''Circle X'' (officially untitled
) is an
EP and the debut release by American
experimental rock
Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...
band
Circle X
Circle X was an American experimental rock band, formed in 1978 in Louisville, Kentucky. They were part of the late 1970s/early 1980s No Wave scene.
Background Early career
Circle X formed in Louisville, Kentucky in 1978 when art students ...
. It was on 12" vinyl in 1980 in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, through then-nascent record label
Celluloid
Celluloids are a class of materials produced by mixing nitrocellulose and camphor, often with added dyes and other agents. Once much more common for its use as photographic film before the advent of safer methods, celluloid's common contemporar ...
.
Background
CMJ
CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...
described the album as a "raw, alien, dense set of four tuneless almost-not-even-songs made of spattered guitar, drums and Tony Pinotti's wrecked, howling voice".
Track listing
Critical reception
''
Trouser Press
''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...
'' opined that the EP was "practically unmatched in its day.
..Nothing sounded like this in 1979. Circle X caught the tail end of the no wave scene and out-waved it with a mere four ear-splitting compositions."
Re-issues
''Circle X'' was later re-issued on
CD in 1996 through label Dexter's Cigar. It was re-issued on 12" vinyl in Germany in 2009 through label Insolito.
Personnel
* David Letendre – drums, guitar
* Rik Letendre – guitar, drums
* Tony Pinotti – vocals
* Bruce Witsiepe – guitar
References
External links
* {{Discogs master, 235772, Circle X
1980 EPs
No wave EPs