Circle X

Circle X

Prehistory

Drag City

***A reissue of Circle X’s first full-length album. Prehistory was recorded in 1981 and released in 1983 by Index Records, making them, strangely enough, labelmates with Wall of Voodoo. Circle X were formed in 1978 from the remnants of NO FUN and the I-HOLES, Louisville, Kentucky’s first two punk bands. Circle X got the hell out of Dodge quickly enough, settling upon New York, then Dijon, France, and then back to New York again. Prehistory is a tire-burning left turn from the band's earlier EP. The pendulum arc of TONY PINOTTI’s vocals still contain throat-shredding howls, but expands to contain croons, moans, speech. BRUCE WITSIEPE’s lacerating guitar is dumped into a dubbish aquarium of reverb, and RIK and DAVE LETENDRE worry obsessive polyrhythms nearly to death.The music of these Louisville-NYC art-punk-rockers continues to exist bafflingly outside of time—so when better than 42 years after initial release to reissue their album debut on vinyl? New listeners will find, in addition to the roiling compulsion of its odd, dance-damaged clockwork and synthesis of feral and aestheticized values, a refined understanding of the width and breadth of “post-punk” music, from any era, known or unknown.

Circle X

S/t

Insolito

***Formed 1978 in New York, Circle X was born out of the ashes of No Fun and the I-Holes as Louisville's first punk rock band. Once the lineup of Circle X solidified, the former punk band lunged headfirst into weirder, artier territory. Whether the big city's burgeoning No Wave scene influenced Circle X or they influenced the scene is unclear; what is clear, though, is that Circle X was the most unique, most mysterious, and most un-heralded band hailing from that place and time. In France for nine months with new manager Bernard Zekri, Circle X toured from their base in Dijon, garnering strong press and stronger public reaction while writing new material as they went. An untitled four-song EP saw the light of day in 1979. That untitled 12-inch debut was practically without precedent. It's a lurching, squalling monster. Identified only by a symbol on the cover (a spray-painted circle with an "X" through it; the spelled-out name first appeared in '83), it pits Pinotti's screeched vocals against Witsiepe and the Letendres' bass-less, barely contained distorto-blare. The hatred and rage on this thing is palpable and when it coalesces perfectly with the music, as it does on the lead track, Tender, it's pretty damn effective. Nothing sounded like this in 1979. They arrived in New York at the tail end of No Wave, at the same time that equally ornery bands like Swans and Sonic Youth were getting revved up. Circle X are every bit as distinctive and attitudinal...