On first listen, the first thing that struck me was how complicated this album is. The album I’m referring to Fog Electric by North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO for short), a mammoth 10 track meaty offering due for release via the Kscope imprint (home to my favorite band The Pineapple Thief). What North Atlatic Oscillation is putting out basically, is a collection of found sound and electronica mathematically arranged into a beautiful patchwork of songs almost resembling music – because, well, it’s not music. It’s fucking art.
This is most definitely not an easy listening album. Fog Electric, with its subtle technical offtimed pace changes, unexpected guitar riffs surging to epic wall of sound levels, background textures punctuated with a myriad of electronic manipulated loops, bleeps, repeats and dreamy/eerie synths – its a revelation. It’s like as if AIR, múm, Mew, Boards of Canada, Death Cab and Mogwai have decided to form a ridiculous superband and this is the finished product. Quite an excessive statement to make, but seriously, have you heard the album yet?
Post rock? No. Prog rock, it’s not quite. I think NAO has more than surpassed “prog”. This is the fucking future.
(Funny, after writing this post, I looked up the Kscope Records website and their tagline description reads “post progressive sounds”. Indeed.)
[North Atlantic Oscillation - Savage With Barometer]
Fog Electric drops at the end of this month. Pre-order here.
