Ah, here’s one of those: “An anthology of old stuff by a band most people don’t give a shit about.” I guess the anthology / discography is the hardcore / punk / emo / indie / blah blah scene’s equivalent of the ‘Best of’ in pop music. An ego bloat. A “We were so super important that you must hear every last sound we ever committed to record, even the time that the sound guy farted over the second take of our demo.” Where some bands attempt to convince you that they are vital in the whole scheme of things, a critical cog that changed the course of music. And so Nuzzle bestow upon us 20 tracks worth of material from when they were actually a very active band, rather unlike their current incarnation, the Nuzzle which put out an LP on Troubleman four years after their previous release. And the Nuzzle of Y2K is a tad different from that on aural display here. The nu-Nuzzle is indie rock perfection, all Built to Spill styled slacker-dom. The Nuzzle of yore? A different kettle of fish. Or kettle of boiling water, if you prefer to be vegan about it. The old Nuzzle is, well, emo.
The first track on this is worth the entry fee alone. “The Sorting That Evens Things Out” is frantic, Dischordant hardcore tinged emo rock from the mid ’90s. The spazzy cried vocals slide all around in the thick as fuck groove the guitars create, as high pitched chords jar the ears. Totally fits into that era with bands like Ordination of Aaron and Julia, generating the emo sound from back then that I have learned to love. Nearest comparison we have these days is the sadly departed I Hate Myself, who played similar tricks with their guitars, building the brooding intro meticulously over sombre vocals, and lifting it up into powerful rocked out parts full of floods of tears and slashed wrists. Oh! The Humanity! Just listen to ‘Our Miss Givings’. To die for. To die to, even. The earlier material is a little more freaked out and the songs tend to be shorter. The ‘Anchors Astreigh’ 7″ (the only songs I already owned from this CD) is four tunes fuelled by driving grooves and nutty vocals, and makes for a good contrast with some of the slower stuff from the LP. The 90-second blasts of ‘Karpal Tunnel’ and the chunky ‘Cavendish’ where the vocalist totally loops out like he’s in Antioch Arrow or something, are the highlights from this recording.
There are also a couple of throwaways at the end, ‘Bencht’ from 1993 is oddly Nirvana-esque (it’s the nasal vocals that do it), but ‘Thermopolis’ trumps it as part of the previously unreleased stuff from 1992, total Nirvana homage. These final tracks are really only here from completeness, no need to give them repeated listenings but it’s interesting to hear anyway. Apart from that, it’s hard to fault. I just wish there was better liner notes, like some band history, or lyrics even! Never mind.
Whilst this is not essential in the scheme of things at all, it is this: great. Good way of getting hold of some damn fine music that is now totally out of press. Pick this up, be you an emo completist collector nerd, or a person who just digs melodic, kooky indie rock stuff with a subtle hardcore kick to it.