Russian Circles

Music in all its forms and styles
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Re: Russian Circles

Post by earthrocker »

"This is our seventh album," Chicago post-rock group Russian Circles tell Louder of their new album, Blood Year.

As the group stood on the cusp of the recording sessions for the new record, it turned out tackling their seventh album would leave them facing some big questions.

"What do you do when you’ve written seven albums? Do you pull a U2 and make an electronic infused record like Zooropa, or hire KRS-One to rap on your first song like R.E.M. did on Out of Time? Frankly, that’s not our style."

They found their answers in the work of the experimental pioneers who came before them – bands who've carved out their own path while staying resolutely true to their vision.

"We chose to stay the course like Fugazi, Lungfish, or Neurosis," the band say.

The result is a typically progressive, powerful record, that throws together exploratory jams, relentless riffs, bold experimentation, battle cries, as well as the odd "unapologetically straight-forward song". It finds them expanding their sound while building on a back catalogue of genuinely innovative music.

Here, the band talk us through Blood Year one track at a time.

Hunter Moon
"We don’t start the writing process for a new album with a lot of pre-conceived ideas of what we’re trying to create. We just let things happen and trust that if the music works for us on some visceral level, then it will work for other people too. But the one thing we talked about before we’d even finished writing our first song was that we wanted the album to crash out of the gate with something bold and assertive. Our last two albums both started with more somber, subdued pieces, and we really wanted to dive straight into the concentrated stuff this time around.

But then Mike showed us this really simple, meditative guitar part he’d written and we all fell in love with it, and then when it came time to sequence the album, the only place it really made sense was at the very start of the record. So I guess this is why we don’t spend a lot of time talking creative strategies on the front end, because ultimately we’re just gonna go with whatever sounds right to our ears."

Arluck
"This was the first song we wrote for Blood Year and it went through about a hundred different permutations before we arrived at this version. When I was younger, I was a firm believer in 'your first idea is your best idea.' But I can say with certainty that this arrangement is much stronger after spending weeks and weeks fiddling with it. We tinkered and tampered with this song right up through the first few takes in the studio, and then it just sort of magically fell into place. The title is an homage to the band Sweet Cobra, who lost their guitar player Mat Arluck to cancer ten years ago. They’ve been some of our closest friends in the Chicago music scene, and this song feels indebted to both them and the broader Chicago underground for providing so much musical inspiration to us over the years."


Milano
"Songs like Arluck involve a lot of exploring and modifying, but Milano just kinda happened. Mike had a few guitar parts that fit together and when he showed them to us at practice, we decided to just jam on them to feel it out and inadvertently banged out the song on the spot. There was some refinement on all our parts, but by and large, we really just jammed this one out after a couple of passes. I think we were all secretly fiending to write an unapologetically straight-forward song, and this is what we came up with."

Kohokia
"This one is the dark horse of the album. The opening sections of this song just feel so stark and bleak. I love how exposed and barren everything feels. We tend to try to completely saturate our sound and try to make this layered, symphonic experience, but with Kohokia there was more of a reductive principle at play. And that makes the pay-offs in the song that more triumphant. The whole song is a study in contrast."


Ghost On High
"I’d actually written this piece on my baritone guitar back in 2011, but it’s always just sat on the backburner until we started piecing together the beginning of the next track Sinaia and we realised that there was a lot of melodic overlap.

As I mentioned earlier, we don’t really have a pre-meditated strategy to our albums, but we had all talked about making a more stripped-down and assertive album this time around, and I think Ghost On High is one of the few concessions to the more atmospheric and pensive aspect of our sound on Blood Year. I don’t think we could ever make a record that caters entirely to any singular dimension to our sound. There has to be a yin to the yang. So Ghost On High and Hunter Moon are the two moments of respite in an otherwise dense, relentless, and heavy album."

Sinaia
"This is another highlight off the album for me. I like our songs that offset the dark brooding vibe with a glimmer of hope or triumph.

I feel like the verses of this song sound like a battle cry, and then the middle of the song feels like crushing defeat, but then there’s this redemption with the triumphant riff coming back at the end. This is also an unusual one in that there’s a baritone guitar riff in here that’s been stuck in my head for nearly a decade, and it somehow magically fit in with Mike’s guitar part. And the riff that comes in around the four minute mark has been in our repertoire for years, and it finally found a home in this song. Ultimately, it feels like a song that took half-a-decade to write, but only because it had to gestate in our subconscious."

Quartered
"We’ve always felt like we could do whatever we want on our records, and that open-mindedness meant we could write a song like Memorial or a song like 309 or a song like Praise Be Man or a song like Carpe and they’d all make sense together. But I think we we’re also aware that we like a specific kind of pacing and trajectory for our albums, and that usually means we close the album with a song that’s more reserved and melancholic. So this time we just put the most caveman, knuckle-dragging riff-fest at the end of our album just to mix things up. No keyboards or hip-hop cameos. You’re welcome."
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nxrm
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Re: Russian Circles

Post by nxrm »

^Thanks for sharing this.

I listened to the album a few times this weekend and it's really growing on me.

I think the first half of the album is great: Hunter Moon, Arluck, Milano, and Kohokia really work well together and feel like a cohesive musical movement. There is a point about half way through Kohokia though where something changes though, and kind of looses steam for me.

Ghost on High does provide a nice moment to reflect on the first half of the album and take breath as well.

As for Sinaia and Quartered, I think they're good tracks, although they seem to stand out as more independent of each other and the album as a whole, and I get more of a horror movie vibe from them. Not bad, just different than the first half.

Overall I like the album and think it's a great addition to their catalog, and I'm sure my thoughts and feelings will change the more I listen to it.

Really looking forward to seeing them live in September.
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Re: Russian Circles

Post by hellboy »

I don't mind the album. It felt pretty short to me, and while I don't think it's their best, it is enjoyable. Need to spin it a few more times.
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Re: Russian Circles

Post by Moridin »

Blood Year is taking a good while to settle in for me. It hasn't come close to Empros & Memorial, but it's solid. Quartered is a motherfucker. Kohokia is probably my favourite.

I just realised, RC's first album came out the exact same month Tool's last album came out.
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Re: Russian Circles

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I saw Russian Circles last night at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles. Epic show. Definitely worth checking out if they're coming to your town.

Mon, SEP 23 - The Nile Theatre - Mesa, AZ
Tue, SEP 24 - Meow Wolf- Santa Fe, NM
Wed, SEP 25 - Bluebird Theater - Denver, CO
Sat, SEP 28 - Thalia Hall - Chicago, IL

Fri, OCT 18 - The Pyramid Scheme - Grand Rapids, MI
Sat, OCT 19 - El Club - Detroit, MI
Sun, OCT 20 - Lee's Palace - Toronto, Canada
Mon, OCT 21 - Théâtre Fairmount - Montreal, Canada
Wed, OCT 23 - 3S Artspace - Portsmouth, NH
Thu, OCT 24 - The Sinclair - Cambridge, MA
Sat, OCT 26 - Warsaw - Brooklyn, NY
Sun, OCT 27 - Union Transfer - Philadelphia, PA
Tue, OCT 29 - Union Stage - Washington, DC
Wed, OCT 30 - The Broadberry - Richmond, VA
Fri, NOV 1 - Motorco Music Hall - Durham, NC
Sat, NOV 2 - Neighborhood Theatre - Charlotte, NC
Mon, NOV 4 - One Eyed Jacks - New Orleans, LA
Wed, NOV 6 - The Secret Group - Houston, TX
Fri, NOV 8 - Levitation - Austin, TX
Sat, NOV 9 - Deep Ellum Art Co. - Dallas, TX
Mon, NOV 11 - Delmar Hall - St. Louis, MO
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Re: Russian Circles

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Was able to catch this show last week! Damn they are a tight band. 2nd time seeing them and they did not disappoint again. The drummer, Dave Turncranz, is soooo good. Tool need to do another tour with these dudes!
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nxrm
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Re: Russian Circles

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basejumper wrote: Thu Nov 07, 2019 9:23 am Was able to catch this show last week! Damn they are a tight band. 2nd time seeing them and they did not disappoint again. The drummer, Dave Turncranz, is soooo good. Tool need to do another tour with these dudes!
Right on! Definitely looking forward to seeing them again if/when they return to LA. \m/
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Re: Russian Circles

Post by ziggy23 »

- You like noisy music?
- Yes. The louder the better. Stops me from thinking.
- You don't like to think? What do you like?
- Never thought about it.
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Re: Russian Circles

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^Love it! \m/
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Re: Russian Circles

Post by earthrocker »

Russian Circles has announced their first new record in three years Gnosis for August 19

https://found.ee/rc-gnosis

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Re: Russian Circles

Post by Calfium Jay »

^
That was actually pretty good. It's been a long, long time since I last listened to these guys.
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Re: Russian Circles

Post by earthrocker »

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nxrm
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Re: Russian Circles

Post by nxrm »

Love both the new tracks. So looking forward to their upcoming tour. \m/
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Re: Russian Circles

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Re: Russian Circles

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So Long, and Thanks for All the Tool.
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Re: Russian Circles

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Gnosis. I dig it.

Going to be a treat to hear these new songs live.
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Re: Russian Circles

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nxrm wrote: Thu Aug 18, 2022 10:45 pm Gnosis. I dig it.

Going to be a treat to hear these new songs live.
Digging Gnosis, as well. Been listening all day!
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Re: Russian Circles

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Specter wrote: Sun Aug 21, 2022 11:05 am
nxrm wrote: Thu Aug 18, 2022 10:45 pm Gnosis. I dig it.

Going to be a treat to hear these new songs live.
Digging Gnosis, as well. Been listening all day!
Right on! Some heavy moments on this album. Even more impressed by it after a few listens at this point. Really looking forward to their upcoming tour.
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Re: Russian Circles

Post by earthrocker »

Mike Sullivan revealed that there’s likely more new music coming on the horizon and that the new EP would have songs that were originally slated for Gnosis but dropped in favor of consistency.

“It feels good to finally have it out because it was recorded so long ago. When we handed in the record, we realized—with the vinyl delays, you had to request X amount of records to be released on X date, and we requested a single LP, and when we turned in the record, we had enough material for two LPs, not even realizing that we had written that much, or that it was that much over the requirement for just a single LP"
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Re: Russian Circles

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earthrocker wrote: Tue Sep 20, 2022 5:50 am Mike Sullivan revealed that there’s likely more new music coming on the horizon and that the new EP would have songs that were originally slated for Gnosis but dropped in favor of consistency.
A follow-up EP with those additional tracks would be great.

Here's the full article: New Noise Magazine: RUSSIAN CIRCLES ON PANDEMIC LIFE AND ARENA TOURS
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Re: Russian Circles

Post by fortysixand2 »

I'm loving the new album and I can't wait to hear it live in Louisville in October!
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Re: Russian Circles

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So Long, and Thanks for All the Tool.
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Re: Russian Circles

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Russian Circles heading to New Zealand and Australia in 2024: https://russiancirclesband.com/shows
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Re: Russian Circles

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nxrm wrote: Thu Oct 26, 2023 6:12 pm Russian Circles heading to New Zealand and Australia in 2024: https://russiancirclesband.com/shows
Yeah, they announced this a few months back. This is in my calendar - but every Tom, Dick and Harry seems to be touring in the next 6 months, and the wallet can only take so much.
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Re: Russian Circles

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hellboy wrote: Thu Oct 26, 2023 9:05 pm
nxrm wrote: Thu Oct 26, 2023 6:12 pm Russian Circles heading to New Zealand and Australia in 2024: https://russiancirclesband.com/shows
Yeah, they announced this a few months back. This is in my calendar but every Tom, Dick and Harry seems to be touring in the next 6 months, and the wallet can only take so much.
I hear ya. There are definitely a few shows I'm on the fence about going to as well. Plus, I'm still recovering from buying Tool tickets for next year.
So Long, and Thanks for All the Tool.
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