No Doctors

Origin & Tectonics

Written by: PP on 28/04/2008 04:17:59

With the addition of our latest two new staff members EW and AB, I\'ve been able to allocate more and more time to reviewing more diverse genres than the boatloads of metal, punk and hardcore releases that get thrown our way on a daily basis. It keeps me both refreshed and sane, as I don\'t have to suffer breakdown after breakdown after breakdown of generic stuff. Of course, genericness is something that can be found on all genres, but it\'s not something that you\'ll find in the music of No Doctors, especially not in their newest album \"Origin & Tectonics\".

What would you think if I told you straight up that the band puts together indie, punk, experimentalism and garage rock - and succeeds in doing so? You\'d probably look at me weird, maybe chuckle a bit, but you most certainly wouldn\'t be expecting what the band sounds like: avant-garde indie rock for the fans of punk and garage rock. Pretty much every song features tiny tempo variations, complete tone and pitch transformations, and much more that\'s certain to put you on your toes upon listening. Expecting the band to play a brighter tone next note? They\'ll play something melancholic. The majority of the record sounds so utterly weird, but yet so utterly sensible that Modest Mouse could take example here.

Some songs rely on pure electric guitar melody, while others include minimalistic hooks delivered with an acoustic guitar. Take \"Rumble Ring\" for instance, which has a simple three note chorus melody, but has the capability of turning your head around and have you thinking: \"wow, that just sounded awesome\". The songs are implicitly catchy, meaning you\'ll have to work your way into them, but it also means they\'ll mean that much more to you. \"Invisible Clopes\" is another song highlighting this, with its seemingly off-tune instruments that surprise you with their trickling weirdo melody come the chorus. Others can merely sound like campfire acoustic fire anthems interpreted by an avant garde band, see \"Yardin\" as a good example.

The performance of the vocalist (whose name I couldn\'t find using a website / myspace / wikipedia triangulation method) has to be credited as well. Imagine the Bear Vs Shark vocalist taking a more chilled out indie rock approach to his vocals? That\'d be pretty close to the guy in No Doctors - just listen to \"Tuning Tip Sundial\" and you\'ll see what I mean.

Overall, he knows precisely when to variate his voice in various strange manners to fit the mood of each song, something which is really important for \"Origin & Tectonics\". With his help, each song has its own identity, while still closely correlated to the universe the band is trying to create here - one of avant garde experimentation, where you\'ll hear riffs from garage rock, acoustic anthems, odd melodies (\"Joe Houdini\" anyone?) and much more, spiced up with a distinct flavor of both indie and punk rock.

That being said, \"Origin & Tectonics\" will be quite an acquired taste, just like their most obvious colleagues in Modest Mouse, although that comparison is sketchy at best. Sometimes the arrangements cross the insanity border and just become a bit too much, but luckily, this doesn\'t happen often. Nevertheless, if you\'re one of those guys who requires conventional songwriting to enjoy his music, you won\'t enjoy No Doctors, but if that isn\'t the case, be sure not to miss No Doctors.

Download: Rumble Ring, Invisible Clopes
For the fans of: Modest Mouse, Bear Vs Shark, Sonic Youth
Listen: Myspace

Release date 03.04.2008
Self-released

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