The Best Record You’ve Never Heard: The None recommend a “math-rock” masterpiece by Elevate
Angular and thumping, like a joiner behind a jackhammer with a proctactor in their pocket, The None offer up a raw, raucous and complex sound. They are a bouncing mishmash of sound that only arises in music when each member of a group is allowed to express themselves as they please rather than conforming to a preconceived plan. It’s a facet that has render the collection of lifelong musicians one of the most exciting bands around, especially in a live setting.
That being said, their tastes have also meshed and intermingles in the subsequent time since their ramshackle formation, and their forthcoming EP, Care, points to that refinement. “I think we’d only done around three or four practices with Kai [vocals] when we recorded the first EP,” says guitarist, Jim Beck, formerly of Cassels. “It was pretty seat-of-the-pants stuff. This time we had a much clearer idea of who we are as a band, and how we wanted everything to sound.”
That growing sense of confidence and identity emboldens their sound this time out. It’s embodied by the ferocious new single, ‘My People’, which bassist Gordon Moakes, formerly of Bloc Party, described as ”the archetypal None song – a big ugly bassline that the dynamics and personalities of the band weave in and out of.” It puslates with a sense of purpose and peculiarty.
It’s original to an nth, but there have been records before that illuminated the path. Moakes explains that one of the key influences on the band is The Architect, a little-known album from 1996 by early UK math-rock pioneers, Elevate. Recorded in November ’95 and released by The Flower Shop Recordings, the lore of the album is joyously nonchalant. It’s entirely unlike anything before it, but it was both created and unleashed into the world in such a blasé manner that was akin to spaghetti junction being engineered by a kid on Minecraft.
Below, Moakes walks us through the beauty of the album and how it has inspired him.
The None on The Architect by Elevate:
“It’s definitely a math-rock record but one of a different kind. It’s really crisp-sounding but almost has an Americana flavour to it, slightly in the Gallon Drunk mould. Vocalist Tim Ward has this surrealist, Beefheart-like approach to lyrics. What exactly is ‘The Resin World’, for instance? I don’t know, but I often find myself muttering some of his non-sequiturs to myself: ‘Two rivals need no abuse excuse‘, ‘If only I could be on police patrol, like my cousin the red wing‘, ‘I’m rich and I’m as skinny as you‘.
“I love the interplay of Elevate’s rhythm section, this rollicking backdrop for punchy riffs and atmospherics: their songs are full of all these great guitar hooks, slinky grooves in odd time signatures, and on top of it all this strange stream-of-consciousness vocal. It’s one of those records where after one song finishes and the next one starts, you think, this riff is even better than the last one! It’s just a world of its own.
The Architect is one of the only records I’ve ever bought twice. I lived in Texas for a few years and decided not to ship my records out there; instead, I just started a new vinyl collection. But because I couldn’t find this record on streaming services or anywhere online, I decided I had to have it there too, so in the end, I had two copies. I’d buy it again too—it’s that good.”
As you can tell from his love for Elevate, the Bloc Party sound and now The None, Moakes is a first rate purveyor of heavy atmospheres. Care feels like a blistering extension of that. If The Architect was something new and original without focusing on much more than a distinct spirit, then Care follows suit.
