Land of Nod - Mont Ventoux EP
(Silber)
The Mont Ventoux EP, the new release from the Cheltenham England instrumental duo,
Land of Nod, contains 6 tracks and clocks in just under 25 minutes. I was really looking forward
to hearing this EP since their first album was on Ochre Records in the UK, and since this EP is
on Silber Records, who released Aarktica's amazingly beautiful No Solace to Sleep last
year.
"Orientation Point," "Altitude," "Sommet," and the title track, "Mont Ventoux," are all based
around simple, repetitive picked guitar lines. In almost all of the songs, the picked pattern
consists of 3 root notes, and they don't vary too much from beginning to end. The picking guitar
is joined by other picking guitars or keyboard lines that also follow the same pattern of 3 or so root notes, repeating until the end of the song. In each of the aforementioned songs
I had the exact same reaction, going from "This is beautiful...this is really great!", to "Hmm, this
is getting a little annoying, something needs to change."
"San Juan Capistrano" and "Anquetil" are the two songs that vary from this same pattern. Both
songs are much more experimental and less song oriented, containing thickly layered samples,
rhythms, and sounds. And, while these tracks offer a nice contrast to the other songs, after a
minute or so in, they also seem a little directionless.
While Mont Ventoux has a lot of beauty in it, it seems more like a bunch of wonderful
ideas than fully realized songs.
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