‘Sit back, open your mind to the layers of sound, and enjoy’- Niall McGuirk on No Age‘s An Object.
I saw No Age play in Dublin with Mika Miko when Skinny Wolves put them on in the Boom Boom room 6 years ago. The Boom Boom room was opposite the Rotunda Hospital, north Dublin’s maternity hospital. I’m sure some babies were born that night to the strained noise of No Age and I wonder if we will have a collection of teenagers on this forum in years to come dabbling with music as an art form? I loved both bands on the night and whilst Mika Miko were more straightforward in their offerings No Age offered up a substantial sound.
Like a painting on display in an art gallery the crowds viewing it can have different notions and ideas. It’s the same picture but our eyes can interpret the colours and layers in different ways.
From the riff laden, layered sound, with vocals at different levels, we can draw many conclusions from these songs. With no ground starting off and asking “Does Anybody Really Care” we have 29 minutes of various tones and fuzz laden dreams. An Object has its haunting parts too, ‘Running From A Go-Go” brings us on a melodic yet haunting journey that has Dean singing the line “I don’t want to be alone again” which has me wondering what life is really like in a successful band? ‘Commerce, Comment, Commence‘ finishes our half hour with a layered expolosion of noise.
I love albums that take as long as a soap opera on TV. There’s always time to fit them in. You don’t need to pick out a few songs you can deal with the whole record in one sitting. That’s the best way to capture No Age. Sit back, open your mind to the layers of sound, and enjoy – better than Fair City any day.