Three feet of hanging, looped, dark, magnetic tape contrasts against an off-white wall and windowsill. Emblematic of Nothing Natural’s approach, this musical artifact is a reminder that creativity can imbue even inanimate objects with emotional weight. There is a tenderness, and a reverence here, as well as a recognition of the album’s uniqueness – a double-time drum beat performed live, chopped and slowed, treasured and recorded, enriching a….. shoegaze album? Nothing Natural brings a new perspective to the big shoegaze sound of the modern music scene, mixing the sound palette of chorus heavy leads, catchy, reverbed vocals, and tight drums that one expects from a gaze band with unexpected compositional and sentimental perambulations. Evolving from their influences in the Oakland music scene to a wider audience, Nothing Natural’s new album “Cold Star” is sure to hit all the grungegaze buttons needed to enrapture the diverse tastes of today’s listeners. This release comes courtesy of the widely respected Bay-area indie label, Cherub Dream Records.
Cold Star’s opening track, “Butterfly Collector” is immediate proof of the band’s musical acumen. You can hear the distilled sounds of familiar grunge and gaze patterns, reinterpreted through a complex and engaging composition. Matched guitars, saturated with fuzz, border each side of the song. I was particularly struck by the tied-in chorus heavy lead that one hears balancing the fuzzed-out guitar melody. This, along with the angsty delivery of the vocals, brings to mind a commingling of bicoastal gaze identities – the warped, woozy, and almost irreverent chorus and flanged leads of the east coast, with the grunge influenced, delivered-with-a-smirk vocals that I associate with the west coast. The twee patterned vocals touch on personal identity sought through the painful reflection of interpersonal relationship struggles. The snare-driven breakdowns throughout the song keep the listener highly engaged and add a welcome complexity to the song. This opening track sets the tone for a distinctly Oakland sounding, gaze adjacent, alt rock album.
“Down” continues the showcase of tight drum patterns backing well thought out placements of verse and chorus. This second track also develops the personal weight of the album’s lyrical content. The overwhelm of a seemingly romantic relationship begins to engage the listener. “Part of Me” brings the energy level up, hitting notes of nu-gaze. You can feel the higher frequencies coming off the kick drum’s beater, tapping out a tight pattern well matched by layered guitars with varying levels of distortion and cleanliness. “Spring” has a lighter, bouncier quality – matching the rising joy of that season’s influence on the bay area where Nothing Natural is located. This fourth track reaches into the dreampop pocket, eliciting a refreshing reaction in the listener’s ear. “Lichen Mask” takes the course of the album back down into that nu-gaze / post-punk drum beat that the album started with. Vocals here are dissociative, child-like, hitting the high-mids where bands like Swirlies and Drop Nineteens place their vocals. The stereophonic guitars are more saw-like in this track, building tension to the last track on the A side. Track six out of 12, “Silver” finds us back into the vocal’s lower register, and throws a more open and intimate cast of the artist’s inner world. Mixes of hope and despair are felt through the poetry of the lyrics. Further enhancing this effect are the repeating gauzy vocal harmonies.
The LP’s B-side opens with the eponymous track “Cold Star.” At this point it is obvious that Nothing Natural has done their post-2000s rock homework. Strains of syncretic, gaze-adjacent guitars swell through their chord progression, kept buoyant by the energetic drum pattern. The vocals come in with quite a bit of attitude, balancing the otherwise bright and flowing soundscape. Track eight, “Cherry” feels like Nothing Natural’s ode to the grunge movement’s impact on shoegaze. The guitars here are increasingly acerbic, staccato palm mutes present in force. Track nine, “1K Knives” walks the listener into increasing complexity, the call and response between lead and rhythm guitar players driving the song. 1K Knives continues the vocalist’s preference for grungey, post-punk influenced vocals. Next up, “Through A Chemical Garden” is a perfect sequencing opportunity in the album, and the band takes it. This 10th track fills the place kept open till now for a soft, reflective, and hopeful track. We hear the twang of acoustic guitar, piano walks, and soaring, but restrained fuzz. Second to last, “If It’s Real” brings the listener back to the welcome east-coast chorus leads that hit in between the driving distorted guitars that are the backbone of the record. Finally, track 12, “Always” is an atmospheric descent through a soundscape that quickly leads into Nothing Naturals’s intentional straddling of huge shoegaze compositions, chorus drenched solos, intimate, yet cooled vocals, and tight beats. By the time the listener reaches this final track, the band is soaring high, leaving the listener with a revival of lifted hearted feelings, a healing whole for the inner self and acceptance of the shadow self we see in our partnerships.
Nothing Natural is a Bay Area alt-rock outfit formed by guitarist/vocalist Austin Montanari (Aluminum, Wild Moth), bassist/vocalist Kristen Addison (Parallel), drummer Dylan Lockey (Pllush), and guitarist Marc Leyda (aluminum). The group formed in Oakland, CA in 2020, and has since been playing shows along the west coast. Drawing inspiration from shoegaze and post-hardcore, Nothing Natural delivers riff driven songwriting with infectious dual vocal harmonies and chorus-drenched leads.
Written by Pleasure Tapes
