North Atlantic Oscillation, Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow

Photo: Michael Gallacher
A wall of amps and a sideways-on drum kit grace the stage, a bulwark of keyboards form a front line that promises nothing short of full-on pro.

Edinburgh’s North Atlantic Oscillation clearly have ambitions larger than a Wednesday night at Sleazys. The epic sweep and anthemic structure of much of their music fulfils the prophesy hinted at by their barrage of equipment, and at times it feels like they are at the mercy of their effects pedals. This is a controlled and distilled set, that in spite of their grandiose pretentions, never gives in to excess.

‘Soft Coda’ with its high harmonies and crescendos of riffs is neither cloying nor direct enough to become stadium-friendly. The boffin-like array of instruments and effects force vocalist Sam Healy to multitask, while the tense drumming of Ben Martin provides cohesion.

The plinks of keys and stabs of beats that make up single ‘Chirality’ mask any deep meaning buried in its murmurings about “casting devils out”, the focus on sonics at the expense of lyrical clarity is something that pertains throughout NAO’s songs.

While they never quite submit to the lure of the ballad, ‘Mirador’, hints that they might be capable of it without lifting itself up from the persistent rhythm bed of the drum machine.

Complex, melodramatic arrangements point to where they might go with a larger budget – the obsessive detail and massive scope of ‘Mr Blue Sky’ era ELO comes to mind.

‘Ceiling Poem’, (their titles are utterly prog) from first LP Grappling Hooks, has a clarity that the newer material has moved away from. Follow up ‘Fog Electric’ is, as the name suggests, soaked in distortion and swamped with effects.

The earnest piano intro of‘ The Receiver’ sees them at their most understated, then they’re joined by James from support Tomahawks For Targets who adds some butch guitar to the samples and loops. It’s all tremendously atmospheric but with no clear goal in sight.

The treated vocals of ‘Empire Waste’ are precisely rendered, but their meaning still seems hard to focus on. Healy’s voice and more synths meld into waves of static. ‘Savage With Barometer’ resounds with Nigel Godrich-style space noises, anchored by hard working drums. Kid A still has a lot to answer for. Ben Martin refuses to play a drum solo in a tuning break, so perhaps NAO aren’t quite as flagrantly prog as all that.

They build up to a monumental ending with ‘Theory of Tides’, shades of Talk Talk and Kscope label-mates Porcupine Tree, but it remains too controlled to fit into a psychedelic niche.

Any improvisation seems to have taken place in the studio and their live show is the concentrated, fermented results.