CLOUDS

Nosound is a psychedelic/space rock band from Italy. This EP, named "Clouds" is made up of 3 tracks that are meant to bridge the gap between their debut album and their 2nd album which moved them from an ambient sound to a fuller sound. The 3 tracks span a run time of 22 minutes. The songs were originally exclusive to this album, but one of those tracks, "Clouds", later became a bonus track for their 2nd album.

The first track, "Cold Afterall" starts with a field recording surrounded by a strumming acoustic guitar and a synth playing sustained chords. Vocals joins in and the track continues in a smooth and layered style. On the 2nd verse, the drums come in and continue in the moderately slow tempo. The track continues with it's palatial sound with harmonics added to the laid-back vocals later. After a build up in intensity, it mellows out again, and then explodes suddenly with an emotional dual guitar passage.

"Like the Elephant?" is an instrumental that starts immediately quite upbeat with an electronic tone flitting quickly along. Heavy guitars are brought in making this contrast quite a bit from the previous track. After a while, the heaviness falls back and there is a nice synth solo that sounds a bit brassy that gives a gaelic sound. The rhthym becomes more complex after this solo as heavy layered guitars continue to build intensity, and then drops off to a nice guitar solo which becomes even more intense after a while.

"Clouds" is a long and atmospheric track that utilizes sustained notes from synths and guitars to create a more ambient atmosphere more like on the bands first album. The track is quite special with no distinct melody, but with a more drone like quality from the long sustained notes. It is a relaxing track that suggests floating among the clouds. This track is now available as a bonus track on the "Lightdark" album.

These are 3 distinct tracks that almost sound like 3 different bands showing the different styles the band is capable of. The EP is quite short, but fans will be interested in it because of the exclusive tracks and it combines the styles in one short EP, The music is nice, but is only an introduction to the band. 3 stars.