"Reeling from the moment I stumbled on the life we left behind..."
Seconds into "This Fractured Mind" by Brooklyn based Nation of Language, comprised of Ian Richard Devaney (vocals, guitar, percussion), Aidan Noell (synth, vocals) and Michael Sue-Poi (bass). Devaney, I flashed on the fertile indie period of 1978 to 80 when the precursors to techno like Kraftwerk and proto Goth pop bands like Echo and the Bunnymen and electronic acts like Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark started making waves. Sue-Poi's plucky bass, high and dominant in the mix with Noell's synth sounds resembling a vintage Vox Jaguar organ / Prophet 5 and Devaney's vocal aesthetic an amalgam of Andy McCluskey, Tom Bailey and Ian McCulloch and you have a lush bit of new wave nostalgia but not played in any sort of cheeky way but pure and earnest. A sound explored on "A Way Forward", the follow-up to Nation of Language’s debut album, "Introduction, Presence" (2020).
Devaney expounds, “‘A Way Forward’ is an exploration of the band’s relationship to the music of the 70s, through the lenses of krautrock and early electronic music. We aimed to more deeply trace the roots of our sound, hoping to learn something from the early influences of our early influences. Experimenting with how they might be reinterpreted in our modern context - looking further backward to find a way forward.
We drew a lot from the steady locomotive rhythms of bands like Kraftwerk and Neu!, while also looking to less-propulsive electronic artists like Laurie Spiegel and Cluster. The goal was to have a record that felt like a journey, like being on a train that gets lost in a colorful fog, and then suddenly bursts through into different landscapes.
Thematically, some of those landscapes are familiar in their melancholy, but we also wanted to introduce celebration and joy in a way that hadn’t really been present in our previous album. Having these bursts of positivity felt like it gave the emotional low points more resonance, giving a stronger sense of emotional reality to the album overall.”
We drew a lot from the steady locomotive rhythms of bands like Kraftwerk and Neu!, while also looking to less-propulsive electronic artists like Laurie Spiegel and Cluster. The goal was to have a record that felt like a journey, like being on a train that gets lost in a colorful fog, and then suddenly bursts through into different landscapes.
Thematically, some of those landscapes are familiar in their melancholy, but we also wanted to introduce celebration and joy in a way that hadn’t really been present in our previous album. Having these bursts of positivity felt like it gave the emotional low points more resonance, giving a stronger sense of emotional reality to the album overall.”
"A Way Forward" is scheduled to drop November 5 2021. The Official "This Fractured Mind" Video was directed by James Thomson.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
nationoflanguage.com
Nation of Language’s energetic anthems blend upbeat energy with a healthy dose of sardonic melancholy. Their live performances have earned them a reputation for delivering frenzied nights of unexpected bliss.
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