The gray industrial urban landscapes of Newark NJ must be what inspires Hive records' owner David Pittman to pick this extremely talented and great sounding breakcore-industrial bands without ever missing a beat, pun intended. Seriously, Hive records is one of the few record labels that to me represent a guarantee of quality. When I get a Hive record I already know it's good, the question is just how good and good in what way... which of the shades of this widely-eclectic genre will it live under?
Canadian Matt Rosen's Liar's Rosebush's long anticipated solo debut is no exception. "Circle the Squares" is an incredibly mature debut. The 12 tunes crawl towards you quietly, with echoes of dark-ambient music, nerve-wracking atmospheric sounds and ill-fate-anticipating drones before unleashing the full sonic assault of the distorted and sliced-n-diced breakbeats featured in the following pieces that make this album. The full extent of the assault is further intensified by cut-up and re-pitched chords of a super heavily distorted and compressed electric guitars. Eventually, and every once in a while, the listener can take a breather again as the music loosens its grip to let some more rays of atmospheric sounds and even small non-distorted guitar parts ("Like a Nicotine Halo") shine through. Liar's Rosebush direction is still taking shape, I believe, but obviously Mr Rosen in inspired by bands that know how to bring haunting melodies and atmospheric moods into the formula. Except for the intro of a piece like "AAA", this is not really a Nine Inch Nails sounding record, but it does borrow some aspects of their formula in that way. Rosen understands as well as Reznor does that tension and release is the name of the game and that the quieter and moody this part is, the more brutal and visceral that part will sound. Differently than Trent, Matt seems to be more inspired by the warpy british ambient scene when it comes to his more subdued compositions (or part thereof).
If you absolutely must have some references, think of it as a mixture of Squarepusher, Flugschadel, Noize Punishment, Ambassador 21, Venetian Snares, Duran Duran Duran, Autechre, Cenotype and Uglyhead and but don't let those names be a limiting factor. Rosen is very personal in his approach and obviously his musical skills as an instrumentalist (and not just a laptop programmer) have heavily influenced the making of this record in ways that only instruments can do. Very interesting record. I am already looking forward to the next one.