RUSSIAN CIRCLES - Enter

It's often said that post-rock is dead and buried, with people pointing to Slint, Tortoise and Disco Inferno while pretending not to notice the countless bands, sprouting up like mushrooms in every corner of the planet, drawing (often with questionable results, it must be said) on the by-now-established triad of Godspeed You Black Emperor!–Mogwai–Explosions In The Sky. The fact that this “emotional” strand shows no real continuity with the original post-rock says a lot about how shaky the label actually is. Just as telling is the fact that the “post-metal” everyone keeps talking about is actually played by people who have, and want, nothing to do with metal. These Russian Circles are from Chicago, and it's not Tortoise they're looking to, but other illustrious fellow citizens: Pelican, and labels like HydraHead and Neurot, the great temples of the post-sludge scene. And then, of course, Texas's own Explosions In The Sky and that whole school of thought. The links between the two tendencies were already obvious in themselves, but with this record, and with Red Sparowes' excellent “At the Soundless Dawn”, the cross-pollination between the two languages becomes something concrete and tangible.

From the very first notes of “Carpe” the rules of the game are clear: crystalline guitar arpeggios that become a carpet over which descending melodies are laid, epic crescendos, instrumental whirlwinds that grow agitated, stormy, swampy, suffocating, before thinning out to make way for themes that are at once limpid and melancholic, sunlit and moving. It's instrumental music, but it tells of mountains, valleys, rivers, summer downpours and spring wind, expanses of water and snow, rays of light filtering through clouds, rainbows and sudden clearings. Landscapes and shifting weather. Nothing new under the sun, one might say, and that's partly true, but Russian Circles' sonic range spans two genres and skilfully exploits the potential offered by both. Not only that: amid distorted walls somewhere between Neurosis and Mogwai, lava flows born of Pelican and Mastodon, à-la Keelhaul interlocking riffs, stretched-out passages, driving rhythms and shifting moods, the word “progressive” keeps poking its head in. Not that Russian Circles seem to take it as a reference point, but in these structures, in this constant back-and-forth between calm and storm, in the role played by the “beautiful melody” and by undeniable technical skill, one can glimpse a conception of music not so far removed from that of Yes on “Close To The Edge” and “Relayer”.

“Enter” is a record not of ideas and novelty but of emotion, and although the former are not entirely absent, they'd hardly be enough on their own for anyone not attuned to the latter. “Micah” picks up right where the previous track left off, evoking similar sensations, with a similarly structured build. For anyone not already won over by the style, boredom would set in fast, but for this writer, every swell and ebb of tension is dense with imagery and suggestion. “Death Rides A Horse”, one of the album's best moments, dives straight into the action and shows off the full power, expressive charge and virtuosity the band is capable of as a unit, ranging across the heaviest Pelican, Botch, Don Caballero and the ever-present Explosions In The Sky, letting its hardcore roots surface in the rhythms.

“Enter” picks back up the dynamism and evocative power of the first two tracks, with the drums always out front, setting the direction and pushing bass and guitars forward. The real showstopper, though, is “You Already Did”: a calm opening, the usual crescendos and magmatic sludge explosions, and then, around the five-minute mark, the clearing — an arpeggio that could bring tears to your eyes, in the vein of the best Sigur Rós, stretching on into the start of the closing “New Macabre”, with its slightly more indie and sun-drenched interplay, at least before a great Neurosis-esque guitar blast arrives to return energy to the track and bring the record to a close.

A meaningful statement from this band at their debut, and a considerable promise for the future, in the hope that on future albums they manage to trim a few touches of wordiness and keep moving down the path they've set out on, without veering off into technical-virtuoso indulgence, keeping the balance between the two styles they're aiming to merge, perhaps even arriving at a genuine fusion rather than the juxtaposition we hear on “Enter”. An essential record for fans of “emotional” post-rock, though it might leave devotees of Isis, Pelican and Cult Of Luna a bit puzzled, and leave those who feel no connection to this aesthetic and these sounds completely indifferent. In short, not your typical record for everyone — it can deliver huge emotional payoffs for some, while serving as a perfectly good sleeping pill for everyone else.

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24/07/2006