If rules are made to be broken then such logic should go some way to explaining the rationale behind SQUARE CIRCLE’S debut album. This trio from San Diego systematically defy categorisation with each and every one of the 17 tracks on ‘Mankind’. Those of you in search of a coherent band sound or creative workings within one genre are advised to look elsewhere as conforming to a scene or aspirations to be flavour of the month seem to be firmly off the SQUARE CIRCLE agenda. Such aversion to pigeon-holing may explain the band’s moniker.
Flirting with notions of electronica this outfit may best be described as practitioners of ‘Boffin Rock’. There is something decidedly geeky and cerebral about ‘Mankind’ as if the album is an exercise in sound testing and knob-twiddling rather than an expression of heart and soul. Which is not to say that it doesn’t have affecting moments: the opening instrumental ‘Robot’(instrumentals feature heavily on ‘Mankind’) sounds like a jam session between Kraftwerk and Rush, the acoustic ballad ‘Never Really Wanted’ smoothes the brow like Wings-era McCartney while ‘Dissolved’ could be post–Roger Waters Pink Floyd.
For every half decent track there is a real duffer. The cod-classical ‘Symphony in Silicon’ sounds like the trite faux classical music Vanessa Mae produces and should really be taken outside and shot while the bossanova ‘AEIOU’ is just too Muzak in temperament to be adjudged ironically. Elsewhere the shifting sands of sound take in 80’s synth-pop,70’s prog-pop (e.g. The Alan Parson Project), vaudeville, metal and the kind of space-rock favoured by Jeff Lynne on his ‘War of The Worlds’, particularly on the epic ‘Hate’.
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‘Mankind’ has been knocking around for a few years now (their website has reviews from as far back as 2001) and as yet there is no sign of a second long-player. Given the variety of tracks on offer with their debut perhaps SQUARE CIRCLE have used up all their ideas and are struggling to find new ones for their follow-up. Whilst ‘Mankind’ is by no means a great album the band’s boundless ambition and self-sufficient technical prowess deserve further outings beyond their kaleidoscopic first-born.
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