Modern Nature: How To Live
As much as enlightened minds want to move beyond labels, labels can be helpful communication tools. They can at least give us conversation-starting-points. Saying things like: “It’s got that Laurel Canyon Sound” or “They draw heavily from the Chicago Blues” help us at least know which ballpark we’re playing in.
But what do you do with a band that forces you to combine musical touchpoints in ways you might not have previously considered. English-folk flutes, cello, skronky saxomophones, folk guitars, whispered vocals and Krautrock motorik rhythms all come together on the bold debut from Modern Nature.
Pitchfork says: “New band from former Ultimate Painting songwriter Jack Cooper blends introspective songwriting with churning experimentation in earnest search of a different plane of existence,” while Aquarium Drunkard says: “While anchored by Cooper, the record’s grooves find a formidable cast of players exploring myriad veins of Kosmische Musik, British folk traditions and beyond – all underpinned by oblique sense of atmospheric otherness.”
The band’s Bella Union profile says: “Modern Nature – the name taken from the title of Derek Jarman’s garden diaries – is the new project of Jack Cooper, ex of Ultimate Painting / Mazes and Will Young of Beak featuring Aaron Neveu of Woods and Sunwatchers’ Jeff Tobias on saxophone.”
I very much dig this album and highly recommend it to you, my discerning friends.
Watch the official video for “Nature”
Watch the official video for “Footsteps”
Watch the official video for “Peradam”