Sonic Circuits is a Washington DC experimental music collective, and annual festival that is really not coordinated very conveniently with Stanford’s fall quarter (god fucking dammit), but they can sure put together a fine compilation to fill us in on what we’re missing. A lot of avant-garde stuff here, strange and pleasant sounds that would make musical malcontents such as John Cage or Marcel Duchamp green with envy. KZSU’s favorite guitar-cello duo Janel & Anthony appear on separate solo projects here, each with surprising doses of electronic dissonance. Chester Hawkins (Blue Sausage Infant) plays with local friends in the psych-rock trio Catoctin. A lot of noise musicians bring interesting, short pieces that would sound great at The Lab’s Noise Pancake events. (Despite being vegan, those pancakes are quite tasty.)
FCC clean

1. (3:58) Amptext: Chaotic cello dissonance
2. (4:05) Anthony Pirog Ensemble: Buzzing, humming drones. Bleating bassoon, jangling windchimes, other randomness. Aimless but intriguing.
3. (3:26) BLK w/Bear: nervous, distant loops of noise with some dark layers of droning guitar
4. (4:03) Boris Bobby Jr: scattered, frantic free-jazz melee, descends into some quiet musings before erupting into chaos again.
5. (4:08) Colla Parte: a bit more restrained free-jazz—some dissonant vibraphone layers, upright bass, and wandering, spirited tenor sax that reminds me of Archie Shepp
6. (4:08)* Fast Forty: looping, nightmarish echoed samples of the phrase “class warfare” ad infinitum. Terrifying, Orwellian, but somehow hilarious.
7. (4:34)** Janel Leppin: really intense suite—buzzing noise, bubbly synth layers, mystical oud-like wanderings, ends on some creepy static whispers.
8. (5:12)** Jeff Carey: BLISTERING HARSH NOISE! The transmitter is broken. Subtle, nuanced—one of the best noise tracks I’ve ever heard.
9. (3:56) Layne Garrett: eerie, distant drone meditations—screeching hiss of scraping symbals; basement cacophony; carvernous Lustmord-esque hums.
10. (4:02) Lost Civilizations Experimental Music Project: frenetic, futuristic free-jazz—skronking while people enjoy Ethiopian food.
11. (3:38) Mercury Fools The Alchemist: underwater static transmissions with some narcotic guitar and cello overdubs
12. (3:10) Slut Walk: slow, sleazy synth modulations with an unintelligible Dick Panthers-esque voiceover.
13. (4:09)* Catoctin: What’s this—a beat? a melody? Woah. Sounds like SF space rockers 3 Leafs playing a very anxious / tense / caffeinated (but still tight, jazzy, percussive) jam.
14. (2:28) Violet: a burst of earshattering noise
15. (3:35) Cory O’Brien: layers of buzzing, windy static. Noisy but restrained.
16. (3:59) TI0741: rumbling, hypnagogic layers of fuzz and synth droning
17. (4:15) Troglobite w/Amma House: slowly crescendoing layers of tape hiss, oscillating feedback, chirping
18. (4:02)* Tag Cloud: plodding, ritualistic dirge of eerie alien synth, gentle entranced hippie tambourine
19. (4:02)* Sansyou: gorgeous guitar arpeggios layered over some slowly emerging Megabats-esque beats and kraut synth hypnotism.