Circle- Infektio (Conspiracy Records CORE102)

Circle has returned with their 3^rd release in about 6 months in 2011. This has been getting quite mixed reviews but I was pretty impressed. This is pressed in 3 different colors of vinyl, each in 500 copies, I believe. This material was recorded in Tampere and Pori, Finland in 2010. The opening 15min track features a 4^th guitar player to this three guitar player line up (Ash Bowie). Salvos is a slowly evolving track and pretty spacey, floating and psychedelic. The track has lots of strange sounds, added percussion, small guitar parts floating in and out and more synthesizers and keyboards than usual. Very cool. Maatunut has that more hypnotic Jussi bass driving the track and some really far out vocals by Mika and more piano. Did they play this one when I saw them last year? Side B stars wither Peruuttamaton for 8 mins and this is a strange track that seems to be starting a lot of different ideas but the band never follows any of the leads. Interesting. Pisara again features Ash and has some really cool guitar parts as the band is creating cool layers. Saarnaaja is a fast paced piece with some cool keyboards and different guitars phasing in and out of the sound but it ends quickly after 3½ mins. Kalpea is another short 3 min piece and spaced out. I don’t think these short pieces work very well but they are pretty cool. Very interesting more experimental record.

http://www.circlefinland.com  http://www.conspiracyrecords.com/