Permit me a moment, gentle reader, to gather my thoughts, scattered though they stand. I believe I have been selected from a presence outside our world to herald a new presence. Nag is what the Mi-Go from Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos would sound like if they decided that becoming rock stars was the best way to infiltrate mankind, and their research led them to discover DEVO. Quirky and buzzing, solidly rooted in punk (specifically the sound that gets called “egg punk”) but with brilliantly oddball interpretations that straddle the border between isolation through neuro divergence and being a legitimate alien incapable of comprehending our world. Their latest release, Fear, continues the trend of jagged bursts, with 7 songs in just over 15 minutes that rely on more than a typical thee chord structure: there’s ominously dissonant riffs and frenetic beats, dirge-like chants and bleated catechisms all through their corpse of work. The term “deathrock” gets applied here and I guess if we can lump in Rudimentary Peni to that venerable category, they fit too. In fact, RP is not the worst point of reference for this band because while they have their own stringently unique style, both bands throw up dense soundscapes that disorient even as they challenge the listener. Therein too lies the bands’ true power: They’re so engaging that trying to figure out what they’re singing about is a wonderful task. Is Wool Eyes about Nightmare Before Christmas or aliens wiping out Earth on Xmas Eve? What even is a song called Tree Circulatory System about?
In fact, their lyrical flights of madness are perfect for the music presented. I must admit I was lured in by a fascination with how their drummer constructs beats, being an amateur percussionist myself. Learning to play State of Flux took me HOURS of meticulous listening. and I still don’t know if I’m right or if I dream half of it. The reverb-drenched recording hides little details so that I finally enlisted my local drum guru’s assistance learning to play the damned thing once it’s catchy intro syncopation had lead me down a rabbit hole. I realize too late that there’s disjointed pieces like a disco beat using the opening of the hi-hat clutch on time to the kick drum in the same song as a pre-chorus that uses one bar with beats 1-3 of a 4/4 time measure and leaves the four blank, then marries that each time to a bar of an almost perfect match to the stomping, tribal verse of Killing Joke’s The Wait. Meanwhile that trebley voice snarls on about isolation and losing comprehension of how their mind ever got to such a place. Unraveling this sort of puzzle is quite rightly portrayed in literature and movies as invariably driving men mad. All of this is compacted into 2 minutes and 38 seconds of brilliance. It’s enough to make you hang your head and stick to Cramps covers.
Their catalog is available at https://werenag.bandcamp.com, or spotify if you’re the type to make playlists for friends. While my favorite album is still Observer, it’s all worth repeated listens (especially their live album). A few stand out tracks are:
Space, Q Laz and State of Flux from Human Coward Coyote
The Drum Demands Order, The Darkest Veil, Scalpels, Vomit, Wool Eyes & Sweeping Observer from Observer
Pupil, Insert a Thought & Outland from Fear
Now I return to listening. I believe they have invited me to their world and I must prove myself worthy.
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