Killer Memphis noise punk band NOTS strikes again with their signature brand of poignant paranoia on their third album 3.” Roughly 30 minutes of minimalist No-wave terror emerges from the forceful, impending doom of political commentary delivered over hellscape post-punk. Throbbing bass, psychedelic stabbing guitar, spooky synth, and ever-steady drums are cloaked in a vocal echo that slaps back exponentially with gang-vocal poetry that rattles around your brain, back and forth between the left and right ears, until the next song tugs you into another dark, inescapable chamber.
It’s as if NOTS wants to teach society a lesson. Well, they just might. On this album, they’ve got society tied up to a chair in an empty cabin, with masking tape over its mouth, encircling it with minor keys and hurling the truth over and over again-- while maybe wearing some scary masks and flashing strobe lights in its pried-open eyes.
At opposite ends of the album, the choruses on "Woman Alone," What’s it like to be a subject analyzed / What’s it like to be under constant gaze? and on "Surveillance," Safety illusion / A neon net / A surveillance veil, work together to remind us we’re being spied on, and even worse, controlled. Really, it all makes you wanna smash your computer, throw your smartphone in a fire, and pull out your old crossbow.
grab a copy of NOTS new LP from your local record shop, and STREAM the new LP out now on Goner Records right here:
