Nosferatu D2
We’re Gonna Walk Around This City with Our Headphones on to Block Out the Noise
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Label: Audio Antihero
This is what Japandroids should have sounded like. No offense to that decent Canadian outfit, but Pitchfork and all the other hype machines had it wrong; Japandroids are just an all right warm-up for the hurricane that is the unjustly forgotten Nosferatu D2. Equally terrible name aside, Nosferatu D2 were a London two piece whose lost debut We’re Gonna Walk Around This City with Our Headphones on to Block Out the Noise has been resurrected by upstart UK label Audio Antihero.
The fledgling label is right to hedge their bets on the Los Campesino!-endorsed Nosferatu D2, if for no other reason than the skills of drummer Adam Parker, who should be held up as the English counterpart to Hella’s Zach Hill. Adam Parker plays with an unnerving intensity, unleashing several different styles in the course of a song, all sounding like they’re going to cause his head to explode. Beginning with “Broken Tamagotchi” Nosferatu D2 succeed by virtue of the duo’s incredible understanding of rhythm, Adam Parker utilizing empty space in a way other drummers can only dream of, leaving plenty of room for brother Ben to approach his guitar like an enemy, pummeling it into submission even as his voice can barely contain his excitement.
That use of empty space as an instrument unto itself reaches its apex on the sublime album closer “It’s Christmas Time (For God’s Sake),” enabling the melancholy tone of the track to avoid the territory of melodrama, the drums fading as the vocals seem to reach for thoughts. It’s a delicate track, the chords not really even changing, just dropping in and out, the chorus itself just a risky merger of barely there percussion and vocals in the red.
Elsewhere, “A Footnote” serves as a spotlight for Ben Parker’s understated guitar playing, which utilizes ringing notes and alien chords to add more character to the duo’s adherence to two-chord riffing. It’s easy to understand why Gareth Campesinos! would be vouching for the quality of this record, as it’s not too much of a stretch to say both groups are coming from a similar devotion to passionate intensity. “A Footnote” also contains a simple line that acts as a commandment for the sibling duo: “Everybody has a song inside them/ That can make my heart break.” The lyric ably summarizes the group’s everyman philosophy- that music is truest when it’s unrestrained and hardly fussed over, just an outlet for sentiments and experiences shared by all.
If you doubt the validity of that statement, the liner notes for the release explore it further, with Ben Parker explaining that Nosferatu D2 ended because he and his brother felt the fun slip away the night of what was probably their biggest show, a support slot for Los Campesinos! Clearly the Brothers Parker mean what they say and that dedication to the passion of their music goes a long way towards making their sole release worthy of revival.
by Morgan Davis
