Naam

In Thai, the word “naam” is sometimes used in reference to water. Perfect if you’re this Naam from Brooklyn which frequently operates courtesy of aquatic trances as precursor to their boisterous outpourings of doom and sludge. Reportedly recorded on a dairy farm in the Catskill Mountains, Naam’s self-titled debut is a bit of a mind-rape. Yet their daring alter-reality accenting their built-up sonic scapes is what keeps them interesting.

Unpredictable psychedelic brain funk scattered throughout the 16:24 opener “Kingdom” splashes in some Ray Manzarek-ish organs and sitar swirls amidst Naam’s forlorn drapes trickling towards expected detonation. When “Kingdom” erupts from its teasing eddies, the effect is akin to having your ear canals peeled apart and introduced to a boisterous, yet orgasmic din.

Drums and tabla guiding the hypnotic “Stone Ton” gives the listener no preparation for the booming, straightforward stoner grooves of the subsequent track “Skyling Slip.” A bit chunky and slipshod in the right manner, “Skyling Slip” turns cosmic towards its closure with wispy synths on the borderline of new wave despite the overall tonal crush of the track.

Once in awhile, this album goes on such a disruptive and unorganized tangent Naam loses their listeners as well as themselves. While “Fever if Fire” has spots of appeasing thunder and some groovy tunnel effects, it might help to light one up to fully grasp the song’s echoing pollutants, much less its jumbled, screaming vocals

On the other hand, Naam really works with spectacular methodology on “Icy Row” where the distortion opens the way for hallucinogenic delight and increases both in accordance to an agitating tempo. Though clocking in more than seven minutes, “Icy Row” is a well-constructed engine of atmospherics which feels wrapped in half the time Naam performs it.

Undoubtedly Naam is one album best appreciated after a few listens. Though it engages strongly on the first spin, the further depths of conveyances these guys expel through their wondrously strange music unravel with return visits. The organ-soaked spookiness of “Westered Wash” is plenty enough to get your head around, yet “Kingdom,” “Black Ice” and the gusty march of “Frosted Tread” unlock different chambers of your audile processing system the more you engage them.

Consider Naam a potential sleeper hit of the sludge market; they’re inventive and they have enough of a dark and vibrating space oddity about them to befuddle ground control, salud.-- Ray Van Horn, Jr.

Give it a shot... I think you'll like it.