Nedry – In A Dim Light

Dark Yet Illuminating

Chris Amblin, Matt Parker, and Ayu Okakita are doing great things. After the release of Condor in 2009, the band put out its second work In A Dim Light, which has brought the three to a new level of maturity and consciousness. Nedry formed in spring 2008 in London and has soon gained popularity in the UK and the rest of Europe, performing at Sònar festival in Spain in 2010. And now the band is ready to take its new work on tour.

The album melts dub step beats and post-rock melodies, all filtered by distorted sounds effects. “I Would Rather Explode” sets a quite, pacific mood; as Ayu Okikita starts singing the music tension raises and soon resolves in dub step pulse. The track, like the rest of the album, reaches a sense of steadiness, with rhythm and tempo, but it’s trapped in some sort of mystery and restlessness.

This feeling is often created by the vocals. Ayu Okikita’s voice sounds delicate and attractive at times, or explodes in scratched growls like in “TMA.” Here the singer builds up an annoying lament, the music generates anxiety that will dissolve only with the end of the song. “Post Six” Okikita uses her voice in all of its potential; she starts off with an inspiring melody and later features whispers and gasps to end the piece in tension. In “Violacee” Okikita’s echoing vocals make us feel characters of a horror movie. In A Dim Light is moving and suggesting; its originality stands in the variety of feelings that it evokes and will only find peace in the last track, “Home.”