"OCD 'cause the devil's in the detail / Freaking out 'cause I'm a hypochondriac..."
A two tiered review this time of King Nun's "OCD" and "Lamb".
The intro to South West London based King Nun's heady angst post punk boiler "OCD" might make you think of a nostalgic potent collision of band's like Placebo and Pixies and once the song reveals itself with Theo Polyzoides' truly compelling vocal aesthetic (that might feel like an artful amalgam of Brian Molko, early early Thom Yorke and young Glenn Tilbrook) you will feel utterly hooked in. "OCD" is one of those rare songs that has a well balanced bit of subversion while having serious power pop sensibility making it an utterly balanced mosh worthy heaviness with an artistic pop prowess in terms of songwriting.
From LINER notes (bracketed):
[With its discordant guitars and body horror lyrics, which draw from those early influences of Sonic Youth and Pixies but never treads familiar ground. "I think there was a good two years where I had an incredible bout of health anxiety that at every turn nearly put a stop to my life," says Theo about the song. "I was really struggling with everything you could imagine and the simplest thing became massive and complicated because I was over analysing my well being physically and emotionally. It was winding into this weird obsessive compulsive something." The result is something twisted and dark, drawing the same compulsive mindset, and proving King Nun to be a band capable of losing ties to any one genre.]
Hearing the absolute heavy power pop / alt rock of "OCD" and I was surprised by the sonic shift of "Lamb", the title track from King Nun's latest 11 track full length. The pivot to the kind of alt pop sound that feels like that kind of 80's indie rock that might of had long lost seeds in British music hall. The wonderful sweep has me thinking of the ghosts of The Kinks, XTC and Squeeze. Again Theo Polyzoides' vocal countenance spouting truly artful lyrical poetry has a sort of iconic sound in his storytelling voice. Loving this a lot.
These two diverse tracks makes me think of so many cool bands, impactful bands that while they may not have served as inspirational fodder, may have the same musical D.N.A. Artists like Placebo, Pixies, Kasabian, Manic Street Preachers and Squeeze, XTC, The Kinks.
[King Nun consists of Theo Polyzoides (vocals and guitar), James Upton (guitar), Nathan Gane (bass) and Caius Stockley-Young (drums), what would later become an official band started as friends bonding over their shared love of bands off the beaten path, from Richard Hell and Television to Sonic Youth and Pixies.]
Bloody brilliant.
-Robb Donker Curtius
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https://open.spotify.com/artist/0FHPAcPoHtExxmF68aEChO
https://www.instagram.com/king_nun/
https://www.kingnun.com/
King Nun consists of Theo Polyzoides (vocals and guitar), James Upton (guitar), Nathan Gane (bass) and Caius Stockley-Young (drums), what would later become an official band started as friends bonding over their shared love of bands off the beaten path, from Richard Hell and Television to Sonic Youth and Pixies.
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THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0FHPAcPoHtExxmF68aEChO
https://www.instagram.com/king_nun/
https://www.kingnun.com/
King Nun consists of Theo Polyzoides (vocals and guitar), James Upton (guitar), Nathan Gane (bass) and Caius Stockley-Young (drums), what would later become an official band started as friends bonding over their shared love of bands off the beaten path, from Richard Hell and Television to Sonic Youth and Pixies.
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