by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Nolan Potter kept himself busy during the pandemic with EGGBOUND (an odds and ends album), the Quarantine Quovers Quollection, and most importantly recording one of our favorite albums of the year, Music Is Dead. Released last month via Castle Face Records (Oh Sees, J.R.C.G., Once & Future Band), Potter wrote and performed this one solo but you’d never know it upon listening. The record is utterly enormous, mixing together old school prog rock, psych pop, and the occasional fuzzy metal riff to create something both kaleidoscopic and brilliantly constructed. Nolan Potter is an exceptional musician and an exceptional songwriter, and the wide expanses of his progressive psych come into view repeatedly on Music Is Dead as he gracefully shifts from movement to movement. Potter darts between ethereal moments of King Crimson-like beauty and tension to ELO-tinged cosmic pop with a heavy dose of psych coating it all.
The album comes to a close with the title track, a tongue-in-cheek masterpiece that focuses on the incredible amount of time put into creating music and the unfortunate disconnected view of so many that music is free. Nolan Potter offers some hilarious (and sort of heartbreaking) lyrics, with lines like “I really like squiggly part” and “you should take a look at my EP, I mastered it all to tape, it’s who I am,” all delivered with a beautifully baroque pop croon and sincerity. The hook reminds everyone “if you have some money for me… music is free” and well, you really ought to buy this record (and all his albums).
The music video is every bit as cinematic as the record itself, pulling from several songs on the album before actually getting to “Music Is Dead.” Consider this more of a short film than your standard video, and the time that was spent making it is ever apparent. Directed by Borzoi’s Taylor Browne, the clip uses stop motion animation, with a nod to the work of Terry Gilliam and Jan Svankmajer. The press release mentions that it was “created entirely by hand using illuminated manuscripts from the British Museum and vintage magazines found at Half Price Books,” which brings to mind the idea of recycled ideas becoming something vibrantly new. There’s a major quest, some battles along the way, and the fight against corporate greed, but you’ll have to tune in to find out how it all plays out.