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LP
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DC 968LP
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$23.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 2/27/2026
"Some 42 years after its initial release, Circle X's Prehistory returns to the vinyl format. New listeners to this music will discover, in addition to the roiling compulsion in its odd, dance-damaged clockwork and instinctive joining of feral and aestheticized values, a refined understanding of the width and breadth of 'post-punk' music, both in and out of its time. In and out of time, Circle X operated between 1978 and 1995, formed in Louisville, KY, but existing largely as a New York-based collective, a band who insisted on working outside the standard definitions. Arriving in New York in late '78, they found a rehearsal space and gigged around at CBGB's and elsewhere, alongside DNA and other No Wave acts of the era, recording their first single before decamping to France at the request of their new manager, Bernard Zekri. They split their time between Dijon and Paris and returned to New York in the spring of 1980, having recorded their 'untitled' EP. At this time, the art aspects of Circle X in performance were brought to the fore. Similarly, the recording of Prehistory developed as much on a conceptual basis as the shows. Circle X's music has continued to grow through each further iteration of 'the present times.' Their third and final album, an expression utterly distinct from all earlier evocations, was released on Matador in their early '90s heyday. The 'untitled' EP was reintroduced to the contemporary ear twice, via Moikai's 1996 CD version and Insolito's 2009 vinyl repress. In both instances, it was noted, as had been in '79, how little their music sounded like anything else from then or whenever the current now was. That still holds true in the present. Similarly, Prehistory was re-injected into the marketplace via Blue Chopsticks' 2008 CD edition."
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CD
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BLUE 018CD
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"Some of you may remember Circle X's corrosive, caterwauling, and unutterably fabulous self-titled EP, which was originally released in 1979 and reissued a little over a decade ago by Jim O'Rourke's and David Grubbs' Dexter's Cigar label. Now the story picks up again with the long-overdue first CD release of Prehistory, Circle X's first full-length album. Prehistory was recorded in 1981 and released in 1983 by Index Records, making them, strangely enough, labelmates with Wall of Voodoo. Circle X were formed in 1978 from the remnants of No Fun and the I-Holes, Louisville, Kentucky's first two punk bands. (No Fun, also featuring Tara Key of the Babylon Dance Band and Antietam, finally appeared on the excellent Bold Beginnings: An Incomplete History of Louisville Punk compilation.) Circle X got the hell out of Dodge quickly enough, settling upon New York, then Dijon, France, and then back to New York again. The self-titled EP is a lurching, squalling monster. Prehistory is a tire-burning left turn. The pendulum arc of Tony Pinotti's vocals still contain throat-shredding howls, but expands to contain croons, moans, speech. Bruce Witsiepe's lacerating guitar is dumped into a dubbish aquarium of reverb, and Rik and Dave Letendre worry obsessive polyrhythms nearly to death. After the trash-compaction of their first EP, this is the sound of unhurried, committed exploration. So where did Circle X fit in among their peers? It's fair to describe them as a genre unto themselves. They came from punk rock and art school and sounded like none of their potential allies. They arrived in New York at the tail end of No Wave, at the same time that equally ornery bands like Swans and Sonic Youth were getting revved up. Circle X are every bit as distinctive and attitudinal as Throbbing Gristle, PiL, Theoretical Girls, DNA, or Mars, and yet they don't particularly sound like any of these groups. After Prehistory, they resurfaced with four white-vinyl 7"s, (later collected as the box set The Ivory Tower) and the 1994 Celestial, an album for the then-fledgling Matador label. Bruce Witsiepe passed away in 1995, marking the end of the group. Critic Jordan Mamone hit the nail on the head when he wrote: 'Every rare utterance from these unsentimental adventurers possesses a passion and a manifesto-writing fervor usually reserved for turn-of-the-century culture movements.'"
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CD
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DEX 003CD
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1996 release, somehow still available. Dexter's Cigar is the now defunct Drag City subsidiary reissue label run by Jim O'Rourke. "Created in 1979, this seminal no-wave EP was released to little fanfare. At the time, lots of people were either coming to grips with (or should have been coming to grips with) the reality that this 12" was in many ways much wilder than anything happening in that Decline-influenced era. For better or worse, this aura of uncertainty concerning the band and their music could be said to extend to the present." In the words of Jordan N. Mamone: "brutal outbursts of feedback-and-blare emitted by the late Bruce Wisiepe remain perhaps the most underrated and unknown influences in underground rock."
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