Stuart Buchanan

Sleeve Notes.

Western Schism is the second in our ad-hoc series of geo-specific compilations, featuring eighteen bands and artists from Perth in Western Australia.

The distance from Perth to Sydney (coast to coast) is only marginally less than the land mass span between L.A. and New York. Think for a moment on all the East Coast / West Coast paradigms that exist in American culture, and you can transplant some of that ideology down to Australia. Whilst we don’t have competing hip hop crews as such (although there was a moment back in the day when drum’n’bass might have taken on that skirmish), each coast often exists in its own unique world, often oblivious to the actions of the other.

However, whilst L.A. artists might have opportunities to play to audiences in San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego or similar towns and cities along the coast, their Perth cousins have no such luck. Isolated from any other metropolis or cultural hub, the act of generating awareness, finding new fans or growing a career used to involve an expensive and lengthy hike to the West, to connect with the majority of Australia’s population. Of course, that’s old school thinking – the digital age affords artists the ability to transcend such barriers, and this compilation plays one small part in an ongoing, flag-waving awareness exercise for Perth’s experimental music community.

The schism herein is as much geographical as it is artistic. These artists are outliers in both the literal and creative sense of the word – they celebrate their physical relationship with the world by amplifying it artistically. Distance need not be a tyranny – as is shown in this collection, it may in fact give us just the space we need to run free and get wild.

Stuart Buchanan, New Weird Australia

Tracklisting.

1. LEAVING, Days Apart (3:45) (previously unreleased)
2. SALAMANDER, Elixir In Echoden (Full Version) (5:17) (Original Version from the album Neocambrian, Record Label Records)
3. FM RASTER, Pattern 1 (3:43) (previously unreleased)
4. JANE HARRIS, Misery Cares (3:40) (from Misery Cares, Meupe)
5. MENTAL POWERS, The Last Amethyst Deceiver (4:20) (previously unreleased, recorded live on RTR Radio, 2011)
6. JAMES IRELAND & ANDREW SINCLAIR, Mary Weiss (5:59) (previously unreleased)
7. SAM GILLIES, People Are Afraid To Merge On The Highway (6:58) (previously unreleased)
8. KUčKA, Polly (serialkillersundays) (4:03) (from Kučka EP, Wood & Wire)
9. JAVIER FRISCO, Trout & Tippet / Scarlet Caravan / Cosmic Wood (5:58) (previously unreleased)
10. OUROBONIC PLAGUE, Snake Egg Talk (4:24) (previously unreleased)
11. FURCHICK, Rain (3:27)(previously unreleased)
12. CHRIS COBILIS, Waist Aglow In My Road (4:28) (previously unreleased)
13. PREDRAG DELIBASICH, Go Lobok! (3:09) (previously unreleased)
14. CRAIG MCELHINNEY, I Wish You Had Believed Me (3:22) (previously unreleased)
15. SOLAR BARGE, Semektet (3:44) (from Solar Barge, Indigo Children)
16. BROWN, Shave & A Haircut (4:09) (from Shave & A Haircut, self-released)
17. THE GULLS, Alfreds (3:08) (previously unreleased)
18. ELEVENTEEN ESTON, It’s All Again (Reprise) (2:44) (previously unreleased)

Compiled by Stuart Buchanan, with thanks to Andrew Sinclair, Matt Aitken & Craig McElhinney.
Artwork by Dan Bourke, www.danbourke.com
Released under a Creative Commons licence (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives).

Catalogue Number. NWA012

Press.

“Album Of The Week … the collaboration between Sinclair and James Ireland is the standout – the throaty vocal contribution, stretched and warped to within an inch of its life, is backed by a sluggish, occasionally forceful beat, and the track as a whole pulls you in and wraps right around you … this album brings together some of Perth’s finest merchants of noise and is well worth seeking out.”
Drum Media / The Music, August 2012

“Western Schism provides an accessible framework through which non-experimental music schooled individuals could be encouraged to experience what might initially be thought of as ‘outsider’ sounds. It’s a nice tribute to the Perth artists who have shaken off the shackles off that ol’ ‘isolation’ buzzword to basically just get on with it.”
The Thousands, August 2012

“Perth seems more than adequately provided for lately when it comes to experimental sounds – hence the timely release of the New Weird Australia, Western Schism, entirely focused on artists from WA…”
Interview with Stuart Buchanan, The Wire – The West Australian, September 2012

“It’s great to gain exposure to new experimental work from WA, so nice work New Weird.”
Who The Hell?, August 2012

“We’ve been big fans of New Weird Australia for quite a while here at Life Is Noise. On a regular basis they dump some great compilation on the internet and introduce us to a whole pile of crazy music we might otherwise not have heard. This time round, they’re focusing on Western Australia, with Western Schism taking a look at some of the more interesting artists from WA. There’s more than a few familiar names for regular readers of Life Is Noise, but there’s two or three we haven’t yet featured.”
Life Is Noise, August 2012

“Perth res Ourobonic Plague delivers a dead zone crawler with thee perfect amount ov feel.”
Blam Blam Fever, August 2012

The West Australian, September 2012 :

Sleeve Notes:

In August 2010, New Weird Australia launched its first label – titled ‘New Editions’ – an imprint focusing on single artist releases.

Unlike the download-only compilations, New Editions releases were  available in two formats: a high-quality digital release (priced as a ‘pay what you like’ model) and in a run of limited-edition CDs available from artist shows & NWA events.  Over an 18 month period, New Editions released albums and EPs from CAUGHT SHIP (Melbourne), BLAKE FREELE (Sydney), PANEYE (Sydney), TANTRUMS  (Melbourne), NO ZU  (Melbourne), KRIS KEOGH (Darwin), FORENZICS (Sydney), SPARTAK (Canberra), THOMAS WILLIAM VS SCISSOR LOCK  (Sydney) and STRANGE FORCES (Brisbane).

This compilation celebrates the conclusion of the New Editions project, combining a track from each release with unreleased and rare material from many of the artists involved.

Tracklisting:

1. CAUGHT SHIP Before Now I Was Convinced (from ‘Start Dencing Dad Start Dencing‘) 06:17
2. BLAKE FREELE Bitter Some (from ‘Pins‘) 08:41
3. PANEYE She Swallowed My Days (from ‘Lost In A Dark Aquarium‘) 02:03
4. TANTRUMS Anomie (Collarbones Remix, from ‘Anomie‘) 02:25
5. NO ZU Acropolis (from ‘New Age EP‘) 05:04
6. KRIS KEOGH As Meteor Showers Melted Your Heart (from ‘Processed Harp Works Volume One‘) 02:16
7. FORENZICS Dub Scab (from ‘Build Ruins‘) 05:06
8. SPARTAK Rail Star Mode (from ‘Nippon‘) 05:47
9. THOMAS WILLIAM VS SCISSOR LOCK Cadillic (from ‘Jewelz‘) 05:12
10. STRANGE FORCES Hungry Ghost Nation (from ‘Strange Forces‘) 07:15

Bonus Tracks:
11. CAUGHT SHIP Headphones (previously unreleased) 06:10
12. BLAKE FREELE Cheyne Stoking (previously unreleased) 09:20
13. PANEYE The Gummi Bears of Failure (previously unreleased) 02:09
14. NO ZU Tattooed Head (from ‘Tattooed Head’ single) 07:41
15. KRIS KEOGH As We Held Our Hidden Hopes Up To the Stars (from ‘Wormwoodstock 2012′) 04:06
16. FORENZICS Another Newer Nature (previously unreleased) 13:04

Compiled by Stuart Buchanan.
Artwork by Heath Killen.
Released under a Creative Commons licence (Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives)

Press:

“New Weird Australia brings a sampling of material previously released on their New Editions imprint along with some rare/unreleased material from artists in their camp. It’s a varied and wonderful listen of sounds covering a wide range of ideas, styles, and moods. Sonic experimentation at it’s finest, both in creation and in experiencing.”
Magicore, May 2012

“This is the music you won’t find on iTunes – New Weird Australia float our boat. They’re a bunch of menaces who love going to the end of music. New Weird Australia have a compilation they’ve curated called New Editions, its a bunch of rare and unreleased material from many of the musos and artists who turn them on.”
Something Else, May 2012

Catalogue. NWA011

Title: New Weird Australia, Vox
Compiled by Gail Priest & Stuart Buchanan
Catalogue Number: NWA010
Released: September 2011

FREE DOWNLOAD

Sleeve Notes: September 2011 by Gail Priest:

In the realm of pop music it would be ludicrous to focus a compilation around the voice as the majority of pop music is vocally driven. Perhaps in backlash to this ubiquity the voice has been relatively scarce in the Australian experimental music over the last decade (with a few notable exceptions included here). However we are now in an interesting moment in musical time where the worlds of alternative pop and experimental/exploratory music slip and slide quite easily around each other. The voice is re-appearing in the experimental context, and emerging more experimentally in popular music. This compilation brings together a selection of artist working across this spectrum of play.

The recent influx of vocal exploration seems causally related to our ability to manipulate the voice with digital recording techniques. A notable exception is Alice Hui-Sheng Chang who uses her pure voice alone to explore the extremes of our primary organ for communication. Similarly pioneering sound poet Amanda Stewart’s vocal play is analogue, then overlaid using digital recording tools (originally 1/4inch tape). Kusum Normoyle’s overdriven scream is also, to some extent, a raw, unmanipulated expression of the voice. But on the whole, the tracks on VOX use the voice as material to be tinkered with technologically—enhanced, exaggerated, multiplied, warped, stretched and shredded. It’s no longer about the ‘grain’ of the voice as Roland Barthes called it, but rather its hyper-elasticity.

From the visceral drama of Kusum, ronnu panda or Donna Hewitt, to the sweet pop play of kučka or Mosaic Mosaic; from the luscious layered drones of Scissor Lock or Paul Heslin, to the mystic folk of Furchick, Deadly Nightshades and Rabbit Island, VOX displays the voice in all its complex glory.

Tracklisting: 

1. KUSUM NORMOYLE Octopus (2:35) (previously unreleased)
2. PAUL HESLIN Young Girls & Cigarettes (2:42) (previously unreleased)
3. AMANDA STEWART Residue (2:39) (from I/T: Selected Poems, Here and There Books / Splitrec)
4. THE DEADLY NIGHTSHADES Dobro #1 (2:52) (previously unreleased)
5. KUčKA Chinatown (4:26) (previously unreleased)
6. MIMIC MASS Split Radio 01 (4:44) (previously unreleased)
7. HOLY BALM Hand Over Fire (4:57) (from Holy Balm 7″ on Hustle Muscle)
8. MAJOR NAPIER School Of Anxiety #2 (3:35) (previously unreleased)
9. ALICE HUI-SHENG CHANG Vein (4:28) (previously unreleased)
10. DONNA HEWITT Drowning (7:18) (from Time, Space and The Roaring Silence, SoCA UWS Nepean)
11. SKY NEEDLE Senator (3:07) (from Neckliner cassette, alberts basement)
12. FURCHICK Angel Of My Dreams (2:15) (from Rabbits in Space, self released)
13. SCISSOR LOCK Room Tape (8:11) (previously unreleased)
14. MOSAIC MOSAIC Brand New (2:13) (from While We Sleep, Bump Foot)
15. RONNU PANDA Brush (5:11) (self released)
16. RABBIT ISLAND My Own Private (6:05) (from O God, Come Quick, Badminton Bandit)
17. JUAREZ Favourite (4:15) (from Revontulet, Sabbatical)
Artwork by Heath Killen, madebyhk.com.
Released under a Creative Commons licence (Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives), 
except Track 7, All Rights Reserved.

Press:

“Vox is quick to extinguish any pretences that it might focus solely on the voice as a musical phenomena; it is open-minded in its inclusion of instrumental drone, mystic folk and field recordings alongside a plethora of vocal techniques spanning several years of Australian experimentalism. A human purity is evident in the rawness and clarity of Kucka’s vocal on ‘Chinatown’, despite its percussive and East Asian influenced ascent. Alice Hui-Sheng Chang’s multi-layering vocally-induced drones on ‘Vein’ almost work the opposite way, and The Deadly Nightshades’ repetitive “..and it rained on my house, all summer..” on song Dobro #1 is an exercise in vocal layering with some beautiful and emotive results.”
This Music Wins, September 2011

“New Weird Australia, ever incredible, delivering up this heaping helping of far reaching vocal workouts, fittingly entitled ‘Vox’ … what you have here is 17 songs where the voice is the most important aspect or instrument in the track. Some artists seem to simply employ an incredible voice over their own beats while others record and chop and slice and rearrange the human voice to create a new band writing new beats. From epic melodic ballads to harsh abrasive noise, the voice is the key and the answer on this one.”
Grindthieves, December 2011

Title: New Weird Australia, Bleak Metal
Compiled by Ian Rogers & Stuart Buchanan, June 2011.
Catalogue Number: NWA009
Released: June 2011

FREE DOWNLOAD

Sleeve Notes: June 2011 by Ian Rogers

I once attended a lecture in Liverpool by sociologist Keith Kahn-Harris where he described heavy metal as an essentialist ideology, a genre of music borderline obsessed with what it means to be a ‘true’ heavy metal fan. Expanding on this, Kahn-Harris was careful to point out that this ‘trueness’ was not fixed in reality. Unlike punk and hip-hop, heavy metal does not aim to authentically represent everyday life. Instead, metal operates in a much more fantastic realm: it pushes aside the complexities of everyday life and replaces them with myths and stories about ‘power, conflict, violence and death,’ all the good stuff. It works – and we like it – because, like all other popular music genres, it delivers us from mundanity.

Why is this relevant here? Because it is metal’s essentialism that makes it so pliable. There is no fixed, grounded core to heavy metal and we’re all starting to realize this. While Slayer will always be metal, in 2011 an ambient experimental duo can also be metal. A popular music festival can be metal. A cartoon can be metal. An online cooking video can be metal. And despite what teenage virgins everywhere will tell you: this is a tremendously good thing. It is metal’s ability to channel its fantastic, ominous, silly, amazing essence through anything a self-ordained metal-head picks up and calls metal, that gives the genre it’s true power. Diverse things thrive.

When Stuart and I first started thinking about this compilation, we had very meager ambitions. In short our aim was to document weird heavy shit happening in Australia. Along the way, we started to think this was actually heavy metal. First, Eli from Heil Spirits describes what he does at a party as ‘thrash metal’. Then we hear the black metal tinkerings of Spheres, the Godflesh inflections of Hobart’s Machines Of Indeterminate Origin and the brittle textures at the top of the mix in AXXONN (and remembered Tom’s ever present Motely Crue tee). We had a band called Machine Death, how could we ignore this? We realized that without much thought, we’d wandered into Australian heavy metal’s underbrush.

In the end that’s why we’re calling this compilation Bleak Metal. That and fuck you, that’s why. But also relevant is an article from The Guardian published a few years back now. Writing on Grief No Absolution, Louis Pattison described them/him (who knows?) as bleak metal. Pattison wrote of how the genre name sounded apt enough for such a wintry sounding sound but also of how he felt it appropriate because, well, that’s what Grief No Absolution themselves were calling it.

Tracklisting: 

1. AXXONN From Black’s Void (8:21) (previously unreleased)
2. ABTREIBUNG feat. GRIEF NO ABSOLUTION Blutennacht (5:59) (previously unreleased)
3. AMBROSE CHAPEL Undead (7:36) (previously unreleased)
4. M.0.1.0 (MACHINES OF INDETERMINATE ORIGIN) Fatigue (4:51) (previously unreleased)
5. MACHINE DEATH You Ruin Everything (6:45) (from forthcoming album on New Editions)
6. ALEX WHITE Customer Service Experience (NWA Edit) (7:42) (from ‘Genuine Instability’ on Avant Whatever)
7. NO ANCHOR Dead Pony (2:58) (from ‘Real Pain Supanova’)
8. ANON Spite Moves Downward (7:21) (previously unreleased)
9. SPHERES Ritual 7 (4:43) (from ‘Terra Bethel’)
10. DEAD BOOMERS Superannuation Deficit (8:36) (previously unreleased)
11.DIE ON PLANES Hunting For Teeth (8:59) (previously unreleased)
12. UNDECISIVE GOD Non Play (7:45) (previously unreleased)
13. HEIL SPIRITS Heat 6:10 (from ‘Heat Death’ C12)

Artwork by Alex Gillies, againstthewoodgrain.wordpress.com.
All music donated by the artists for use in this compilation only, all rights reserved.

Press:

“Well this is a revelation. In the 400 or so posts on Ducks Battle Satan, this is the first time that I’ve ever reviewed a compilation … The bands on this run the full spectrum of noise nastiness from the noise/doom/DanFriel-esque of Axxonn, the black metal of Blutennacht to the sine wave crackle noise of Alex White. The mighty psychedelic noise metal of No Anchor makes an appearance in Dead Pony but the absolute killer for me was the track from Dead Boomers which is a glorious exposition of rumbling noise. Another highligh is the Lightning Bolt ferocity of the fantastically lo-fi Dies on Plane’s. Their track Hunting For Teeth starts full of Sword Heaven malevolence before launching into some groovy post-metal throb. In fact there is hardly a dud on this.”
Ducks Battle Satan, February 2012

“Stu Buchanan (with help from Ian Rogers) has put together the latest New Weird Australia compilation called “Bleak Metal” focused on the more avant side of Metal (Avant Metal/Black Metal and other experimental forms). Of the 13 artists only Axxonn and Undecisive God where the ones I am aware of, so lot’s more to discover.”
Twice Removed, August 2011

“Australia comes through once again with the goods, though. On the real. Courtesy of New Weird Australia (you know you love it already, based solely on the name!), here’s a collection of music entitled “Bleak Metal”. That’s about as good of a descriptor as one could hope for, in terms of nailing down what the music is in a clear and concise manner. Essentially a compilation consisting of 13 tracks of music tinkering in the realms of metal and other things. This isn’t your Slayer or Metallica or Pantera, to be certain. It’s heavy sonic seance shit. Big walls of fuzzed out guitars or sludgy numbers swimming in the murky murk or knob twiddling feedback frenzies or straight up droooooooone or sort of industrialized punk frock and ghoul. It’s all here, it’s all hear.”
Grindthieves, July 2011

“Bleak Metal is full of heavy, fucked up and generally ace new music from Australian artists (but then, you could have got all that from looking at the record cover). Particular highlights include Ambrose Chapel’s “Undead”, Axxonn’s “From Black’s Void”, Machine Death’s “You Ruin Everything” and the absolutely epic “Customer Service Experience” from Alex White. There’s a lot of longish, heavy drone here. This is perfect timing for my plans for the weekend, which largely involve testing how loud my stereo can go and, on a completely unrelated topic, pissing off my neighbours who seem to think it’s cool to have loud parties until 5am on a Monday night.”
Life Is Noise, June 2011

“Our newest intern, Tom Hall, has a track from his band Axxon on this comp (the lead off track, no less!). We haven’t heard it yet, but dude seems to have some taste, so we’re hoping it’s awesome. If we find it un-good then we probably won’t tell him anyway;) Dig it!”
Hydra Head Industries, June 2011

Title: New Weird Australia, We Are After All Here
Catalogue Number: NWA008
Released: February 2011

FREE DOWNLOAD

Sleeve Notes (originally posted on newweirdaustralia.com):

Last year, we shifted the focus of the New Weird Australia compilation series away from a free-for-all approach to something that would have a sharper curatorial focus. Something you could put handles around (so to speak).  Something you could clearly identify as “a compilation about X or Y or Z”. “We Are After All Here”, volume eight in our compilation series, does have a theme and identity of sorts, but defining it becomes increasingly problematic. Let me explain:

Throughout 2009 and 2010, we were listening to a heap of bands and artists that were clearly starting to coalesce into some form of vague and abstract grouping. Either through sound, technique, image, a reverence for the past, or just a common, skewed take on a hauntalogical notion, there was a broad church emerging that would count these artists among their flock.

Fortunately, no one dared to define it. If you speak of the devil, he’s sure to appear, thus keeping quiet and refusing to conform to definition worked well for all concerned. Having no such definition, and thus having artists co-opted or excluded based solely on the whims of the individual listener, was the perfect scenario.

But, of course, someone had to define it, and in doing so, they killed it. Hipster Runoff dropped ‘chillwave’, The Wire started talking about ‘hypnogogic pop’.  Then followed glo-fi, witch house, drag, screw gaze and so on and so on. (Our favourite remains ‘crunk shoegaze’ – meaningless, yet somehow quite endearing).

The list of artists lumped together under these various microgenres was often contradictory and bafflingly random – they were subsumed to the will of the writer, desperate to force round pegs into square holes. And once this grouping was anointed with such dubious definitions, the scrutiny began – spotlights were shone in all manner of places, and backlashes naturally came thereafter. The edifice soon crumbled.

We, on the other hand, are (after all) here – ‘down under’ – doing our own thing, far removed from such recklessness. We have our own obliquely connected and amoebic group of similar artists, remaining unaffected by trend, hype or weak stylistic interpretation. And it is to this group that we turn for this compilation. If, by virtue of their geography, they had birthed their projects in North America, they might well have all been raped and pillaged by now – raked over the blogeratti coals for their part in an ill-defined ‘scene’.

Although our upside-down location can often be a curse, in this case it’s a blessing – all these artists survived unscathed, their mission no more or less impossible, living another day to ‘fight the good fight’. And we shall leave this group unnamed, for all our sakes. Suffice to say, it’s another new, weird slice through the unsung underground of abnormal Australian music.

Postscript: At the time that this compilation was looking for its own defining title, we were saddened to hear of the passing of Trish Keenan from Broadcast.  As a band that pursued its own unique investigation of such territory and no doubt inspired many of these artists in whole or in part, we chose to draw on a highly pertinent track title from their 2009 release ‘Broadcast And The Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults Of The Radio Age’.  And it is to Trish that this release is respectfully dedicated.

Tracklisting: 

1. CAMRYN ROTHENBURY, Racing Across The Void (3:37) from Patina (Grave New World)
2. THE CARNAGE VISORS, Ledge (3:15) from Wailing Walls EP (self-released)
3. RITES WILD, Rites Wild Theme (4:12) from Ill Health & Rites Wild Theme Cassingle (Faux Friends)
4. STITCHED VISION, Healing Pattern (5:38) previously unreleased
5. GUERRE, Travellers Home Blues (2:41) previously unreleased
6. NO ZU, Horoscope (7:02) from New Age EP (New Editions)
7. STRANGE FORCES, Soul Window (6:04) from forthcoming debut EP
8. COLOURS, I’ve Watched You Suffer (6:22) from s/t EP (Free Loving Anarchists)
9. JAVIER FRISCO, Mad Flutes of Strange Incensed Lands (Excerpt) (6:18) from Opiate Southern Gardens of Orchids C60/CD-r (Emerald Cabal)
10. PANEYE, Misery Portholes (2:30) from Lost In A Dark Aquarium (New Editions)
11. YOLKE, Sunrise Eyes / Western Star (7:32) from Poppy Wash EP (Fallopian Tunes)
12. MARK BARRAGE, Rubicon Drive (2:32) from Rubicon Drive EP (self-released)
13. ANDREW SINCLAIR, Ritual Beat / Stolen Drums (5:30) previously unreleased
14. DESFONTANE, Cannibal Cod (3:56) previously unreleased
15. MUNDARING WEIRD, So Hard (6:00) from So Hard (Grave New World)
16. ORBITS, Feel Burn It (3:39) previously unreleased
17. EDWIN MONTGOMERY, Alone In The Museum (2:17) from Travel Ideas (Lesstalk Records)

Compiled by Stuart Buchanan.
Artwork by Camryn Rothenbury, gravenewworld.net

All music donated by the artists for use in this compilation only, all rights reserved.

Press:

Featured in WMFU’s “Free Music Archive – Top 20 Free Albums Of The Year”
Free Music Archive, January 2012

“Focusing on a group of electronic artists steeped in the ominous will of what we would call in the western hemisphere “Hypnogogic Pop” or “Hauntology”. For the most part these guys succeed in distinguishing themselves as a different breed, but all in all it shouldn’t really matter. It’s a pretty good deal, and the quality here is not too shabby.”
Foxy Digitalis, June 2011

“NWA is a non-profit initiative promoting “new, eclectic and experimental Australian music.” Their latest sampler, “We Are After All Here,” succeeds on all three counts. I’d recommend this compiliation on purely break-your-routine grounds, but several tracks stand out; my FLFs (First-Listen Favorites) are Horoscope from NO ZU, Camryn Rothenbury’s Racing Across the Void, and Cannibal Cod by Desfontane.”
Cognitive Buffet, May 2011

“I’m very excited to introduce the eighth and latest New Weird Australia compilation, entitled We Are After All Here [and] a track-by-track description of the release in its myriad glory … Stitched Vision craft blissful electronic drone with billowing, textured furls—not unlike the music of Ben Frost or Tim Hecker … [No Zu’s] soundscape hearkens back to a lost era of electronic psychedelia—reminiscent of both early Kraftwerk and late Roxy Music … The NWA comps have consistently featured music which depart from world-music influences and arrive on the other side of the frontier’s horizon”
Reviler, February 2011