Before we dear reader, go any further, I feel you should let me get this statement out of the way because it’s the crux of my whole review really, “I think this new release by Ninetails is incredibly brave”. I’m certain I’ll say various permutations of those word again a few more times before you’re through reading this.
As someone who’s been following the band ever since 2011’s phenomenal début EP ‘Ghost Ride The Whip’ came out, I ended up being somewhat of a soccer mom with them, living my own musical ambitions vicariously through them, shouting from the touchline every Sunday, watching them ascend to the position they’re in now, and the recognition they’re starting to get. Upon listening to ‘Slept And Did Not Sleep’ it really did hammer home to me how brilliant this band really are. I am a proud mum.
Now I have to say, I’m not really a big fan of those reviews whereby a review compares a band’s release to some sort of drug induced state. Whichever poison you care to ingest, bands rarely come close to “…sound[ing] like [insert something super cool that gets you high here]…” I listen to Kyuss stone cold sober as I always found it a more pleasurable experience than when stoned, because it was just TOO CRUSHING with a head full of THC. However if there’s one thing that I absolutely am, and that’s a massive hypocrite…
Ninetails‘ new effort is more akin to the soundtrack of a half awake/asleep dream state than a true 5 track collection of songs. Imagine if you will, all stimulus from a day full of listening to all your favourite music, ending with a blissed out night ‘on it’ (you know what particular love/empathy inducing “it” I mean?….don’t you?…I thought we were all mega cool here?) with that churning restless half awake/sleep, and the semi-dreams you’d be having, they begin morphing into a stream of [un]conciousness explosions of sounds and sight, raging between overworked synapses…still with me?
What the band have managed to do so well this time round, as evidenced on tracks like ‘Maybe We’ and ‘Boxed In’ is augment an already ingrained and powerful math rock sensibility, with a new sonic palette to paint with. So now, as well as the strong melodic hooks we’re so accustomed to, they’re throwing in swirling synth ambience, distorted drones, and distant voices crackling through the static from a long forgotten wireless in the attic (By that I mean a radio, not your broadband connection). It’s as if they’ve forced themselves to listen to David Lynch’s Eraserhead soundtrack, lots of Brian Eno/Robert Fripp and mid 80s Tears For Fears remixes over and over until its pouring out of them.
‘Boxed In’ invites us to drift through immersion tanks of rumbling bass and swelling tides of effected guitars and what sounds like orchestral strings gently buzzing by on the wind. These are places you’ve only experienced as you doze off, except now you’re made to be fully aware of that repetitive 8 seconds of backwards guitar, glitching in the back of your head, the muffled drum sounds are your own pulse pounding away in your head, and you can hear each reverbed tambourine shake on ‘Maybe We’ as if it were a lung full of air rushing in and out.
‘Body Clock’ takes us back in a semi-80s nostalgia trip with King’s “proper drums” being replaced by 808 hand claps and the like. Black and Balaber’s guitar sounds have swiftly nabbed some Marr-esque reverb stylings, but all the while being more of a natural evolution of their own sound than a direct theft. Never does any of this feel like it’s forced, and cynically going for the “hey look at us, we can sound like we’re from the 80s too”. Owing more to a hip hop sensibility of “that SOUNDS GOOD, lets borrow it and make something new with it”, as opposed to a quick buck bandwagon jump onto the latest trending ‘hot sounds’.
Having said all of that, it’s not to say they’ve completely abandoned those razor sharp hooks, there are plenty of those to reel you in. It’s just now they seem to be more considered, dare I say they’ve become more….’progressive’ in their outlook and execution. Closer ‘Mama Aniseed’ is a roiling torrent of melody, tempo and time signature changes. Jake’s jazz/rock infused drumming particularly coming into its own. As the rest of the band weave in and out of his often erratic rhythmic patterns, at times feeling likes he’s going to lose it all, only for him to yank the reins and pull it right back under control. It’s a roller-coaster of poly rhythms that makes you want to queue up for three hours after just having a go and wait to ride it again and again.
Lead single ‘Rawdon Fever’ is a master class in powerful melodic indie, with Morris’ bass bouncing along, and the stomping of King’s beats between the forest of magical twin guitar lines. They’re still happy to run riot in their own little world of gleeful joy at how awesome a collection of notes and beats can be. And with barely any “standard” lyrical content it’s as if they’ve dared themselves, can we really get away with zero lyrics beyond the mantra of “AKA” repeated over and over again, as a SINGLE? Yes boys, yes you certainly can.
I can’t help but feel that after repeat listening, that there seems to be a strong undercurrent of Unkle’s masterpiece ‘Psyence Fiction’ shining through this EP. Like that, they are embracing the darker sonic fringes of the listening experience, mixing straight up melodic rock conventions, and blurring it so wonderfully with electronic manipulation of sound. Messing with pure noise and ethereal soundscapes, to create a new depth to what was very briefly glimpsed at on their début. ‘Slept And Did Not Sleep’ is the sound of a band that absolutely love music in all its forms, and aren’t afraid to mess around with what music, or even they themselves are ‘supposed’ to sound like.
Its truly a testament to how far the band have come in the past year or two, that they can go from creating amazing straight up pop drenched rock, and I say that with not a hint of derision, because who doesn’t like pop(!?). Now they’re moving on to bending space and time, welding it to pure thought, to create these miniature universes within each song. This is all so wonderfully amazing because Ninetails are a band who could have very easily carved out a career making radio friendly classics that get played on Hollyoaks, and they probably still could if they really wanted to, because they know how to write great songs.
As it stands they chose to challenge themselves and us as listeners, to wander off into the wilderness of sonic exploration and read books about how to manipulate the world inside your head. As I said, brave. Very brave indeed…
Available now through SuperStarDestroyer Records.
Guest review posted by Nick Duke of Trojan Horse.
