Namullim

Raised in both Iqaluit (Nunavut) and Yellowknife (Northwest Territories), Alex (Nam's alter-ego) has always been one to stray off the beaten path. From day one, adventure was on his doorstep. Granted, polar bears, igloos and dog sledding weren’t often involved as much as Alexander had wished, but he made do in any case. His whole life has been one big adventure after the next, so, naturally, this sense of adventure would be transposed onto every aspect of his life, including his musical creations. That’s when Namullim was born.

Over the past few years, Namullim has been carefully crafting his sound and is now ready to emerge onto the Canadian music scene with his genre-defying EP, ‘The Summer Song’. In his own humble words, “[...] the EP will prove there is more than drumming and throat singing North of 60, although I like drumming and throat singing, don’t get me wrong”.

Picked are what Namullim believes to be his 5 best songs to date. The EP opens with the hard hitting ‘Whatcha’ Gonna’ Do?’, a harpsichord-driven, acid-jazz tinged, R&B song, that Namullim describes as the love child of US R&B super-producer Timbland and Goldfrapp. So basically, think heavy beats, quirky instrumentation with a generous helping of electronic meshed with Namullim’s Beck-esque vocals.

Second in line, the title track to the EP, ‘The Summer Song’, an ode to living in the land of the midnight sun. The demo has been called “really chilled & relaxed... even sexual” (MySpace Fan), now imagine what the studio version will sound like! With the unique combination of hypnotic sweltering bass, entrancing husky (no pun intended, see the ‘dog sledding’ comment earlier) vocals and powerful lyrics, the demo alone has been turning heads. Comparing this song to any other song would do it no justice, at best, it can be described as ambient R&B.

Up next, the mesmerizing ‘Losing Grip’. It’s a tale falling out of love, it’s about having the blinders taken off and realizing that, the person you cared so much about, isn’t who they pretended so hard to be. The whole song is summed up by; “It caught my eye, and I was scared / The light it held me, you weren't there / To take me down so I could see / That you mean nothing now to me”. Pretty powerful stuff isn’t it?

Changing the musical-mood quite a bit is, the Bolliwood inspired dance track, ‘Fly Moves’. It’s 2 minutes and 52 seconds of pure power-pop, driven by a large (synth) string section and a scorching bass line, that leaves you begging for more. It’s fast moving, high paced and it would be quite at home between Kylie Minogue’s ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ and Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’ (Cathy Dennis would be proud).

Finally, Namullim’s first attempt at a song in his second language, “Au Nom De L’Amour”. The song is about a failed requited love, Depeche Mode style, in French.

With the production by seven time ADISQUE Award Winning Studio Picolo Studios (Montréal, Québec) and Namullim himself, the songs will showcase his “comfortably awkward” (RC, 95.3 FM, Sweden) song writing abilities, a wry wit and acute sense of sarcasm.

The EP is set for release in July 2007, watch this space for more information...