We're big fans of Canadian guitarist Aidan Baker here at the Blast. We've been digging his glacial guitar-generated drift designs for years, and have been lucky enough to release some of his work (the recent Periodic CD-R on our Crucial Bliss imprint as well as an appearance from Aidan's drone/doom/shoegaze band Nadja on the Shadows Infinitum compilation, also on Crucial Bliss). Much like Troum, Aidan is a master at summoning immense beautiful melodies out of feedback and processed guitar, and with the Arc project he has teamed up with percussionists Richard Baker and Christopher Kukiel to create some of the thickest, prettiest drone rock we've ever heard on this debut album. Aidan also utilizes flutes and tapeloops here, and according to the liner notes, the 4 tracks on The Circle Is Not Round are actually studio pieces constructed from live recordings that have been reworked and layered together into a vaporous wash of drone, a mixture of Popul Vuh acoustic compositions, Pink Floyd's Ummagumma era, the ethno-ambient of Voice of Eye, and the heavy galactic drone rock of Subarachnoid Space. Melodic loops and textured guitar flow through each other, sometimes taking on My Bloody Valentine levels of density while being grounded by tribal-esque rhythms provided by various percussive instruments. Absolutely essential to fans of drone rock, Kranky Records, Growing, drone-core, etc. The disc is packaged in a special cardboard digisleeve with varnished images. Limited edition of 800 copies.