Not only are The NYCO Project a band with stellar sounds, they are on with something to say and an interesting way to say it. A psychedelic indie rock band from London they tell us they are experimenting with their recording process. How many bands claim to be original and experimental, my horribly cynical mind makes me thing. Putting their money where their mouth is, they are capturing on camera all the original takes of each instrument, fuelled by an ‘everything you hear, you see’ is their mantra, as a way to explore music-video realism, recording wherever and wherever. A concept the band have coined as musicjelly.
The first official release is something of a peculiarity too, a three-track app that allows the listener to deconstruct the songs into their component parts, by muting or isolating them, and discover information about the recordings. An intriguing idea, and one that explores the relationship between the musician and the listener and who really creates meaning. Where the band may have shot themselves in the foot here is that they have already created such bold, bristling, and ultimately fantastic songs that the listener would surely never want to change them.
The New Machine EP opens on Fade Away, a track admirable in its dramatic intensity and buzzing riffs, thumping, rumbling and shimmering its way through. You’re So Weak is like The White Stripes crossed Yeah Yeah Yeahs, perfect syncopation under a hazy sinister glow. Closing with title track The New Machine explores the frankly bizarre relationship we all have with our computers. The song moves with confidence and compulsive grandeur, punctuated with sudden sweet vocals.
Twisting at all levels, the band combine genres and likes in a way that always feels varied and variegated, but never chaotic, and is very much their own.
EP The New Machine will be out on 24th June 2013, and look out for some performances soon.
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