Unwed Sailor

Johnathon Ford and Unwed Sailor have crept away from the neoclassical plucking of The Marionette and the Music Box and now place themselves squarely in post-rock (or even prog-rock) territory on Circles, a meditative, two-part suite that’s heavy on ambient keyboards and reverb-drenched, plodding tom-toms. “Circles 1: Mist” drones for a sleepy eight minutes before guitars finally assert themselves—though they merely add another texture, not a melody. It isn’t until halfway through the shorter “Circles 2: Mesa” that Ford’s creative, percussive bass takes the lead, as it has on previous Unwed Sailor releases. It’s worth the wait, as the band layers soaring, EBowed guitars and a solid percussion groove that lifts the music from brooding darkness into something hopeful and buoyant.