Night Of The Brain - Wear This World Out (Station 55)
UK release date: 4 June 2007
track listing
1. Golden Shower Song
2. Ghosts
3. Viki The Tall
4. The Theme
5. Connecting Changes
6. Winter Wine
7. Dark Lady
8. Battle Of Hearts And Minds
9. Engine Of Angels
10. Above And Beyond
The brain, it is said, is our most powerful and most mysterious organ. No one really knows for sure how it works - it’s a complex thing made up of all mysterious bits and bobs - and so are Night of the Brain who offer 10 tracks of aural interest in this mysterious and moody album of dream fragments and more darker realms than implied by their B-movie style moniker.
Formed by Christian Vogel out of the stagnant techno scene, you’ll be forgiven for thinking NOTB are the latest conscripts to the Klaxons led nu-rave fad. One listen to this and you’ll be very surprised.
There are no traces of ironic rave homage, instead we have an avant garde album sounding more like Sonic Youth, Pixies and Radiohead with a dash of Hot Chip as garnish. This is more alternative-meets-jazz and there isn’t an ironically brandished glo-stick in sight.
The cheekily entitled Golden Shower Song kicks off the album and is one of the most accessible and straightforward songs. The follow up, Ghosts, is a slightly weaker track echoing Queens of the Stone Age’s Feelgood Hit Of The Summer with it’s constant cries of amphetamine glory. It’s aggression seems a little out of place on an album that is otherwise generally chilled and dream like.
The vocals on The Theme echo Frank Black and there’s more than a touch of Kim Deal about the bassline. It’s a superb track which pushes the multi layered experimentation without sacrificing the mood it’s trying to create. The other tracks are just as strong and the clearly enjoy pushing themselves to the limits.
Whilst there’s plenty of influences on show NOTB thankfully don’t let any particular ones dominate. Couple this with the fact that it was written and recorded in Barcelona and you’ll find that this does sound pleasingly different from what you’d expect. If Dali and Picasso had a band, they’d probably sound a lot like this.
This album is definitely a grower. I must confess I was slightly underwhelmed the first time around ,but a couple of listens have drawn me in. However, whilst there are some great moments of experimentation, there’s also a few duff moments too which could have done with smoothing out a little. There are a lot of subtle pleasures to be had with this album, but it’s fair to say that Wear This World Out leaves your brain suitably washed where it should have been scrambled.
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