ish) released on Lehtisalo’s Ektro Records label. The first track, I’m not sure what it’s called but that don’t matter do it?

Circle- two tracks live @ the Engine Room, Brighton on the 10th

TRANSFORMER - PRODUCED AND CREATED BY DAVID STOUGHTON (ELEKTRA LP, 1968)

You’re not going to like this.

This is an LP I still know very little about, but I’m a bit reluctant to go a-googling in pursuit of further knowledge lest it spoil the fun. See, I bought it by mistake thinking it was something else that I’d heard years ago (which vaguely-remembered recording turned out to be the Beau album Napoleon Dynamite‘Creation’ on John Peel’s Dandelion Records, if you are interested). ‘Creation’ does indeed have its moments, but Stoughton’s opus also turns out to be an intriguing artifact in itself.

Announced on the sleeve as ‘TRANSFORMER - Produced & Created by David Stoughton’, with what I assume is Stoughton’s own face looming large against a blue sky and partly obscured by a foregrounded thorny twig (making it look like some future solo effort by a Board Of Canada), it appears to be the work of a self-appointed auteur singer-songwriter / experimentalist. Yeah, one of those. Singer-songwriters are not generally my ‘thing’, but this is a bit different. It’s a bit odd and doesn’t readily fit into any continuum I’m aware of.

Lyrically the songs tackle themes such as the futility and crappiness of having a life-sapping job (’The Sun Comes Up Each Day’), boredom and its cures (’The Anecdote Of Horatio & Julie’), and a good dose of skewed yet incisive discussion of that old favourite, lurv (’Saving For A Rainy Day’, ‘I Don’t Know If It’s You’).

Dave has enlisted a band to help him realise his ‘creations’ and he himself plays guitar throughout, but only sings on side two. There’s lots of trumpet, flute and piccolo (I said you wouldn’t like it), highly melodic bass guitar, and tinny pointillist drumming that recalls Billy Higgins’ playing on Don Cherry’s ‘Brown Rice’ LP. Instrumentally there’s a kind of spindly circuitousness and fluid angularity at work here that is more than a little reminiscent of a group like Bablicon. Or possibly Belle & Sebastian as directed by Don Van Vliet. I should say that these are not necessarily things I would normally consider to be recommendations of any kind at all. It also puts me in mind of a less arch, more arty Divine Comedy, but I don’t want to put you off the whole idea that badly, I do actually quite like this record.

But really the most surprising and pleasing aspect of Stoughton’’s trip, maybe it’s salvation, is the unruly presence on at least two of the songs of some actually-quite-good-in-context Varese / Stockhausen / Cage / Schaeffer style tapes-and-electronics jiggery pokery.

David Stoughton- I Don’t Know If It’s You

Say thanks we said, well, why don’t you go to the Lectern in Lewes Road tonight to witness it happening, in an event that will include Massimo doing his thing, as well as Raised by Wolves, Andy & Matt’s wizard-warriot outfit, now joined by one suave Jack you might now from the mighty Guillotines, and other shenanigans and special guests…8-11, be there or die square

Nicked this one from kicky…

…Who will be playing some records (or maybe fancy ‘mp3s’) with the ever-powerful Nikon Driver (they are the unbeatable It Came from the Sea gang but you already know cos you know, soon you’re going to have them in London so get ready), Sarah Pain,, Johnny Rocks & Steve Chaos and other people at the Volks club on saturday, 11-6, we’ll be bringing the pain from 1 til 2, expect Hawnay Troof, Crystal Castles, 80s electric boogaloo, erease errata and god knows what else, all in the smallest basement you ever imagined, bitch. It’s the All time top 100 anniversary, and it will rock (again, whatever that means) paper scissors.

Talking about Chaos Rocks, that’s happening tomorrow at the Concorde, Steve and Johnny bring their own ace blend of electro (not) clash techno punk funk, the new wave of heavy metal french glitch and god knows how many other cool things, Boys Noise guest and the sexy mentalists german Grace Jones meets ESG Spektrum outfit play live. Be there and die wasted.

labels >> xxjfg