g a r y n

The first thing that impressed me about this album was the recording. I almost couldn't believe it was Bob Drake until I read his note about turning up your stereo to get the full effect, which I somehow knew to do before the CD even started. The amount of space this added to the recording demonstrates just how serious NeBeLNeST are about space, inner and deep. After a twisted introduction, reminiscent of early '80s new wave, the band explodes into its real self, laying siege to all aural space. Another great and garagey element immediately emerges: most of the music sounds like jamming, or at least parts loosely structured around practice jams. This raw yet treated quality lends itself to the overall earthiness of their sound. Synths and other devices create the sonic vision of sparse and deep space so evident in the artwork and liners. Mellotron comes in at just the right time, casting its shadow across a million light years, leaving even supernovae undeserving of remark. The bass is usually distorted and often extremely low, emitting the deep dark tone of colliding galaxies. This is the dynamic of which they speak. The births and deaths of stars pass noticeably with each listen, making this easily one of my favorite CDs of recent years. Its barely RIO, scantly Psyche, and very heavy and dark. I couldn't have asked for much more. review by Gary Niederhoff — 3-7-03 —

b r a n d o n

Nova Express is a convincing followup to NeBeLNeST's debut album, and makes good on its predecessor's great promise. This time around, the improvs have been dumped, some of the noodling has been done away with, and the foursome is just generally tighter and even more energetic. For those of you that missed NeBeLNeST's debut, their overall style is essentially unchanged: a dark, oppressive sort of space-rock or fusion is their game. The rhythm section is the star, with great drumming and loud, fluid bass playing that often as not takes the lead, driving the compositions to greater and greater heights. When the bass isn't leading, the keys and guitar trade off. Nova Express is more accessible than the debut, partly because it's just, well, better; but also partly because it's more melodic. The compositions are more thematically coherent, and there's more of a sense of development to them. "Stimpy Bar" and the title track are my favorites; the former reminds me of a slightly toned-down Yeti sometimes, with great bass playing and a similar synth timbre. The title track is awesome, building slowly into a dynamic ebb-and-flow that briefly disintegrates back into seeming chaos before an epic denoument. If I had to pigeonhole this band, I'd say they lie somewhere between heavy space-rock and zeuhl. The former influence is evident in the free-flowing compositions and the structured jams, while the latter influence is more superficial and manifests itself in the heavy bass presence and general oppressiveness. NeBeLNeST has matured greatly since their first album in 1999, and this is a great document of how far they've come. As Bob Drake, who produced Nova Express, said: "hugely better than their first album" - pretty high praise in itself. review by Brandon Wu — 1-28-02 —