Artist: Noxire
Label: Self-released
Released: 2006
Rating: 3/5
Noxire, the alt rock n’ roll band from Celje, are no innocent little lambs. They certainly don’t lack experience. They’ve got talent, a polished musical outlook and a creative vision. What they lack is recognition, especially in Slovenia. Where to look for the reasons? The first one, and a weighty one, surely lies in the small number of Noxire albums released. What we have here is only their fourth studio record, and it took a full five years to follow its predecessor “Being Suspicious” (2001). So there’s no regular supply of fresh material to keep Noxire’s name alive on the scene, or even spread it.
The band’s approach is clearly aimed at proving themselves on foreign music markets. Noxire are a breed of dirty rock n’ roll scoundrels, but far from the out-of-tune kamikaze punk and other “close enough” sloppy hackwork. They serve up stripped-down rock with a distinct “less is more” attitude. Unfortunately, “Extra Ambiguous” is the first Noxire album to reach my mechanoreception centers, and who knows, that makes it harder for me to give an objective rating this time.
Throughout the album’s runtime we get that recognizable Noxire sound and style, yet the songs are compositionally colorful, and the variety of basic motifs each track is built on creates exceptional dynamics across the record. The longer stretches of abstinence between the band’s studio albums are very useful for filing down the final shape of the songs, in terms of reaching greater overall maturity in delivering the rock experience. So the songs you hear on the album probably started out as “ad hoc” ideas (which is in fact the best and most natural way), but grew and ripened over a longer period. “Extra Ambiguous” has other virtues too.
Bassist Marcel Vovk’s vocals carry a distinctive muffled vibrato. They’re melodic, but by no means too pretty, lest they fail to fit the naked rock approach with dirty, dilettantish accents that the band cultivates. Interestingly, a melancholic pulse likes to take the lead, especially at the more melodic peaks (e.g. the chorus in Metaphor of Little Girl), over the otherwise basic stance of rebellious rock n’ roll fury. And watch out! A sad expression. That’s fashionable these days! Right from the start of the album, with Make It, the band makes it clear that stringing together flowing motif sequences, a prerequisite for creating what a genuine rock n’ roll attitude demands, is nothing foreign to them! It hits you straight away on first listen, thanks to a bold fusion of aggression and melody. Noxire are also no strangers to the wide room for maneuver that’s always open to them when writing lyrics in English. The verses are laid out so that Marcel’s singing flows throughout and stays in tune with the riff aggression. With such a clever placement of English in the verses, the singer has plenty of space to cut loose, to get even more aggressive in places or to stress some new (different) feeling.
The “less is more” principle is optimized here. The band diligently skimps on motifs, but where they do put them, they’re well crafted. The playing is tight and reaches a high level of mutual understanding and coordination among the band members, which allows individual ideas to get across to the listener efficiently and directly. The song Darkman first came out on “Being Suspicious” (2001), by the way. It remains one of the most fully realized tracks, and it’s included on “Extra Ambiguous” in a newer version too. It very successfully combines a mere touch of melody (an acoustic guitar motif that lifts the atmosphere) with the directness of a riff-driven ride. Strange World, and Way Out right after it, reach the same level, with grabby choruses. Direct, simple, punchy, with the cherry on top supplied by Marcel’s distinctive vocals. The touch of melancholy is front and center throughout, thanks to the interesting vocals and that hint of melody, which is otherwise a rare thing among Slovenian alternative rock bands, especially the punk rock ones that plow through their instruments out of tune at all costs. With Noxire you’ll also find mid-song instrumental breaks, full of minimalism as usual, because overcomplicating things is unwelcome in Noxire’s world. Noxire know how to let a riff run so it flows smoothly. I stress this to point out the exceptionally high level of refinement in the band’s songwriting. Sometimes it’s actually easier to overcomplicate than to find the simple way to express yourself. And Noxire definitely have that feel.
Noxire deliver an organic, garage-recorded, elemental and direct sound of raw rock punch, which sounds great on “Extra Ambiguous”. The bass rattle is up front and breathes with life.
The long mileage of 15 years in the music business, and the experience gathered along the way, is confirmed by the band once again in a nicely reworked version of the otherwise syrupy evergreen classic Everybody Loves Somebody, originally by Irving Taylor and Ken Lane, which in their day was already chirped out, each in their own way, by the inseparably unruly buddies Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. The stamp of rowdy tomfoolery, under the baton of straight-ahead riff drive and that signature voice, comes to life impressively and wraps up this album of modest but really ideal runtime. Polished rock bite, and with it a surplus of adrenaline in the blood, are kept intact by the “less is more” principle!
“Extra Ambiguous” is an album by hardened tomcats. I’d love to see the band manage to bring it closer to the Slovenian public, because it’s made in a way that could go into textbooks for younger Slovenian alt rock bands, who I hope won’t mistakenly reach for the juicy fertilizer of the “emo” stench that today massively distorts the healthy face of alternative, and will stay on the shores of healthy-tasting rebellion, whether it comes from the legacy of Rolling Stones, Therapy?, Motorhead or Noxire!
Lineup
Marcel V. – bass guitar, vocals
Zeljko N. – guitar
Filip J. – guitar
Drash U. – drums
Production
Robert V.
Tracklist
1. Make It
2. Flash
3. Strange World
4. Way Out
5. Forever
6. Again
7. Trust
8. Metaphor of Little Girl
9. Darkman
10. Everybody Loves Somebody
Album length: 36.29
