Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: NoAir
Label: Self-released
Release: 2014
Rating: 3/5
Noair are a young Slovenian indie rock outfit from Koper, building on the legacy of alternative rock. Musically, though, they’re soft and mellifluous, they get stuck in your ear fast, and they carry a faint, distant pop sentiment. Flip the band’s name on its head a little and it’s not hard to get the word »noir« out of it. And when it comes to building moods, Noair really are dark: moody brooders, with barely a sliver of light falling across their sound.
»Existential« is the quartet’s studio debut. On it the band builds a classic sonic backdrop, without any specially patented studio makeup or effects, without programming or sampling, which modern indie rock is full of. The authentic, organic liveliness of the record stays intact. Now and then a veil of keyboards sneaks into the arrangements, to add contrast and deepen the moods themselves.
Eight tracks, all arranged and played in a fairly similar key, with the exception of the last one, Again, where the band allowed itself a bit more sonic experimenting and which is actually the most interesting song on the album. The musical solutions ring out melancholic, dreamy, even trippy at times, and the dark shroud I mentioned clings to the songs. The vocals push their way into the front line of the arrangements. There are two lead vocalists, and it’s mostly these two who weave a dual vocal tapestry through the songs. They take by far the most prominent role, the central position, and so overshadow the other instruments. Which is a good thing, since Noair aren’t exactly lavish with ideas in how they use their instruments; they cautiously stick to chordal motif solutions, preferring to repeat them sensibly over and over rather than fill the motifs with extra moments of compatible »ornamental lines« in the guitar melodies. In that kind of space the bass lines find plenty of room to express themselves, partly filling it and so contrasting the otherwise predictable development of the songs. If this is the same Jaša Hedžet who used to play in Toxine, it’s no surprise where the songs get that nice injection of dynamics from the bass.
The vocals are pushed right up front! The songs are almost overloaded with them. It can also get annoying when they drag along vocal melody lines that carry even into the mid-eight passages, since those are usually reserved for one of the instruments to open up. The interplay of the two lead vocals occasionally even veers into dissonant off-key mess. In the future it wouldn’t hurt to pay more attention to casting the vocals according to the format of a given song, in terms of how well one voice fits the other. Sometimes it would be better for them to sing the tracks completely separately instead of weaving together as full equals.
Although »Existential« is played nicely, warmly and tightly, and although the band manages to deliver its musical expression in a distinctive enough way, it also offers too little variety in ideas and arrangements, hence the feeling of stiffness. At certain moments of the album you can also sense a bit of arranging-and-compositional naivety. Considering this is a studio debut, the band, if it stays persistent and keeps defying the odds, will surely build on this and mature. The potential is here, and the band will know how to make even better use of it in the future.
Lineup
Maks Bembič – vocals, guitar
Aleksander Družina – guitar
Jaša Hedžet Jajo – vocals, bass guitar
Gregor Brajkovič – vocals, drums
Production
Mitja Cerkvenik
Tracklist
1. A World On Drugs (04:24)
2. Live In Hope (03:48)
3. Crazy Maybe (04:40)
4. The Way They Say (04:56)
5. High (05:44)
6. Get You A Life (04:12)
7. Existential (05:12)
8. Again (05:24)
