DJ Chart: Circular Rhythms

Scenery Records' Circular Rhythms became interested in producing music after forming a band with some mates in 1998; his first true experience of dance music came in Ibiza. He became a weekly regular at Cream, cites Liverpool clubnight Voodoo and Bugged Out as key influences, and was devoted to Mary Anne Hobbs' BBC Radio 1 show The Breezeblock, as it was known from 1997-2006. Ten years ago he began experimenting further with software and production, acquiring equipment, building up a studio and making music for his own enjoyment without much of a long-term plan, apart from sharing his tracks among friends for mutual appreciation.

Counting Skudge, October and Levon Vincent as his main inspirations, Circular Rhythms releases his debut EP (Untitled Document/Circumflex) through Liverpool's Scenery label in June, and hopes to have a live performance set completed for later in the year.

Henryk Górecki – I. Lento - Sostenuto Tranquillo Ma Cantabile (from Symphony No 3)
There was a series on BBC Four recently called The Sound and the Fury, about musical evolution at the beginning of the 20th century, and it opened me up to a lot of classical music. There's something very simple and powerful about the way each part of the string arrangement plays the same riff at different timings, building and building from nothing into this crescendo of melody.

Freddie Hubbard – First Light (Epic)
I discovered this track through Fred P on the Fabric blog and haven't stopped listening to it since. He mentioned how every time he listened to it he heard something new in the track and I think it's that attention to detail that's had such an influence on me. There's something very special about the sound of a great jazz trumpet player.

Levon Vincent – Double Jointed Sex Freak (Part 2) (Novel Sound)
This record made me re-evaluate the way I think about dance music. It's perfect, from the timbre of the drums to the grainy spaced echo to the constantly evolving arrangement. Levon is an inspiration for me, he took the time to encourage me to keep making music and a year later he played two of my tracks in the club. It was an honour coming from someone I admire so much as a producer and DJ. He makes music for the right reasons.

Radiohead – Weird Fishes/Arpeggi (_Xurbia_Xendless Limited)
People talk about how influential OK Computer and Kid A are all the time, but for me In Rainbows is their classic album. It is the sound of a band who have transcended the act of actually being a band and just naturally write amazing music. There are hardly any choruses, the arrangements are brilliant, it's that Górecki thing of layering melody, building the track piece by piece.

William Basinski – dlp 3 (Temporary Residence Ltd)
Basinski recorded all these synth loops [on The Disintegration Loops] on reel-to-reel tape and stored them in tins to work on them sometime in the future. When he came to use them they hadn't been stored correctly so when he played them on the machine, as the tape rolled over the capstans, it began to flake creating this amazing distorted warped sound. It sounds brilliant, you can actually hear it disintegrating.

The Traveller – A100 (Ostgut Ton)
I love the 'less is more' attitude of René Pawlowitz's club tracks, he has the heaviest drums and grooves in the business, and he proves you don't necessarily need complicated chord sequences or breakdowns to make an effective track. This was a big influence for my Untitled Document.

Burial – Archangel (Hyperdub)
It's all about the atmosphere, drenched in white noise and reverb. I read that he sampled the sound of rain falling and a fire crackling to get that effect. I know it sounds pretentious or maybe a bit clichéd, but it really does sound like walking around the streets at 2am on a cold wet night. I love melancholic music.

My Bloody Valentine – Sometimes (Creation)
Although the style of music is worlds apart, sonically My Bloody Valentine and Burial are very similar. I love the density, the way the melodies are in there but buried in noise. Kevin Shields is a genius. I was lucky enough to see them recently and I can confirm it isn't a myth about how loud they are. It's mentally draining, you can't gather your thoughts. When they played You Made Me Realise, it actually made people cry.

Clinic – Porno (Domino)
You know that sea shanty/folk style The La's did and a million bands from Liverpool have tried to copy since? Done to death – but when it's done properly it's great. Clinic completely broke the mould in terms of style. There are all left-of-centre sounds in there, like The Velvet Underground, Can, Ennio Morricone and post-punk and, at times, it's really sinister. I've been a fan since the beginning and the new album produced by Oneohtrix Point Never is a bit of a change of direction for them without ever compromising the original Clinic sound.

Voiceless Sounds – Sweet Spot (unreleased)
For my last choice, I'm going to take the opportunity to big up a local Northwest producer, Voiceless Sounds. His music is deep, hypnotic, dirty and dubbed out, everything I like to hear in techno. I believe he has a debut release in the pipeline. Check out his music on SoundCloud.