Title: Strawberry Wood
Artist: Nits
Genre: New Wave / Acoustic
Release Date: 23rd October 2009
Label: Sony Music
Album Review
NITS, formerly THE NITS, have been founded already in 1974. Four years later, they recorded their eponymous debut album. To this day, it’s not released on CD, because the band deemed it as being too rough. Going on through the history of that bustling group, one finds them moving away from the New Wave-sound of their early days, developing a sound where KRAFTWERK influences, classical avant-garde and THE BEATLES make up an intersection somehow. Many years later, they veered away from that in favour of a back-to-basics approach recalling their roots. With the end of 2009 slowly closing in, NITS will be releasing their newest album with the quirky title ‘Strawberry Wood’.
The album opener ‘Hawelka’, I think unintentionally, evokes some kind of a cold atmosphere. The extensive reverberation on Hofstede’s vocals might give me that impression. Anyway, the song, apart from that, works within quite poppy measurements with slight flourishes of Jazz. The following ‘The Hours’ reduces instrumentation to just drums, bass guitar and vocals creating an enormous depth with the guitars employing various effects. It almost seems they’re circulating in some kind of invisible room. In ‘Distance’, you’ll find oppressing melancholia generated by the fragile touches of the piano but especially by the timbre in Hofstede’s voice. It’s a very intimate, little piece of music making you dwell on your own thoughts about life. ‘Nick in the House of John’ on the other hand I would place in the southern states of America in the 19th century. The orchestration is too distinct not to bring this thought to mind. If you hear it, you’ll know what I mean.
Taking the album’s title as a synonym for its content, one could easily think of getting to hear a fairytale now. What they will hear though is beautiful acoustic and mostly hand-made music diverging in style, but always consistent about the emotional content it conveys to the listener. ‘Strawberry Wood’ is a little musical treasure.
Tracklist
01. Hawelka - 3:15
02. The Hours - 2:56
03. Distance - 4:40
04. Departure - 4:10
05. Nick in the House of John - 3:42
06. La Petite Robe Noire - 1:40
07. Now - 2:08
08. Index of First Lines - 2:41
09. Tannenbaum - 3:15
10. Jisp - 4:03
11. Bad Dream - 2:19
12. Return - 3:01
13. Forget-Me-Not - 2:41
14. Container - 3:35
Line-up
Henk Hofstede - Vocals
Robert Jan Stips - Keys
Rob Kloet - Drums
Website
http://www.nits.nl/ / http://www.myspace.com/theearlynits
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Extras: -
Total: 8 / 10
{jos_sb_discuss:19}
Comments powered by CComment