Nadja

The full-length debut from the duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff is perfectly timed with the onset of fall, as its slow-burning and atmospheric, feedback-enhanced sound pilgrimages are the ideal accompaniment to the crunch of leaves under one's feet and the uniquely salty tears that only seasonal depression can bring forth. The three tracks that comprise the LP have a pulse, with none clocking in under 10 minutes and all undergoing many subtle music shifts within, going from loud to quiet seamlessly and without provoking annoyance. The two musicians each lend light, breathy but always effective vocals to the proceedings. Altogether it's a gloomy and intense yet pretty and rewarding listen -- which would probably sound especially good on mushrooms. - Eye Magazine

The full-length debut from the duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff is perfectly timed with the onset of fall, as its slow-burning and atmospheric, feedback-enhanced sound pilgrimages are the ideal accompaniment to the crunch of leaves under one's feet and the uniquely salty tears that only seasonal depression can bring forth. The three tracks that comprise the LP have a pulse, with none clocking in under 10 minutes and all undergoing many subtle music shifts within, going from loud to quiet seamlessly and without provoking annoyance. The two musicians each lend light, breathy but always effective vocals to the proceedings. Altogether it's a gloomy and intense yet pretty and rewarding listen -- which would probably sound especially good on mushrooms. - Eye Magazine

Crashing waves of balls of yarn. That's one attempt to explain this band's sound... Along with bringing in the usual Earth, SUNNO))), and Boris comparisons. The Toronto based duo of Aidan Baker (guitars, vocals, flute, piano, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass and vocals) are an "atmospheric doom" band whose slow moving, heavy and heavily distorted music definitely shares something with the likes of early Earth, but although they've done a split 3" with UK doom nasties Moss (among several previous underground releases) you can't really define them as being a "metal" band at all. Their gauzy, droney, doom-spelled-backwards music has a warm, melodic underpinning, somewhere within the billowing clouds of distortion that form the three long tracks found here. I guess it's something like the churchy, "funereal" doom of Finland's Skepticism, really, but even more calm, echoed and ambient. Melancholic but very pleasant, with both growled vocals and gentle singing hovering just beneath the surface, this music somehow suggests rays of pure white light shining down from on high to illuminate their low-end murk... and during the final third of the last track "Breakpoint" the heaviness drops away altogether for a quietly sung coda that could be from the most mellow and poetic of indie-pop albums. Nadja's music is definitely more abstract and altered than, say, Ocean (another sludge-dirge outfit reviewed elsewhere this list), and is so much more beautiful than the monochrome darkness dwelt in by many other doom bands. If you can imagine an ultra-distorted hybrid of Growing, Codeine and, uh, Ras Algethi you'd maybe come close to the sound of Nadja... Recommended!! - Aquarius Records

Crashing waves of balls of yarn. That's one attempt to explain this band's sound... Along with bringing in the usual Earth, SUNNO))), and Boris comparisons. The Toronto based duo of Aidan Baker (guitars, vocals, flute, piano, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass and vocals) are an "atmospheric doom" band whose slow moving, heavy and heavily distorted music definitely shares something with the likes of early Earth, but although they've done a split 3" with UK doom nasties Moss (among several previous underground releases) you can't really define them as being a "metal" band at all. Their gauzy, droney, doom-spelled-backwards music has a warm, melodic underpinning, somewhere within the billowing clouds of distortion that form the three long tracks found here. I guess it's something like the churchy, "funereal" doom of Finland's Skepticism, really, but even more calm, echoed and ambient. Melancholic but very pleasant, with both growled vocals and gentle singing hovering just beneath the surface, this music somehow suggests rays of pure white light shining down from on high to illuminate their low-end murk... and during the final third of the last track "Breakpoint" the heaviness drops away altogether for a quietly sung coda that could be from the most mellow and poetic of indie-pop albums. Nadja's music is definitely more abstract and altered than, say, Ocean (another sludge-dirge outfit reviewed elsewhere this list), and is so much more beautiful than the monochrome darkness dwelt in by many other doom bands. If you can imagine an ultra-distorted hybrid of Growing, Codeine and, uh, Ras Algethi you'd maybe come close to the sound of Nadja... Recommended!! - Aquarius Records