Concentric Circles

Lo Yo Yo, The

s/t

Concentric Circles

London’s The Lo Yo Yo was conceptualized by John “Alig” Pearce in 1984 after his primary group, the deservedly legendary Family Fodder, went dormant. Soon enough a few others were enlisted to round out the quartet, including Mick Hobbs of The Work and Officer! fame, alongside friends Joey Stack and Carrie Brooks. The Lo Yo Yo took elements from their other groups and, in the tradition of somewhat like-minded acts like The Raincoats, Naffi and Amos & Sara, added a strong dub/reggae element.Shortly before their lone studio LP, which was recorded by Charles Bullen of This Heat fame, the band self-recorded a demo tape at home on an eight track reel to reel, reissued here on vinyl for the first time by Concentric Circles. It is a wonder of DIY production with a rich and layered sound that belies their humble means. Although about half of the songs on the demo would wind up being re-recorded for the studio LP, the demo versions are radically different from what is heard on their proper album. There is a feeling of intensity to the demo that was missing from the LP, which had a noticeably cleaner fidelity and more subdued playing. Here the band plays with true force and determination, with Stack’s socialist leaning lyrics taking on an extra sharp bite. Unafraid to show off their skills at writing irresistibly catchy pop songs, things are carried on by Alig’s big bass sound and a barrage of polyrhythmic dueling drums and percussion. The...

Sukpatch

Lite Hits

Concentric Circles

In the early ’90s there were a few like minded friends making a unique style of lo-fi pop music. At the core of this non-scene were Sukpatch, Land of the Loops and The Ah Club, who all tended to play on each other’s recordings. As the decade went on each of them learned how to use their instruments better, smoothing over the edges, but in typical fashion, the early home recordings had a special feeling that couldn’t be replicated with cleaner fidelity and nicer equipment. Sukpatch especially were scrappy and playful, with a definite sense of “let’s try it and see what happens” experimentation, starting off rooted in guitar based, low key indie pop before adding an increasing amount of samples and stacks of analog tape loops to the process. Their 1992 mini-opus Lite Hits straddled the two worlds, hinting at things to come while retaining an indefinable charm. In the meantime, they hit a real sweet spot, scratching that hardest to reach pop-itch.Sukpatch at this time were spread out all around the country, and because of that would send a cassette tape to each other in the mail, with layers being added by each member until a song was deemed complete. Within those limitations they stumbled upon a sound that, when combined with earworm-like pop melodies, brings to mind those endless summer days when you’re a kid, the ones that feel like they’ll go on forever, only to be replaced later on by a blurry sense of nostalgia. A...

Industrial Sponge

s/t

Concentric Circles

Slithering out the fertile depths of Olympia, Washington circa 1985, Industrial Sponge “released” a lone 90 minute cassette onto the unsuspecting public. And by “released” we mean they would gift wrap the tape and leave it around Olympia and nearby Aberdeen at bus stops, on the sidewalk or in coffee shops, waiting for their bizarre manifestations to be discovered by whoever was in the mood for a mystery present. Industrial Sponge was spearheaded by “Fearless” Frank Gunderson (who was also a member of Human Skab, with his pre-teen cousin Travis) and a number of his classmates at The Evergreen State College, where they attended at the time. Fueled by various illicit substances, Frank and friends would record their rants and raves for hours on end, the 4-track machine as their only witness. Although lines can be drawn from Adrian Sherwood or PIL’s most scorched and dubbed out productions to Nervous Gender’s blasts of early synth-punk, Industrial Sponge’s racket was a sound all their own. With a sense of humor that would make more serious calamity searchers blush over their bowls of borscht, the ‘Sponge combined clattering drum machines, in-the-red vocals and dinky keyboards into a surprisingly catchy whole. For maximum effect, there were no spaces between any of the songs, everything crammed up against each other in a thick morass of sound. Concentric Circles is delighted to announce a first time reissue of this undiscovered, damaged gem. In their own words, this is “reptilian industrial music,” made by goofball...

Sternpost

Ulrika

Concentric Circles

Every so often an album comes along that, from the very first seconds, fills one with a state of overwhelm and wonder, knowing that one has stumbled upon something truly special. Swedish musician Petter Herbertsson has been steadily recording and releasing albums for over two decades with his group Testbild! (not to mention many other projects under various aliases), but he recorded his so-far career defining statement with Ulrika, an album of almost imperceptible beauty. Quietly released at the tail end of 2023 by Sweden’s Dilettante Productions in an edition of 199 copies, Ulrika unfolds like a flower in the morning sun, slowly opening and unveiling itself to the world. It’s hard to believe that Herbertsson plays all of the instruments on the album, as it is an especially sumptuous affair, with guitar, vibraphone, all manner of keys (including some especially lovely harpsichord), melodica, vocals and more all intertwining with each other. In someone else’s hands it could easily have come across as stiff and crowded, but here every instrument is given its proper amount of space to breathe, with an organic feeling of warmth that one just wants to sink into. Although some analogs can be made to ’70s era Robert Wyatt, Brian Wilson’s lush arrangements or Slapp Happy’s charming avant–pop, Herbertsson has done an impeccable job of distilling these influences into his own defined sound. From the production to the compositions, nothing about Ulrika feels modern, the entire affair sounding like it could have been released...

Shizuka

III

Concentric Circles

During the 1990s Shizuka self-released a series of four cassettes, barely heard by anyone outside of their inner circle. Culling together live recordings and home demos, these served as companions to the scant amount of proper Shizuka releases at the time (including the recently reissued Heavenly Persona). Concentric Circles is proud to present the third and most anomalous cassette from Shizuka, simply titled III, on vinyl for the first time in an edition of 500 copies. Formed by guitarist and singer Shizuka Miura, alongside husband Maki Miura, who’d previously played with both Les Rallizes Dénudés and Fushitsusha, the group known as Shizuka started in the early 90s with Jun Kosugi (also of Fushitsusha) on drums, and a revolving cast of bass players, including J.J. Junko, whose sole recorded appearance with the band is here on III. Devoid of any of their trademark noise and bombast, III feel distinct from their studio and live albums of the era, largely due to its fragility; haunted and spare, the songs revolve around Shizuka Miura’s gentle, unforced sighs, and Maki’s flickering, flinty guitar. The first side of the album features four songs – “For You,” “Lunatic Pearl,” “The Night When The Door Opens” and “To The Sky” – which will be well-known to Shizuka fans from previous recordings, but the drastically understated renditions here are particularly moving for their quietude and intimacy. The second half of III consists of a side-long duo session, just Shizuka and Maki Miura together at home, circling around the simplest two-chord...

Crawling With Tarts

Tearoom

Concentric Circles

While Crawling With Tarts (Michael Gendreau and Suzanne McKee) are now best remembered for their lengthy experimental works, their 1984 cassette Tearoom, reissued on LP for the first time by Concentric Circles in an edition of 300, reaches back to a more primitive, elemental time for the duo. Tearoom is a notable document of Gendreau and McKee’s early music, where guitars and voices collide in unexpected ways, with buzzing organs and wispy clarinets tangling over thudding drums. While it sits comfortably within the parameters of the eighties cassette underground, Tearoom has its very own character, one untroubled by any need to align with the dominant stylistic moves of the music made by their peers. Opening track “Ithurial’s Spear” remarkably foreshadows the pared-back, home-baked non-rock of labels like Siltbreeze and Majora. With wah-fuzz guitar scrawled over a Peter Hook-esque bassline and McKee’s naive, almost childlike voice murmuring in the listener’s ears, it’s a perfect example of kitchen-sink psychedelia. From here, Tearoom continually unravels itself, taking off layers as it progresses to its close. The delay-drenched guitar of “Gentle Wind” could have fallen from an early Roy Montgomery release, while “Chilada” takes slurred, slowed voices and rubs them up against clattering guitar, tin can percussion and tetchy bass. The rest of the second side is a wild ride, shuffling between organ/clarinet spray, scrawling tape spew, and on closer “House Spirit,” a typewriter ticking out letters as the city goes about its everyday business outside the bedroom window. Tearoom is the perfect example of an...

Moonlove

May Never Happen

Concentric Circles

Moonlove, a group who went unknown in their time except to a few locals in their hometown of Kent, Ohio, quietly released a masterpiece of melancholy, jangly pop called May Never Happen back in 1985, as a cassette in an edition of only twenty-five copies. Concentric Circles is proud to finally present this truly special album to the world, essentially for the first time. Arriving at a crossroads of the Undergrounds both Velvet and Paisley, with a smattering of the Dunedin sound, Moonlove managed to stand out at the time, both by wearing their folk influence on their collective sleeve and being somewhat more introverted than many of their peers, due to the reflective nature of the group’s lyrics. Even on first listen, the songs have the familiarity of an old friend that one hasn’t seen in years, the conversation never skipping a beat. May Never Happen was recorded on a primitive set-up consisting of a cassette deck and a Betamax videocassette recorder, which gives the album a lovely, warm DIY clarity. The guitars have a chiming, clanging lilt that echoes the primitive lushness of the best Flying Nun releases—think Look Blue Go Purple—and the melodies twist and tangle à la Beat Happening. May Never Happen is ten moments of miniature magic made real again, thirty-six years later, finally on vinyl. And it’s an absolute treat. Edition of 300 copies with twelve-page booklet of photos and reminiscences.

Briece, Jack

Heterophonious Fool

Concentric Circles

***Jack Briece’s name has been, up until this point, barely a footnote in the story of 20th century avant garde and experimental music. Briece, not being one for self promotion, was more content to work on his music in private. His only release, 1984’s “Heterophonious Fool,” was self-produced in an edition of 50 cassettes and was never publicly distributed. Owing to a deep obsession with all things relating to astronomy and the esoteric, Briece composed “Heterophonious Fool” as a suite in five parts, it’s meter and melody determined by his readings the I Ching. Despite these somewhat lofty inspirations, Briece instilled these pieces with a sense of playfulness, composing the suite for four tracks of the same cheap Casio keyboard, with phased rhythm tracks and catchy, looping minimal melodies floating around the stereo field. One easily gets the sense of a joyfully creative mind at work. Operating in the same sonic world as contemporaries PAUL DeMARINIS and “BLUE” GENE TYRANNY, Briece managed to merge a more “academic” music with a distinct pop sensibility, all injected with a wide-eyed sense of humor. “Peace,” with it’s shuffling counter-rhythms, brings to mind classic era AUTECHRE, while album closer “Pushup Words and Food” finds Briece in a similar territory to 80s video game soundtrack composers like KEIICHI SUZUKI and JUN CHIKUMA, with it’s bubbling synths and sputtering rhythm track. Briece sadly died of AIDS related complications in 1988, leaving behind very little evidence of his time as a composer. A somewhat nomadic artist during...

Di Stefano, John

For The Moment

Concentric Circles

***NOW AVAILABLE!!! American-born, Japan-based composer John Di Stefano self-released a number of cassettes as part of the 80s DIY underground on his own imprint Oktron Produktions, including Klang's Drift, a collaboration with Joel Graham. Living in San Francisco, Di Stefano had access to multiple University electronic music studios, where he had an impressive array of synthesizers at his fingertips, including both Buchla and Serge modular systems. Combining his knowledge of modular synthesis with a background in percussion, his early releases were a uniquely human approach to electroacoustic music, with flourishes of post punk in the mix. Di Stefano developed an interest in world music, studying Indian music theory and tabla, and after an extended trip to Indonesia in the mid 80s, he was particularly drawn to Javanese gamelan music. Future recordings would forever be indebted to the sounds he heard during those travels. Concentric Circles is proud to present For the Moment, which features tracks from some of Di Stefano's early cassette releases, as well as a number of unheard explorations of Indian polyrhythms from the early 90s. Di Stefano’s prescient and unique work will appeal to fans of Cybe, Joel Graham, UnknownmiX, Zru Vogue, and provides a fascinating view of the 80s US electronic underground.

IXNA

Knotpop

Concentric Circles

***NOW AVAILABLE!!! Knotpop is a revelatory lost album of deviant new wave from San Fransisco duo IXNA. Like Brian Eno and The Flying Lizards, the album is a sideways and inverted take on pop music. Jay Cloidt and Marina La Palma were students of David Behrman and Robert Ashley at Mills College, inspired by their infamously irreverent faculty to nudge the avant-garde out of its stuffy tweed and into something more exciting, something clad in denim & leather. Recorded at the Center For Contemporary Music at Mills in 1981, the album combines Cloidt's studio wizardry, sampling abilities and vibrant bass with La Palma’s expressive vocals, and love of made-up and invented languages (Esperanto). IXNA only released one 7" during that time, featuring two songs from this unrealized album, which became sought after over the decades. The discovery of Knotpop will feel like manna from heaven for previous fans, and a welcome addition to the cannon of avant-inverted-pop ur-classics by Suicide, impLOG, Naffi, General Strike, Thick Pigeon and UnknownMix. Concentric Circles is honored to present Knotpop to the world for the first time. Mastered from the original reels.

Baer, Carola

The Story Of Valerie

Concentric Circles

The discovery of a cassette of Carola Baer’s early ’90s private home recordings was like finding a needle in a haystack. Made as a one-off mixtape of newly-recorded songs, and given to a long-since forgotten recipient, this cassette was found in 2017 at a Goodwill “bins” location in Portland, Oregon. These chaotic, by-the-pound thrift stores contain thousands of unsorted items in constant flux, which are only available for the public to buy for a limited time before they are discarded. The prospect that this obscure relic would be rescued from its untimely fate is nothing short of a miracle. As this tape was the only one in existence, with no back up versions of many of the songs, it’s more than likely that this music would have been lost forever. The Story Of Valerie is made up of songs culled from that cassette, with a few additional tracks from the time, and is the first time Carola Baer’s solo material has been heard by the public. The intense emotion of the music is brought upon by the primary themes of the album: the cruelty of humanity, isolated life as a British immigrant in the US, and the pain of doomed relationships. Despite being inspired by classic 4AD acts like Dead Can Dance and Cocteau Twins, Baer’s home recordings have a sound and style that is uniquely her own. Many of the tracks feel like musical exorcisms, with Baer’s spine tingling voice soaring above minimal arrangements for Yamaha DX-7 and Casio...