LES NADIE ~ DESTIERRO Y SIEMBRA .... review

 

Gather around Ladies and Gentlemen for today, for your entertainment, we present a marvel of the modern age, a a two headed beast from the depths of the Southern Hemisphere that will cause you to swoon in amazement and gasp in wonder. This dual headed phenomenon has resided in the Argentinian province of  Córdoba for many a year and up until now has been kept a closely guarded secret, its existence known only to a chosen few, but now, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we can reveal its identity to the world. This beast goes by the name of Les Nadie and the sound emanating from the two heads that make up its whole is one that can cause mountains to crumble and buildings to shake and if you don't believe us then listen to this recording of this beasts roar which has been released for your listening pleasure beneath the title "Destierro y Siembra"

Of course the intro to this review is just Desert Psychlist flexing our artistic licence and attempting to tongue in cheek mimic the verbal spiel of  one of those moustachioed top hat wearing barkers that can be found at fairgrounds and circuses, however that does not mean that there are not grains of truth to be found in those words. Les Nadie does have two heads in that it is a band made up of two individuals, Juan Conde (guitar/vocals) and Rodri Deladerova (drums), and as for the beast part well the sound these two make together most definitely has its fair share of feral and bestial moments.

What we didn't allude to in our intro is that Les Nadie are a band not averse to throwing a few off kilter and quirky curveballs into their blend of stoner metal and heavy psych grooviness. This becomes immediately apparent on the albums first track, "Grito el indio", a quasi instrumental that starts life with a lightly distorted blues motif then explodes into fully fuzzed out and overdriven stoner/desert riff with doomic overtones. So when do these curveballs make their presence felt we hear you ask... well if  high pitched wordless wailing, bell mimicking effects, discordant guitar solos and weird grunting is not curveball enough for you...well we don't know what else will be. "Zhonda" follows and begins strident and busy with Deladerova laying down a barrage of busy powerful percussion over which Conde layers raucous and heavily distorted guitar refrains, that is until the vocals appear (Spanish) and the raucousness of the guitar falls away to be replaced by what sounds like keyboards, but could be a guitar effect, pinging and popping over Conde's clean gritty lyrical warbling's and wordless falsetto. The rest of the album follows a similar path to what has gone before but with subtle deviations along the way, "Siembra/Destierro" jams a desert style groove broken up by going off on weird and wonderful tangents, "Helledén" eases things down a notch or two and sees Conde getting in touch vocally with his Latin roots, "Babas D'allah" throws the hammer down with a stop start groove that alternates between liquid and lysergic and crunching and metallic while "Del Pombero" takes everything that has been explored previously on this album and crams it all together in one song. The album signs out with "Venenauta" a short experimental piece that is more a soundscape than an actual song, all weird effects and guitar arpeggios, its a strange piece to finish on but then again there is nothing straightforward about anything on this album so it could be argued that its inclusion is quite fitting and in keeping with the albums underlying quirkiness.

Slightly skewered and left of centre Les Nadie's "Destierro y Siembra" is an album that alternates between following all the usual musical rules and breaking them, it is an album that confuses as much as it enthrals but that is also its beauty, it can be a challenging listen at times but despite this always a worthwhile one.

Check it out ..... 

© 2022 Frazer Jones