Customer Reviews

Station

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Went to the record release show recently and heard most of the songs live. I am very happy to report the new material is just as amazing coming from the studio. I very much enjoyed their debut, Enter, but this is much more polished and makes tons of sense musically. Its a little Pelican mixed with some Explosions in the Sky and its all Russian Circles!! What sets them apart from the rest of the Instra-Metal bands is Dave's absolutely incredible drum work. Station is no exception to his complete mastery of the instrument. If you are a fan of Pelican, Explosions in the Sky, Isis, Mono, and it goes without saying that if you are a Russian Circles fan, you must own Station. Mike and Dave, outstanding work!!

Being a massive fan of "Enter", I couldn't wait to hear this album, and I was not let down. This band keeps getting better.

Russian Circles create atmospheric music that takes the listener on a ride through highs and lows, going from light to heavy, break neck paces to trudging riffs.

"Station" is one of the best albums of the year so far, definetely pick this one up.

I just found out about these guys recently and I have to commend them on their musicianship and decision to do instrumental music. They are free from catering to some growling or shrilling vocalist who would undoubtedly wreck this music with bad themes and worse singing. It is about time some bands come forth that are committed to music only. I have been waiting for decades for a band like this to come along. They blend together all the good elements of heavy metal, progressive rock and psychedelia without the disruption of some wailing idiot trying to add his / her 2 cents. In the case of Russian Cirles the music is always headed somewhere and very vibrant. Many of the musical passages they have composed would not have come to be most likely if they were trying to fit in a vocalist. This is exiting and hopefully they don't rethink their formula or be forced to by the short attention span of most music buyers.

From the start of Station you can tell the musicianship is top notch and it is a surprise when you realise they get all this sound as a 3 piece. The guitarist has great taste and a unique way of playing with two hands on the fretboard at times. This gives the illusion of a fourth player and is very well executed, no overkill and all substance. The percussionist is noteably top rate and creative as is the bassist.

Hopefully this form of music will spawn future rock musicians to explore what they can accomplish with instruments only. Russian Cirles will hopefully be looked at one day as pioneers of instrumental rock music and be able to continue their craft in the present. The few bands at the helm of this new territory are critical to pushing rock music forward. One of the key ingredients is that the musicianship is great but not by the amount of notes per second rule that used to apply. This music is about sound, emotion and creativity and has far more impact than the million notes approach. If you like this type of thing other bands to keep an eye on are Red Sparowes , Explosions in the Sky, Grails and Pelican. Hopefully there will be more to come.

Great record guys ! Buy it!

simply.

i heard some of the songs off this on their recent US tour with daughters and young widows, and i was blown away. i hadn't even known this was out until after i saw the show, but immediately bought it.

i really don't know what to say about this album except it is much better in every way. they have really outdone themselves and their previous releases with this one, and i have to say it's one of my favorite albums of all time.

i just hope they don't stray too far from what they have here, it'd be a real shame.

Russian Circles' second album is perhaps even better than critically acclaimed Enter (critically acclaimed in an underground sort of way). These guys are excellent musicians and their arrangements are very interesting and unique. If you are looking to get a taste of it, check out their myspace page and listen to Verses (available on their myspace page at this time - 7/2/2008). This song gives you a taste of what they do - slow build up and almost classical melodies leading up to some heavy riffs in the end. I know that there are other bands out there that create music that blends classical and heavy, but seeing these guys live and what they are able to do with just three instruments made me appreciate their music even more.

If you're new to the genre of post-metal /post-rock instrumental bands, if you are into Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree, Tool, Isis or Radiohead, this music may appeal to you.

Also, Amazon's description states that they have shared stage with Daughters. Don't let that confuse you - I find no overlap between the two bands.

These guys are full of ideas. Drummer Dave Turncrantz pounds out the pocket so hard and yet creates inventive rhythm combinations and mind-blowing fills. Guitar player Mike Sullivan experiments with precise loops of melody themes and then erupts with fantastically crushing humbucker punches that send the Russian Circles marching across the battlefield of rock. Bass player Brian Cook bludgeons his bass hard with his pick. All of it together makes your jaw drop. They can be atmospheric and beautiful, and they can raise your pulse with super-fuzz goodness.

Their first record--"Enter"--kicks. This new record--"Station"--also kicks. Grab them both.

With such an amazing debut album, I was pretty curious to see if Russian Circles could follow up their masterpiece "Enter," one of my favourite albums of the genre. Did they deliver again with Station? Yes. Absolutely.

The album opens with the beautiful "Campaign" with a ligth guitar melody and light guitar feedback in the background. Overall it's a fantastic opening track that really sets the mood for the album.

"Campaign" is followed by "Harper Lewis." Featuring one of the catchiest and coolest drum beats I've ever heard, Harper Lewis really and truly shows Russian Circles' diversity. The song is, for the most part, quite heavy and always in your face. More catchy and awesome guitar riffs all around and a perfect lead-in to the title track...

"Station." Ahh...A truly fantastic song worthy of being a title track. By far one of the strongest tracks on the album. Another heavy song, but this time it ends really quite tastefully (not that anything Russian Circles does isn't tasteful no matter how heavy.) Awesome.

Verses is a sort of Explosions in the Sky-esque, dare-I-say post-rock-influenced song. I use that term lightly because Russian Circles doesn't let the blanket of usual post-rock song structure and style of playing overshadow their amazing song-writing and musicianship skills. No, Russian Circles brings to the table what they brought with "You Already Did" from their previous album: a beautiful and totally unique track. When you hear the song, you'll know it's Russian Circles.

Youngblood is next. I'd let the song speak for itself if I absolutely knew you'd listen to this album (which you better!) Youngblood is a mammoth of a song. A behemoth. Youngblood plows through you with little to no mercy. It hardly holds up even once and when the softer part comes in, you're almost sure what's to come: total chaos. The finale of Youngblood will leave you breathless and begging for more (excuse the sexual reference here.) Definitely the most powerful and exhilarating track on the album.

Ah...Xavii. What a beautiful conclusion to a stunning album. Think of Youngblood as middle of a massive tornado. With Xavii, the storm is over and you're left to look at yourself and the damage it's caused. It's a fairly light and easy-going track until the minor key switches in and Dave starts beating on the toms. Clean, yet mean guitars kick in and there's a light build-up until you think it's the end of the song and it kicks in once again and finally ends abruptly.

So yes, Station delivers. It sets the bar even higher than Enter did (yeah, I said it) and leaves you wanting even more Russian Circles. If you liked the first album than I assume you've already bought Station or plan on buying it soon. If not, do so immediately.

I got into the whole post rock/instrumental scene about a year ago, and up untill I heard of Russian Circles I thought the whole genre was full of very creative musicians who unfortunetly can not really play their instruments well. Bands like Explosions in the Sky, Isis, or Pelican played music that I like, but it would be pushing it to say that any of them are actually very technical with their playing. Isis was very right-hand rhythm oriented and were talented in that aspect, but compared to other metal bands outside of the post rock genre they really don't measure up much (they still make great songs however). What does all this have to do with Russian Circles and Station? Well beforehand I always had wondered what an instrumental band would sound like if everyone in it were great musicians, and I think with Russian Circle we have the answer.
This CD proves wrong any concept of what defined post rock, other than the long instrumental part. They sound like (for the most part) that they were trying to be a "normal" band with a singer, but along the way they never could find anyone who fit so they just played without one, putting more focus on the music. So lets get right into that:

Campaign: I honestly could care less for this song. It's pretty much just ambience for half the song and then never really builds into anything meaningful. Having said that, I don't mind listening to it, I just feel the album would be the same without it. I usually skip to the next track-

Harper Lewis: This song blew me away the first time I heard it, and it continues to be one of my overall favorite songs of all time. This is where I realized this band was something else: The guitarist uses a loop pedal to play riffs over each other, he's actually playing heavy riffs, and he even finger taps! The drummer has some meaty fills and a few really original rhythms played on the high-hat stand. The bassist has heavy chunky beats to sustain the groove. Overall, with all the changes you would expect from a post rock band thrown in with all the musicianship of a jam band, this song owns.

Station: Pretty much everything I said about the last song goes here as well. Harper Lewis and Station are the two best songs on this album, and I could listen to them over and over again.

Versus: Another song that's ambience based, but I actually like this song. I think it fits very well as an ending to Station. It doesn't hold much on its own however. Has a cool disorted bass line.

Youngblood: This song tries to be another hard hitting heavy song like Harper Lewis or Station, but imo it falls short. It's still not a bad song, but it just doesn't really quite reach what those other songs did. Starts with a constant driving pace up untill about the last minute, then it dies/rebuilds for a pretty solid epic ending.

Xavii: The last song on the album is one more of thier slower atmospheric songs. The shortest song on the album by quite a bit, it just seems to be there as a needed ending. It's not a bad song, but it's not a great one either.

Overall, I think I would really rate this album with four songs becuase of the slower songs that I usually skip. But because of the inventiveness of their few masterpieces, I give it five. You can't hear music like this anywhere else, comparing them to other instrumental bands just doesn't work, they are too different. If you can, give Harper Lewis or Station a listen, trust me it's wortht the album. I can't wait to see what they come out with next!

Station and Enter I've listened to more times over than any other post-rock creation. I don't know what it is, I guess this music just speaks to me, but besides Pelican and God Speed- these are the only guys I get down to in the genre. I have listened to Station and Enter back to back, day after day for months- throwing some other genres just to give my head some breathing room- but the music is addictive. On this album, Harper Lewis and Verses steal the show. If you haven't heard these guys, understand that the drumming is leagues beyond other post-rock, the guitar and bass work is extremely well balanced between ethereal, melodic, hypnotic and heavy. Red Sparrows, Do Make Say, Mogwai, Explosions, etc etc. none of them really do it for me. I guess its the metal edge, these guys aren't afraid to destroy and hit every extreme. Thats really what I look for in a post-rock band. There can be no middle ground, just soft, or just loud. Well, despite my tangent on my preference of post-rock, this album by Russian Circles is brilliant and rewarding. Start with it, end with it, or pick it up in between their two releases- but if you like it, GET all their others!!

I started with Russian Circles album Enter, which I thought was pretty dang sweet.
This one blows it out of the water. The songs are cleaner and more organized, giving it a higher quality epic feel!