<\/p>\n
coverart<\/a> – – track listing<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n i’ll state from the outset so as to avoid any accusations of street teaming, i love the music making alter ego of artist jeremy shaw, circlesquare<\/strong>.<\/p>\n in an age where people try and cram their audio channels with as much compressed shit as possible, it’s great to hear modern electronic music where one of the main factors is space and atmosphere.<\/p>\n you see, jeremy, like the bands logo, and the cover art, likes to keep his music stripped back to the raw essentials.<\/p>\n waste is not a recognised word in the world of circlesquare<\/strong>.<\/p>\n throughout these 8 tracks. attention to the detail is paramount.<\/p>\n the music of circlesquare<\/strong> has a limited sonic toolbox, but jeremy knows how to use such restrictions better than anyone else.<\/p>\n having released one album, one ep, and a smattering of extra tracks for limited 7" singles on the excellent but ultimately flawed output recordings<\/u> label, jeremy relocated to the centre of all thing minimal, berlin, signed to !k7<\/u>, and set about releasing one of the best albums of 2009.<\/p>\n [note : having listened to this constantly in the last few weeks i wanted to add this to my best-of for 2008, but the release date is jan’09, thereby messing up my plans]<\/p>\n forged from the same elements as previous releases, songs about dancing and drugs<\/font>, continues with the love for simple but effective synths, drum machine rhythms, layered monotonic vocals, and copious appearances from his beloved twang guitar.<\/p>\n the effects are often spellbinding.<\/p>\n songs gradually build up from a simple handclap beat, or hissy sample, to a careful, but ear pleasing combination of digitally enhanced bleeps and dub bass heavy rumbles supplemented with spoken\/whispered lyrics that are often looped\/layered\/echoed to maximum effect. <\/p>\n for example, the climax of album opener, hey you guys,<\/font> and mid-album highlight with its throbbing synth line, ten to one<\/font>, both extol in this particular sonic trademark, yet providing hooks that will hit hard by the fourth listen.<\/p>\n while the album title may imply this is a superficial listen whereby style has more value than substance, the vague lyrical and sonic heaviness of the world weary groove of bombs away, away<\/font>, puts such suggestions to bed. uneasy listening never sounded so right. just try to keep those tears at bay when the trumpet solo kicks in.<\/p>\n then to bring this downtrodden perfection to a close, is the 13 minute closer, all live but the ending.<\/font> where real sounding drums are placed amongst cut up vocals, twitchy bleeps, and treated guitars for several minutes, before the song restructures and morphs into something even more powerful giving way to a brilliant tension creating crescendo.<\/p>\n as i said earlier, ever since i chanced upon pre-earthquake anthem<\/font> 3 years ago, i have loved listening to circlesquare<\/strong>. thankfully, this latest episode in the bands story, makes such statements of dedication all the more easy.<\/p>\n a brilliant album.<\/p>\n