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Aidan Baker, "Songs of Flowers & Skin"
While there never seems to be any shortage of Nadja related material being released, this release of older material (recorded in 2005 and previously only available as MP3s) drops a lot of the metal elements to Baker's sound and replaces them with trumpet and violin, and emphasizes the ambience and also the underlying melody and structure of these songs.
I have always felt there was a certain sameness to Nadja's work that was a detriment…too many of the albums sounded like each other, and when there were so many at any given time, they simply became too hard to discern from one another.Other than a bit of the brittle guitar distortion the band loves so well, when I heard the organic drums and plaintive guitar notes that open "Skin Like Sand" I knew what was to follow was something different.
If that wasn't enough, the cut up voice fragments and decipherable vocals were completely unexpected.Another thing that struck me is the fact that there was actual "space" in the song.Rather than the dense layers of guitars and effects that usually fill the entire mix, there is a spaciousness that gives the track a different feel entirely. Interestingly enough, that opener is probably the most traditional piece here."Feed Me Yr Kiss" focuses more on a straight forward beat and clean guitar line, with only a very sparse noisy electronic buzz in the background.Structurally it feels more like jazz influenced post-punk than anything vaguely metallic.The same goes for "Dance Dance Dance": its chiming guitar and muted trumpet resembles a lost 1984 release on 4AD.
Only in the latter moments of the album does the expected heaviness become the focus, and even then it is a different beast entirely."Take Me Out Of My" is at its core a soft, catchy pop song, but with a denser sound that gives it more weight and presence than the other pieces.The long closer "Flowerskin" is perhaps the most Nadja-like, but even then stripped to its core elements.The structure and electronic elements are familiar, but the track remains rather skeletal, focusing on the drums and vocals.After about 11 minutes the sheets of noise and distortion kick in, and while they don't become metallic, they are most definitely heavy.
I prefer this side of Aidan Baker's work.While Nadja's output sometimes stays too close to a specific metal-based formula, by letting the pop elements overshadow the heavy ones here, the album is one that stands on its own, and quite strongly.It definitely bears Baker's mark, but the result is a distinct album that showcases his strengths as a songwriter, rather than hiding them amongst layers of noise and distortion.
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