NEBELNEST

NeBeLNeST (capitalisation was obviously important to these guys) emerged out of the international post-rock/RIO/ avant-progressive scene in the late 90's and were known for music influenced by the likes of King Crimson, Shylock and Univers Zero/Present, but played at high energy levels and bringing with them influences form the hardcore and noise scenes. With the line-up of Michaël ANSeLMI (drums), Cyril MALDeReZ (guitar), Gregory TeJeDOR (bass) and Olivier TeJeDOR (synth, devices), this debut album was recorded in 1998 and released the following year by the American label Laser's Edge. By the time of the next release they were signed to Cuneiform with whom they recorded two albums before calling it a day in 2013. In 2020 Cuneiform contacted the band to see if they wanted to reissue the debut, and after a series of quite unfortunate events (check out the Bandcamp page) they managed to recover the tapes which were then remixed and mastered by Olivier Tejedor and the album has finally been made available once again, with updated artwork.

I have long moved past being amazed at the artists discovered by Cuneiform and their seemingly endless mission to make music available which the vast majority of people will ignore or decry, as what they do is so incredibly essential for those of us who understand and long may they continue doing so. Did you know it is their 40th anniversary this year?

Right from the opening we understand we are into something quite special as here is a band who have improvisation at their heart but are approaching it from a quite different angle to many of the bands as this is not jazz, but something darker and more experimental, angular and with many edges as they refuse to conform to expectations and produce something which is very left field indeed, even for the then somewhat resurgent progressive scene. It is as if King Crimson have decided to work at their most extreme experimental boundaries and then they have brought in influences from their previous genres to create something which is difficult to listen to, being quite obnoxious and challenging. However, it is also essential as one needs to understand just what rocky path the guys are going to be taking next, how it is going to diverge and split again as they continue up the tricky terrain, never taking the easy route. Having brothers in a band is always a benefit as they know exactly how each other thinks and where they are going to go, but the others are also joined into that mindset so while there are times when they let the listeners in on the secret with more melodic passages there are plenty of ideas where they act as a guide to us who are totally lost.

This is my first experience of NeBeLNeST, but I can see at some point I need to check out their other releases as well, as some 25 years after this was first released this is still an essential work for those of us who want our prog to be uncompromising and totally left field.