Neon Golden [Extra tracks]

Notwist | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 25, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks
• Label: Domino
• ASIN: B00008BL4F
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #141,679 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. One Step Inside Doesn't Mean You Understand

2. Pilot

3. Pick Up the Phone

4. Trashing Days

5. This Room

6. Solitaire

7. One With the Freaks

8. Neon Golden

9. Off the Rails

10. Consequence

11. Scoop (domestic edition bonus track)

12. Propeller 9 (domestic edition bonus track)

13. Formiga (domestic edition bonus track)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The combination of meandering acoustic guitar, mournful vocals, post-punk rock, crisp electronica, flutes, dub bass, sax, occasional breakbeat, and banjo could've turned the tender tunes on Notwist's sixth album into chaotic and indulgent noodling. The 15 months spent in the studio putting the unlikely components together, however, pays off with a collection beautiful and dreamy lo-fi lullabies in which hazy pop melodies drift by on an eccentric flow of sensual bleeps, whooshes, and crackles. Even when Neon Golden strays toward more traditional rock, Markus Acher's downtrodden yet hopeful vocals and achingly sweet melodies hold up, as do the sumptuous atmospheric add-ons that link the New Order-like "Pilot" and "One with the Freaks" to the title track's ambient electronic pulses. Yet nothing is more magical or odd than "Trashing Days," where Notwist manages to make pneumatic space-age sound effects rubbing against scraping beats, woozy horns and a quietly plucked banjo, sound like the most natural thing in the world. --Dan Gennoe

Product Description

15 months in the making, and light years ahead of their post-punk, self-titled debut in 1990, Neon Gold is Notwist's sixth full length album. 'Top 10 album of the year', says the New York Times. This Domino release features three bonus tracks not availabl

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Shakespearean Macabre March 22, 2003

By Russell E. Scott

Format:Audio CD

Somehow this one slipped through the cracks. Normally I'd hop on this type of thing day one out of the blocks, even as an import. I'm glad I waited. The domestic release of NEON GOLDEN includes three additional cuts all at a very reasonable price. Enough of that though. I admit I'm not familiar with any previous Notwist material, but no matter. I read in one review about a reference to New Order, my all-time number one band. Another reviewer compared it to Radiohead's KID A but classically superior. Personally I hear elements of Sigur Ros and Interpol with a hint of Blue Nile to smooth it all out. And what does all that equate to? Well try alt-rock with the some hop-scotch electronica wrapped about these beautiful soaring melodies and you're kinda' getting close. The sum comes across as fresh, reverent, stately, original, complete, and endlessly satisfying. How many other albums do that for you? The opening cut, "One Step Inside Doesn't Mean You Understand" is completely that, throwing you off course of what is to come. Beware the beast though because next up "Pilot" and "Pick Up The Phone" throw you into their abyss sonic falling. No worry, you land solid by "Trashing Days". "Solitaire" is a nostalgic synth crop-crusher expelling you out the finished end all ready for the trip to market and retail shelving. Not to give it all away, "Neon Golden" is probably the lead cut as the album title dubious, not as to diminish the other gems. How these Krauts, who started playing metal over ten years ago, came up with the mother of cool is beyond me. If you get a copy you can start to understand. It's in the glory. Hug a brother and join the movement.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I heard it once and had to own it March 7, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD

I was in a bookstore in Philly and Neon Golden was played over the store system. I asked what it was and walked across the street to buy it. It's that good. Everyone who hears it at my apartment in the village says, "what's this?" It has an immediate appeal, and your appreciation will only grow with more listens.

It is at some level rock music and it is delivered in many ways as electronic music. However, genre is the worst possible way to describe an album like this. The vocals and lyrics are compelling and personal. They are not made to impress you, show off range, and do not fall into any of the usual pitfalls of most songs. They are just raw and honest and above all, human.

The electronic beats give the music a clear and focused edge and an amazing feel. Guitar, banjo (this doesn't strike one as a great idea in words, but it sounds great on the album, bluegrass doesn't even come to mind), and horns and flutes produce a very interesting sound. All has the controlled measure and sound of electronic music, but the live instruments and vocals produce an unimaginable blend with a moving sound.

This album easily appeals to many types of music fans from rock and electronic perspectives and does a great job walking a line only comfortably traversed by such bands as Radiohead and The Postal Service...

If you are wondering where rock music (or electronic music) should be moving next, listen to this album. It shakes off all the shackles of music history and soars into music for music's sake. There is nobody who would not enjoy this music. -As a side note, be sure to visit their website, it's pretty cool.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Notwistonyerears February 19, 2004

By C. Gardner

Format:Audio CD

This is a completely engrossing album that took several immersions before I comprehended its depth and distinction, but it was certainly worth it. In its elaborate, slightly skewed arrangements, "Neon Golden" reminds me of Radiohead's last few efforts, but without the sometimes annoying claustrophobic solipsism of a Radiohead album. And it's far more chill. There's a great use of space and silence, and a true sense of beauty here (especially the hypnotic closing track "Consequence") but that's not to say it's untouched by angst and fear. Archer's muted & affectless voice offsets the songs' complex arrangements, which are couched in an odd mix of sampled acoustic instruments dressed up with trip-hop engineering tricks and technology. Definitely one of the best of 2003.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Junkmedia Review - Keep listening, to see what you missed February 25, 2003

By junkmedia

Format:Audio CD

It's like German band The Notwist is in a four-door Jetta, spiraling up a mountain road. If any of the four bandmembers inside the car were to look out the window right now, they'd see a sweeping landscape of peaks and valleys. Scattered among the natural surroundings is the band's winding history: remnants of bills shared with Fugazi and The Jesus Lizard from the early '90s; wisps of forgotten speed metal riffs hang from pine trees; there's a collaboration with Bjork; and, about 1000 meters below, is the band's first Powerbook. Curiously, there's a violin down there, too.

A year ago, The Notwist ascended above the tree line with the release of Neon Golden on City Slang in the UK. Melding electronic drones and clicks and cuts with acoustic instruments, on their sixth ablum The Notwist synthesized their ironically twisted past into the record they've been driving towards for the last 14 years. Ripples of hype ensued.

Without the benefit of actually being released domestically, the album showed up on numerous State-side year-end lists for 2002 (including three by Junkmedia staff here, here and here). Now the album has been given a new life in the United States with the release of this Domino version, which includes three bonus tracks.

Neon Golden stumbles to a start with the syncopated pizzicato violin of "One Step Inside Doesn't Mean You Understand." Layers of bowed violin, guitar and percussion are added, as Markus Acher sets the somber tone for the album with his vocals. Static-y electro drums pound and splash on track six, "Solitaire." Acher delivers vocals in a calculated melancholy; subdued acoustic guitar is plucked against the gentle onslaught of beat fuzz, and, by this time, halfway through the album, it's clear that this is a glimpse into the future of pop music.... While guitar-bass-drum-type outfits will never disappear completely, the trend among such bands to integrate electronic undercurrents is now obviously inexorable.

And just when you've got all that figured out, track eight, "Neon Golden," jams a wrench into the spokes. A raunchy acoustic guitar rakes out a blues riff, cymbals are brushed and Acher sings, Neon golden / like all the lights. Later, a doumbek is added, lending a slight Eastern feel to an otherwise traditional blues. It seems like an odd title track for an album that's decidedly nontraditional; that is, until you realize that washes of electronics have taken over for the acoustic instruments. Like the rest of the album, it's so subtle that you'll want to keep listening just to see what else you missed last time around.

Robert Young
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