Circle Takes The Square - 2002 Circle Takes The Square EP

Band : Circle Takes the Square

Album : Circle Takes The Square EP
Release Year : 2002

Genre : Screamo | Experimental

Tracklist :

1. Our Need to Bleed
2. Eleven Owls Have Eyes
3. A Disclaimer to the Self
4. Comes With the Fall
5. Houdini Logic
6. In the Nervous Light of Sunday
7. Houdini Logic (Remix)

As you can see by the recent ‘Best of 2004’ post, Circle Takes the Square has gained an enormous amount of respect in a very short amount of time. Bending from solid riffs to intertwining guitar and bass segments, Circle Takes the Square brings a monstrous sound to their music with limited resources. The long ambient sections are far less on their first release but the ideas are still there. Whether it be using harmonics to create a vivid landscape to scream over, or introducing the album with a quote; Circle Takes the Square takes time to construct every one of their songs into a vivid, luscious landscape.

This is a great album that clocks in at around 20 minutes which is a good length for an EP. The intensity and emotion put into these songs gives it an edge over most bands in the screamo category and it really helps define Circle Takes the Square as a band. Along with this emotion comes a great technique for making the songs complex in there working but simple in their hearing. While they may not seem like a very technical band in comparison to bands such as The Dillinger Escape Plan and Dream Theater every aspect of a Circle Takes the Square song is there for a reason and creates a one of a kind experience, I recommend this to everyone.

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Circle Takes the Square - 2011 Live at the Black Cat

Band : Circle Takes the Square

Album : Live at the Black Cat
Release Year : 2011

Genre : Screamo | Experimental

Tracklist :

01 "Our Need to Bleed"
02 "A Crater to Cough In"
03 "In the Nervous Light of Sunday"
04 "Enter by the Narrow Gates"
05 "Spirit Narrative"
06 "Crowquill"
07 "We're Sustained by the Corpse of a Fallen Constellation"
08 "Non-Objective Portrait of Karma"
09 "A Disclaimer to the Self"

*Recorded live by Lars Gotrich from NPR.

When Circle Takes the Square announced earlier this year that it would record its first new material in seven years, post-hardcore fans, for lack of a better term, flipped out. But when the influential post-hardcore band also announced that its first show in three years would be at the Black Cat in Washington, D.C. — with its like-minded compatriots in pg. 99, no less — a collective fanboy-ish squeal sounded across the Internet.

A sold-out crowd endured a torrential downpour and heavy winds by way of Hurricane Irene on August 27, but — ever determined and soaking wet — ecstatic fans screamed along to every song once inside, even the new ones from the Rites of Initiation EP that came out last week. The thing that struck me, though, in all the twisting time signatures, start-stop dynamics, overlapping screams and metallic chaos, was how "now" it all still sounded. In a carefully considered set list culled from the band's small yet strong discography, this was the embodiment of impassioned renewal. Just listen to the crowd practically climb over itself to scream the words to "In the Nervous Light of Sunday" when the band drops out. It's a rallying call. -NPR

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Circle Takes The Square - 2011 Decompositions - Vol I. Chapter 1. Rites of Initiation

Band : Circle Takes the Square

Album : Decompositions - Vol I. Chapter 1. Rites of Initiation

Release Year : 2011

Genre : Screamo | Experimental

Tracklist :

1. Enter By The Narrow Gates

2. Spirit Narrative

3. Way of Ever-Branching Paths

4. The Ancestral Other Side

After seven years waiting for this, finally, they're back with "Decompositions - Vol I. Chapter 1. Rites of Initiation". Awsome!!! I can't stop listening to it. No words for now, just listen it!!

Rites of Initiation documents the ill-lit, inward-leading, forever-winding pathways that eventually take hold, on a search for the authentic in an increasingly artificial world. When the boundaries between thinking and knowing, dreaming and waking, living and dying all begin to blur, a terrifyingly primal vision begins to bleed through the fragile veil of consensus perception. To surrender to it, embracing the other side is our “rite of passage". We've crafted these songs in an attempt to sing that Transition into being.

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Circle Takes the Square and Pg. 99 - 2002 Document #13 ( Pyramids In Cloth)

Band : Circle Takes the Square and Pg. 99

Album : Document #13 ( Pyramids In Cloth)

Release Year : 2002

Genre : Screamo / Emo Violence / Experimental

Tracklist : 

Circle Takes the Square

01. Patchwork neurology

02. We're sustained by the corpse of a fallen constellation

Pg. 99

03. Goodbye, face

04. Calm song

These two great American screamo bands really fit together on this release. With both having an individual and intensive style, it's no wonder that they belong to the most famous bands in this genre.

CTTS dominate this split 7″. Their two tracks are notably different from anything they released previously or indeed since. “Patchwork Neurology” and “We Are Sustained By The Corpse Of A Fallen Constellation” posses vigor and freneticism beyond the preceding self titled EP and provide a stepping stone towards the more grandiose chaos of As The Roots Undo.

Pageninetynine, on the other hand, really bring something special to the plate for me. "Goodbye, Face" is a fantastic piece of repetitive, hypnotic, vicious music, and "Calm Song" is anything but calm. One of the things I love about pageninetynine is when they manage to catch a feeling of derangement, with all the instruments and the voices creating something that's more than a little unhinged, and they really manage to to that with "Goodbye, Face". Very creepy, very good for night listening.

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Circle Takes the Square - 2004 As the Roots Undo

Band : Circle Takes the Square

Album : As the Roots Undo

Release Year : 2004

Genre : Screamo / Experimental

Tracklist:

1) Intro
2) Same Shade as Concrete
3) Crowquill
4) In the Nervous Light
5) Interview at the Ruins
6) Non-Objective Portrait of Karma
7) Kill the Switch
8) A Crater to Cough in

Circle Takes the Square (often abbreviated CTTS) is an experimental screamo band from Savannah, Georgia, USA. The band formed in 2001 as a four-piece and after their first two releases they lost a guitarist but gained another in late 2004. What listeners tend to notice first about the band is the loud screaming of both male and female vocals that often function in a kind of call and response. Skillful, chaotic drumming coupled with intense, highly technical bass/guitar work have served to separate the band from most others in the screamo genre. Highly diverse song structures (from meditative, droning intros to crushing choruses) have also assisted in carving their unique niche.

 

To quote the album booklet: "In a nutshell the concept behind the songs was to document the different points on a path to self-realization. In our interpretation of this journey, the wanderer ends up essentially in the same place that he or she began, if not humbled and even more overwhelmed. In a sense the ending is somewhat tragic, but without experiencing all of the lows how can anyone ever appreciate the amazing subtleties that this world has to offer? And so, if the search for beauty and understanding is cyclical and unending, then at least we'll never stop experiencing the thrill of the hunt..."
The packaging of the album is notably original. It is a four-fold flap with artwork along each side. The lyric booklet is glued to an inner flap, along with the CD tray. The artwork (along with the lyrics actually handwritten in the booklet) was done by band member, Drew.
The name of the album is taken from the track "Interview at the Ruins". The last words of this song are "a murmur from the ruins echoes softly as the roots undo, and the branch becomes".


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