Whoa, Robert Hopps and Jonathan Webb, they are not the sort of people you’d want to meet in a dark alleyway. And their hometown of London is sadly filled to the brim with them.
The sonic world within this album is a dark one. Rarely if ever does any light permeate the unhappy world. Familiarity with dark ambient music would definitely be a pre-requisite before approaching this type of stuff. Considering how short they’ve been around before, the quality is pretty remarkable.
“Deacons (Control of the Candidate)” starts things off with a menacing low register drone. Illusion of Safety’s later work immediately comes to mind, particularly their “Of and The” double disc in terms of mood. But the best part of this beginning piece is the end, which collapses into painful scraping sounds.
Actually, while most dark ambient skirts around angry noise, Nos brings you there. Usually the harsh parts get edited out, in an attempt to be artful. Rather than do that terrible tease, the noise is brought. “Live at Café Oto” builds up so nicely until the last third you wonder whether or not the music will reach that release of pure glory. And I’m happy to report it does.
I’d say this isn’t something you’ll put on every day, but the fact that they rise above the generic dark ambient stereotypes into something far more satisfying is a great thing indeed.