Absorption

Nadja are (relatively) well known for their epic, wide-open drone stuff. Methadrone, less so, but they still manage a fairly similar style- a lot more riff driven and not as layered, but still a good take on the whole 'blissed out doom' or as I like to call it, "Dream Doom". Despite being pretty impressed by Methadrone's Retrogression, I was expecting that Nadja's song in this split was going to be the thing to carry it to glory. Instead, though, Nadja drop out a 30 minute turd, while Methadrone take their sound to some transcendent heights.

Admittedly, it is a very well layered, meticulously arranged 30 minute turd that Nadja do. Perhaps it's just that I'm a little bit burnt out on these guys, but regardless I just really, really dislike this tune. It does have some nice moments- the piano playing in it is quite unexpected yet really awesome- but for the most part, Nadja eschews riffs for a steady, subtle unfolding ambience, and it's just really quite boring, not really going anywhere but going there really, really slowly. I would add the disclaimed that "it should be good for late night listening", but I'm listening to it now when I'm really tired (and it's kinda late at night) and it's just making me angry. ARRRRRGHHHH!!! This totally gets on my nerves.

Anyway, the good thing for us is that Methadrone totally save the split with a really, really nice group of songs. I've already used the word 'transcendent' in the opening paragraph, but it's all I can really think of when describing their tunes here, particularly the first song. Other words like ascending, flying etc. Are all very apt descriptions too. 'A View into The Empty' is really, really brilliant, with some really simple but just perfect synths, some soaring lead bass riffs, and just a really beautiful sort of blissed out feel. Imagine giving JK Broadrick a bass guitar, amp and tape deck and shooting him out into space.

The other songs don't quite match the "HOLY CRAP THIS IS AMAZING" quality of 'A View into The Empty' but they're still pretty damn solid. 'Sustained Presence of Loss' has some more quality synth action and the whole thing seems to give off a '80's pop put through 10 fuzz pedals' sort of vibe, kind of strange but still pretty damn cool. Placebo and Absorbed both follow the Methadrone formula- big bass riffs and some synth action, and bother are pretty sweet, with Absorbed having some really nice riffs and excellent bass played by the rhythm bass dude- just totally fitting and sounding great.

I'm kind of torn how to rate this. On one hand there's one song that's jizz-in-your-pants kind of good, there's three that are pretty sweet, and then there's half an hour of crappy ambient noodle that does nothing but annoy you. In the end I'm going to give it a high mark, because 'A View into The Empty' is that freaking amazing. This is pretty much impossible to find, but it's well worth trying to track down for the Methadrone tracks.