Nathan Bell

Nathan Bell: Post-Punk Banjoist Pursues Color Through Sound

Nathan Bell: ColorsNathan Bell: Colors (Lancashire and Somerset, 4/1/11)

Nathan Bell: “Pilgrim…”

Banjo impresario and multi-instrumentalist Nathan Bell’s interest in color isn’t a typical one. He’s not a painter or a designer searching for the perfect palette to represent something physical or tangible. Instead, his attraction to color is based on its relationship to sound.

Bell has undertaken a unique and daunting project, one with no external inspiration and no guide for how to draw conclusions, wherein he and friends Peter Townsend (drums), Kate Porter (cello), and Liz Merideth (viola and violin) wrote songs based on a series of colors. The resultant album is the aptly named Colors, released in 2011 by the British label Lancashire and Somerset.

Bell says that the concept of color as sound isn’t as abstract and unnatural as it seems. Music naturally evokes images in the mind of the listener, so colors aren’t much of a stretch. Different sounds naturally fit with certain colors, while others are combinations that may shake the listener’s perspective and emotions.

“Color is sound as sound is color,” Bell says from his new home-away-from-home in Brazil, where he has been playing and recording with one of his bands, Brassa Bell. “And as one color is made from many colors, each song reserves its place on the palette. The imagery of color in combination of sound provokes a three-dimensional perspective on the album.

Sleigh Bells

Pop Addict: Sleigh Bells’ Reign of Terror

Sleigh Bells: Reign of TerrorSleigh Bells: Reign of Terror (Mom + Pop Music, 2/21/12)

Sleigh Bells: “Born to Lose”

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When Sleigh Bells’ Treats debuted in 2010, the Brooklyn-based duo, composed of Derek Edward Miller and Alexis Krauss, established itself as the new master of noise pop, infusing overblown electro beats and crunchy, gritty guitars into raucous compositions. But the album was much more than an experiment; it was catchy as hell. It was an unapologetic exploration of pushing “pop” music to its threshold and crossing it.

Now Sleigh Bells is back with its sophomore effort, Reign of Terror, and Miller and Krauss have added even more edge to their sound than what Treats had in store. From the opener, “True Shred Guitar,” guitar riffs are front and center — at first pulsating through stadium crowd noise and Krauss’ profanity-laden shouting, screaming to an invisible audience, and then erupting with an ’80s heavy-metal riff. The track explodes and then fizzles into the next: the first single, “Born to Lose,” infused with a swarm of double-bass blasts but with more cultivated vocals.