Nested Structure is the first Great Circles release from artists outside of Philadelphia. THRIVE are Tetsuya Yoshida and Hitoshi Kojima. They both grew up in the North Kanto area of Japan. They first met at the club run by Tetsuya Yoshida called SOUND A BASE NEST, which is known as having the best sound system in the North Kanto area. In 2007, the duo started their DJ / Producing unit THRIVE. Previous releases have included a split 12” with Keia Yano for Japanese label Struct, and recent solo releases by Hitoshi for Always Human Tapes and for his own label Ambivalent Deviation. This record almost didn’t happen! --- Tetsuya and Hitoshi were picking up Great Circles records in Japan and, having periodically communicated with each other about music, they sent us the Struct 12” to check out. While cleaning out the back of the car a few months later, the presumably empty record mailer was about to land in the recycle bin when we fortunately discovered a demo CD of unreleased THRIVE material inside. We drove around listening to it and week later we agreed to release a 12”. The music on the Nested Structure 12” is dark, foreboding, even outwardly threatening. It’s hypnotic, textural and rhythmically complex.

More

WOLF DEM is a live electronics duo from Philadelphia, conceived in the fall of 2012 by two longtime DJs who bonded over similar musical backgrounds and a mutual desire to explore the bleeding edges of electronic music. Using both digital and analog tools and drawing on a highly diverse range of influences, WOLF DEM grew from its original concept- “what your dreams would sound like if you fell asleep in an old warehouse where someone had left a dancehall station playing on the radio”- into a focused aesthetic, at once chaotic and hypnotic, sitting at the intersection of Caribbean music, techno, noise, and field recordings. Past releases include tracks for compilations on New Low and Great Circles [GRCR-010], as well cassette releases for Vague Audio Tapes and End Result

More

|| 12 tracks||12 artists||Mostly Philly people||A couple of out-of-town friends/collaborators||Most are artists who have previously released music on the label|| Wolf Dem is a duo, with a 12” to be released next [GRCR-011] || Prefix Moniker is also a duo, with an LP to be released soon [GRCR-013] ||


More

Philadelphia-based producer Chaperone has been working as a creative partner at Great Circles for the past six months, as well as collaborating with Westov Temple on an ongoing A/V project, Seppuku Overwrite. P O N D is his first 12” release on the label. The A-side of P O N D is comprised of three slow-paced, meditative takes on techno. Samples are blended with cut tape loops, following suit from earlier Chaperone cassette releases - No Gold//Hawaii [Crisis Urbana CU-03] and Reflex/Contaminant [Vague Audio Tapes VAT-003]. Artifacts become instruments. Capstan motors seem to slow, only to catch up again. Torn speaker cones from an earlier noise session are left to flutter, without question or regret. On the B-side are three re-works by Westov Temple, Hero/Victim [of Vague Audio Tapes] and Thug Entrancer [Software], making for faster, more rhythmic versions of the originals, each one zeroing in on and exploiting specific peculiarities of Chaperone’s sound
More

Great Circles is pleased to present another artist from the Philadelphia underground - M//R [Magnetic Resonance]. With this debut 12”, M//R brings a new dimension to the label’s sonic story. On the A-side, Adjacent Possible is warehouse primed, with its massive kick, rotating squelches and infectious claps, while Texas Acid patiently seeks you out and finds you huddled in the darkest corner of the room, its delayed synths turning percussive and pattering your theta state like acid rain. On the B-side, Honey Single deftly weaves dub fragments and metallic webbing into a padded electro structure. Panthers 1 slows the pace and opens the doors to a phantom voice and lush melodic strains that slowly merge into a unified ensemble over the extended, hypnotic beat.



More

Moving away from strictly white label/white sleeve packaging, Great Circles has widened its Philadelphia- based collaborative team, with jacket designs created via video disruption by Seppuku Overwrite, and screen printing by Mark Price [markpriceisafactory.net]. Dan Trevitt and Westov Temple mark the transition into the next phase of releases with a split 12”. The A-side opens with Dan Trevitt's Mendacious Truths, an immediate onslaught of warehouse madness, with its bruising kick drum, raw voltages, and organized chaos. Trevitt’s The Vapid follows, an evolving experiment in sound design, with polyrhythmic patterns, subtle percussive undertones, voices from the distant future, and droning discordant negative space. Spanning the B-side, Westov Temple’s Dr. Sardon was recorded in one take while preparing new sounds for a live set performed the following night at Industry of Machines in Brooklyn. Though it is a divergence from previously released material, Dr. Sardon exemplifies the sound of Westov Temple’s live sets over the last six months, most notably in the driving, relentless rhythm and in the crescendo - both in volume and tension - that extends across the entire piece.

More

Dan Trevitt, long-tenured Philly Techno DJ of the highest caliber and stalwart member of the Inciting / Great Circles crew steps up with The Missing, his first 12" for the label. Trevitt spent most of the past year holed up with a rotating arsenal of hardware in The Vacuum, a warehouse that not so long ago played host to a number of memorable parties. Machine ghosts fight for freedom, trapped in the dark of smoke, spray paint, solder and ash. But no one's going home just ye More

Philadelphia's _moonraker follow up on their late 2012 "m_type" release with "remota instruere," their 2nd 12" for Great Circles. 5 tracks of psych noise techno deviations plus a remix by Terrence Dixon. Cut by Dietrich Schoenemann. Hand-stamped and limited to 300 copies.

More

_moonraker is a continually evolving musical conversation that longs for escape from terrestrial constraints. The human participants in this machine dialogue are Great Circles mainstay Jason Carr, and kenneth_lay, who is also one half of metasplice. _moonraker's m-type 12" features extractions from a lengthy recording session held in Philadelphia, documenting their fearless approach to live improv and hypnotic programming. The dirt, hiss and subterranean kicks of the basement aesthetic are juxtaposed with massive drones and cosmic synth movements. With the audio mastered by RJ Valeo and lacquers cut by Dietrich Schoenemann, this 12" brings the deepest sounds for the darkest lunar voyages.

More

Great Circles, the label run by the same people who host the Inciting parties in Philadelphia let loose their second 12" release. This one features Tony G whose Tous La Part Le Même Sort lures the listener in with a deceptive sleight of hand before locking in to a spacious groove. All jacking bass and dusted chord progressions, this is the sort of luxuriant burner perfectly primed for after hours dance floors. Three diverse remixes from Jason Carr, Andrew Joseph and Hero/Victim demonstrate the vast talent that's been rocking Philly warehouses and lofts for the past few years. Limited to 250 copies for the world.
More