01	Blackmail						09:42
	02	Stimpy Bar						05:19
	03	Redrum						11:13
	04	Cinema 1920						05:00
	05	Nova Express						15:35

NeBeLNeST
Nova Express
Cuneiform (rune 154)
France 2002

Michael Anselmi, drums, percussion;
Cyril Malderez, guitar;
Gregory Tejedor, bass, percussion;
Olivier Tejedor, keyboards, devices, percussion

Tracklist:
1. Blackmail - 9:35
2. Stimpy Bar - 5:12
3. Redrum - 11:03
4. Cinema 1920 - 5:00
5. Nova Express - 15:32

total time 46:51


gary n

The first thing that impressed me about this album was the recording. I almost couldn't believe it was Bob Drake until I read his note about turning up your stereo to get the full effect, which I somehow knew to do before the CD even started. The amount of space this added to the recording demonstrates just how serious NeBeLNeST are about space, inner and deep.
After a twisted introduction, reminiscent of early '80s new wave, the band explodes into its real self, laying siege to all aural space. Another great and garagey element immediately emerges: most of the music sounds like jamming, or at least parts loosely structured around practice jams. This raw yet treated quality lends itself to the overall earthiness of their sound. Synths and other devices create the sonic vision of sparse and deep space so evident in the artwork and liners. Mellotron comes in at just the right time, casting its shadow across a million light years, leaving even supernovae undeserving of remark. The bass is usually distorted and often extremely low, emitting the deep dark tone of colliding galaxies. This is the dynamic of which they speak.

The births and deaths of stars pass noticeably with each listen, making this easily one of my favorite CDs of recent years. Its barely RIO, scantly Psyche, and very heavy and dark. I couldn't have asked for much more.

3-7-03

brandon

Nova Express is a convincing followup to NeBeLNeST's debut album, and makes good on its predecessor's great promise. This time around, the improvs have been dumped, some of the noodling has been done away with, and the foursome is just generally tighter and even more energetic. For those of you that missed NeBeLNeST's debut, their overall style is essentially unchanged: a dark, oppressive sort of space-rock or fusion is their game. The rhythm section is the star, with great drumming and loud, fluid bass playing that often as not takes the lead, driving the compositions to greater and greater heights. When the bass isn't leading, the keys and guitar trade off.
Nova Express is more accessible than the debut, partly because it's just, well, better; but also partly because it's more melodic. The compositions are more thematically coherent, and there's more of a sense of development to them. "Stimpy Bar" and the title track are my favorites; the former reminds me of a slightly toned-down Yeti sometimes, with great bass playing and a similar synth timbre. The title track is awesome, building slowly into a dynamic ebb-and-flow that briefly disintegrates back into seeming chaos before an epic denoument.

If I had to pigeonhole this band, I'd say they lie somewhere between heavy space-rock and zeuhl. The former influence is evident in the free-flowing compositions and the structured jams, while the latter influence is more superficial and manifests itself in the heavy bass presence and general oppressiveness. NeBeLNeST has matured greatly since their first album in 1999, and this is a great document of how far they've come. As Bob Drake, who produced Nova Express, said: "hugely better than their first album" - pretty high praise in itself.

1-28-02

(c) ground and sky


NeBeLNeST - Nova Express

Released: 2002
Label: Cunieform Records
Cat. No.: Rune 154
Total Time: 46:52


Reviewed by: Marcelo Silveyra, April 2002
Picture yourself hurrying along the city streets at midnight, looking about nervously and in feverish paranoia as the odd car races by, the lights shine bleakly onto the pavement, and every corner is a potential danger set to trigger your adrenaline production into sweating overload. You quicken your pace in a frantic fit of desperation, look behind your shoulder as a taxi roars menacingly by, and expect the worst to come your way any moment now with abrasive fury. The noise in your head acquires devastating intensity with each violent step, and there is almost no quarter. Even when the chaos subsides, a threatening sense of warning stubbornly drills a hole through your brain, and you seem on the very verge of exploding into the angular scenery. Blackmail!

Barely surviving the internal tumult, and certainly not unscathed, you open the nearest door and hurry into a seedy joint where the smell of cheap beer and cigarette butts can be perceived through the clouds of smoke and the mechanical faces of the drunk. An almost spacey melody blends in awkwardly with the surroundings, before mutating into a jarring percussive attack of monolithic strength and then washing away into a bizarrely persistent keyboard line that hums through the air before all hell explodes again and the persistent line acquires a short Arabic mood. You turn to the wall and manage to make out the phrase NeBeLNeST while the music once again lowers its volume, but just as you catch a glimpse of the name, everything picks up again and the band's drummer starts hitting away with amok skill. You sense a dissonant theme entering the picture again and try to read the sign again..."NeBeLNeST...at..." "NeBeLNeST at the Stimpy Bar!"

NeBeLNeST? Stimpy Bar? With the rush of the city streets augmented by the band's gruff intensity and unlikely avant-garde aggression, you barely manage to stumble into the bathroom, hoping for some brittle sanity and quiet (D-E-R). The grimy floor flashes through your head as you try to keep it together, and something is definitely wrong here...you can still hear the band chugging away with brutal refinement outside, and can sense the drunk and their smell, the smoke and the stench of beer, but, but what is it about that band that can't escape your mind? The unlikely fact that grooves surge sporadically among the percussive intensity? The way it quiets down all of a sudden and sounds more ominous than ever with its odd-time harshness? The punch it packs? The distorted attitude (M-U-R)? Lurching your way to the corner, you notice something lying there inanimate, and meanwhile the sound outside is getting louder. Suddenly everything stops. An almost tribal percussion surrounded by weird effects settles in as you realize...red rum...drmreu...MURDER!

You stagger outside and glare at the drunk, at the smoke, at the band, at the walls. Confused and fighting for breath, you run out in panic, and move through the streets in disjointed movements as the city atmosphere transforms into jagged edges of glass cutting through your body. That band is still in your mind, isn't it? All this activity, this distorted neurosis, this organized chaos, they understood it. The drummer seemed possessed at times, and the relationship between keyboards and guitar was frighteningly real, intense, like a murdering rampage. You can feel it flowing through your very veins now, heading its way with no regard for anything, devastating psyches and cutting a wide swath through frayed nerves with music that is both aggressive and ominous, yet always intelligent, isn't it? Cinema 1920 is just around the corner ... but how?

Walk in. Why? Don't know. Just do. Do. There's something in the air, something unsettling ... weird noises, percussion flashes, a theme ... a theme? See how it loses shape again and slowly gains in volume ... a film is rolling, a band is playing, this is almost too subdued to be true, space jam, searing guitar persistence, and that threat resurfacing again. Then everything unites into a mechanical frenzy, calculated and grinding, that crushes everything in its path, and then diffuses again. That bass, driving ahead in relentless decision, and suddenly everything quiets down again for a few moments. Dissonant, avant-garde, harsh, silently ominous, brashly distorted, insanely percussive. Keyboards sliding in, playing around with sheer manic dissonance, and then floating off only to strike back after a second. And it is time to go, time to be absorbed by the angular abrasion of the city, time to climb aboard ... the Nova Express.




Rating: 4/5

Similar Artists: Present, King Crimson, Magma

More about Nova Express:

Track Listing: Blackmail (9:35) / Stimpy Bar (5:12) / Redrum (11:03) / Cinema 1920 (5:00) / Nova Express (15:32)

Musicians:
Michael Anselmi - Drums, Percussion
Cyril Malderez - Guitar
Gregory Tejedor - Bass, Percussion
Olivier Tejedor - Keyboards, Devices, Percussion

Contact:

Website: www.nebelnest.com/
Note: will open new browser window

Discography

NeBeLNeST (1999)
Nova Express (2002)






NeBeLNeST
"Nova Express" (2002)
Cuneiform Records
Reviewed by Jerry Lucky
February 06, 2002

Every so often a band arrives on the scene that generates a lot of buzz. NeBeLNeST is one of those bands. Formed in 1997 they recorded and released their first album in 1998 and soon after performed to rave reviews at ProgDay in North Carolina. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Critics loved NeBeLNeST.
The band performed live quite a number of times throughout 2000 and the first part of 2001 before heading back into the studio in June to lay down some new material. Bob Drake recognized for his work with 5uu's and Thinking Plague produced this second release entitled "NoVa eXPReSS". So how does it sound? Never having heard the band's first CD and not knowing what to expect, I have to say I'm very impressed!

As some of you already know NeBeLNeST inhabit a musical world similar to Djam Karet with a style loaded with busy, serious, dark, almost industrial sounds. But at the same time there are many passages of striking beauty. The five tracks ranging in length from five minutes to over fifteen contain musical segments of discord and dissonance that are punctuated by lovely, but haunting solo moments.

Music can be sometimes difficult to describe, but see if this works. You start out with a rhythm section immediately rolling along at a busily good tempo to the sound of dissonant piano chords banged out angrily while the guitar wails away on a series of minor notes. It all works away for a few minutes until it comes together wonderfully with everyone playing in a kind of unison before charging off in a completely new direction again. In fact each piece tends to start from a bold, brief melodic structure then splits into individual efforts that come back to a loose theme. It's quite striking how NeBeLNeST make it sound so cohesive.

Interestingly they incorporate a Mellotron on three of the tracks, but it's used to convey an almost angry choir like the choral arrangement in the Phantom Menace during the Jedi fight. There are other times where a certain psychedelic sound is heard. My ears perked up at one point during the title track when suddenly it seemed I was listening to early spacey Pink Floyd. In fact my ears would love to hear NeBeLNeST develop that spacey, melodic aspect more fully on future releases. The "resolution" it provides to their musical "expectation" is very satisfying.

NeBeLNeST are like four people playing in their own worlds - like planets orbiting in the solar system which is something beautiful in itself, but then every once in a while the planets align and synchronize their orbits and it becomes truly majestic. These guys can really play. They know their instruments well and are confident in stretching their skill set. "NoVa eXPReSS" I'm sure will be welcomed with open arms by old and new fans alike.










NeBeLNeST, "Nova Express"
Cuneiform Records, 2002

Every so often a band arrives on the scene that generates a lot of buzz. NeBeLNeST is one of those bands. Formed in 1997 they recorded and released their first album in 1998 and soon after performed to rave reviews at ProgDay in North Carolina. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Critics loved NeBeLNeST.
The band performed live quite a number of times throughout 2000 and the first part of 2001 before heading back into the studio in June to lay down some new material. Bob Drake recognized for his work with 5uu's and Thinking Plague produced this second release entitled "NoVa eXPReSS". So how does it sound? Never having heard the band's first CD and not knowing what to expect, I have to say I'm very impressed!

As some of you already know NeBeLNeST inhabit a musical world similar to Djam Karet with a style loaded with busy, serious, dark, almost industrial sounds. But at the same time there are many passages of striking beauty. The five tracks ranging in length from five minutes to over fifteen contain musical segments of discord and dissonance that are punctuated by lovely, but haunting solo moments.

Music can be sometimes difficult to describe, but see if this works. You start out with a rhythm section immediately rolling along at a busily good tempo to the sound of dissonant piano chords banged out angrily while the guitar wails away on a series of minor notes. It all works away for a few minutes until it comes together wonderfully with everyone playing in a kind of unison before charging off in a completely new direction again. In fact each piece tends to start from a bold, brief melodic structure then splits into individual efforts that come back to a loose theme. It's quite striking how NeBeLNeST make it sound so cohesive.

Interestingly they incorporate a Mellotron on three of the tracks, but it's used to convey an almost angry choir like the choral arrangement in the Phantom Menace during the Jedi fight. There are other times where a certain psychedelic sound is heard. My ears perked up at one point during the title track when suddenly it seemed I was listening to early spacey Pink Floyd. In fact my ears would love to hear NeBeLNeST develop that spacey, melodic aspect more fully on future releases. The "resolution" it provides to their musical "expectation" is very satisfying.

NeBeLNeST are like four people playing in their own worlds - like planets orbiting in the solar system which is something beautiful in itself, but then every once in a while the planets align and synchronize their orbits and it becomes truly majestic. These guys can really play. They know their instruments well and are confident in stretching their skill set. "NoVa eXPReSS" I'm sure will be welcomed with open arms by old and new fans alike.


Reviewed by:
Jerry Lucky, jlucky@pacificcoast.net
02/06/2002