Tuesday, March 26, 2013

NXP – Notes From the Field of Guilt (review)


Cat no: XP 12
Release date: 15.02.13
Bandcamp link

NXP is a solo noise project from Norway, focusing on ambient noise, sometimes rythmic, sometimes just dirty noise. He collects samples, field recordings and various sounds and instruments to create his world of darkness.

I see this album in two parts. The first three tracks are quiet dirty ambient noise. So quiet from the start that you have to go and check whether you have turned the volume way to much down. But ultimately this makes you listen even more, and I notice the murky darkness of a future sound of a barren landscape. The second half is also three tracks, and they come out much more apparent, and easier to relate to. Not that this is easy listening, though. Far from it. Again it is darkness, but rhythms and even piano chords makes the tracks less abstract. The moods are slow, melancholic, and the label claims this album is not for people afraid of the dark, or not for people with suicidal thoughts. So if you think the world or you life is a dark gloomy place, with no positivity, have a listen to this album and get everything confirmed. But still, it can be shared with yourself on a dark rainy night with your own thoughts, a glass of wine, lighted fireplace, and scare yourself with what lurks outside the windows or in a not too distant future. Or if you think the daylight is just too bright, and the sun always shines on your life, get deep into tracks as “A Crash Course to Final Destruction” or” Snapshots of Reality” and get your mind in the just direction. Or you might say; my life is not that bad, anyway. Have a try.

Review published on Freq webzine