OND CIRKEL - Svavelvinter / Vilda Syrener

2 songs
8:48 minutes
***** **
Never Understand

Bandpage

In this time and age where nearly every new promo comes digitally, it felt quaint to find a seven-inch single at my radio station. The grim black-and-white woodcut cover was instantly intriguing, but at first I was disappointed that there was no download code, and I don’t have a record player anymore. But soon I found out that the band allows you to download their music at a pay-what-you-like system on their Bandcamp page, so I decided to offer them some Swedish kronas for their effort.

Ond Cirkel are a very dark sounding post punk band from Gothenburg who released their EP Sist av Allt last year, to be followed this year by this two track single. I have to admit that I have never been the biggest fan of post punk, but the pure and unadulterated underground attitude of Ond Cirkel – which translates to Vicious Circle – has me getting back to their songs again and again. The band consists of two women on vocals and bass guitar and two men on guitar and drums.

The A-side Svavelvinter (Sulphur Winter) is a bleak track that combines the gloomiest moments of post punk with gothic wave. The vocals are ominously soaring over a bare rhythmic construct of a very early Eighties sounding bass and loosely accompanying drums, with the guitar being mostly undistorted and sounding like the dirge version of surf rock. Vilda Syrener (Wild Lillies) on the B-side is different as the guitar is distorted and adding a suffering atmosphere to the music.

Nowadays there is a post punk revival that is quite popular with the people, with some of the bands belonging to that movement even selling out big club shows, but Ond Cirkel are different. Ond Cirkel sound like the real deal, like something dug out from the late Seventies or the early Eighties. The production is simple yet transparent enough to give every band member is deserved space, and the songs never try to accommodate themselves to current trends. This is true darkness, and maybe what post punk was supposed to be in the first place. Listen and enjoy these sounds of darkness!