Okay, I’m beginning to think there is some sort of conspiracy at work. Another review, another band I’ve never heard of, again, it’s a pretty bloody good album, and again, it hails from Sweden? How on earth does that land produce so many excellent musicians? This is not a hypothetical question, I need to know! Deep breath Spenny, listen to the music, and calm down, and indeed, there is much that is mellow in the self- titled album ‘Nephila’ to calm my fevered brow.
Opener ‘White Bones’ instantly grabs the ears of the listener with a Hammond organ swirl and pumping beats, and when the vocals kick in, I did wonder if Elin Larrson had taken a break from Blues Pills to lend her voice to the band. Then, amazingly, another voice started harmonising and for a second or two I was convinced it may be some editing and layering trick to double up the one singer, but no, this was two voices of two singers working to create a mesmerising sound. All too soon the track finishes, ‘Who Are You’ following on with a full Prog opening, and both singers immediately joining in together; no tantalising or teasing, just an unashamed demonstration of vocal dexterity, lines being alternatively swapped or doubled up on, all carried aloft on an accomplished bedrock of bass, drums, guitars and throwback keyboards. It would be all too easy to imagine this was a long lost and rediscovered gem from a time capsule locked away in a vault during the acid drenched sixties, but no, it is new, and tremors with a hungry energy.
A psilocybin facilitated journey through time to Haight-Ashbury is dealt out by ‘Mushroom Creatures’, throwing together a whimsical mix of trippy vocals and fuzzed out guitar solo, coming together like a spiritual love child of ‘White Rabbit’ and ‘Itchykoo Park’, and if those are references you don’t recognise, let me recommend you find them on that seemingly endless reservoir of knowledge to be found online, but only after you’ve finished listening to your copy of ‘Nephila’ that I heartily recommend you purchase. A gentle refrain opens ‘Belladonna’ before ebbing and flowing between the relaxed and insistent, the whole threaded through with a gothic darkness, and just for reference, whilst the track would doubtless appeal to those night dwelling wearers of black and purple, I was thinking more of the Byronic poetry of the lyrics. If that sounds like it could be a downer, prepare to be uplifted by the alternating Psyche riffage and vocal idylls of ‘Guidance To Agony’.
‘Clavata’ is arguably the simplest and most direct number of the album, a straight up rocker devoid of complicated time changes, but more than catchy enough to hook in the listener with rhythms to have flares a-swinging. The album is closed off by the epic ‘Alla Gallaxers Centrum’, and to paraphrase Red from The Shawshank Redemption, ‘I have no idea what those two Swedish ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know.’ Across the near ten minutes of the track the band encompasses a melancholic country tinged ballad, the pomp of full blown Prog, lashings of the psychedelic, and pounding blues rock, making each segment melt seamlessly into the next with an unforced organic flow. Live, this would surely be the highlight of the set, and being a masked and mysterious seven-piece collective, Nephila clearly have the musical numbers as well as skill to recreate the sound without relying on recordings and trickery.
(8.5/10 Spenny)
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