The Land Of Nod

BIOGRAPHY:The Land Of Nod to date have released four albums on Ochre Records, ‘Translucent’ (February 1999), ‘Timeless Point’ (September 2000) ‘Inducing The Sleep Sphere’ (December 2002) as well as the ‘Archive:02’ collection (March 2002) plus also the mini-album ‘Mont Ventoux’ on USA label Silber (May 2001) and the ‘Reality Channel’- Introduction To The Land Of Nod (April 2003) on Elephant Stone Records .2001’s ‘Mont Ventoux’ release saw Edwin Pouncey state in The Wire “The group have been compared to Neu! But here they owe more to the hanging mists of Popul Vuh during the latters golden Herzog soundtrack period”, going on to add “Stripped of frills and posturing, their music gently breathes in your ear, urging you to dream”. The ‘Mont Ventoux’ release saw the group experiment with sound collages and loops and the title track was written about one of the highest summit's in cycling's Tour De France. The release featured a cycling theme throughout, ‘Anquetil’ was named after five times Tour De France winner Jacques Anquetil whilst ‘Sommet’ featured the voice of the great Eddy Merckx. The Land Of Nod’s recent performances have been backed by film of Merckx. The Land Of Nod continue this theme on the new Ochre album ‘Inducing The Sleep Sphere’ with the inclusion of the live favourite ‘Eddy’ and a re-working of the ‘Mont Ventoux’ track titled in this case, ‘Le Sommet A Mont Ventoux’. The track ‘Eddy’ is in fact taken from the Radio Session the band recorded and was aired on the legendary Serbian Radio Station B-92 in May in 2002.On the debut album ‘Translucent’ Ptolemaic Terrascope stated ‘They are definitely ahead of the pack and well worth keeping a weather-eye open for’ whilst The Wire added ‘Translucent’ features some vintage Neu! 75 style atmospherics’. Mucchio in Italy made it an album of the week concluding in their review ‘in short a little space rock masterpiece’. On the recent ‘Archive:02’ compilation, Vendetta in America stated ‘The Land Of Nod might not be as trendy as Mogwai and You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead, but these guys are far better, the cream of the crop as far as guitar-based instrumentally inclined groups go’. ************************************************************ ************************************************************ **** The Land of NodWhat's The Story? The Land of Nod, who consist of Ant Walker on guitar and Dave Battersby on bass, hail from Cheltenham in the UK and have had six full-length albums released to date, four of them on Cheltenham based indie Ochre Records. The 'Reality Channel' album is the group’s second US release; an essential compilation of their best Ochre material, including several previously unreleased bonus tracks. Skyscraper writes, “Those who appreciate the lush, spacious, minimalist, psychedelic tapestries of Windy and Carl, Roy Montgomery, and A.M.P., or the space rock of Füxa and Jessamine, should check this out… The disc is full of delayed, simple guitar melodies repeated and subtly alternated over shimmering, ambient backdrops, sometimes bringing to mind classic Spacemen 3 tracks like “Come Down Softly To My Soul, “ “Honey,” and “How Does It Feel.” ************************************************************ ************************************************************ ****The following is the press release for the hugely succesful INDUCING THE SLEEP SPHERE Ochre album.‘Inducing The Sleep Sphere’ is the eagerly anticipated new studio album from Cheltenham duo THE LAND OF NOD.‘Inducing The Sleep Sphere’ sees The Land Of Nod conjure up once again those dreamy soundscapes so reminiscent in the sounds of their contemporaries such as the Spaceman 3, Windy & Carl and The Durutti Column. Music that takes’s the listener off to that indescribable other-wordly place. Surreal, ethereal and blissed-out, where time stands still! Several tracks on the new album however possess music with a kraut-psych feel that can only be described as a mixture of Neu!, Can, Cluster and even the 13th Floor Elevators and The Seeds!The Land Of Nod to date have released three albums on Ochre Records, ‘Translucent’, ‘Timeless Point’ and the ‘Archive:02’ collection plus also the mini-album ‘Mont Ventoux’ on USA label Silber.Last year’s ‘Mont Ventoux’ release saw Edwin Pouncey state in The Wire “The group have been compared to Neu! But here they owe more to the hanging mists of Popul Vuh during the latters golden Herzog soundtrack period”, going on to add “Stripped of frills and posturing, their music gently breathes in your ear, urging you to dream”. The ‘Mont Ventoux’ release saw the group experiment with sound collages and loops and the title track was written about one of the highest summit's in cycling's Tour De France. The release featured a cycling theme throughout, ‘Anquetil’ was named after five times Tour De France winner Jacques Anquetil whilst ‘Sommet’ featured the voice of the great Eddy Merckx. The Land Of Nod’s recent performances have been backed by film of Merckx. ‘Inducing The Sleep Sphere’ continues this theme with the inclusion of the live favourite ‘Eddy’ and a re-working of the ‘Mont Ventoux’ track titled in this case, ‘Le Sommet A Mont Ventoux’.The track ‘Eddy’ is in fact taken from the Radio Session the band recorded and was aired on the legendary Serbian Radio Station B-92 in May in 2002.On the debut album ‘Translucent’ Ptolemaic Terrascope stated “They are definitely ahead of the pack and well worth keeping a weather-eye open for” whilst The Wire added “ ‘Translucent’ features some vintage Neu! 75 style atmospherics”. Mucchio in Italy made it an album of the week concluding in their review “in short a little space rock masterpiece”.On the recent ‘Archive:02’ compilation, Vendetta in America stated “The Land Of Nod might not be as trendy as Mogwai and You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead, but these guys are far better, the cream of the crop as far as guitar-based instrumentally inclined groups go’.‘Reality Channel’ a compilation of the best material recorded by the band to date was released on the Los Angeles label Elephant Stone. A fine way of introducing the band’s material to the American listener. The band will also undertake a short series of dates in America at the same time to promote it.‘Inducing The Sleep Sphere’ is the eagerly anticipated new studio album from Cheltenham duo THE LAND OF NOD. The album has been receiving constant airplay on the John Peel’s BBC Radio One Show and the band have recorded a Session for the programme which will be aired on Tuesday April 22nd.NME included a review of the album stating " And Cheltenham's Land Of Nod offer further proof that these cats know a good space-rock opus when they hear one. With it's glassy stare fixed on the darkest realms of inner space, 'Inducing...' sounds like the Spiritualized LP Jason Pierce could never get round to putting words to. A drifting slush of clicks and pulses, their twin obsessions with the fluffy end of electronic noise and Belgian sportsman Eddy Merckx could mean that The Land Of Nod do for cycling what Kraftwerk's 'Autobahn' did for motorway travel. Got to be worth a go."Whilst David Keenan in The Wire stated that the album “conjurs the ghosts of countless experimental German roadgoers” adding, “The Land of Nod move further into late night atmospherics and moss coated folk drones, as spiralling metronomic instruments cut up with the burr of automated telephone exchanges, snatches of shortwave drama and eerie alien electronics”.The album has gained rave reviews in Italy (5 out of 5 in ‘Rockerilla’, 7 out of 8 in ‘Blow Up’) whilst Careless Talk Cost Lives stated “The rising soar of ‘Elevator’, the drifting ‘Loose Contact’, along with the driving ‘Eddy’ all surge to an inspirational climax peaking with the title track’‘.Check out more about The Land Of Nod in the blog postings, including interviews with the group.Album Discography Translucent (Ochre) 1999 Timeless Point (Ochre) 2000 Mont Ventoux mini-album. (Silber) 2001 Archive:02 (Ochre) 2002 Inducing The Sleep Sphere (Ochre) 2002 Reality Channel (Elephant Stone) 2003 Colli De Pedona (Silly Boy) 2003