"I think my attentions were elsewhere when I caught this band at their label showcase down in Austin, my mind having just been turned into a paste by Eat Skull, and the virtual threat of some scene big shot who kept glaring at me any chance he got. Next time, dude, make a move, because you missed your shot at the title. Anyway, talked to Lax afterwards and NOTV was the band he had the most to say about; kept on going off on how they make music that fits in with the old Australian label M-Squared, that they were true to the roots of new wave, in that brief window before we were able to classify it. I like to stick to my guns, but I also have an outsized amount of respect for Siltbreeze and almost all of its works, and I knew this wasn’t some barbecue hoax from nowhere. I’m glad I’ve gotten the chance to spend some quiet time with this motherfucker of an album in the meantime. Co-ed duo wanderings of a decidedly dark and altogether chilling nature, either bending in a beautifully ebbing continuous tone meander, or thumping chest with steel-eyed intensity a la the better days of Lydia Lunch, all drum machine and black dye and squealing synthesizer, deathrockin’ and boppin’ along like … well, like a band that hasn’t yet been informed of “the rules” and went off on their own gut instincts. It’s often so hard to separate goth action from a teenage-level sense of propriety, that thing that makes all but the memories of youthful exposure to such stagey bleakness and sexualized danger so hard to stomach as the years go on. Naked on the Vague pull this off pretty effortlessly, and that’s a feat worth checking out. Very highly recommended. 500 copies." - DUSTED.
"Naked On the Vague Blood Pressure Sessions Dual Plover I regularly rant about the use of the term Post-Punk. Whenever I get into one of these rants, it is almost always about what is not Post-Punk and No Wave. The term is thrown around so often these days that it's really tough to even take myself seriously when I attempt to use these classifications to label a band. But, it is my duty as an album reviewer to take myself completely seriously (kidding) and continue to make assertions on what is and isn't said genres.
Lesson #2- No Wave; an example:
Naked On the Vague serve as a perfect example of what it takes to make a successful No Wave album in the current state of musical affairs. Although their sound is bleak and apocalyptic, almost making for a perfect soundtrack for Eraserhead, they don't try to pull off jacking DNA's sound; doing so is a big no-no. Due to the spirit of No Wave, a spirit based on creativity and challenge, the cardinal rule is to always have your own sound. Even while comparing Naked On the Vague to Teenage Jesus, or to my newfound favorite related groups Your Funeral and Jeri Rossi (who was the lead singer for Your Funeral), the comparison is really very unfounded. Those are the initial comparisons I make based upon singer's voice and mood of an album, but not on composition and actual style after multiple listens.
Another smart move made on Blood Pressure Sessions is not sticking to a single sound. Although they might not sound too different at first, No Wave bands have almost always worked best in a Singles and Live setting because of the differing sounds and various shades of black in their sound. Naked On the Vague manage to pull together a cohesive, solid album that moves from thick, suffocating layers to sparse drum and bass compositions. Sometimes spiraling out of control with heavy layers of reverb and distortion, making a psychedelic frenzy ( i.e. ''The Beach Pt. 2 (Black Sun)''), the track is always reeled back in through a countering song. At times the beat is thick enough to inspire a dance, but do not expect any Liars ''dance-punk;'' even the coked-up drum machine on ''Mother's Footsteps'' is balanced out by plenty of shrieks, feedback squeals, and distorted noise.
Naked On the Vague's Blood Pressure Sessions has proved to me once and for all that genres don't die, even ones based less on a sound and more on principles/situations. Although many bands tagged as No Wave will never actually hold a candle to their heroes, I feel confident asserting that if this was released 30 years ago, it would be studied and discussed with fervor just as other No Wave classics are getting treated today." -Jackson Glass 04/01/08
"It’s possible this song is named for a Max Ernst collage, which makes sense because Australia’s boy-girl duo Naked On The Vague could be the red wine-swilling, Gauloises smoking, art-school chums you’ve been longing to know. After life drawing class, you’d wander over to their crumbling Victorian house and listen to them play this song in their living room, while you sit on a sunken horsehair sofa and balance a cup of tea on your lap with charcoal-pencil-smudged fingers.
Like Ernst, NOTV turns irony and strangeness on its head and delivers it back to you with a careless and affecting nonchalance. There’s something about the cowbell and M.P. Hopkins’s vocoder-esque vocals that bring to mind a more tweaked out version of Wall Of Voodoo’s “Mexican Radio”—in a really good way. Meanwhile, Lucy Cliché’s measured and haunting vocal delivery devolves into a whirling hallucination with keyboard buzzards circling overhead. Top it off with a watery flanger-tinged guitar circa the Church or Echo And The Bunnymen, and—voila—dense, repeat-listen drama." - ANNA BARIE (on horse he's sick)
"For a city so adverse to ghosts, so obsessed with
a glossy veneer, so enamoured with money and the dogged pursuit
of one-upping your neighbour, there’s no surprise Sydney spawns
bands as deliberately contrary as Naked on the Vague, albeit in
the subterranean realm. For NOTV, mere existence is enough validation
in a city where the odds are against them. Cultural outlets are
frequently threatened in favour of noiseless homes for inner city
dwellers (once a contradiction, now a council’s obligation)
and whole constellations of new music are muffled by a policeman’s
admonishing finger.
This is the climate Naked On The Vague has evolved in, though up
until now their inspiration seemed derived from elsewhere, most
obviously the squat legacy of New York’s 80s No Wave movement.
If this has been the sole point of contention for their detractors
in the past, then The Blood Pressure Sessions is likely to disarm
anyone still wary. There is something evocatively primeval about
this debut full-length: it’s a well-sequenced collection of
gravel textured pop songs, coloured with wailing reverberated vocals
and disaffected gestures, embedded within grimy, anti-establishment
compositions. The No Wave connection is still obviously there –
most notable on previously released tracks such as the violently
repetitive *All Aboard *– but these songs don’t settle
on violence as a sole virtue: there is a heart to be explored, lyrics
to be deciphered, and a pervasive sense of mystery.
The Blood Pressure Sessions sounds like the frustration –
that inherently youthful frustration – that comes with feeling
marginalised. Capitalising on ones misfortune has become unfashionable
in today’s middle-of-the-road straddling climate, but The
Blood Pressure Sessions, through sheer aural suggestion, makes it
all seem so necessary. This is a welcome reminder that Sydney can
still produce something haunted, rough around the edges, and imbued
with soul."- Mess
and Noise review by Shaun Prescott
"This two-piece Australian act, consisting of Lucy
Cliche and Matt Hopkins, apparently popped into being simply from
finding old, broken instruments. Now, if all the kids coming across
battered organs (not mine, thanks) sounded this good, we'd be in
business! And make no mistake, these kids are the business. 'Old
Leader' is our introduction, as oscillating waves of synth warp
across the duo's shared vocals, punctuated by distorted cymbal crashes.
It's Gloom, alright, but Cureheads will get nothing out of this.
This is distilled nihilism, filtered through the brain of a Scissor
Girls groupie on downers. 'All Aboard' is the closest we get to
a dance track, which is fine by me! "All aboard, the ship is
sinking! Jump on the tracks, the train is coming!" Lucy spits,
while a hypnotic keyboard line keeps pace with a simple drum machine
beat. 'Mother's Footsteps' trots out the noise guitar and stuttering
vocals, punctuated by shrieks, and 'The Horse, He's Sick' is psychedelic
minimal with clanks and drones stumbling over themselves. 'Brown
Sun/Sydney Lane Roads' is not quite an homage to the ol' hometown,
unless they spend a good part of their time there with their mind
a-reeling on drugs and liquor (and who's to say they don't?) 'Lonely
Boys' has creepy warbling, with the duo turning themselves into
human didgeridoos. Very Swans influenced, with a touch of that early
Coil mind-jism. The jangly 'God Nor Devil', supported by teeter-totter
guitars, snare the listener with steel cords. Mysterious and echoing,
'Blood Pressure' brings to mind barren, flat wastelands, echoing
with thuds and wooden clatters. 'The Beach 2' transforms foghorns
into synth lines, as the guitar trickles down into a mush of sound,
becoming static and oscillating waves once more. This excellent
little dark'n'nasty is one of two debut releases. Can't wait for
the other!" - Drop Dead Magazine review.
"Since their emergence a few years ago, apparently with just
a found organ, broken bass guitar, borrowed drum and some ‘old
doom poetry’ in their arsenal, Sydney duo Lucy Phelan and Matthew
Hopkins have managed to carve out a distinctive presence amongst that
city’s experimental / underground scene as Naked On The Vague.
In fact, it’s arguable that NOTV’s open-minded fusion of
elements drawn equally from the No Wave / noise scenes as from classic
psychedelia (and what the duo themselves describe as ‘apocalyptic
pop’) has been one of the prime reasons why they’ve previously
been selected as local tour support for such diverse acts as Kevin Blechdom,
The Gossip and Love Of Diagrams. Whatever your personal take, NOTV are
certainly not easy to pigeonhole into any immediate genre / scene, and
this debut album The Blood Pressure Sessions, which follows on the heels
of their recent Sad Sun CDR EP release on Sabbatical, continues to make
any easy attempts at categorisation elusive.
If opening track ‘Old Leader’ shows the duo’s more
doomy psychedelic leanings rising to the forefront, with spooky, heavily-reverbed
vocals looming out in the mix amidst harsh bursts of snare percussion,
droning organ tones and the sorts of sickeningly churning synth swells
Throbbing Gristle deployed to maximal effect on ‘Hamburger Lady’,
it’s hardly indicative of what’s on offer here. ‘All
Aboard’ manages to kick things straight out of the preceding track’s
drowsy fugue, unleashing perhaps this album’s most immediately
accessible ‘hooky’ offering, with Phelan’s powerful
vocals taking things towards post-punk / goth, while Hopkin’s
bass provides Killing Joke-esque propulsive rhythm amidst a tight backbone
of martial, punching beats, before ‘Mothers Footsteps’ manages
to up the ante with its scream-laden flameout of fuzzed-up guitar noise
and Suicide-esque drum machine rhythms.
If the aforementioned two tracks represent the more ‘punk assault’-oriented
side of NOTV’s approach, ‘The Horse, He’s Sick’
shows them sliding out into deep psychedelica as monotonous drum rhythms,
bass and buzzing analogue electronics send Phelan’s drowsy vocals
soaring out into a disorienting wash of delayed-out loops, while ‘Brown
Sun / Sydney Lane Road’ offers up what’s perhaps this collection’s
most gentle moment, with gently chiming guitar chords, rippling percussive
textures and distant organs tones providing a warm textural backdrop
for Phelan’s wordless vocal harmonies – indeed, it’s
the closest thing to an ‘uncharacteristically sunny moment’
as NOTV get here. The Blood Pressure Sessions is certainly an impressive
debut album offering from NOTV that shows the duo using the broader
canvas afforded them to expand considerably upon the possibilities hinted
at on their preceding EP and 7? releases, and one that’s likely
to further their cred with both indie fans and ‘experimental’
/ noise heads alike." - Chris Downton cyclic
defrost
