Young Circles: Jungle Habits

    So maybe I have an affinity toward the avante-garde. Young Circles with their album is definitely experimental stuff; some might be immediately turned off, while others who stick around to listen might find some material really interesting and ingenious. And here's a first, they are from Miami. Not the kind of town you'd expect four guys to get together and form a band that could be considered so anti-cultural to Florida. On their Facebook, however, they write this: "Young Circles is a band of evolution, both within their songs and in theory. The American music scene is obsessed with genre identification – a 20th century idea. Young Circles, a product of information bombardment and a prowess to synthesize a wide spectrum of great music, transcends it all with panache. This is new music." Buy it, hate it or love it, I agree with many indie music blogs that say Young Circles are here to stay and are having an effect on listeners and putting their stamp on the music scene. Interestingly, they used to be a garage rock band called Blonde Fuzz and changed their name and musical intent from noisy guitar riffs to more down-tempo experimentalism.
    Just releasing their first EP, self-titled Young Circles, in January of this year, Young Circles is relatively new, but is already engaged and active in the music world. Their debut, Jungle Habits, dropped in August, and they have sort of joined the Occupy Wall-Street movement with a proceeds to the protesters fundraising album, Ninety-Nine Percent, released in October, which has a new song, and two mixes of potentially their best song, "2012" from Jungle Habits. They sound like really intelligent mixers, so I hope to hear more of that kind of work (done either on their own songs or others). Anyway, the eclectic mix of music that has resulted in only a years output is fascinating. There are homages to folk, latin rock (the only apparent tie to Miami), the ever increasingly popular dub and electronic music, dance, fuzz rock, electro rock/pop, and garage rock.
    In Jungle Habits There are really lush moments with instruments added and aura invoking melodies such as towards the end of "Asthmatic" and in different parts of "Dreams". What they do very well is combine acoustic instruments with all the electronic. Some tracks are just downright noisy, such as "Jangala" (which has a cool jam spot), but I do not mean loud noisy or noise rock, necessarily, but that it is hard to determine what kind of whatever produced the resulting sound; yet, it works. It's sort of like tUnE-yArDs, even in the vocals, at times. Then a couple tracks later is "You. Me. Nothing.", which is sort of like listening to a Radiohead mix of a different group's song. Now, I know that doesn't actually happen, but I find it just sort of not admissible to call something Radiohead-esque (guilty!) if Thom Yorke is not singing it. "Devil" is another track that sounds sort of like the above at times.
    Right from the start of the album, with "Triangles", it is as if the listener is put in a warp and then you have this intense listening experience which leaves you a little unsettled, dumbfounded, or perplexed; but I think ultimately better for it. Young Circles--I hope they continue writing and are around to stay, filling me with as much intrigue as this album has and stretching the limits of what is accessible. Enjoy the track "Asthmatic" under the 'Monthly Sample Tracks'. or check out their entire discography here on Bandcamp.