L.A. guitar/drums/sampler duo No Age as punk personified, but they seem to be
with the sound coming through the speakers. It seems like a trivial point to
“punk” can seriously shift expectations. Whether they’re commercially tainted
or underground-oriented, those expectations will likely lean toward anger,
exuberance, and perhaps even velocity—not the sort of noise- and
sample-caked inertia Nouns
embodies. As with the duo’s primary influences—Sonic Youth and (especially)
My Bloody Valentine—it’s a rich, lovely sort of inertia, the kind in
which you can spend days uncovering previously unheard melodies or phrases. But
even as the drums bash away (the weirdly Jan & Dean-reminiscent “Cappo”)
and the distortion meter redlines, Nouns‘ effect is hazy, numbing, and merely pleasant—quite the opposite
of experiencing No Age in person.
