No Age - Glitter

Label: SubPop Release date: 23/08/10 Link: Official Site So far 2010 has been the year of accessibility. As a listener and musician, I cannot deny that music (especially indie music) has been moving in a direction to add more palatable and desirable sounds to the sonic fray. The oft mentioned (especially in my writing) Woods made their last LP an accessible one, bands like Real Estate and Beach Fossils make easy to listen to pop at their cores, and even noise paragons like Merzbow have turned down the static (his last LP, Graft, was so mellow I thought my headphones were blown). While Los Angeles noise rock/pop duo No Age (who are now a trio live) constantly skirt the bounds of truly engrossingly accessible music, as their debut LP Nouns proved, their latest single pumps up the sing along factor and sees the band crafting some catchy music. While Glitter sees some degree of constant noise, instead of allowing the guitar to snarl and bite it is the drone of electronic feedback that propels the surf-indebted drums. Layering is the key to this song, allowing Dean Spunt’s double tracked voice to sound as solemn as Joy Division but channelled through Deerhunter while the music kind of sounds like Joy Division if channelled through Shellac. It’s a sad affair with lyrics about longing, but the massive layers of guitar and roomy drums really do make the track shine in its own darkness and repetition, letting digital claps and subtle additions move the track from the same chords and drum rhythm to a full fledged piece. Yeah the chorus is hooky as fuck and the APTBS noise is clutch to the song’s sound, but I can’t help but feel that a layer of thick distortion on the otherwise clean toned guitar would make the song come off as a more original and classic song. Instead, 'Glitter' is a more tepid affair overall as a result, focusing on melody instead of ambience rather than balancing the two like the band has done so well before. Fear not, though, for B-side ‘Inflorescence’ is a muscular take on the Black Tambourine formula, and a glorious indicator of what may be in store for the band’s third LP. While this song does focus on classic Twee chord structures and chorus melodies, the breakdowns of sampled noise and constant bending feedback indicates that No Age’s pedigree has served them well. Hell, if 'Inflorescence' had been the A-side and the album track things may have been better. Both songs have their benefits (mostly being catchy noise pop), and really only ‘Glitter’ fails to shine, held back by its own staidness. While the band’s Losing Feeling EP saw them tweaking samples, the sounds created have only transferred to the small but intense blasts of noise in the background of ‘Glitter,’ while the influence of that EP and hometown venue The Smell seem to have shaped the band’s tastes towards a ‘heavy mellow’ feel. Only the release of the new LP will quell or confirm my fears and theories, but this single will tide over the No Age fan for the time being. Now if Randy would add a RAT or Big Muff back into his pedal array, we’d be in business.