From the immediacy of their first releases, Novablood seemed to appear with a simple ethos, of direct and effective song structures with a deeper lyrical content than many of their contemporaries.
Their sound is a distillation of pop arrangements surrounded by skewed house music verging between Electronica and Tech, yet formulated from scribing’s and admittedly, occasional ‘offcuts’ of Zowie’s productions and appear nurtured into a current yet subtly disconnected, purposefully however, from most other genres, making it difficult to pinpoint a style. Grades of progressive, dark, uplifting, heavy, deep, emotive and even poignant Electronica skim across this, their debut album. ‘Pretty Disco Lights’.
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/pretty-disco-lights/1607887464
Album highlights: Opening with essences of synthwave touched with a French House feel, See The Dawn, in leads you into a smooth yet embellished sound that, as intended, only captures elements of that genre without fully committing and selling out to it.
Lyrically the songs are becoming increasingly, ambiguous. Mark claims that My Subconscious was the hardest pill for him to swallow on the album. Lyrically it was written by David just weeks after the time of Marks mothers passing and although lyrically David says it wasn’t intentionally written in consideration, there are indeed moments which catch Mark unawares lyrically.
“You hit me like a wave”, Dave sings, “and knocked me off my feet” which relate Mark to his mothers brilliance at being loved and their perfect mother / son relationship. Best friends.
Further emotional notes run deep on their piano-led lament, Past Tense. A melodic warmth that would sit perfectly surrounded by classic Ryuichi Sakamoto. Lyrically, it has surprisingly astute glare into the mourning of a lost loved one. Mark says of the lyrics. “ I guess experience writes across a blank page best”.
Transcendent offers up a psychedelic Lo-Fi groove. Relentless percussive grooves run alongside a deep almost church-like organ, muted into submission with a squelchingly mouth watering bass which teases its head at unexpected moments. Almost in two parts, the song opens and becomes a free spirit, synths open, guitars smash and yet the groove still rolls. David’s vocals echo across the rhythms and drift whimsically into the aether.
In stark contrast, tracks such as Addictive and Decadence, carry a much heavier production value. Changes in decades, attitudes and broken relationships. “As the eighties turned to nineties, like a flashback to a dream all the fake smiles and decadence, sequenced in between”, nostalgic, acerbic and bitter sweet.
“Shadows is a particular personal song for us both”, hints Mark. Reminiscing about a best friend he lost in summer of ‘21. Written as a request from that friend to Mark, weeks prior to his passing. Mark remembers, “He was a huge supporter of all my musical output. Shared everything, bought everything. The least I could do was write a song. Minutes after he passed I took the grief into the studio and immediately wrote the music and performed verses for the track. Very personal”.
“Title track, ‘Pretty Disco Lights’ was actually the final track written for the album and mutated into a kind of disco odyssey”, remembers Mark. A nine minute plus multi-faceted journey into house, disco and a celebration of the journey of the album. It feels a succinct way to end the album. The title feels like it’s in reference to each song in the albums songs. “It’s like our Bohemian Rhapsody”, laughs Mark. “I had a blast writing the music for this. I allowed it to emerge and become what it wanted. It’s about as organic as I could allow it. It is a perfect end”.
PRETTYDISCOLIGHTS hits all reputable streaming and download platforms from May 20th on JULAmusic. Follow @Novabloodmusic on Facebook / Instagram and Twitter. Eyes peeled for exclusive merch and more release details. Live enquiries at julamusic@mail.com.
