WL//WH Album Review NO “Domestic Pulse”
On January 25, the home of select synth label TONN Recordings (Belfast) published the new album ‘Domestic Pulse’ by Canadian act NO, on digital format and black heavyweight 180g 12″ vinyl edition. The album contains 11 brand new tracks or if you prefer 10/11 striking maxi-singles (because track #6 “Outside” is a synth interlude of 00′:44″) that are suitable to die for on the dedicated dancefloors, and 10 bullets for the also dedicated radio programs. Antonio Pavao Pereira (NO) shows amazing progress following 2020’s ‘Permanent Wound’ LP which was one masterful and so modern coldwave release.
Based in his hometown Montreal, this Canadian citizen of Portuguese origin is now offering a way more complete spectrum with his idea on coldwave upon minimal synth wings under the solid crust of the old school post-punk sky. WL//WH headmaster Fabrizio Lusso did an amazing interview which was exclusively published in TONN Recordings Journal where I found some pretty interesting things about our man and I kept the names of David Bowie, Joy Division, Bauhaus, Fad Gadget, and The Cure as the artists who will admire forever. These aforementioned names still have a tremendous impact on his soul and then on to his music as all seeds in his musical creations derive from there.
NO is a very talented sonic craftsman, keeping perfect balance with the old and the new, this new thing alternative dark music worldwide he is part of as a phenomenal presence. How many new records do you have that may contain so many gems together? ‘Domestic Pulse’ LP is one of them. One-man-band himself creates and performs everything alone and in his case, this is most appropriate since another idea above or aside might change the whole “format”. Two days ago he premiered the official video of “Destination” which is the opening track of the album, go jump on the dancefloor, and then I’ll tell you more.
It is a reflective and dark album with almost expressionist lyrics all over it, our man is not only a musical creator drawing inspiration from the art of music alone but a real artist who considers art as a whole situation in which he is seeing himself too, fond of cinema, keen on literature, he is one of those “strange” figures out there. A few months ago he let out a video for track #7 “One Moment” and there you may sense some more things about him generally, but sonically speaking, this is his tribute to the “Division” school of arts, loud please!
If I tried to give you some more tracks to focus on I’d choose “I Could” because of its gentle flirt with the darkwave, “Post War” for the proto-New Order style, or “Pharmacy” for its German-French touch on things. Generally now, I’d say to pick a song by chance and you will understand better the ‘sound’ of my article. I never stopped dancing to the entire ‘Domestic Pulse’ LP as it has that feeling you have on the dancefloor when the next beer can wait for another song or two or three more or even, right? Here it is!!!
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Written by Loud Cities’ Mike
