Less Than Nothing

I must confess, I was a bit shocked when I first got around to listening to LESS THAN NOTHING. You see, they’re an instrumental band, and I know this may sound odd, but the general aesthetic of the band doesn’t really give off an instrumental vibe. I know that might sound like a load of bull, and you’re probably thinking, “Sam, you tit, why didn’t you just do your research and look at their social media?” Well, stranger – they don’t actually point out that they’re an instrumental band anywhere across their social media, in fact, they don’t really say much at all… and that kind of mystery works for them.

I’ll be honest, I often find it hard for instrumental music to draw me in. It’s probably something to do with being spoon fed pop music over the past 19 years of my existence, but these guys – bloody hell, they’ve hooked me in.

See, part of my journey with these guys like I said, was expecting a vocal to drop at some point during the first few tracks of the album… yeah, that doesn’t happen. What does happen is three guys pull together musically to create a very enticing, melodic album that in my opinion hooks you in just as much as a huge pop chorus does.

These fellas joined Facebook all the way back in 2009, and whilst they have released an EP and a single or two along the way, this is their debut album – and it’s quite a beast – a friendly, cooks you dinner and makes you feel satisfied by the end of the night kind of beast, that is.

The album opens with the sounds of birds chirping, which provides a nice sonic backdrop for the incredibly catchy guitar melody which comes in about ten seconds from the start, and carries the entire album opener through into standout track “Lay Down Your Burdens.”

As I currently try to write about my favourite track on the album, I’ve come to realise. I’ve never had to review an instrumental album before, so my vocabulary is a little lacking in this area. There’s plenty of in your face rhythm guitar, catchy picky bits, and interesting percussion that carries the songs through – but the thing I need to get through to you all is that this is just as catchy, melodic, and interesting, as anything that I’ve ever heard with vocals.

Another standout on the album comes from the latter half, “Never Enough (Never Give Up)” has a bit of a rawer edgier sound than the rest of the tracks on the album – and somehow – and I genuinely am struggling to put this into words – communicated the title perfectly. It’s hard to explain how drums, guitar and bass coming together can feel as if they’re telling you to power through obstacles and to never give up, but this song does exactly that.

You probably noticed I haven’t pointed out too many specific songs; but hear me out, you see, I have reasoning. To me this album, which clocks in at around 35 minutes, almost feels like one huge epic track. Which I suppose is the way that an album is meant to feel. The album manages to feel coherent, whilst still having several distinguished sections and moods. And it really does deserve a good sit through and listen to the whole thing.

So, as you may have gathered. I really like this album. I’ve enjoyed it in several situations, from focussed listening for this review, to keeping me company on the thankfully few hours of time I’ve spend on public transport this week; to in the background whilst working. Not many albums have the power to do that. I guess essentially what I’m saying is you could buy this album, and technically never need to buy another one again. That’s a quote for the press release if there ever was one!

You can check out the whole album, and buy a physical/digital/whatever kind you want copy from their Bandcamp – LINK

Yours in Love of New Music,
Sam Nahirny x

P.S Does that falcon on the cover freak anyone else out? - Nusic

Evocative instrumental music needs no words to fully express itself… This is what makes Less Than Nothing stand out and be this special band you’ve been looking for for a long time. Recently the band have released their full-length album ‘It Will Set You Free’ – a bit-over-half-an-hour music masterpiece where instruments live their own lives and talk to you without any verbal means. Rock Britain chats to Less Than Nothing about the record, film soundtracks and great achievements.
First of all, congrats on the full-length album release! What’s the thing that makes you especially proud of ‘It Will Set You Free’?
Jamie: The overall sound of the album, the artwork, how it all came together and how well it’s been received especially locally.
Owen: Personally I have enjoyed reading through the album reviews we’ve had, which have included some encouraging feedback. The review by ‘echoes and dust’ sums up the album well in my opinion.
While working at the album, what were the most memorable things and events?
Jamie: Being at the studio we got to use some amazing equipment as well as using our own stuff. For guitars I got to use some great amps which I always wanted to play on and try out some different effects pedals. Working with Guy Elderfield at the studio was also great, we shared some good stories, bands to listen to and good films to watch he listened carefully and helped us get the sounds we wanted and inspired some new ones. Also one day we managed to get free fries from burger king.
Glenn: Personally I just remember how good Guy our sound engineer was, it made for some great recording
Owen: We got to use some great equipment at the studio, including a prototype effects pedal and an amp that was supposedly owned by Pete Townsend. On the first day I forgot to bring my drum sticks and had to drive back and get them as soon as I got there!
Getting back to the basics, how did Less Than Nothing start?
Jamie: I started the band with my friend Yue Fong Wong after our first band ended. Шnspired initially by the fucking champs, the hated, seeing explosions in the sky play live and wanting to write my own original material.
After going through a lot of drummers we put an ad around the music shops in Nottingham and that’s how we met Owen and through Owen we met Glenn.
Why did you opt for being an instrumental band? What are the biggest challenges of being an instrumental band?
Owen: We started out as an instrumental band, and as we progressed we felt that a singer wouldn’t suit the type of music we were playing. Good vocalists can be hard to find too. I think one of the biggest challenges of being an instrumental band is trying to keep the music interesting. I think people who have never heard instrumental music can tend to be put off by the concept of it which can be a difficulty.
Glenn: Being an instumental band has got easier with the internet allowing listeners to choose exactly what kind of music they want(which is great!). however we have had problems getting local gigs as our music is a bit out of the ordinary.
Who are your most favourite instrumental bands?
Jamie: Explosions in the sky, This Will Destroy you, The Fucking Champs Mogwai, And so I watch you from afar, Unwed sailor, pelican, Ghosts and vodka, toe, Gifts from Enola and a bit of god speed you! black emperor
Owen: Mogwai, Explosions in the sky, And so I watch you from afar, and Pelican to name a few.
Your music is incredibly beautiful and evocative. What music do you listen to and in what atmosphere if you want to be inspired?
Jamie: I listen to lots music all the time, so I suppose there’s lots of inspiration coming from different places. Mostly it will be one guitar part I’ll be working on that will inspire me that will get me to think to fit it together with other parts I’ve written in the past and it will build up from there. So the inspiration will be what I’m feeling at the time really.
What’s the biggest attraction of your live shows?
Jamie: We can get loud which is fun, also like with our launch show for the album there was a great atmosphere a good buzz and that made us play better and everyone had a good time.
Owen: The genre of music we play often works best live, and we also have a chance to improvise and try out new ideas while playing the show.
If you were to lend your music as a soundtrack to some film, what film genre do you want it to be in?
Jamie: I wouldn’t mind the genre as long as the films good and the music fits and it works well together. I think it would be cool maybe a decent drama or a silent film.
Owen: That’s a difficult question, Mogwai and Explosions in the sky have both done film soundtracks recently. Maybe a drama?
What are your plans for the nearest future?
Owen: We’re planning to play a few gigs, and maybe start working on another album in the future. We also have a few small projects to finish including re-building a guitar and effects pedals.
Jamie: Keep on playing gigs and hopefully a tour and writing new stuff.
What Less Than Nothing’s achievement are you most proud of?
Owen: It sounds simple but producing ‘It Will Set You Free’ was our most proud achievement. A huge amount of time, money and effort went into making the album and we are all proud of it.
Glenn: This album for sure, putting together a load of tunes with a few good friends and it actually sounding pretty decent!
Jamie: This album and how much we all progressed since we first all played together.
Find Less Than Nothing on Facebook - Rock Britain

By: Geoff Topley
Less Than Nothing | website | facebook |
Released on August 4, 2014 via self-released
It’s hard to resist the lure of the instrumental post rock band, listing out those buzzwords and influences, dragging you in with glazed over eyes. You probably shouldn’t over indulge, but you just can’t help yourself. So I decided to give Nottingham three piece Less Than Nothing a wee listen with their album It Will Set You Free.
What a brave move to begin an album with an intro like ‘The Morning is Dead’. I have an old rickety keyboard with a bird sound sample, I think Less Than Nothing might have it too. A simple repetitive guitar line merely adds to the feeling that this may well be a difficult listen from a band clearly finding their feet. I noticed the band name check Explosions In The Sky in an interview, the early strains of the Texan majesties is obvious in ‘Lay Down Your Burdens’. The limited technicality and sounds of the track are fairly inoffensive but devoid of any individual identity, it’s quite generic post rock. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very listenable, it just doesn’t reach into your soul like those at the top of their game can do.
I can tell that Less Than Nothing will be immensely proud of this record, I know they will have invested a lot of time and effort in making it. For that, they are to be commended, so at this stage I struggle to be overtly critical. ‘November’s Sky’ is a highlight and has some lovely guitar melodies that arc skywards and show where the band’s strengths lie. They really do like to keep things simple and ‘Wind Monath’ reminds me of those early ASIWYFA demos I have tucked away from their fledgling gigs around Belfast. I stuck with that band and look at how they’ve changed and progressed. In order to raise yourself above the plethora of post rock instrumentalists, change and exploration is key.
It’s at this point in the album that Less Than Nothing begin the change process, like a butterfly escaping its cocoon. ‘In Between Dreams’ is an odd combination of light airy guitars and thunderous drumming. It’s an idea, but nothing more, they could and should have developed the track a little more. But it’s showing a different hue, so we’ll progress with intrigue.

The album’s title track ‘It Will Set You Free’ shows signs of invention at last, built on a bedrock of twinkling guitars and delicate acoustic picking. The inevitable loud bits kick in, but the guitar sound is so improved and welcoming from what has gone before. ‘Too Little, Too Late’ runs in a similar vein and has a neat song structure and melody. Gaining in confidence and assurance, the chugging guitars at the start of ‘Never Enough (Never Give Up)’ may lack a little depth, but remind me of Pelican. Less Than Nothing have taken serious chances with the running order of their album. The closing tracks are increasingly improving and this track ends up an immense tune with frenetic guitar work and a beautiful bluesy solo appears to close, why isn’t there more of this?!!!
With closing track ‘The Sea Has Many Voices’, I’d firstly like to comment that the military snare drumming is maybe a little overused. Again, the melody and combination of guitars makes Less Than Nothing sound like an entirely different band from the first half of this album. There’s a real confidence in the playing and the atmosphere is a lot less tentative and much more determined. Suddenly the band come over as a real prospect for better things, this has been one hell of a comeback. It’s early days for Less Than Nothing, but everyone’s got to start somewhere, right? I’ll wager album number two will be something entirely different. - Echoes and Dust

Two weeks ago, we published our review (LINK) of LESS THAN NOTHING’s debut album “It Will Set You Free“, and back then we were really impressed with the album – despite not having a vocals, it managed to hook us in and have us listening in loads of different situations. Two weeks later, we’re still just as hooked in, cos this album is incredible.

The lads in the band were kind enough to answer a few questions for us about the album, their influences, and a ton of other stuff. Have a little read below…

Tell us a bit about yourself, who are you LESS THAN NOTHING?

Jamie: Hello, we are an instrumental band with many influences. In our current form there is me on Guitar, Owen on Drums and Glenn on the Bass. With this line-up we have played on and off together for five years or so, some other people have played with us in between too. I started the band with Yue Fung Wong a bit earlier than that and played with quite a few different drummers.

How would you describe your music to those unfamiliar with it?

Owen: Our songs vary quite a bit and the nearest band I could liken us to would be Mogwai. Not having a singer means that we have to make our music more complex to keep it interesting; we often use unusual time signatures or guitar tunings to make our own unique sound (“Never Enough, Never Give Up” from the album has parts in 15/4 and 17/4).

Jamie: I would say this album has mostly got a chilled ambient sound to it, but with some heavier and hopefully memorable riffs, and a kick to it in between.

You’ve been around for a fair bit (FB identifies it as 2009), and you’ve released an EP and a single or two, but this is the first proper release. How long have you worked on the album for?

Jamie: The past year or so, one of the tracks is about four years old or more “Too Little, Too Late”, but the version on the album is an extended of idea of the original it’s more how we would play it live. We probably properly started on the album as a whole a couple of years ago when we started recording the tracks ourselves but not everything was as good as we wanted. So we decided to go to a studio. Random Recoding Studios was the one we chose and it was a very good choice. We worked with Guy Elderfield who knew how to get the sound how we wanted in the short time we could afford, we also had a good laugh there too. It’s a cool place and has a good set up there.

Owen: Making an album has been something we have wanted to do for a long time, but due to band member changes or lack of funds we’ve been unable to do it until now. We tried to do some DIY recording but this never worked too well and we always had problems with equipment. The album was a combination of what we thought were our ‘best’ pieces; some ideas were from soon after the band was formed and others were written at the studio.

Tell us a bit about each of the members in the band.

Owen: Musically, we have all played in different bands with different genres of music. Glenn, our bassist enjoys jazz/funk and this shows in his playing style. Jamie is a self taught guitar player and so his style is quite unique. I have played in a couple of instrumental bands, and I try to make my drumming as interesting and complex as it can be without being overpowering

Glenn: I’m Glenn, I play bass for a number of artists around Nottingham (JOY MUMFORD/JIALLO/CHESHIRE AND THE CAT)

What influenced the sound of the album?

Jamie: I have lots of influences such as Explosions in the Sky, The Hated, This Will Destroy You, Jimi Hendrix. Most of the tracks are formed from taking jams together or riffs I’ve written alone and just making them flow into full tracks as long as it feels natural and not forced. Also being at the studio helped as we used a mixture of our own equipment and what Random Studios had, so messing about with different equipment, Guy’s and the amps also helped bring out some fresh ideas and some new parts.

What made you decide against a vocalist when forming the band?

Jamie: We did try in the past, but it never really worked out, we never found someone who fitted in easily into the sound of the early tracks. Maybe one day haha…

Owen: You wouldn’t be able to hear them when Glenn turns his fuzz pedal on.

What’s your favourite track off the album and why?

Glenn: I’ve always loved playing “Too Little Too Late”, from the nice acoustic/drums to the huge thrash out session at the end.

Owen: My favourite track from the album is ‘It Will Set You Free‘. I love the harmonics in the track and the subtle changes in dynamics. If you listen to some of our earlier pieces next to this song you can really see how we have changed as a band since we formed.

Jamie: I’d also say “It Will Set You Free” as all the parts come together nicely and its got a good flow to it. I also like how well the endings for “Never Enough (Never Give Up)” and “Too Little, Too Late” came out.

You launched your album in the fast becoming legendary space that is JT Soar, how was the launch?

Jamie: It was fun a good night, Bouvier came down from York, ROBYN HUGHES-JONES and Ted all played really good sets and it was a good intimate atmosphere. It was great to play tracks from the album, some old tracks and some new stuff we have been working on.

What would be your desert island discs (one each) and why?

Glenn: Hard hard hard hard question! Sheesh… one of them would be “Kid A!” by Radiohead. I love Radiohead.

Owen: My desert island disc would be “How Strange, Innocence” by Explosions in the Sky. This was the first Post-Rock album I listened to and I love every song.

Jamie: Only one? That’s a difficult choice, There’s too many albums I like – Owen’s made a top choice, but if I had to choose just one probably “Axis:Bold As Love” by Jimi Hendrix Experience because “Little Wing” is one of my favourite songs and one of the reasons why I wanted to play guitar.

We’d like to thank the band for taking the time to answer these questions.

Well, there you have it. As you can tell, a band that are really passionate about their craft, and a band that would also take crates full of records to a desert with them if they could!

If you haven’t got yourself a copy of the album yet, what are you waiting for? Are you stuck on the same metaphorical desert island as them? Get over to their Bandcamp, and get yourself a copy. You won’t regret it – LINK

Yours in Love of New Music,
Sam Nahirny x - NUSIC

I liked this as soon as I saw it was on an Asda brand CDR. Less Than Nothing is two chaps from the Midlands, playing instrumental rock. I was particularly interested as on their Myspace page it reckons they are influenced by the Hated. "Ha!" I thought "some chance of that". Yet, if you ensure your ears are paying close attention, you may actually spot a few Hated (at their most gentle) riffs here and there. They also list a bunch of the usual post rock suspects, and sure enough, you get some of the faux epic, fx-ed guitar sounds, which personally I don't think they need, the music they make is interesting enough without the guitar squall that you'll find on any number of records post Mogwai going massive. Post rock just seems to be one of those odd genres that some people get into in their mid 20s, a period of their life when they are getting serious and contemplative of how they have frittered away their time on this planet. And then they get out of it again once they realise how unrewarding listening to all that po-faced clap trap was. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Less Than Nothing, who are definitely not post rock, despite the proclaimed influences. "Moving On" may be the pick of the 4 tracks on offer here, a warm little number with gentle acoustic guitars and simple drumming, blending with electronic fizzles. Reminds me a bit of Aerial M, which is a bonus. "Too Little, Too Late" is again along these lines - I think warm is the watch word here, this is such a pleasant listen, gently rolling on with soft guitars and definitely recalling the Hated when they switched to acoustic mode. Actually, I just figured it out - this sounds like Rainy Day Regatta.

I have to say I preferred the final 2 tracks, which are more acoustic with electronic hints, to the colder first half, but this is a solid beginning. Initially I was wondering if they'd benefit from vocals but the 2 closers emphatically prove they don't. I'd like to hear what happens next.

- Collective Zine

Less Than Nothing
Hidden History
EP (Self-released)

Instrumental post-rock outfit Less Than Nothing return with their second EP Hidden History, which offers some of the band’s best material yet. Unlike their previous output, Hidden History is very much more guitar-based, mainly due to guitarist Jamie Criddle basically becoming the sole member of the band, pushing his musical vision to the forefront. This change has deepened the band’s aesthetic by embracing complex harmonies, electronics and more intricate arrangements. Starting mellow with Complete Unknown, the track Moving On feels more complete as a whole, flowing excellently from calm and ethereal to more upbeat. Considering this is post-rock, Erosion manages to really emphasise the “rock” with metallic and heavy riffs. The album closes with Low Tides, which has a slow, swaying, oceanic rhythm, reflecting the song’s title, before building to a euphoric ending. This EP will leave you wanting more. Matthew Williams - LeftLion