ON THE MOON AT NOON

Nothing Hill were a band from Rome featuring Massimo D'Annibali, Manuel Nash, Alessandro Accardi, and Giorgia Acchioni. They released the sprawling, 70-minute On the Moon at Noon back in 2016 only to cease most social media updates in about 2017, it appears. So this might be another case of a one-off band now defunct, but we shall see. As is often the case, sometimes collaborations just get busy with other projects. Hopefully, we will hear from them again because this is a cool album.

The work they left us in 2016 is as upbeat and enchanting as the album cover might make you suspect. Part indie dream-pop, part light psychedelia, part light progressive rock, part retro pop. I have trouble trying to think of other band to mention to describe Nothing Hill's sound style, which I suppose is the first feather in their cap. They sound pretty original. The songs do have a firm basis in pop music in that they are catchy and lighter-hearted most of the time, verses and choruses, and yet they do build out from there. Most of the songs are longer than standard pop because they put a lot of effort into the development. My sense is that they spent a lot of time in studio constructing some of these longer numbers with complex vocal arrangements, layered electric and acoustic guitars, thoughtful rhythm approaches, and plenty of aural sweet surprises.

There is a lot of variety of instrumentation throughout, well-constructed and produced. Every time I play this I'm quite taken by it, and yet it is very hard to put the vibe into words. My favorite track is the lovely "Gathering the Stars" and its outro, "Finding Losing." "A Different Side of Sorrow" has a positively Gilmour-esque solo. I love the patience and laid-back vibe of the instrumental passages accompanying some of the longer tracks like "Leave the Door Wide Open" as it drifts away with ethereal female and male vocals to close the album. A sense of playfulness and optimism pervades most of the tracks. While I can only guess their influences, there could be some appreciation here for '80s synth-heavy art pop or later Brit-pop, too, possibly Duran Duran, Roxy Music, or some of the glossier Cure/Wilson/Radiohead/Oasis numbers. Our ProgArchives bio mentions the Smiths.

It's not my area of expertise at all, so my thoughts are all over the map on this band without being very helpful. But I can tell you I like this, whatever they were going for. Quite a departure from most of the stuff I hear around ProgArchives and from what I have in my collection. If you are a fan of sophisticated pop music that has clear "crossover" to progressive rock without being textbook "prog," check this out.

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