Cleveland’s Cloud Nothings achieved critical crossover success with 2012’s ‘Attack on Memory’ – a sonic explosion that melted melody and distortion into dark, filthy wonder. The unconventional structure of the album was at its forefront, opening with the most commercially viable track yet immediately throwing the listener into a nine minute long auditory masterpiece.
Reversing the structure, ‘Here and Nowhere Else’ is a more consistent record than ‘Attack on Memory’. It relies less on surprising the listener and more on delivering a direct experience. The tracks flow together, guided by the distorted instrumentation that often deliberately swallows the vocals. As previously, the voice is treated as simply another sound in layers of gritty guitars and drums. The contradiction between the individual sounds and overall output keeps the record interesting – there are moments of surf-pop inspired jangling guitars that sit above the otherwise furious wall of sound.
Yet ferocity rules the roost – on ‘No Thoughts’, Dylan Baldi, the previous one-man brainchild behind Cloud Nothings, screams down the microphone in a fashion not dissimilar to hardcore. ‘Now Hear In’ opens the album with reverb heavy guitar riffs, and Baldi’s slurred vocal delivery. Throughout the whole record the sound is dominated by the unrelenting drum pattern which remains prominent during the quieter moments of seven and a half minute ‘Pattern Walks’.
The leap between ‘Attack on Memory’ and ‘Here and Nowhere Else’ is nothing like that from their predecessor. Cloud Nothings feel more comfortable as a unit, cemented after a tour with Fucked Up. On ‘Here and Nowhere Else’ Baldi, accompanied by Jayson Gerycz and TJ Duke, expand on the elements from the previous record, from the gritty introduction to the drawn out instrumentally led megalith.
However, as the record reaches ‘I’m Not Part of Me’, its cleaner delivery feels at odds with the rest of the record. An excellent track in isolation, it ends up feeling like an afterthought – albeit a welcome one.
Toning down the experimental elements that defined ‘Attack on Memory’, ‘Here and Nowhere Else’ turns the velocity up and injects more punk into the art-rock space the band began to inhabit. In doing so they have created a record full of clever contradiction – battling between surf-pop, grunge and distorted punk. Not as intriguing as their previous record, ‘Here and Nowhere Else’ instead delivers a punchier and more immediate listen.
BEN TIPPLE