Monday 6 July 2009

New Music: Black Nerd


www.myspace.com/blacknerdband

Hailing from my hometown and comprising of three friends of mine, I would in most circumstances be emotionally contracted to loving Black Nerd, irrespective of the music they played. Sycophantism is a bit of a skill of mine. However, in comparison to their former musical outing, the often-confrontational and sometime-hilarious i!AMYOU, Black Nerd's otherworldly shoegaze sound actually shows a maturity and richness of sound that comes in stark contrast to the ever-frequent emo and pop-punk that the South West seems to churn out at an almost hourly rate.


The increasingly intense community formed of rakish fanboys of Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Failure is growing daily, with synthesizers and effects pedals being used for the right reasons once again and vocals becoming as much a sonic tool as an expression of emotion, sentiment or opinion. Black Nerd's music unashamedly takes influence from whale music, with seemingly endless notes being played through mountains of reverb so that they simply become another layer to the music, such as on the sublime 'Why We Got The Sack From The Museum.' I played it to a friend not long after hearing it for the first time myself, and she said that she couldn't bring herself to turn it off, as if the noise produced was somewhat hypnotic. It may sound like everyday musical hyperbole, but the music is trance-like, lulling you in a series of peaks and waves that effortlessly blend into one another, providing a musical soundscape similar to the work of Brian Eno's solo efforts 'Music For...' series.


An upcoming gig at the Queens Hotel in Weymouth with Into The Dust, Battle For Paris and Run, Walk! should see whether the complexities of the demos can transfer effectively and succinctly live. If they do not, then Black Nerd promise to be a band who will remain steeped in cult status through a constant level of recordings and underground recognition. If they do pull it off, they could very quickly seem themselves spawning many followers and many imitators.


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