Circle Takes The Square - As The Roots Undo
Even as you just hold the CD you are in awe. The packaging is up to ludicrous speed. There is an elaborate bird/root motif on the cover that looks like it's made of this crazy shiny, glossy stuff, and then, you open it like a parcel (it seems like the elven bread from Lord of the Rings; you know? those little leaf packages they keep their bread in?). You unfold the case to unveil the disc and the lyrics sheet that's attached to the inside. The envelope just sprawls out, which is what the music will do when you put it on.
It is difficult for me to really sum up all the Circle Takes the Square is. I feel that they encompass a lot of different feels and ideas while obviously remaining a screamo band. The overall musicianship is intense, spazzy, and tight in all senses. There are only 3 band memebers so their hyper-technical and loud musically style on each instrument creates a stable din. If it was a typical 5-person screamo band, I feel they'd just make a bunch of noise, but Circle Takes the Square can shift from chaotically intense to sparsly attractive in an instant, which all hinges around the band's dynamic. They have a male screamer and a female screamer who interplay and interweave their vocals lines with fluidity and exciting frequency. It's like watching a great rally during a tennis match to hear them go back and forth in the way that's not cloying like some weird rap shout out with call and response. This is more of a peer to peer level than an MC to posse one. The guitar and bass though, overlap completely. There is a sense of integration and working together instead of competing or alternating like the vocals, and considering the almost grind-esque drumming at times, tightness is essential, and Circle Takes the Square really excels there. What I find most exhilirating about this album though is their tendency to use long meandering interludes. Many screamo bands do the long, instrumental section thing but few do it with the tone and atmosphere Circle Takes the Square does. The CD is so baroque and epic that by having these ambient section, they can cut up their songs. It makes the CD play like it has movements instead of a normal modern structure. Circle Takes the Square truly embraces the sense of classical music by incorporating sequences, imitations, key changes, interesting voicings, motifs, and movements to make a truly trascendent CD. Imagine everything that makes classical music intriguing and intense superimposed onto modern screamo with the capacity for genius lyrics, equally emotive vocals, and tight musicianship. This is it. The real deal. Here we go.
Intro
I'm sort of having of whether of not this song actually has a name. My automatic tracklist function assigned it this name but whatever. It's neat. This tracks has a nice, soft, whispered, whistling melody that establishes the first main motif. It's something that we'll hear later on but in a much more intense and driving form. This track is sort of a foreshadowing of melodic ventures in the future and sets the tone a bit. It sounds forced and sputtered and then a chant comes in the background. It's extremely eerie and odd to here these two overlaying sounds and makes everything sound melodic yet ominous. The whistling has a quavering factor to it, which is the way Drew, the guitarist sings often. He lets his voice oscillate and go out of control. Anyway, this is only a prelude and I'm spending too much time on it.
2.5/5
Same Shade As Concrete
[Personally, its one of my favourite track. I hope to put it on repeat but the next song is just as good.]
"Rejoice, rejoice a noble birth!" Indeed. That's how we start it out. Already the lyrics are some of pompous yet also very classical. It reminds me of a more Victorian dialect. This I guess fits it with how florid and pastoral the album art seems. Very antiquated and stuff. I don't know how to describe it. It feels like it could fit into Lord of the Rings somehow. I don't know. Anyway, the song takes off going insane for a long time. There's an alternation of crazy spazz drumming with more beat based stuff but even the beats are delightfully awkward when they come in. I like the guitar that repeats the bass ideas. They sort of follow each other and then spin out in line with the crazy drumming. There are a bunch of cool little leads throughout this song. Then it breaks up into a clean chord weird part. Ooo I hear that little funny wood instrument. Essentially this is the quieter interlude to pull out of the insanity. Still, it's intense and has a lot of interesting arpeggiation going on. Then the song picks up again and reintroduces the clean chords but they're played much faster so as to keep the pace up. Then as soon as we are launched back out, we are brought down to the "Wait in the water" bridge. It starts with basic guitar work and then a lead is added on top of that and the female vocals harmoinze over the male stuff. Guitar adds distortion and embellishes. Then they pull out the octave chords and then the grind beat! Pull it back and introduce a little mechanical hum which is super cool and can be heard through the rest of the song that truly gives it a driving propulsion. They end on the same octave chord progression as earlier but the girl is screaming too and everything is crescendoing so hard it hurts but yet it feels so so good at the same time. Wow. Yes.
5/5
Crowquill
The best lyrics on the album by far. They can be found at www.circletakesthesquare.com and I highly suggest you read them. Also, this can be found on www.hxcmp3.com/bands/1710. The song starts with a cool bass downslide thing with some great drumming. They do a really hard hit on the hats and then close them and do a fast fast beat and repeat. The song explodes again to run all over the fretboard and drum set. It's extremely intense for a bit and then they pull back for spoken word part with really awesome drum accents. This is the height of drumming on the CD if you ask me. So freakin' awesome. Then the intensity picks up in a repeat of the earlier part and then we are sent into a spill out and breakdown of the drums until only screaming and guitar are left. Slowly the drums come back in with a pretty cool danceable beat. The lyrics hear are so genius and catchy and tie in with the song really well. This one part got me hooked on the band and helped me appreicate Drew's voice. At first I felt it abraded too much but it really is awesome once you get used to it. It can really hold a lot of emotion. THe song then picks up again and starts to end with some cool guitar spazzing. It sounds like when you put up the distortion and just let your fingers noodle around as fast as you can even if you can't play all the notes. Good effect. Then the song calms down, giving the listener just a moment to breathe.
5/5
In the Nervous Light of Sunday
This song is a repeat of the one on their EP, but whoa they really made it count didn't they? I find the EP version to be really sloppy and having a more refined version just inks the deal for me. They always had the emotion on this one, they just needed to pull it all together. Oh did they ever. THe song starts with another moneybanks crazy part. The best element is how that they'll go crazy and then have little break periods for everything to recover. In the first one they have a cool guitar riff, then "a woman's work is never done." Then after that they extent the riff to last longer as they sing "as you curse..." The song then has a breakdownish type thing happen. The chords change at a slower rate and then a clean guitar comes out for a bit and then the beat comes back in a really cool fill right back to the intense parts. Then a reprise of "as you curse..." It's funny how it's only 1/3 into the song but already so much has happened. This part is great. There's a straight bass drum note hit as the guitar plays a pretty line and the bass accompanies. The vocals pick up cleanly until Drew picks up the song with one of my favorite pickups into a part where he screams so loudly and emotinally his voice cracks. It's so intense! "All I ever asked/Was for a clean break" is easily one of the most memorable and poignant parts of the CD. It's just one massive hit. Then there's a little more intensity until they interplay between a clean guitar and octave guitar situation and then spill out into the outro. "In the nervous light of Sunday" is the vocal line that breaks everything down as the instruments back off and enter an ambient part at around 5 minutes. This starts the second main movement, which is the fairly ambient and calm section of the album.
4/5
Interview at the Ruins
I don't really like this song. Like it's sort of cool but it's too unmoving for me. They repeat the same instrumental parts while there's this weird ominous spoken track over the top and what sounds like people digging through plastic chips. The song picks up for a bit in the beginning but in general it's just to make it so the song isn't completely static. The best part about it is how it's the reintroduction of the main motif and this time instead of being flute it's on the piano. The voices come in halfway through the song and start talking below the main mix and singing and everything. This goes on for a bit and then the music retracts and the voices are left mostly alone. It sounds like Will Ferrel from Old School when he gets hit in the neck with the dart and everything slows down. Weirdo. The song ends only the vocals singing "As the roots undo"'s reprise.
2.5/5
Non-Objective Portrait of Karma
This song takes a more ambient spin on the instrumental ideas of the previous two songs. There's a lot more droning and tones that aren't really associated with instruments. It's actully freakin' cool. They add a new instrument every so often or a new sound to build the dynamics of the droning part. The beat picks up and then the tempo increases I think. The drumming for sure gets more intense and I dunno. It seems like there's a tempo shift but it's one of those gradual building ones, which are extremely elusive. Props to CTTS I guess then. The whispered vocals are pretty cool. The pickup is fucking amazing too. "I'll sleep through the night" brings the song back up to where it's supposed to be. It's the beginning of the 3rd and final movement as well as one of the most full throttle screamo songs I've ever heard. There's an amazing alternation between the fast grindish beat and the calm smoother beat with the guitar and bass following suit with leads and then chords. And then , as soon as the song picks up, it goes back down. There's a lot of volume and distortion but the song starts to dwindle back down. Then there's only bass. This lull is a nice break from the insanity but in reality it's just getting your prepped for the awesome chant and then scream pickup that finishes off the song. They repeat this choir/band situation for a long time until they song ends and they launch into the final 2 tracks. In the end, they spend too much time building everything up and don't capitalize on the amazing parts while they are.
4/5
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