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Black Nielson.
Black Nielson bassist Andy Reaney can't talk to me so he gives
me the number of drummer Tom Wenzel. Three quarters of an hour
later we've talked a bit about Black Nielson and a whole lot
about everything else. No prizes for picking Wenzel as the odd
one out in the English quintet: for starters he's from California,
ten years older than the next oldest member and above all, he's
the drummer. Lucky for both of us he's knowledgeable, personable
and excited to be talking about the band he joined just over
two years ago via an ad in the NME.
'Current Sunlight' is the band's third full length and its first with Australian distribution. Without thinking of making a pun about the album's title I tell Wenzel he should be glad the boys are coming here in our winter, as it is currently sunnier than usual. "I guess we're all hoping for some serious global warming disadvantages on this trip."
He explains American author Thom Hartmann's 'The Last Days Of Ancient Sunlight' was the impetus for the album's title. "Current sunlight is what oil is and ancient sunlight is to tribal societies, pre-oil and pre-coal. Me and the bass player read that book and we really loved it and we got the title from that book. It seemed to kinda work for our more organic sound. And we are kinda psychedelic and hippyish so..." he trails off with a hearty laugh.
Wenzel stresses from the onset that Black Nielson is indeed singer Michael Gale's brainchild. "Mike's writing just grows. It gets richer. It gets less specific I suppose."
'Current Sunlight' is ten songs rooted more in mood and tone than in standout pop moments. This record is more a reflection of classic rock than the indie rock the band has mined in days past. Gale's high voice, often floating over piano-laden Brian Wilsonesque arrangements is at once sad and seductive, boyish and charming. Two songs titled I'm Happy Here With You bookend the set, the first of which is a minute of perfect love pop. Gale coos over naught more than ornate organ and delicious chord changes. Tonally it reflects the attention paid to detail throughout the record. The last song of the same name is a minor key lament positively consolidating the sun-tinged melancholy that came before it. It's an introspective moment and one that makes the album as a whole make better sense. It's a snapshot of a moment in Gale's life. "Anything else he wrote after that period wouldn't fit in," Wenzel affirms.
The first single in the UK is Love Song to Chan Marshall who most of us know as Cat Power. Far from an obsessive fan-boy paean to some unattainable mistress, it's as much a song for a woman closer to Gale as it is for any woman close to any of us. At the same time it is probably the most bombastic rock piece on the album, the final quarter exploding with arching twin guitars. Aside from their love of the Beach Boys, there are little nods to The Byrds and Alexander 'Skip' Spence in the baked psych pop of songs like Falling In The Back. In the hands of a stoner rock band the fuzzed-out outro from Until You're Right with its swirling technicolour plod could easily fill a side of vinyl.
It's worth mentioning that we in Australia are getting a differently sequenced album than the one the band intended. Wenzel says their sequence makes for a better flowing listen but either way the band is chuffed to have an Australian version of the record as it is still waiting to have it picked up by a label in the UK. On our version, the penultimate song Any Old Port in a Storm perhaps best paints the band as delicately balanced troubadours. The romance is everywhere; it's in the lost-at-sea cymbal washes, slow-boat bass, rum-barrel piano, lighthouse guitar strains and whale call vocals. Now all they have to do is show us how they do it live.
"For people who like high-sounding singers, we're your band," Wenzel laughs.
Lenin Simos
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Black Nielson play at the Jade Monkey on Sat 18 June with The No Through Road band and Little Ice Age.
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