The Circular Ruins Land of the Blind Play: Lo-Fi   Mid-Fi   Hi-Fi   Download: Lo-Fi   Mid-Fi   Hi-Fi (Excerpt from track 'Thought is False Happiness')

The opener, 'A Storm of Secondary Things' is nowhere near as violent as its title suggests. Little warbling effects mix with metallic windy drones through which a squelchy rhythm emerges. The drones are the main feature though it is all rather restrained. The sounds chosen all seem fresh and new and combine together in an appealing but also intriguing way.

Things do become somewhat more intense in the last third as additional sounds and effects are brought into play. They create a very visual sonic tapestry but are not too in your face. 'Holiday in Reality' features a melodic loop low in the mix over which various 'tones' move up and down the sonic spectrum, sometimes disappearing into twittering effects. Odd little melodies start to wander over the top pulling the focus this way and that though sometimes my attention returned to the loop. From time to time I found it all a little disorientating actually but not in an unpleasant way. 'Thought is False Happiness' has a rather lush tranquil opening. Chords and sonic twitters start to rise out of this backing to be joined by a rapid melodic loop in the second minute. To start off with it seemed a little at odds in the way it combined with the slow backing but my mind somehow adjusted to it. There was maybe slightly too much additional sonic colouring for my taste, as I would have preferred it to have been stripped down to the core elements but that could well just be my own personal taste, or indeed against what the track was 'trying to say'. The loop departs nearer the end and we finish, as we started, in tranquil mood. 'Anamnesis' has rather cosmic beginnings to which are added an almost insect sounding loop and the occasional vocal sample low in the mix.

'The Abyss of Proof' has a rather rural feel to it with church bells and soft pastoral pads. These then fade into the distance and the soundstage becomes more like a swamp with twittering insects and heat haze. What a very curious but also highly effective transition. Again little vocal samples can be heard very low in the mix giving proceedings a rather dreamy quality. Just before the fourth minute we return to village life. Again the transition is handled so well. As I expected however our visit to the little hamlet is short lived as we go back to the neighbouring swamp! 'Interior Distance' is based around lovely little melodic bell tones gently floating from the speakers. Again there are very quiet vocal samples and other delicate sounds but these all go together to form, as with the previous track, a very dreamy effect. 'Standing in violent golds' initially brings up impressions in my mind of being by the sea as a storm looks like it is brewing but instead passes overhead without breaking, leaving a grey sea and heavy sky. 'A Distant Assembly' follows on in a similar mood to the last track but by the second minute the most prominent rhythm on the whole album strikes up, and what a wonderful one it is too. My hands are wanting to drum on the table as I write this but I do just about manage to restrain them- at least momentarily. By the half way mark it is all change again as things are stripped down to atmospherics and a gradually decaying, to eventually disappear altogether, percussive loop.