ERIK NERVOUS - Immaturity LP

Highly recommended.

As a kid, at the turn of the millennium, Erik was immersed in 1970s and `80s pop culture - sugary cartoon fair, from Scooby-Do to Yogi Bear, musically from Prince to Olivia Newton John and John Travolta’s turn in Grease. It was actually an obsession with the Harmonix Guitar Hero II video game that got Erik into making his own music.

He learnt how to play drums via their subsequent Rock Band series. After buying a cheap acoustic guitar from Target, while in 5th or 6th grade, he received an electric one for Christmas a few years later. He insists that he still uses this instrument for 90% of his recording. Starting out teaching himself how to multi-track, etc. with an iPad and Garageband, Erik then went retro and bought a Tascam 4-track recorder.

His output to date takes inspiration from a eclectic range of sources, from the classic UK post-punk of Swell Maps, Wire, The Fall, and Gang Of Four, and their US counterparts, Devo, Talking Heads, plus R Stevie Moore, to the groovy kosmische of Can, and Steve Reich’s classical minimalism… plus some Moondog.

"Even in the halcyon days of 2015, his musicianship stood out, and on this new full-length, Immaturity, Nervous’s skills remain at the forefront of his work. Of course, punk rock has always been at odds with formal talent, but Nervous really makes it work, writing dazzling, hyperactive guitar lines and inventive drum patterns and presenting them with a comfortingly familiar level of basement grit. His alien-geek-robot vocals are appealingly monotone, a necessary foil for the haywire melodies and technically-astute riffage that he apparently performs and records entirely by himself." - YGR