Circle (the Finnish band): S/D

Thanks very much La Lechera!

I have started to tweet Circle-related news-type things here, just in case anyone is interested... https://twitter.com/#!/NWOFHM

shit, thanks Krakow, didn't know about this Split Cranium thing!

Getting my first listen to the Split Cranium 7'' right this instant!

nice! pretty curious about this one but def not spending $9 plus shipping on a 7".

It's good! Fast & heavy. A lot going on in under 3 minutes, it moves quickly. Some nice screaming guitar work.

http://splitcranium.bandcamp.com/

Is it just the one song?

Mixed by Kurt Ballou!! Always nice to see his name!

Yeah, one song & a Daniel Menche mix on the 7''. There is an album in a couple of months too, around March time.

New Jussi solo album out on LP at the end of the month via Full Contact/Svart, see the usual Ektro websites...

placing an order from Profound Lore, and thinking about getting 1-2 of these Circle records from the distro section. what's best of these??

- Rautatie
- Rakennus (live)
- Taaatumus

from searching this thread, i see LOTS of love for Taantumus, not so much for Rautatie (new 2010 album?) and not a peep about Rakennus either way. Taantumus it is.... still would love to hear some chatter though! are the other two any good?

I'm absolutely in love with Rautatie nowadays! It has some amazing hard-rocking catchy tunes on it, for example this absolute stormer... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HblGXkf2LdY

Rautatie = a prog rock explosion, with their most intricate compositions and 3 guitars all tangled together. I LOOOOOVE it, but it is a grower.

Rakkenus = has one KILLER live song, a version of virsi, but otherwise is a straightforward live album that is sorta warts-and-all like a Grateful Dead dick's picks or something

Taantumus = classic, classic, classic and lots of songs/colors

Am rally looking forward to another Jussi solo! Rotta is a wonderful cloudy atmospheric journey

I second liam on all of that.

haha the giant picture of Tuomas is almost too much krakow

not quite though, i want to hang it on my wall! Album rules, too

Thanks liam! It's a belter!

Oddly enough, after being off work for a week, I returned to the shop today to find that a certain Jussi Lehtisalo had bought a CD from us via Amazon marketplace! It certainly livened up the potentially blue first day back at work for me!

Love the record although tbh I remember Here Come The Warm Jets being far straighter on the evening.

i sold a bunch of DVDs today and bought the taantumus LP!
haHA!

can't wait to properly listen to it

I just clicked the button on an exciting, but almost certainly financially foolish, plan that has been bubbling away for several months now...

I'll make my own announcement as soon as feasible, but in the interim...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/558084_10151427547415022_837550021_23334627_1322737226_n.jpg

avant-AOR, ha. Dilation!

Is Hydra Head going to issue Manner in a non-limited way outside of RSD? I know my chances of snagging that are super slim, but I really want to hear it, especially after the positive review in the latest Decibel.

is that your eye?

I read that same review jon and I'm really excited about this one. particularly want to hear the zeuhl (!!!) track.

Haha, one of my friends also asked that Lechera! I am maintaining the possibility! :-)

Thanks for the tip on the review as well folks, it has me even more excited!

new Ratto Ja Lehtisalo is pretty great/crazy! The atmosphere and theatrics have been dialed up considerably and Leppanen is back on board.

A friend told me you can reserve Record Store Day albums in advance? I'm emailing the local store about Manner right this second. I don't know what the deal is with RSD really but I guess I'll just have to be extra-vigilant if I can't reserve a copy. I feel bad for people who don't live near record stores thought!?

You CAN'T reserve record store day items, it's part of the strictly enforced rules of the day. Registering interest with a shop is totally cool though.

If anyone wants the Manner LP and can't procure it from a local independent record shop (which I do encourage you to do) then get in touch with me, as I may end up with spares...

Okay thanks a lot Krakow. Put me on the short list for a spare? I'm gonna go and be there right when they open first thing in the morning but it'd be awesome to have a backup plan!

think i'm just going to end up holding out for a non-RSD release. i'm not going to go stand in a two hour line to not be able to buy this.

Ah, wait, what, you have to wait in a 2 hour line!? I'm very confused by all this, I'm way way out of the loop guys, sorry... surely you get some kind of ticket and at least get to go browse or something in the meantime at the very least? I thought this was supposed to be fun!!!!

i'm sure its different at some stores, but the one nearest my house last year made everyone wait outside while the line slowly shuffled to the front of the store where you were allowed to point to the remaining releases that hadn't been crossed off the master list already. no browsing allowed. it was horrible and has pretty much put me off RSD completely. i'm sure there are many record stores that handle the atmosphere much better, but i've yet to have an RSD where i get even 1/10 of the releases i want. i don't like to spend a lot of extra time in a crowded record store to be letdown.

I wouldn't necessarily expect the Circle LP to sell-out immediately, certainly not everywhere, so you should be able to visit many a shop at your leisure later in the day on RSD to pick up a copy.

I've ordered a lot of copies, because of my personal obsession and its crossover with/spillover to a lot of my friends who will be picking it up, but I do expect to have some left after RSD is finished.

We run the queue system for the first few hours, only letting in as many people in as we can serve at one time (with all four staff members on), because otherwise it descends into absolute mayhem and genuine fighting and only a couple of people can browse the RSD-specific racks at one time anyway. By the time the main queue has gone down, which is a couple of hours, things are basically back to a busy version of normal.

seattle's a big vinyl & indie record store town, but i've never seen anyhing like that here. long lines, sure, but browsing encouraged. stores just get CRAMMED for a few hours early in the day. then again, i didn't go last year, so maybe everything's gotten exponentially worse, i dunno...

well, to be fair, i am talking about the first couple hours they were open, i'm sure it was better later in the day. but i was about halfway into the line and they were already down to about 10% of the list actually available by the time i got to the counter.

i mean, i don't want to crowd up the awesome circle thread with this, but i really hate the way the RSD focus is now just all about people on a scavenger hunt for specific, artificially limited items instead of just celebrating record stores in general.

Thanks all for the info! My local store's getting a few copies so I'm sure it'll work out.

The new RjL is righteously awesome, with a very eclectic and experimental prog feel!!! A lot of the songs resemble stuff from Mika's main band, Kuusumun Profeetta, only super-powered by Jussi's relentless riffage and Leppanen's usual ultra precise drumming. Ratto deploys a lot of different keyboard sounds, particularly organ sounds and the fender rhodes also makes a few appearances. The album is soaked in reverb and there's a lot of experimenting with nifty effects and of course pop hooks galore. All and all, a very rich tapestry and a nice progression from the colorful UUmama.

Plus there's a lightning fast barn burner of a song seemingly about Anne Frank!!!!

I love "Le Mans", but am still waiting for the CD to hear more...

I picked up the RSD release 30 min before the store was about to close and the clerk was like "Hey, I think they played here earlier today" (this was at Reckless) and I looked at him like o_O really? And he insisted and then we realized that he meant Circles. Anyway, I think they had other copies JVC, if you want one.

I didn't know it had a cover of HERE COME THE WARM JETS on it!?!?! Packaging is beautiful too.

Anyway, that's my update.

I managed to score one of these, as someone had (deliberately?) hidden it amongst the stack of stock for some other band. The eyeball sticker on the LP is torn, which is a tiny bummer, but other than that - Jesus, it's gorgeous. The vinyl is white with red vein-y swirls!

Only spotted black vinyl here in the UK. If anyone finds spare copies of the 'red eye' or 'eyeball' coloured versions, then I would love them, please!

I got mine at Rough Trade East, so some of them made their way over here. I didn't know there were multiple versions.

I had 10 copies in store, all black. Would love to get the other colours myself too!

I'm sure it would cost a fortune shipping-wise, but HydraHead is selling the other colors (but running out very quickly, by all accounts): http://www.hydraheadlines.blogspot.co.uk/

Yeah, shipping for 2 LPs is far too expensive for me, unfortunately. If anyone in UK or Europe spots the coloured ones, you can trust me to purchase them from you, if you felt so kind!

I got the white eye with veins version! It's in perfect condition, no tears or anything. Also sounds great!

Anyway I think Reckless has more copies -- they did at closing time last night.

She Got The Shakes: I got mine from RTE in the same manner...

Might have a lead on an eyeball version! Excited! Open record shop open!