The Land of Nod (band)
Encyclopedia
The Land of Nod are a space rock
/post-rock
duo from Cheltenham
, England
, comprising guitarist Ant Walker and bass guitarist Dave Battersby.
/piano
/cello
).
The band's first release was the track "Floating around in the bubblebuzz", which was reelased on the Voyage to the Cosmic Underworld: Volume One EP
in 1995 on Ochre Records. The following year, they released two tracks on a split 12-inch EP with The Bass Cadets, and in January 1998 they released another split single with Ectogram
. The band's first dedicated release was a four-track 10-inch EP in July 1998, which was followed in February 1999 by the debut album, Translucent. The band then released an album a year until 2003's Colli De Pedona. Their 2001 mini-set Mont Ventoux was themed on the Tour de France
; The title track is a reference to one the highest summits in the race, "Anquetil" was named after five times Tour winner Jacques Anquetil
, and "Sommet" featured the voice of Eddy Merckx
.
In March 2003, the band recorded a session for John Peel
's BBC Radio 1
show. The band also recorded a session for the B-92 radio station in Yugoslavia
, these tracks included on the US compilation Reality Channel. In the same year they contributed four exclusive tracks to the Seasons compilation album on Ochre Recordson which featured interpretations of the seasons of the year, with other tracks by Longstone, Lakescene (Walker's side-project), 90o South, and Stylus
. The Land of Nod headlined the Cheltenham 'John Peel Night' in October 2005, which is the last time the band performed together.
Walker is also the leading figure in the band Pulsar.
or space rock
, but has also been described as shoegazing
and "ambient instrumental rock". While the band have cited bands such as Echo & the Bunnymen
(particularly Will Sergeant
's guitar playing) as an influence, comparisons to Krautrock
band such as Faust (band)
, Neu!
, and Popol Vuh
have been common. The band have also drawn comparisons with contemporary bands such as Godspeed You Black Emperor, Stars of the Lid
, and Spiritualized
.
Space rock
Space rock is a subgenre of rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early, mostly British, 1970s progressive and psychedelic rock bands such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by electric organs, synthesizers, experimental...
/post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
duo from Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, comprising guitarist Ant Walker and bass guitarist Dave Battersby.
History
The band formed in the mid 1990s, the members having previously been in the bands Elegant Chaos, Lucid Dream, and Reverb. Walker and Battersby were augmented by a drum machine, and specialized in space rock/post-rock guitar instrumentals. At times the duo were joined by others including David Wrench (synthesizerSynthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
/piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
/cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
).
The band's first release was the track "Floating around in the bubblebuzz", which was reelased on the Voyage to the Cosmic Underworld: Volume One EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
in 1995 on Ochre Records. The following year, they released two tracks on a split 12-inch EP with The Bass Cadets, and in January 1998 they released another split single with Ectogram
Ectogram
Ectogram are a Welsh band from Bangor, United Kingdom.Ann Matthews and Alan Holmes were previously members of Welsh language post-punk band Fflaps between 1987–1993, touring Europe, releasing three LPs and recording two John Peel Sessions during that time...
. The band's first dedicated release was a four-track 10-inch EP in July 1998, which was followed in February 1999 by the debut album, Translucent. The band then released an album a year until 2003's Colli De Pedona. Their 2001 mini-set Mont Ventoux was themed on the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
; The title track is a reference to one the highest summits in the race, "Anquetil" was named after five times Tour winner Jacques Anquetil
Jacques Anquetil
Jacques Anquetil was a French road racing cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964...
, and "Sommet" featured the voice of Eddy Merckx
Eddy Merckx
Edouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx , better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional cyclist. The French magazine Vélo called him "the most accomplished rider that cycling has ever known." The American publication, VeloNews, called him the greatest and most successful cyclist of all...
.
In March 2003, the band recorded a session for John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
's BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
show. The band also recorded a session for the B-92 radio station in Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, these tracks included on the US compilation Reality Channel. In the same year they contributed four exclusive tracks to the Seasons compilation album on Ochre Recordson which featured interpretations of the seasons of the year, with other tracks by Longstone, Lakescene (Walker's side-project), 90o South, and Stylus
Stylus (band)
Stylus Australian soul-pop group. The band is notable for being the only Australian act ever released by Motown Records in the USA. Stylus toured with George Benson, Average White Band, Ike & Tina Turner, and Australia's "Little River Band"....
. The Land of Nod headlined the Cheltenham 'John Peel Night' in October 2005, which is the last time the band performed together.
Walker is also the leading figure in the band Pulsar.
Musical style
The band's music is generally described as post-rockPost-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
or space rock
Space rock
Space rock is a subgenre of rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early, mostly British, 1970s progressive and psychedelic rock bands such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by electric organs, synthesizers, experimental...
, but has also been described as shoegazing
Shoegazing
Shoegazing is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It lasted there until the mid 1990s, with a critical zenith reached in 1990 and 1991...
and "ambient instrumental rock". While the band have cited bands such as Echo & the Bunnymen
Echo & the Bunnymen
Echo & the Bunnymen are an English post-punk band, formed in Liverpool in 1978. The original line-up consisted of vocalist Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bass player Les Pattinson, supplemented by a drum machine. By 1980, Pete de Freitas had joined as the band's drummer, and their debut...
(particularly Will Sergeant
Will Sergeant
Will Sergeant is an English guitarist, best known for being a member of Echo & the Bunnymen. Born in the centre of Liverpool, he grew up in the suburb of Melling and attended nearby Deyes High School...
's guitar playing) as an influence, comparisons to Krautrock
Krautrock
Krautrock is a generic name for the experimental music scenes that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. The term is a result of the English-speaking world's reception of the music at the time and not a reference to any one...
band such as Faust (band)
Faust (band)
Faust are a German krautrock band. Formed in 1971 in Wümme, the group was originally composed of Werner "Zappi" Diermaier, Hans Joachim Irmler, Arnulf Meifert, Jean-Hervé Péron, Rudolf Sosna and Gunther Wüsthoff, working with record producer Uwe Nettelbeck and engineer Kurt Graupner.-History:Faust...
, Neu!
Neu!
Neu! was a German band formed by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother after their split from Kraftwerk in the early 1970s...
, and Popol Vuh
Popol Vuh
Popol Vuh is a corpus of mytho-historical narratives of the Post Classic Quiché kingdom in Guatemala's western highlands. The title translates as "Book of the Community," "Book of Counsel," or more literally as "Book of the People."...
have been common. The band have also drawn comparisons with contemporary bands such as Godspeed You Black Emperor, Stars of the Lid
Stars of the Lid
Stars of the Lid is a duo specializing in drone-based ambient music. They list among their influences minimalist and electronic composers such as Arvo Pärt, Zbigniew Preisner, Gavin Bryars, and Henryk Górecki, as well as Talk Talk , post-rock artists Labradford, and ambient innovator Brian...
, and Spiritualized
Spiritualized
Spiritualized are an English space rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Jason Pierce after the demise of his previous outfit, space-rockers Spacemen 3...
.
Albums
- Translucent (1999), Ochre
- Timeless Point (2000), Ochre
- Mont Ventoux (2001), Silber
- Inducing the Sleep Sphere (2002), Ochre
- Colli De Pedona (2003), Sillyboy
Compilations
- Archive:02 (2002), Ochre
- Reality Channel - Introduction To The Land Of Nod (2003), Elephant StoneElephant Stone RecordsElephant Stone Records is a US record label formed in 2002 by music critic and former Dionysus Records publicist Ben Szporluk and his artist wife Arabella Proffer . Named after a song by The Stone Roses, the label focuses on new groups and reissue compilations influenced by the 60s psychedelic...
Split releases
- Voyage to the Cosmic Underworld: Volume One 12-inch EP (1995), Ochre - "Floating Around in the Bubblebuzz"
- Bass cadets Vs. the Land of Nod split EP with the Bass Cadets (1996), Ochre - "Seeing into the Great Void", "Revoid"
- Split single with Ectogram (1998), Ochre - "Spiral"
- Land of Nod / P.A.T.E split 7-inch (2003), Ochre - "Eddy (remix)"
Compilations appearances
- HOPE (1998), Audio Research - "Escape Velocity"
- TRACE (1999), Audio Research - "C.O.B.E."
- ZERO (2000), Audio Research - "Drop"
- Through The Square Window (2000), Blue-Flea - "Bubblebuzz"
- 271199 (2000), Ochre - "Noose of Ice (live)"
- Interface (2000), Space Age Recordings - "Bubblebuzz"
- Ochre 7 (2001), Ochre - "Quadrant Zero (remix)"
- Songs For The End Of the World (2002), Silber - "Temporal"
- Audio Wonderland - Bedroom Ambience Volume 3 (2002), Enraptured
- Themes Volume One (2002), Ochre - "Timeless Point", "Quadrant Zero (out-take)" and "The Land Of Nod (Sunrise)"
- Seasons (2003), Ochre - "Waiting For The Thaw", "Summer House", "The Season Of Decay" and "Light Fades Fast"
- Ciclismo 3 (2006), Escalator - "Eddy"
External links
- Land of Nod at Ochre Records