Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Only Shallow

All that I know about Nadja is that Aiden Baker, one half of the doom metal/dark ambient/shoegaze duo, collaborated with one of my favorite electronic/drone/ambient producers, Tim Hecker, on last year's great Fantasma Parastasie. To pay homage to their influences, the duo (consisting of Baker and Leah Buckareff) is releasing When I See the Sun Always Shines on TV, a covers record. The two tracks released thus far sound what you'd expect doom/dark ambient versions of popular songs to sound like -- plodding tempi, droning guitars, and vocals with more reverb than Panda Bear, Fleet Foxes, and My Morning Jacket combined.

"Only Shallow", the propulsive opener of My Bloody Valentine's seminal album Loveless, is a fantastic song, despite my typical dislike of Bilinda Butcher's breathy vocals. Though it's not quite as good as the MBV original, Nadja's heavy, slowed down tribute to those shoegaze progenitors is a notable effort, and worth checking out. Compare!


Only Shallow - My Bloody Valentine

Nadja's cover

2 comments:

Mike said...

You continue to be wrong about Ms. Butcher.

Mike said...

Oh, ok.