mp3: No Demons Here "Cradles"

"So Pretty, Pretty Dumb"
While I've mentioned a few highlights from the Chocolate Bobka Church show a few weeks back, I've failed to mention No Demons Here's opening set, which set the tone for an amazing evening of acoustic slumber punk and hymnal folk. Luka Usmiani, the guy behind the moniker, has been crafting slow burning songs more akin to chemical fires than pop songs under the name No Demons Here for a while, all while playing bass in the live incarnations of Fluffy Lumbers and Big Troubles. His tape Boy Eaten By Thing In Water is one of three that I picked up this summer at the UP Showcase, and has been in consistently high rotation on the night stand cassette deck ever since. "Ten songs of not knowing what to do" and a side long sound collage find NDH dwelling in a burnt out bedroom in the bunker of an old fallout shelter. (Picture a charcoaled version of the home from the Brendan Frasier/ Christopher Walken movie Blast from the Past.)

No Demons Here has been busy lately, releasing a new EP on his blog while also playing in the new noise project Maids with Sam from Fluffy Lumbers. "Cradles", a standout on Boy Eaten By Thing in Water, is one of those tunes you hum for months without knowing where it came from, as if he plucked its chorus from a balloon charting its way toward the heavens. While the lo-fi fragility of the version on Boy Eaten By Thing in Water sounds like a bemoaning transmission from a submarine lost at sea, the live acoustic version is a sheer revelation. It's so brittle you just want to save it before it crumbles into dust.

You can pick up No Demons Here releases from Luka directly, or download them for free at his blog. Highly recommended for cassette enthusiasts. This is music made for the tape deck. It just doesn't sound as good on shitty computer speakers.

No Demons Here- Cradles
No Demons Here set at the Church 12/11/09 (Courtesy of Goddamn Cobras)