My relationship with the music of Nolan Potter is a short and strange one to date. I first heard of the Texas based psych piper and his ‘Nightmare Band’ after finding a piece of paper in an LP I had been sent. On one side was a thankyou note and on the reverse was simply “Nolan Potters Nightmare Band”. Now, who wouldn’t be intrigued by that collection of words enough to quickly look up what they were about? What I found was a strange mix of fantastical, psychedelic rock songs and classical rigidity that piqued my interest to the point of mind erosion. I’ve had their debut album on sporadic rotation for a while but am now happy to announce a new project for our ears to feast on.
The opening track, One Eye Flees Aquapolis, feels like a true return to form for any listen coming into this project with any prior knowledge of Nolan Potters music. There aren’t necessarily any surprises but the psychedelic drawl and inch perfect production are what got me hooked in the first place so I can have no complaints. However, Stubborn Bubble comes in immediately after with a monumental set of guitar riffs that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Jack White project. These mix in with sporadic strings, barely audible fuzzed out vocals and repetitive, whirling drums to create a whirlwind of sound that you are all too happy to be swept up in. It’s very hard to find songwriters working like this today, in fact I’d be willing to bet that if you approached the average John Q. Music and asked him what year, shit, what decade this was from, they would be at least 40 years out. This is meant as no negative slight on the music though. Unlike a band like Greta Van Fleet, who are stealing a living ripping off bands from the 70’s, Nolan Potter is managing to create a whole new world that soaks in a psychedelic pool that could only be adjacent to a decade like the 60’s. I challenge anyone to listen to the second half of stubborn Bubble and tell me otherwise, this is an opus coming at you live and direct.
Up next is Gregorian Chance which mixes beautifully relaxing guitar with a subtle rhythm section that feels like it’s been ripped straight from a Gil Scott Heron track. The vocals cut through the instrumental so smoothly that I found it hard to believe it was the very same voice that took me through the ride that Stubborn Bubble turned out to be. That being said there is a undeniable DNA that runs through this album. From track to track each song holds a certain level of bliss that only Nolan Potter can do so… strangely, put front and centre at the end of the track with an otherworldly flute outro.
Holy Scroller is the next track and feels like a mix of ELO and Billy Joel with all the bells and whistles only Nolan Potter knows how to add. It’s a bouncy piano driven track with jazzy drums and upbeat pop vocals I get the feeling this is the closest to ‘radio friendly hit’ he will ever get, and I think that’s why I love the album. The guitar work late on in the track is brilliant, as it is with the rest of the album, and the cacophony of vocals singing along to the riff makes for a huge ending.
Preeminent Minds starts with yet more evidence that Nolan Potter must own a time machine that can only travel back to the late 60’s. The riff, the drums, the vocals, its so mind blowing how ‘of a time’ this feels, without sounding like its ripping anything off. The vocals are reminiscent of early David Bowie which goes well with the cosmic subject matter of what’s being sung about. The instrumental never sounds anything less than gigantic, even in the last two minutes, where the decibels subside, what remains is still a piece of unearthly sound that would be at home on the soundtrack to a modern 2001.
The album finish with title track Music is Dead. Starting as a slow ballad (or as close to one as you can expected for an album like this) it feels the closet to human than at another point on the album with an opening line” I wasted half the day; on a song we’ll never play on stage.” A sense of post COVID melancholy and reflection lives throughout the track with lyrics that talk of a dejected artist trying to sell himself to the world again. I think what is most impressive about not just this song but the whole album is how songs seemingly build to giant world eaters out of nowhere and just as quickly subside back into being remanence of sound, seemingly as they please. Potter layers instrumentation and other soundscapes seamlessly and it is no more clearly demonstrated than, ironically enough, in Music is Dead.
I find it hard to truly place my finger on an exact likeness for this project. One minute you’ll feel like you’re listening to Tubular Bells and the next you think its Led Zeppelin 4. It’s at times like these I feel I should pass my advice over to the artist himself, speaking from the title track, “Sometime if you’re free, you should take a look at my EP.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Music Is Dead is released via Castle Face Records on Friday 24 September.
Also Found In New Sounds Issue 3
