Double Play: Russian Circles and Dark Funeral

RUSSIAN CIRCLES - GENEVA - SUICIDE SQUEEZE RECORDS

There is an arena of thinking in modern music that says the days of the vocalist are over. After hundreds of years of singing some say that we’re running out of things to say and now is the time for music to convey emotions without words to guide you.

 If that ideal was to come to life Russian Circles and their new studio effort “Geneva” would be at the forefront of it. This is an album that speaks volumes without uttering a single word and it all has to do with creating moods and conveying emotions through textured musical landscapes.

Most albums are built like a stack of bricks. Drums first, then bass stacked on that, then guitars and finally vocals. With Russian Circles it’s much more of a mixed and layered formula. Imagine each instrument playing its own thing, something that alone you could listen to but instead they’re mixed together. In theory this shouldn’t work and it certainly shouldn’t create some really gorgeous music but in Geneva that’s exactly what happens. Take the opening track “Fathom” which comes across as an angry rhythmic assault from the sea. The drums are center stage here drifting from complex tribal beats to straight ahead grooves. Wrapping around it is a single eerie guitar line that slithers into a heavy and troubled riff made that much more intense by a dense and dirty bass sound.

Then there’s the song “Melee” which is haunting, quiet and gorgeous. It’s like the musical translation of a sad girl’s thoughts on a cold afternoon in the park. The keyboards are what push the song along but everything else works within that frame to give Melee its melancholy punch. Again Russian Circles create an emotional context and allow you to fill it up with your memories and thoughts. With this album you have to bring something to the table to make the experience complete. Normally the band tells you what to feel but Russian Circles asks you and that makes what they do exciting.

One of my favorite songs on the album is “Hexed All” because it floats ever so gently in the air while you listen to it. There are tons of bands that can be “heavy” or “massive” with what they do but how many create buoyancy? Hexed All bounces and floats through the air so gently you can’t help but be relaxed. For me it brought back happier times, when life seemed less complicated. I’m not saying this is background music at all, what Russian Circles does creatively demands to be heard but not at the expense of the listeners experience. Somehow the band has balanced out those priorities.

Fear not for Geneva is not all melancholy and the infinite sadness, there’s a lot more happening than that. For instance the chaotic riff heavy song “Malko” grooves like a bitch, laying in the kind of thick guitars most rock bands can only dream about. “When The Mountain Comes To Muhammad” is a darker turn for Russian Circles, a scarier look at what the band can do. Same with the ten minute epic “Philos” which moves through several different moods without settling on any one.

Russian Circles creates music that puts art first and I can’t stress enough how amazing it is to hear that again. There are plenty of bands that have this kind of magic in what they do and interestingly enough most of them are instrumental based. Pelican, Helen Money and Russian Circles are a few of my recent favorite but there’s more of this type of depth out there if you look. Russian Circles has created not just a great record with “Geneva” but a great work of art.