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This starts immediately in the opening song. 'Gentle' starts ever so modest. Just her voice and a plucked bass note. A single one that just continues to be plucked. In the second verse more and more instruments come in all playing that same note, until the end of the verse. By then a modest orchestra and choir join in. The mood for Below A Massive Dark Land is set here alright. From that single note the song opens up and receives a lush arrangement. Not so much complex in the number of notes, it is the complexity of all instruments as a whole that sets Gentle apart from the average song.
Naima Bock is of Brazilian-Greek decent but grew up in the U.K. On 'Giant Palm' she showed her musical heritage. She leaves that all behind on Below A Massive Dark Land. Instead she goes all out on her new album. Where I wrote then that her voice is not her strongest feature, here she show growth and self-assuredness. She can be compared to some of the singer-songwriters coming out of New Zealand in the past years like Aldous Harding, Vera Ellen and Erny Belle. Singers who take on adventure in their music.
Below A Massive Dark Land is an incredibly rich album. The songs have all been given a treatment where more is less and less is more simultaneously. The folk element brings to mind the late Norwegian singer-songwriter St. Thomas, in that slow, relaxed way of singing. From there Naima Bock brings on every instrument that fits the song. Acoustic guitar, bass and drums can be joined by any form of horn, her voice with a host of overdubs or other singers in that St. Thomas kind of choir singing. Listen to 'Feed My Release' to get my drift.
Someone already declared this album a masterpiece. For that it is too early in my opinion. I have no way of telling what the album will do to/with me over the coming months, let alone years. What I can share with you is that in the first listening sessions it made a great impression on me. It is an album that forces the listener to pay attention. This is where good music and my relation to it starts. Below A Massive Dark Land and I are off to a great start so to say.
It is easy to write that I did not see this one coming on the basis of 'Giant Palm' and of having been a bass player in Goat Girl. This is an album that goes beyond just being nice or good. ('Giant Palm' got really great reviews btw, I was simply more modest in my praise.) Below A Massive Dark Land is an album that will allow for exploration for quite some time. There is everything between what could have been heard in her grandmother's garden shed where she lived for a while while, playing to herself, writing this album, and the lush arrangements heard in several songs. This will bring you from English folk as played around 1970, Fairport Convention is not far away on a song like 'Takes One', before St. Thomas returns and all sorts of other instruments are added, taking the song to its own strata. Even a violin enters. Naima Bock has taught herself to play the instrument in the past two years. 'Takes One' is another song that shows how rich this album is.
As I already wrote, time will tell where we will go. For now, I'm sincerely impressed by Below A Massive Dark Land and will continue to listen for sure.
Wout de Natris - van der Borght
You can listen to and order Below A Massive Dark Land here:
https://naimabock.bandcamp.com/album/below-a-massive-dark-land
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