Third Star Records (label)
11 September 2026 (released)
13 h
Every now and again, an album comes along that leaves this listener absolutely unsure as to whether this is ‘bleh’ or absolute genius. I’ve spent days with this album, delving and trying to learn how it works (and if it does).
nûs have been quiet for nearly thirty years, but this album suggests that they have merely been gathering their thoughts and plans for all that time.
Percy Howard (vocals), Stephen Sullivan (Guitars, Guitar-synth), Richard Kazanjian (bass), Sean Sullivan (drums), come together with ideas, scraps, samples and very rarely, a completed lyric. They work on the music first, blending and melding until the disparate elements combine to make a complete piece, then the lyrics follow, taking their form from the music. It all combines to make music that is initially difficult to understand but that comes together with repeated listening.
Musically, there are elements of soul, Blues, groove, even touches of folk, but no one style holds sway.
The theme of the album seems to be the story of Angel Lucifer’s fall from grace and that perfectly suits Howard’s dark baritone. Guest artists abound and bring wonderful breadth and depth to the music – John Ettinger’s violin, Jack Perla’s Piano, David Boyce (Broun Fellinis) saxophone, and Natalie Carols vocals are all magical and the mix, by legendary producer Gabriel Sheppard, is pin-sharp and exacting – every instrument, every musical theme, appears exactly on point.
The whole thing is a wonderously deep soup of sounds. Dark at the core but ethereal and almost skittish at times as the music develops. There are some familiar elements, but the music is never standing still – any song can contain multiple rhythmic elements, sounds that fly in and out of the mix.
Singles ‘Fissure’ and Magic In The Trees’ are perfect examples of the band although I feel that they are only tasters for an album of real depth and complexity.
I think, on reflection, that this is a superb, and important album. Grown up and really not for kids, it rewards proper study and it really does satisfy with more exposure.
