Self-released
Release date: 26. 9. 2022
Production: Robi Bulešič
Album length: 36.27 min
Genre: Alternative Rock / Art Rock
Rating: 9.0/10
NoAir, the alternative rock quartet from Koper, dropped their third studio album “Square” last fall. On it, the band takes yet another outstanding artistic step up and forward, delivering their most fully realized musical substance to date, which in a way was quietly expected. A good stretch of time has passed since its predecessor “Superhuman” (2017), and quite a lot has happened in between. The album is therefore an extremely meticulous, at moments organically very subtle piece of work, with the band approaching everything concisely and measuring out considered steps in the arrangements. The formula is basically the same, the quartet just more mature. From “Existencial” (2014) through “Superhuman” (2017) to “Square” (2022). The artistic growth goes on. Step by step!
NoAir develop lighter rhythmic and musical structures (Rather), while the strikingly natural-sounding, sonically rich and conceptually vivid new record gives off a constant feeling that a whole lot of filing and polishing went into the final shape of the tracks on the album.
The band has pointed out before that it occupies its own musical niche, one worth deepening and nurturing artistically. And NoAir stick to that. However much we file them under alternative rock, they radiate a distinct artistic charm throughout. Let’s say they impress with the choral rhetoric of a very effective fusion of sonic pastels into a rich, lavish musical conglomerate, represented by nine finely polished and varied tracks with a clear musical character. In other words, it’s a combo of four excellent musicians who communicate brilliantly in the studio.
As much as their pop-rock accessibility puts them close to the crowd of indie rock outfits, their bold moves in sonic experimentation give them a flavor that can be tied, sonically and stylistically, to the approaches of legendary sonic innovators like Talk Talk (e.g. from the »Spirit Of Eden« era), or their ‘pupils’ Radiohead. So it’s clear that NoAir are a very interesting and special musical story. The arrangements don’t skip the moog either, and there are departures from the toxically reverbed ‘clean’ sound of the guitar phrases, which on the other hand greedily tear through the sonic space with ‘crunchy’ (yet consistently warm-organic) avalanches, plus occasionally vividly dynamic and even funky bass kinetics (the title track), and sly coloring and contrasting with synthesizers. Everything breathes in unison on »Square«. Compatible and contemplative.
The blending of the individual sonic pastels is very refined. An important building block of the whole story is the excellent, deeply felt vocal of Maks Bembič, whose colorful range adds a sense of mystery. A personally confessional observer of the world, he deepens the melancholic reach of the band’s artistic vocabulary with his vocal approach. The latter can carry the listener to the ‘edge of the abyss of madness’ (e.g. Suol) or to a bittersweet, yearning sway, as two thirds of Igrá suggest, then Ko se stemni v sobi, or Half-Past Life. Motivic simplicity can be filled out with deliberate lines of dissonance (the verse of Love Different), a sly trick of the old cats led by David Bowie or, more recently, Gazpacho, which always delivers a 100% effect. NoAir masterfully use this element to their advantage too. And English and its metrical flow are the winning pair of poker aces.
“Square” opens ‘shyly’, with the band slowly building a mysterious mood in Half-Past Life (in this respect Igrá would make an excellent alternative opener), but closes things out in a seriously sly way. In terms of maintaining, or holding back, the high dynamics of the album itself. With the instrumental Dive, where the note of sonic subtlety in the fused sonic pastels is heavily intensified into a greedy whole, and with it the band’s artistic meticulousness is pushed to the surface and becomes easier to follow.
With the new album, NoAir have leveled up their artistry. Implemented it conceptually, sonically, stylistically, upgraded it, perfected it, taken it to a new level. The album offers a heap of elements and levers, and in its expressionism goes far beyond the genre frame of alternative rock. That label becomes banal and even out of place. An atmospherically powerful piece of work, “Square” is bound to stir up the crowd of listeners who look for that atmosphere in post-rock bands, while at the same time, thanks to the subtle experimentation and the dynamic variety of the tracks themselves, which hold a highly musical intoxication throughout, NoAir have already crossed into the genre territory of progressive rock (Square, Forgotten, Love Indifferent). Unwittingly and unintentionally. Along the path of natural self-evolution, which is the most valuable kind.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Half-Past Life (4:47)
2. Rather (3:38)
3. Square (3:49)
4. Igrá (5:11)
5. Forgotten (4:02)
6. Suol (4:00)
7. Love Indifferent (3:34)
8. Ko se stemni v sobi (3:48)
9. Dive (3:33)
Lineup:
Maks Bembič – vocals, guitar
Jakob Sever – guitar, synthesizers
Jaša Hedžet ‘Jajo’ – bass guitar, moog
Gregor Brajkovič ‘Brajko’ – drums
