NOMO + Turtleboy @ Green Room

By Simon Howell - Sound On Sight - 04/01/2009

So I'm thirteen years old, chilling out to Dark Side of the Moon in my parents' basement and generally being a weird little creep. Oddly, I don't gravitate towards the 7/4 cockrockery of "Money" or even the Oz-bait wail of "The Great Gig in the Sky" nearly as much as I do the eight-minute centerpiece "Us and Them", largely due to its soaring chorus, languorous pacing, odd spoken asides and lush arrangement. The key to that arrangement, of course, is Dick Parry's mournful sax wailing throughout. At that age, I'd never heard a jazz instrument used on a rock song in quite that way (as an emotional rather than propulsive/percussive tool) and my underdeveloped brain was thoroughly blown. Journeys through my parents' record collection, including Weather Report and Mahavishnu Orchestra, didn't yield similar reactions…too jazz-leaning, which I simply did not have the patience for.

Flash forward about eight years - I'm a music student, and I discover that I hate jazz students. They seem to universally hold their particular art form to be the apex of all musical expression, with its complex polyrhythms and modal progressions and general inaccessibility to the average joe. This only serves to reinforce my willful ignorance of the whole discipline of jazz - despite my lingering fondness for jazz instrumentation. It's around this time that the sax starts to creep back into pop music here and there, like in its 1980s form but with crisper production values - I'm thinking of stuff like Mystery Jets' "Two Doors Down" and The Killers' "I Can't Stay." I also stumble upon an odd (and undeniably half-baked) Decemberists b-side called "The Day I Knew You'd Not Come Back," which featured a moody, eight-minute sax-led segment. Not jazz, therefore acceptable. (Again, we're talking bias here, not fact.)

So it was with trepidation that I approached this double-header of jazz-leaning projects - Montreal's Turtleboy and Michigan's Nomo. Turtleboy are an odd trio - just sax, guitar, and drums, no bass. They leap right to my pleasure centers all at once - their sound is deeply melodic, structured and disciplined - no extended jams or ponderous time-changes here. They get surprising mileage out of their sparse lineup, alternating between sprightly, rhythmically inclined pieces and mood-driven ballads. They exhibit a striking lack of pretension. Unfortunately, their set ends quickly, and I didn't spot any merch…bummer.

Nomo I was more familiar with. Touring here in support of their new record Invisible Cities, Nomo specialize in a peculiar blend of jazz, afro-pop and instrumental rock that is, as far as I know, entirely their own, and unfortunately entirely unsuited to the Green Room's seated layout. My show notes most effortlessly describe my impressions:

ridiculous groove
rhythms upon polyrhythms
trance-like
why am I sitting down?
feeling tired
maybe the beer

The seven-strong Michigan crew, mic stands adorned with assorted metallic paraphernalia, efficiently plowed through cuts principally taken from Cities as well as their 2007 breakthrough Ghost Rock. I want to be into it, I really do - their musicianship is undeniable, the grooves pop, and most of all I don't want to be so hopelessly square. Alas, the seating conspires against me and my eyes start to feel heavy. Someday the saxophones are gonna win for real, though.

Tune into Sound on Sight with Simon every Monday from 9PM - 11PM