No Age: Nouns

Label: Sub Pop

The thing that makes No Age’s music so exciting is there’s really no precedent for it. Sure, from a distance they look like a two-piece punk band, playing fast music to hordes of excitable kids, but look closer. The layers of atmospheric guitar noise and lopsided samples transcend punk pretty quickly, bringing to mind the more warped moments of Black Dice or My Bloody Valentine without ever really sounding like those reference points. Also it’s pretty hard to find music (punk or otherwise) so obtuse and vaguely dark that leaves such a positive feeling in it’s wake. Following last year’s Weirdo Rippers, a collection of out-of-print vinyl tracks that felt a lot more like a solid album than most of the records released last year, Nouns is the official debut long-player. Capturing the energy and impossible-to-pin down vibe of those first singles is a daunting prospect, but Nouns delivers and expands. First single “Eraser” bounces an almost neo-hippie guitar line along on a jingle-bell rhythm until everything explodes into raucous noise, gone before you realize it came. The soft and strange atmospherics of instrumentals like “Impossible Bouquet” add a sense of pacing to the record, making room for assaults like “Teen Creeps”. Easily one of the most exciting, original and oddly joyous records of the year already. Extra bonus points for great packaging with 70 pages of photos, lyrics and general weirdness.