Lower Dens formed in 2009 around the axis of front woman Jana Hunter, the classically trained violinist and guitarist familiar to followers of the so-called ‘freak-folk’ scene, around whose fringes she skirted with its leading light Devandra Banhart. The band’s 2010 debut Twin Hand Movement was well received, an atmospheric odyssey built around guitars and swathed vocals, and with Nootropics (no-eh-tro-pics) they have taken this a step farther. This is an album where sounds veer from industrial confusion to dreamy ascension, and where the lyrics – often barely perceptible, yet exuding emotion – are wrapped up in vocals that constitute yet another melodic layer.

The album title is apparently a reference to the use of certain drugs and technologies to enhance human brain functions, keeping in line with Hunter’s fascination with becoming a more optimally functioning soft machine. And here, where synth lines and precise percussion collide and merge together, an often-times clinical and dehumanized noise collage is effectively neutralised by the more organic guitar sounds and Hunter’s ethereal vocal.

The syncopated drum intro and synth of ‘Alphabet Song’ begins the album in just this way, and the song lifts off when the contrasting bassline kicks in. These two rhythms pull in different directions before a sparse, echoing guitar joins the rolling pattern and all these distinct layers of sound build, disparate rhythms that shouldn’t gel but somehow slot together. This contradiction of sound is evident again in ‘Lamb’ where percussive jolts punctuate the mellow pulse of the song, before it casts them off and erupts into a beautiful vocal section. Over the hard, dark beat of ‘Candy’ Hunter advises “Find cover / Somewhere to hide / Dig up the earth and crawl inside” while a scream-like guitar wails in the background. While it may be tempting to slap a dream-pop tag on Lower Dens, some of the sounds on this record seem more like the stuff of feverish dreams.

‘Lion in Winter Pt. 1’ begins ominously, a seemingly structure-less soundscape moving through various opaque themes. It disappears from sight only to re-emerge for a brief moment as if freshly awoken and shaking free from a nightmare to lead into ‘…Pt.2’, an altogether different beast; shadowy and playful, powered by a pulsing synth. The vocal phrases though are the album’s crowning triumph, from the glorious ‘Nova Anthem’ to the rich hazed vocals of ‘Propagation’, whose swirling layers float over a laid-back bassline.

‘Brains’ is a number redolent of Brighton band Electrelane, driven along by a no-nonsense bass drum and an effective build-up, and there is a small but perceptible surge to the pleasure centre in the brain as Hunter starts to sing “Don’t be afraid…” at the song’s coda. It runs directly into ‘Stem’, where things take a slight, subtle upward gear shift and a louche guitar casts itself over the synth line, the song itself almost an extended coda to ‘Brains’.

The idea of transhumanism espoused by the band and the album title is most overtly executed with the industrial twelve minute closer ‘In The End Is The Beginning.’ Hunter sings “At the end of the world / There’s no-one waiting / For you / In the beginning / There was light / But now it’s dark outside.” A jarring guitar interjects -“I feel different now / than I did before” and that guitar is back again. This epic is filled with unsettling sounds and a final, intoning vocal embellished by
sporadic cymbal washes. All of these elements combine to reveal a song not just about rebirth and transformation, but a grander still apotheosis. Lower Dens have pulled together a dense collection of sounds, creating chaos from order and vice-versa, but with Hunter’s vocal there to elevate proceedings, Nootropics frequently delivers texture and warmth in spades.

Justin McDaid
Contributor

You can stream Nootropics now over on the NPR website.