My take on Now Here Is Nowhere: This is a record with one genuinely great idea, executed at the highest level twice — and a lot of filler in between. First Wave Intact is the masterpiece: near-silence into drums, a repeated riff that stays exciting, a heavier turn around 4:45, a brief vocal drop at 7 minutes, and a jam-band ending that could've run another 20 minutes without losing me. Now Here Is Nowhere is the close second — same patient build, same commitment to scale, with a 7:40 breakdown that nails the band's whole ambient feedback/space-drift signature. Nowhere Again earns its place too — same rolling drum pulse, and it's the track that states the album's title theme outright ("we know we're lost, we're lost in nowhere now"). Radio-friendly without feeling like a sellout. Leaves Are Gone is the outlier that complicates my theory that this band only works when they go big — it's short and quiet, "winter" is even said twice in the lyrics, but the sound still does its own work reinforcing that. Low vocals and sparse arrangement land the mood on top of what the words already say. The rest — The Road Leads Where It's Led, Pharaoh's Daughter, You Are Chains — teases the same great texture in strong intros, then either cuts it short for "a regular tune" or tips into a campy, theatrical quality (it's giving Rocky Horror, and not in a good way) that pulls me right back out. Vocals sit buried in the mix throughout, which shifts the whole listening experience from following lyrics to getting submerged in mood — texture over message, for better or worse depending on the track. Bottom line: two, maybe three tracks I'd give a second and third listen. The band clearly has a genuinely unique sound — I just wish they trusted it on more than a third of the record.
Lovely intro to this album by @BlackPlastic . I somehow missed the mp3 blog era. I think this was the point in my life where I was deep into jam band forums and trading audience records of shows through blanks and postage. (B&Ps were such a genuine way for music to spread through individuals who really cared.) Such an interesting time for music discovery. It was an interesting listen, but I think I agree with @irishguy . In Black Plastic's intro it was mentioned that there's truly epic sounds despite a fairly conventional approach to instrumentation. I think this traditional instrumentation is to the detriment of the musical ideas throughout the album. You can hear the grand ambitions in the music, but it lacks the sonic palette to bring them to life. With the condensed selection of sounds, everything between the bookends feels like it blends together. It looks like this is their first full length album. It definitely feels that way. Some really cool explorations from a band that doesn't feel mature quite yet.