PROJECT NIM
A Tower of Babel
With the plethora of generic bands on any college campus, I think our minds are somehow trained to hold "on-campus" bands to lower standards than bands that get consistent national radio play. This distinction is suddenly broken down with a band like
Project NIM. Guitarist Bryce Dessner, CC '98, and his five bandmates from around the country are on their way to national recognition; their independently produced debut album, A Tower of Babel, shows why.
Project NIM is a band that refuses to be defined. They've been described as "rootsy, jazzy;" "folk-rock;" "10,000 Maniacs-ish;" none of these descriptions do them justice. The band's sound is lush and almost cinematic; the guitars are often "wet" (tha t is, they reverb slightly), the piano and mandolin create swirling melodic textures. And melodic they are-Project NIM have no fear of being branded "mainstream" by playing gentle, melodic music. Where much of current rock seems to drown in effects and no ise, Project NIM stands out by being unabashedly pretty. Their wistful melodies create an atmosphere of isolation and disillusionment that pervades the album. "Shouldn't we be at home, dreaming of red, white, and blue?" chides Jenn Howard on "They Said It Was America," as Dessner's guitar and Charles Milling's mandolin provide just enough tension for the line to be convincing. On "Laughing Edge," the vocals nearly drown in Dessner and Milling's countermelodies until the whole thing modulates into a bridge ; "My smile," sings Howard coyly, "is no more an answer than a puzzled stare." Project NIM are not afraid to give us too many hooks-every melody they write somehow finds a way of sticking in our heads.
Tower of Babel is an album of moments, full of fragments of melody that immediately embed themselves deep in your consciousness. The day after first listening to this album, you may find yourself humming one of the tunes. You may not know where you f irst heard the tune, but suddenly there it is, working its way to the front of your mind, attaching itself and refusing to let go.
-Noah Enelow
Copyright 1996, The Yale Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
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