петък, 20 юни 2014 г.

Naam - Naam (2009)




I’ve been trying to keep up to date and review mainly “the records of the day” but today I pitifully remembered that I’ve skipped Naam, something I think is a criminal offense towards my tastes in music, so take a good seat, we will have to go five years in time. 

If you’re into the arts of the holy stoner doom, Om-esque bands from around the globe, you’re surely familiar with Naam. Unless you’re not here’s a quick reviewing of their spiritual genius. For a moment there I thought the band was from Sweden, having in mind how many successful bands from their caliber hail from the northern land. My guess failed, these boys come from nowhere else but good old hectic New York. Their location, however, is the only thing that links them to the States. Musically this beautiful piece of stoner only speaks of high mountains in the Middle East, clear water valleys and misty mountain tops somewhere very, very far from the familiar sight.   

Naam’s debut is extremely spiritual, very uplifting and not depressive in any way that you’re used of associating doom with. The only reason the band is described as stoner doom is because of the heaviness of their records and that’s where the “doom” bit ends. The tribal motive is present in each songs, in some more than in the others. The opener track, a sixteen minute beauty is an example of a tribal journey that in no way feels like sixteen minutes. I really like these bands that can produce the longest of tracks but you never notice because they are so good. And to be fair, not only I needn’t skip any of this music but would often have to come back to it, listening many times to only one song. The debut album reminds me a lot of Om at particular places, partly because I am a big Om fan, partly because they are of the few heavier bands that encompass eastern melodies. A note here, Naam’s sound always feels much heavier than Om and of course, there isn’t such heavy bass presence. However, it’s in no way reminiscent.  The music flows freely and unrestrained, evicting pictures in the mind – crescent moon under a silent sky and a complete inner nirvana.  

One more point to make, the songs – even thought they flow so freely and feel like one big whole, are very different in pace and structure. There are the completely tribal, almost acapella songs and there are the faster stoner tracks. Astonishingly well balanced album that you’d come back to. 


I’d very rarely find something to listen to that’s so amazingly linked to nature and epic in sound. There’s nothing too trite here and frankly, nothing earthly. 

http://kingdomofnaam.bandcamp.com/