When it comes to the post-rock genre, I find that a lot of it is hit or miss. Some of these albums just feel like the band was creating a wall of sound for the sake of it, or just going through the motions of the various tropes you expect to hear. I love a post-rock influence, but l often hesitate to listen to it straight. On Circles falls in to the “hit” side of the coin. This album is Caspian’s fifth release, and first since 2015, and it delivers a mix of heavy and ethereal tracks that are rife with emotion and melody.
The album opens with ‘Wildblood’, which starts off with a calm and spacey, yet earthy, mix that even includes a bit of saxophone that adds to the song’s melancholic feel. Around the 1:24 mark you are hit with a massive, dirty droning guitar. This explosive chord is repeated a few times, with each one pushing the lead guitar and drums to get more involved and pick up the pace of their playing. The first couple minutes of ‘Wildblood’ fit perfectly as an album opener.
On the third track, ‘Nostalgist’, Kyle Durfey of Pianos Become Teeth provides guest vocals. This leads to the track sounding like it almost could have been on American Football’s LP3. As someone who is not post-rock purist, I think a song or two with vocals works really well and should be implemented more. It adds an extra dimension to the album and can help breakup a record that is filled with similar sounding tracks.
‘Onsra’ ends on an emotional buildup, which lacked the hard-hitting release I was expecting. But I think that is fine because not every song has to check off every box on the post-rock essentials check list. And if you really want that heaviness, stay tuned for a few more seconds because ‘Collapser’ more than delivers. This heaviness is then contrasted against ‘Ishmael’, where we see the band bring out the acoustics and string instruments for something more soothing. On the final song, ‘Circles on Circles’, we see a reprisal of vocal usage, this time with band member Philip Jamieson at the helm.
On Circles is a great post-rock release that is packed with emotion. Its sound mixes everything you hope to find as it is both soft and ethereal, and hard and heavy. This is a very respectable album that has rekindled my interest in the genre.
Favourite Tracks: Nostalgist, Division Blues, Collapser, Circles on Circles
Genres: #PostRock
Release Date: January 24, 2020