DEF NETTLE - DN001 - LP - Vinyl [JUL 5]

LP - Limited Edition high quality black vinyl with full colour sleeve to melt your face. 'DN001' is the debut album by Wexford-based Def Nettle. Produced by Glen Brady. 

DN001 is the debut album by Irish Punk Funk outfit Def Nettle, lead by Vocalist and Producer, Glen Brady. Following several successful singles over the past 2 years, DN001 brings together the live band and many other musical contributors in a fiery and emotional mix of Lyricism & Punk Rock attitude, built over solid Funk and Indie grooves.

There is a distinctly eclectic feel to the music that comes together consistently with Brady’s mixture of Madchester-esqe singing style combined with his spoken word and almost Rap-like deliveries. Sprinkled throughout the album are hard hitting verses and choruses with co-vocalist Lisa Doyle whose deep Dublin tones jump out at the listener with authenticity and grit. Often hailed as multi-genre and stylistically unpredictable, the story telling and poetic vision in the lyrics reflect Brady’s broad life experiences where bombastic anthems like ‘The Pills’ have an air of tragedy and reflection that is brought to the fore in songs like ‘Four Years’, an honest and intense ballad of lost love, death and the injustice of violence against women. While not being overtly political, there’s a feeling of disenchantment with modern society and the role of the artist and the commercialization of our lives. Songs like ‘God’s Trainers’ and ‘Piss Take’ rail against these issues while still being introspective and focusing on the individual and the trials and tribulations of creating art, addiction and recovery, like on the abrasive yet dreamily personal ‘German Cars’.

The guitars range from melodic Goth and Alternative melodies like on last year’s single ‘Architecture’ (which stayed at #2 on the German Indie charts for 8 weeks) to more aggressive Rock tones reminiscent of Queens of the Stone Age, on tracks like ‘Invisible’ (played by Grouse frontman, Ronnie Carrol) and the resonance of opening track ‘Don’t’. There’s also a distinctly proto-Punk feel to much of the album’s guitars with harsh and aggressive Skate Rock vibes like on their debut single ‘The Pills’ (Guitars by Dan Donnelly of The Levellers) and recent single ‘Boat Race’ (Guitars by Greg Earl of Californian Skate Punk heroes, Cement Eater). There are also Indie tones a-plenty across the record with much contribution from collaborator, Joe Donegan.

Bass duties on ‘War Machine’ are instantly recognizable as being played by recently deceased guitarist Andy Rourke of The Smiths, whom Glen worked with on D.A.R.K. album with The Cranberries legendary chanteuse, Dolores O’Riordan (RIP). Guitars on ‘War Machine’ are played by Graeme Slattery (The Devlins, Boy in Cords) who brings a softer vision to the album with hints of Talk Talk or even Prefab Sprout. There are some tracks with synth bass but overall live bass duties are taken care of by band member Ely Siegel whose liquid yet funky and distorted bass lines tie together the diverse styles displayed on the record.

Brady’s years as a DJ and producer in Electronic music and his interest in the world of analog and modular synths is also unmistakeable throughout the album, at times setting a melancholy juxtaposition to driving arpeggios and energetic keyboard lines. The majority of the live drums are played by Jay Oglesby, well known as one of the busiest session drummers in Ireland and as founding member of Liquid Wheel. Combined with Brady’s Hip-hop and Punk based production techniques, the drums on DN001 have a boom-bap quality while still retaining speed, innovation and variation.

DN001 is an album that combines many eras of Rock, Punk, Hip-hop, Alternative music and Electro with a rich tradition of story telling from the perspective of the characters, tragedy and brevity of the artistic life and of human existence in general. It’s no wonder that The Sunday Independent labeled him as sounding like ‘Tom Waits rapping over Primal Scream’ but it’s hard to miss the influences of bands like The The, Public Enemy, Joy Division or The Butthole Surfers. Eclectic Indeed.
 

Tracklist: 

Side A
1. Don't [04:04]
2. The Pills [03:17]
3. Invisible [03:52]
4. Boat Race [02:45]
5. God's Trainers [04:18]

Side B
1. Four Years [03:54]
2. Piss Take [03:45]
3. Architecture [03:58]
4. German Cars [03:19]
5. War Machine feat Andy Rourke [04:00]