{"id":19050,"date":"2020-07-22T05:30:21","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T09:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=19050"},"modified":"2020-06-29T10:16:16","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T14:16:16","slug":"nest-egg-straight-ahead-yet-twisting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/22\/nest-egg-straight-ahead-yet-twisting\/","title":{"rendered":"Nest Egg: Straight-ahead Yet Twisting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dislocation<\/i>, out July 10 2020<\/p><\/div>\n

A global pandemic may have temporarily taken live music off the stage, but creative endeavors continue apace. Right on the heels of a live set released in March, Nest Egg will release Dislocation<\/i>, its seventh album, on July 10. The primarily instrumental Asheville-based group draws a good part of its inspiration from German music of the early \u201870s.<\/p>\n

Groups like D\u00fcsseldorf, Germany-based Neu! pioneered krautrock, a subgenre characterized by repetitive beats and droning, minimalist melodies. Nearly a half-century later, Nest Egg makes original music that builds upon the krautrock aesthetic.<\/p>\n

But guitarist Harvey Leisure (aka Jamie Hepler) is careful not to make too much of the connection. While he describes krautrock in a way that can easily apply to his band as well (\u201ca steady, kind of repetitive, rhythmic structure,\u201d he offers), he emphasizes that in practice, the term allows for a wide stylistic palette. \u201cIf you go back and listen to the bands that fell under that category,\u201d he says, \u201cthey\u2019re all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

And in the best possible way, Nest Egg is all over the place as well. When the project began nearly a decade ago, Nest Egg was Leisure plus Los Angeles musician Cyrus Shahmir. But since 2013, the group has included the rhythm section of bassist Ross Gentry and drummer Thom Nguyen. Shahmir is still involved as well: \u201cWe don\u2019t get a lot of face time these days,\u201d says Leisure. \u201cBut he works on almost every recording that we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leisure admits that on the group\u2019s early recordings, \u201cthere was kind of an intention to play Neu!-style kraut stuff.\u201d But as Nest Egg developed a signature style of its own, the group incorporated more punk and post-punk musical ideals.<\/p>\n

Nest Egg\u2019s music comes forth through improvisation; its creative process is \u201ccompletely spontaneous,\u201d Leisure says. \u201cWe just play until we find something that we\u2019re locking into, and then usually try to record a little bit of that.\u201d And that\u2019s just the beginning. The musicians then go their separate ways, each thinking about the music on his own. \u201cWhen we come back, somebody usually has an idea about how to make it start,\u201d Leisure says. \u201cIt\u2019s a collaborative effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

That method of creation often means that the Nest Egg musical pieces continue to evolve. A listen to the group\u2019s Live at Hopscotch Music Festival 2017<\/i> (released in March 2020) reveals versions of compositions that differ greatly from their studio counterparts on Dislocation<\/i>. \u201cAnd if you listen to the [2017] Mothlight recording we recently put on Bandcamp, there\u2019s a totally different version of the album\u2019s opening track,\u201d Leisure says.<\/p>\n

Nest Egg\u2019s music twists like a corkscrew while simultaneously remaining relentless in its forward motion; it\u2019s the musical version of a helix. And the group titled one of its songs in subtle acknowledgment of that dual quality. But the soaring, nine-minute-plus \u201cHelix,\u201d a highlight of Dislocation<\/i>, sounded very different when Nest Egg released an earlier version \u2013 nearly double in length \u2013 on its 2018 cassette Blank Deeds<\/i>. \u201cAgain, totally improv,\u201d Leisure says. \u201cThey have the same bass line and drum rhythm, but other than that, they\u2019re pretty different.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Though in some ways they\u2019re oppositional concepts, for Nest Egg, repetition and improvisation go well together. The relentless motorik<\/i> character of krautrock is one of Leisure\u2019s favorite musical qualities. \u201cBut we also try to leave areas of the set where we can improvise a bit, and see how far we want to go with something,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

To capture the improvisational nature of its music, the group tracks everything live when recording. \u201cBut we get pretty deep into the studio world when we\u2019re in it,\u201d Leisure says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of focus on how we can manipulate sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

One area that Nest Egg does not<\/i> focus on is lyrics. Much of the band\u2019s material is instrumental, but even when vocals are present, they\u2019re not the centerpiece of the music. \u201cI\u2019m not a poet,\u201d Leisure says with a laugh. \u201cIf somebody wants to get something out of [the lyrics], that\u2019s fine, but that\u2019s not really what they\u2019re there for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Befitting a band built on improvisation, live performance is central to what Nest Egg does. The group has toured extensively in the Eastern U.S., and in 2018 the group did a run of dates in the UK and Western Europe. With the pandemic \u2013 and the likelihood that the EU will ban U.S. citizens for the foreseeable future \u2013 Nest Egg is staying home. \u201cThe world has kind of stopped now,\u201d Leisure acknowledges. \u201cSo now it\u2019s time to sit back, start writing a new record, and get some new things on the set list.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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