Review: Naked on the Vague – Heaps of Nothing
Naked on the Vague – Heaps of Nothing (2010) [Slitbreeze] // Grade: B-
There’s plenty of post-punk referencing music out there. But for every 100 bands that add a few hints of the genre against an album of melodic indie pop, pop/rock or electronic rock, there is one Naked on the Vague, fully embracing the dark, loud and raw elements of the genre and reminding us that much of authentic post-punk was meant for dingy clubs and art spaces, not festival singalongs.
The Australian duo’s follow-up to The Blood Pressure Sessions, the recently released, Heaps of Nothing, is not an easy listen. Opener “Black Lettuce” is a dizzying instrumental mix of guitar and drum machine, a foreboding noise collage that will leave those unfamiliar with the act hesitant.
But before you write-off Naked on the Vague, give vocalist Lucy Phelan the respect of sticking around to experience what is the most genuine sounding no wave voice to exist outside of no wave. Fans of Zola Jesus will find similarities in Phelan’s drawn-out, moan and drone words of “Blank Minds”, but that is only the tip of her range and from there she spirals down into the gutter on “The Joke”, issuing a monotoned manifesto of words you can’t quite pick out over bandmate Matthew Hopkins’s thunderous guitar. Phelan proves she is capable of more than growling on “These Days” which to call outright melodic would be absurd. There’s more than enough obscured vocal distortion for her words to blend into the track’s backing noise, yet at moments she soars above the dark mass in melodic gothic splendor.
While instrumentally their formula of keys, drum machine, guitar and electronics is capable of all manner of massive, psychedelic noise it often feels like Heaps of Nothing is a storm that could do with a break from the lightning. With the exception of “Treading Water’s” melodic guitarline, the album’s seven other tracks fall neatly into one of two categories; heavy droning or crashing assault. The result is a seamless album, but one that blends almost too well for any element of the instrumentation to rise above and stand on its own legs.
Heaps of Nothing is an album requiring patience, but those with a little imagination and a desire to escape into the void will find payoff in the duo’s subverted notes.
