NI

— First review of this album —

What a brutalism and irony they shoot. Quite amazing. An Austrian noise / brutal avantgarde jazz rock combo NI (different from French avantgarde quartet NI. - NI 'dot' founded around the same time) are a genuine 'extraordinary' sound launcher. Their sound is called as 'exorbitant rock drone with outer-space free jazz swarming with noise-shaped J. S. Bach' by themselves ... cannot directly digest this phrase out but pretty interesting. And not surprisingly, their music goes out of their control just like the phrase. "Foxtrott" (of course not Genesis' masterpiece) released as their second album in 2012 tells their musical essence precisely. The paper cutouts of a fox on the sleeve are very simple and intuitive, but their soundscape is not simply dressed at all.

The first track "h3" has monochromatic short starza repetitions that would develop more and more brutal and violent. The last humourous march-like movement is kinda evocative of one of Rock-In-Opposition leaders Zamla Mammaz Manna. In "elbrin" we can be drenched in deep heavy metallic guitar-oriented soundquakes that remind us of the similarity to King Crimson in Red Era, but the latter phase has quirky noisy spooky reverberation giving us a good restlessness. "mütür" is another funky fun. Incredible massive assault by dissonant-structural guitar explosions in the middle part should swallow us down in a moment. Sounds like the latter delightful sound exercises despite the previous brutality be what we have heard ever but who cares? "zentazoid" sounds more Krautrock-ish tinged with electronic sarcasm and surging melodic waves like "Burning The Vibes" by Mahogany Brain, but their strong intention for launching 'heavy rock' is acceptable. "der mit dem" with tiny but cool phrases in the beginning changes drastically to smooth but strict jazzy appearance. The shortest stuff in this creation is not so complicated but energetic. Through "oizit" combinations of improvisational guitars / drums battles and matured and balanced but slightly dissected jazz rock sessions can be enjoyed. It's pretty fascinating they play simultaneously both instrumental synchronization and anti-synchronization.

"Foxtrott" sounds more of rock than their debut eponymous album but their weird policy cannot change eternally I imagine?

Experimental RIO band Ni released this album in 2017 but it has only recently come to my attention. Although there are some vocals here and there, they are basically being used as an additional instrument and it is best to view them as such. Here we have an album that is complex, incredibly staccato, and musically all over the place. I have become far more interested in this style of music in recent years, and although I have always had an appreciation for it, these days I find myself being drawn towards the genre more and more. I am I am sure that a large part of that is the sheer refusal to conform on the behalf of the musicians, knowing that listeners will always be in a small minority but those who "get it" will be greatly enamoured of what they are achieving.

Such is the case here with complex guitars linking in with drums as they stretch what could be considered acceptable in a normal sense yet somehow always continue to maintain a musical energy and consistency which makes sense to those who understand. There will be many who view this just as noise being created my musicians who are obviously skilled enough to know better and why aren't they playing something nice and sensible in 4/4? But for those who want their music to stretch the braincells and allow themselves to be taken into strange and unusual places then this is a delight. The guitars can be harsh and jangling, weaving in strange and different ways, and there are times when the a cappella vocals do exactly the same. It is a relatively short album at just 30 minutes long, yet the listener feels they have been taken on a lengthy journey and are all the better for it.