Like a Mexican food platter, Nadja's latest opus has options. I love habanero pepper salsa on a taco, but when it becomes oppressively spicy, I need antidotes like sour cream and fresh lime to soothe my burning mouth. If I'm busy listening to Nadja, which usually means being consumed by alien guitar distortion and slow, plodding metal drums, sometimes I want out. As blissed-out as Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff can make their slow motion sludge, the mind occasionally changes gears before the music stops. Under The Jaguar Sun is the umpteenth release from these dream-doom veterans, but it is the first that offers up a platter of devastating heat and cool, ambient refreshment, as the album features two, count 'em, two CDs to be played simultaneously!
This is nothing new, of course. The Flaming Lips released Zaireeka back in 1997, an album that asks us to synchronize four discs for harmonic perfection. Boris, John Cage, and others have scored pieces to be played together as well, but nothing sounds quite like Nadja ("Aidan" backwards, pretty much). Because there are several ways to listen to Under The Jaguar Sun, it is difficult to know how to approach it critically. With all the exciting permutations and choices, an album such as this behaves more elastically, bending to the listener's will. We choose how to hear it. Nadja's sound has always been one of high density, and a curiosity to dissect all the layers ought to lead many folks to give this a try.
The journey begins with guitars trembling like deep sea vents on "SUN1jaguar." Leah's bass guitar paces to and fro while Aidan's delicate boy-vocals try not to tear like tissue paper sleeves amidst the slow, distorted drums. Nadja play very .......slowly...... injecting dreamy sweetness into a metal backbone, as if attempting to hypnotize the listener into entering stoner drone heaven. Imagine a plant that is both carnivorous and psychedelic, and, much like Nadja, we get an exotic and intriguing hybrid. After the necessary trek through distorted guitar plod, the song ends nine minutes later with looming cellos shimmering like moonlight on black water.
That's when things start to get interesting. "SUN2windstorm" is a much more abstract piece, backed simultaneously by the Andrew Chalk-like hum drone of "Ehecatonatiuh." These two feed off of each other nicely as the drums don't appear for almost eight minutes. The space is filled with squealing worms of fuzz guitar searching for meaning while a light drizzle of chimes sprinkles the surface of a tide pool brimming with spacey effects. When those drums kick in, they usher in some wicked growling vocals that sound like ancient stones speaking to the gravity of the world. After fourteen minutes of bells, chimes, and booming metal bliss, the track hyperventilates unexpectedly, with the drum machine taking a life of its own and throwing down a fury of snare explosions.
Nadja cut the cord with the off-kilter, blown-out beat-down "SUN3fieryrain." The ambient track underneath all these guitars is comprised of dreamy, processed atmospherics that are seemingly unaware of the doomish dirge in the next room. Violins shuffle in and out, sounding like Maninkari with hints of Philip Jeck. The ambient disc is all over the lush, ambient map, and it easily stands alone without its heavier sibling. I find myself totally engaged in the ambient half of this album and could take it to the end each time, without realizing that there is a vocal duet happening in track four, which is slowly building up a lot of noise for the big finish.
The climax arrives like a prophecy in "SUN5earthquake." Wide open guitars triumphantly rip the ceiling off while cataclysmic drums pulverize the cosmos. Underneath the rippling distortion, there is fluttery sitar buzz and melody to explore in "Nahui-Ollin." These two sometimes sound so perfect, every layer a revelation as Aidan's extra-terrestrial guitar is given plenty of space to sizzle. Other times there seems to be too much happening, and turning down the ambient disc might do us a favor. This track sounds so awesome once it gets going that it could be one of the tracks of the year -- but one nagging element will prevent that from happening. The end of the song gets sabotaged by ill-advised closed high-hat clicks that awkwardly hit between the space created by the rest of the drums. It stands out way too much to ignore and takes away from this stargazing behemoth. It's a shame, since this track totally slays and soothes for much of its fifteen minute duration, more so when successfully synchronized*.
From start to finish, this is one of the best Nadja albums to date -- and there are a lot to compare. Whereas many previous releases are opportunities to drift away, Under The Jaguar Sun offers both that and a strong narrative with plot twists. We are being delivered somewhere by album's end. The heavier "song" half behaves like the boat, and the ambient half is more like the breath. Both can be taken on their own, and when all the flavors are blended together, it is a great web of intention to explore. The duality of the two sonic worlds mirrors Nadja's marriage as human beings, as the music is made by both man and woman. Depending on one's frame of mind, either disc could represent our masculine or feminine sides, and blending the holy spheres together is a cosmic and fully intentional act.
- Nayt Keane
*Advice for synchronizing the two halves of this album includes downloading Audacity or a similar program. The vinyl version features Nadja's personal mix of the two discs as one, so no synch is required.