I'd been curious about this record for a long time; I just missed out on buying the damn thing when it came out and it'd proved an illusive one to download. So first up I'd like to credit the guy who uploaded that unusually comprehensive Nadja torrent; a lot of little singles/eps and the like that I'd missed out on the first time round.
Surprisingly enough, it was definitely worth the torrent! The golden years of Nadja were heady times indeed; the collabs still sounded good, every new album presented a new side of the band, shit was so fresh it'd stick to your shoe if you stepped on it. This is probably the weakest of the '06 output but it still sounds pretty great. Excuse the track by track as it's only two songs.
The first untitled is a real patience tester; I'm not sure if it really rewards the listener enough but it's not terrible either. It is a cool soundscape- this real uneasy doom riff lurching around while FFB slowly builds up this wall of ominous.. stuff. It's one riff, an ambient comedown and then the same riff as before but changed up a bit.. I know I'm not selling this well but it is pretty cool. It may just be nostalgia, but I love the production here; not as overwhelming as newer Nadja but still layered to shiiiit, backwards cymbals sizzling up into the aether, that real metallic clangy snare, it's cool man.
Second track is a fair bit better. Or perhaps it's just more melodic (kind of); one thing that everyone could agree on is that it's more palatable, relatively speaking. Less of a dingy cavern drone here, and the soundscape is a more haunting, melancholic one; it's more human, there's a bit more to grab hold of. No real riff to speak of but the steadily creaking percussion, the floating vocals and that ever thickening drone keep it quite interesting. A seasick ghost pirate screaming for his lost love? A serial killer falling for the woman he's just hacked up? It's unsettling but it's a lot more human than the first song. I rather like it, although I can't see it being listening to very often. The arrangement is fantastic; there's so many elements going in and out of the mix.
Yeah, it's a pretty cool album, certainly something that's completist only but I think most nadja fans would enjoy it. Worth adding to your colllection, and if you have it on vinyl and want to sell it let me know!