Feature, Reviews

Rad Releases ’14- North End

December 29, 2014

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As the countdown to the end of 2014 quickly approaches we take a personal look back on familiar names, features and musicians’ best releases of the past 12 months. Circuit Sweet will be featuring the featured artists of the site with their personal top 5 releases of the year.

In our end of year special we let our favorites take over the site to tell us the records that have made their end of year lists, their favorite events/gigs and what we can look forward to from them next year.

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Rad Releases  wouldn’t be right if we didn’t include one of our most loved acts, the addictive 4 piece North End. Hailing from Pennsylvania, North End consist of Russ Daniels, Marcus Rodriguez, Kevin Burk and Peter Willis. Together they are an outstanding act who are on the verge of something incredibly rewarding. Last year the quartet topped our end of year list with their triumphant 5 track EP ‘ Cognoscere’; which they unveiled back in August 2013. Their talents and passion combined have produced a simply flawless record. Their fan base is growing and we were extremely lucky to welcome them to our online store– bringing this US act to the UK. In March of this year the band contributed a brand new track for our compilation which you can download here. We just love everything about North End, they are a act we urge you to support, for now we hand over to Russ and the boys to find out about their year in music…

1-gates – Bloom and Breathe

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It was really great to finally get a full length album from our friends in Gates. The production on the album is super clean and the songs flow amazingly. It’s a lot of fun to listen to and it was awesome to see how many people they were able to reach with the release of it.

 2- Chon – Woohoo! EP

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Chon are musical prodigies, and they create songs that make my head spin from the technicality. The fact that their drummer recently turned 18 is also something that is beyond comprehension. Every one of us loves the mix of melodic and heaviness that they pull off perfectly. Although short, this EP from start to finish is incredible and we highly recommend it.

3- sleepmakeswaves- Love of Cartography

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Another great album by sleepmakeswaves.  We got a chance to meet and play with these guys in 2012 and it’s been awesome to watch them grow.

4-Tycho – Awake

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Awake is an album that you can easily get lost into. It has a great blend of ambient and electronic elements that really drive the tracks forward. The inclusion of an actual studio drummer definitely separates it from the earlier releases too. It’s one of those albums that perfectly sets the mood no matter what you’re doing.
5- The Contortionist – Language

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We undoubtedly have heavy roots when it comes to our style of music, and this kind of progressive metal is exactly what we enjoy. The album heavily favors the melodic elements, so there is a lot of singing and it’s a way more complex than your typical metal offering. Important to note, the opening tracks Language I and II are completely badass.
The most important show we played this year was one we did in the memory of a good friend. We played at The Liberty Taproom in Pennsylvania, so many people gathered to show their support and we raised money for the family. Not to mention we played 2 sets and the energy in there was off the charts, people were going nuts. It was such a fun night, and a great cause that helped out those in need during a tough time.

Personally, the best show I went to this year was seeing Antemasque in Philadelphia because I was such a big fan of At The Drive In and The Mars Volta back in the day. Omar Rodriguez Lopez is one of my biggest musical influences and seeing him shred for an hour had me completely elated. It was one of those shows that you process for weeks afterwards because it hit you so hard.

Artist/Bands to watch for 2015

Vasudeva and Owel, they are both writing new albums and we absolutely can’t wait to hear what they have planned.

Plans for the year:

Finish writing the next full length. We can say so far these are the best tracks we have ever written. It’s going to be a lot of fun to show people what we have been up to.

North End you have no idea how excited we are for a full length, get over here and play our front room! We wish you all the best for next year.

http://northend.bandcamp.com/

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