Best Debut of the Year



L A N D Night Within
Important Records

I know very little about who records as L A N D.  I’m not even sure I know what the correct track list is (I’ve seen two), but I’ve been buzzing about this record for months.

The cover says it all: spaced, black, and sleek.  ‘Nothing Is Happening Everywhere’ introduces the character (most likely a victim and soon to be detective) and sets the stage for Night Within.  The cinematic scope and visual cues create enough intrigue and mystique to remind listeners of such film noir as The Naked City, D.O.A, and Night and the City.  Guest vocalist David Sylvian (Japan) sings about waking up in a garden.  “I’ll dig/But I’ll never find you.”  The screaming brass, foreboding bass, and cymbal taps battle while the line “your efforts are futile” drop heavily. 

Track two, ‘Into The Blue’, begins with an incessant drumming pattern before it fades into dissonant horns.  It works out to be highly hypnotic like latter day Talk Talk.  ‘Stillman’ is more thick on tone and sultry with percussion.  The squawks of sax are perfect and unsettling.  The drumming stands out (as it does on the entire record) for being impeccably sharp and clean.  ‘Nighthawks’ is a thin, sparse piece of dissonance with a hum of deep echo and non-rhythmic noises in the back.  It's reminiscent of night drives on city bridges.  ‘Cosmopolis’ builds like a sleek, high performance vehicle rounding empty streets at twilight.  The bass drum pounds, the cymbals are ridden as strings flex in and out.  No one sound clouds another.  The amalgam of tones and cracks is both ominous and soul-lifting.  The song fades like distant taillights blurring into an early morning fog.  ‘Hotel Room’ is as sinister as the night is black.  Brass whines as the distant snares and bells clank.  It spells out something criminal.  ‘Cold Desire’ rounds the album out with warm, sparse piano.  The climatic build ignites with pushing drums and spastic sax.  The static guitars evoke an urban and empty sound while clanking of something hollow permeates the melody.

Night Within basks in free jazz motifs, eerie drones, metallic splashes, crisp drumming, punctual bass and stretched guitars.  Imagine Earth wrapped into a very toned down Naked City.  This album is certainly the least pedestrian recording I’ve come across all year and at a trim 35 minutes it’s been the easiest record to play on repeat.