Finally, the classic album by one of the most infamous Los Angeles early Hardcore bands has been rereleased. Split label release between Mass Media Records and Puke and Vomit Records, first 100 orders direct from Mass Media get a bonus screenprinted back patch of the brutal inner sleeve art!



Paypal $13 ppd US/$15 ppd Canada, Mexico /$20 world to massmediadistro@aol.com. You can send a money order payable to MASS MEDIA to us at : P.O. Box 2692, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. (make sure to send an email requesting the patch).
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BACKPATCH (Limited to 100 from Mass Media):



“For all of you who have read or heard about Circle One: Do not judge people on what you hear or read, See it with your own eyes and then you be the judge”
-from the liner notes of Patterns Of Force

Even in 1983 when Patterns of Force was released, it seems that Circle One knew of their peculiar reputation and that this record would be judged with prejudice. Twenty-seven years later, upon the re-release of this album it seems that not much has changed. Whereas the history of early hardcore punk in Southern California has been endlessly chronicled in books like We've Got the Neutron Bomb and films like American Hardcore, the history and music of Circle One has remained obscure. Many people from the era agree that the band has been overshadowed by the mythology surrounding lead singer John Macias. Macias' imposing physical presence, gang involvement, militant Christian beliefs, and mental illness followed him to his early death and continue to shape opinions about Circle One, a band that is very much more than one man.

Circle One was formed in 1980 by guitarist Michael Vallejo in Pico Rivera , CA. Named after the pseudo-fictional cult/gang formed by Germs vocalist Darby Crash, the four young men in the original Circle One (Macias, Vallejo, bassist Mike Ituarte , and drummer Bill Ituarte ) started as a simple fast punk band and by 1983 after lineup changes, small tours, and lots of local shows had developed into the band you here on this record. The bands' sound was formed mainly by Vallejo who , besides being an extremely talented player, developed a unique guitar sound with the speed of GBH mixed with the dark melodies of Dead Kennedys that looms over every song on this disc. By the time Patterns of Force was released the band had gained drummer Jody Hill and bassist Danny Dorman, and obviously honed their chops as the songs on this record spill seamlessly into one another.

The relentless pacing of Dorman's drums set the level of intensity high, and Macias' delivers his lyrics much like a manic sermon. The greed of huge corporations and politicians, the hopelessness of violence and drug addiction, and senselessness of war are are touched on with lyrical tirades spanning several paragraphs each. The production on this album lends to the seriousness of Circle One. Everything on this record reverberates, which makes the band sound larger than life and Macias' vocals downright prophetic.

Circle One has been dismissed by many as boneheads, bigots, and musically simple but it is apparent there was much more going on judging from this LP. They waste no time with rock n roll theatrics nor do they have songs about skateboarding, hating their parents or getting wasted like so many of their contemporaries. Also, while every hardcore band on the block has something to say about the ills of society, Circle One was a band that had a solution: Jesus Christ. As strange as it sounds given punk and hardcore's largely atheistic history (Circle One shared space on vinyl with Bad Religion on the Public Service compilation weird enough), Circle One posits a punk Christianity as a way to rebel against excess and the depression that consumes over many young people.

Perhaps this is why Circle One has been such a hard band to understand. They do not fit neatly into the history of punk. The legacy of Patterns of Force and Circle One has been based mainly on rumor and not the music itself. This is the bands only album conceived during Macias' life. It is rumored that only 1000 of the LPs were pressed by Upstart records before the label went bankrupt. The band also essentially broke up in 1984 which couldn't help the fact that many people haven't heard this record. It surfaced, in a largely altered state in 1998, on the Discography CD on Grand Theft Audio titled “Are You Afraid?” . What we present to you here is the original mixes, remastered from the original tapes. The artwork, inserts and sound have not been changed so that maybe, 27 years later, people can judge Circle One and the album Patterns Of Force with their own eyes and ears. -Cameron Cisneros
HEAR A SAMPLE FROM CIRCLE ONE -PATTERNS OF FORCE
http://massmediadistro.com/images/circleone/patternsofforcepics/circleonemedley-01.mp3

The re-mastering on this is so awesome. Much superior to the Grand Theft Audio CD version I have.

Umm.. It's cool that it's true to the original with the weird ass reverb vocals, but the CD does sound cleaner. Maybe the later cd pressings were crappy? I would say the cd sounds a little overproduced, but the reverb on the og press is fucking off the wall. Certainly glad that someone did it though. Yeah, damning it with faint praise whatever.

the reverb is the main thing that sets this apart for me. I don't like the idea of doing reissues really, I feel like it makes hardcore a museum piece. But this record, in its original form, is a fucking oddity!