Russian Circles Preview

Russian Circles
Schubas, Chicago
Saturday, May 27, 2006

It seems Chicago trio Russian Circles have picked the perfect time to introduce themselves.

In the last few years bands specializing in an instrumental hybrid of metal and post rock have earned considerable attention. Godspeed You! Black Emperor! and Mogwai have been winning over music snobs since the ’90s, but this recent movement has pushed the music farther into mainstream consciousness thanks to a flurry of glowing reviews and coverage from Web ‘zines and numerous national music rags . The past four years have given us the emergence of Japanese experimentalists Mono (who released the superb You Are There in April), plus Isis (who use vocals more than any of the mentioned bands), who took the spacy ambience of groups like Mogwai and transported it across the border to the world of metal on 2004’s Panopticon. Chicago’s Pelican took that idea even further and, since releasing their debut, Australasia, in 2003, are often flat-out brutal.

Which brings us to Russian Circles, who might just be the ideal combination of that threesome. Formed in 2004 from the ashes of guitarist Mike Sullivan and bassist Colin DeKuiper’s former band, Dakota/Dakota (Circles are rounded out by drummer Dave Turncrantz), the band’s full-length debut, Enter (Flameshovel), was recorded in just five days with producer Greg Norman (Zwan, Pelican, Neurosis). What the band do best on the album’s six tracks (44 minutes!) is incorporate all the best elements of their “new breed” peers without wallowing in the excess. Russian Circles occasionally commit to metal (“Carpe,” “Death Rides A Horse”) but never bludgeon you like Pelican; they remain interesting without trying to be too brainy – a balance that escapes Isis; and they can be ambient without losing momentum (“New Macabre”), which Mono sometime struggle with. Most impressive, maybe, is the fact Enter‘s songs, even those that sneak past eight minutes, never feel indulgent, a claim few in this genre can make.

Russian Circles will play two shows Saturday as part of their CD release party at Schubas. The first set is all-ages and starts at 7 p.m.; Maps And Atlases open. Lichens and Read Yellow open the 21-and-over set that starts at 10.

— Trevor Fisher

Click here to download Russian Circles’ “Death Rides A Horse.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly