Nine Circles :: The Early Days (Genetic Music)

Nine Cirlces have been one of the forces behind the Minimal Synth revival. True, the Dutch duet have not had the worldwide acclaim of some Synth Pop outfits; but that was never their goal. Instead, Nine Circles have enjoyed an Autumn of appreciation.

A couple of months back I wrote about a new 7” from Nine Circles. That was a taster, the appetizer, the hors’d’oeuvre, the crudités, the nibblets… Now it’s time for the main course. Genetic Music is proud to introduce Peter Van Garderen and Lidia Fiala’s The Early Days.

The album maps out Nine Circles interpretation of Cold Wave and Minimal Synth. Unbelievably the tracks are mostly from a brief time period, ’80—’82. Alienation and uncertainty course through the 2LP with heavy Korg chords, metallic machine beats and brittle vocals. This is the case from the outset. “Here Come I, Here Is Me (First Version)” is removed, aching with Industrial undercurrents rising and falling. A betrayed innocence runs through the album, lyrics unveiling a feeling of deception and inevitable resentment in tracks like “North South East The West” and “Roots of Life.” “What’s There Left” is an elegiac work of mechanical emotion. A clicking beat keeps the engine ticking over as vocals and synths pour out a burnt heartache and disaffected unhappiness. “The Rose” sees synths dominate, with vocals being reduced to a future whisper. Nine Circles employ this technique throughout, removing, yet keeping, the human elements from their forward looking sound of machine supremacy. “Twinkling Stars” is arguably Nine Circles biggest hit. The track first featured on the excellent ‘Radionome’ compilation of ’82 and was picked up for Angular Recordings’ extremely successful Cold Wave + Minimal Electronics Volume 1. The track has a wonderful meandering melody with Fiala’s exhausted vocals spelling out dissatisfaction with the modern lot. There are sometimes uplifting moments across the twenty track album, but these are but buds not allowed to fully sprout. A couple of years back Nine Circles released a live recording of a gig they did in ’82. It is a choice selection of live tracks from live album that closes the double LP, the D-Side being devoted to that live-set back in Queekhoven some thirty years ago.

Nine Cirlces have been one of the forces behind the Minimal Synth revival. True, the Dutch duet have not had the worldwide acclaim of some Synth Pop outfits; but that was never their goal. Instead, Nine Circles have enjoyed an Autumn of appreciation. The Early Days is one of the high points of that Autumn. An album of rich textures, writhing sound and soul searching vocals. Van Garderen and Fiala have achieved something very special with this.

The Early Days is available on Medical. [Release page]