Prehistory

Description

Some 42 years after its initial release, Circle X's Prehistory is back on vinyl. New listeners will discover, in addition to the irresistible rhythm that drives its strange mechanics and its instinctive association of wild and aestheticized values, a keen understanding of all the richness and complexity of “post-punk,” both specific to its era and timeless. Active from 1978 to 1995, Circle X, formed in Louisville, Kentucky, primarily existed as a New York collective, a band that always refused conventional definitions. Even their name (a circle crossed with an X) was a provocation. Writing it out in English letters was precisely the kind of monotony they had united to transcend. And they succeeded, with two albums, two EPs, and a handful of singles, all challenging the evolutions of the time by creating a disconcerting synthesis of impulses and energies. Arriving in New York in late 1978, they found a rehearsal space and played back-to-back gigs at CBGB and elsewhere, alongside DNA and other No Wave bands of the era. They recorded their first single before heading to France at the request of their new manager, Bernard Zekri. Splitting their time between Dijon and Paris, they returned to New York in the spring of 1980, after recording their Untitled EP. It was during this period that the artistic dimension of Circle X's performances took on its full significance. Similarly, the recording of Prehistory developed as much on a conceptual basis as the live performances. In 2009, Rik Letendre confided to Dusted Magazine: “This was pre-sampling. We bought tons of little mini-cassettes for phonographs, and we would make loops out of them and layer them. We’d record something, play it back through an amp, and then play things over that. It was like layered loops. The more layers there were, the more distorted the sound would get, to the point where you couldn’t recognize the original recording. Things took on their own sonic dimension. In France… Bernard Zekri… had tons of Arabic records: Farid el Atrash, Oum Kalsoum, old 78s. We listened to them, and it influenced us a lot… Some Oum Kalsoum records… we couldn’t understand any of the words, but her voice was so moving it made you want to cry. And then, the orchestration was simply incredible.” Circle X's music continued to evolve through each new version of The Present Times. Their third and final album, a radically different expression from all their previous works, was released on Matador in the early 90s, at the height of their career. The Untitled EP was rediscovered twice: first by Moikai's CD version in 1996, then by Insolito's vinyl reissue in 2009. In both cases, as in 1979, it was noted how their music was unlike anything else, neither any other production of the time nor any other.