Nozzle - Empires

by Helen Tipping

published: 20 / 4 / 2008

Label: Flowermountain Records
Format: CD

Accessible and thoroughly enjoyable second album from Nozzle, the project of former New Model Army guitarist Dave Blomberg

Review

Nozzle are based in Devon and was formed in 1995 by Dave Blomberg. At that time they were a side project to his work with New Model Army. Distance and family commitments won out and Dave left New Model Army to concentrate on his work with Nozzle. Nozzle are very much a rock band with a line up of Dave on guitars and vocals, Leigh Winsor on bass and Joe Breban on guitar. 'Twisted Love' has a T-Rex sound to it, whilst the start of opening number and title track, 'Empires', brings to mind Pink Floyd. Many of the songs have relationships and break-ups as themes, but not by any means all of them. 'Hands of God' is about the division between two warring factions that cannot be healed. Like most of the songs on the album there's a lot of sliding guitar as well as some serious noodling in this one. In contrast to the rest of the album the final song, 'The End', is piano led which makes it stand out, yet it still fits in with the overall sound of the album. The only song I wasn't too sure about was 'Undeniable'. I liked the beginning of it. It sounded quite different and almost tribal sounding but the chorus spoiled it for me by sounding too much like a 1980's hair rock number, although I expect many people might think that's a good thing. The following song 'That Was Then' redeems things for me with its indie-ish Manics type sound. This is a very accessible album, with songs that are well written both lyrically and musically. Nozzle are doing very well in Europe. They, however, haven't toured very much recently and rarely get out of Devon and I think that is a downside to them getting heard more extensively in the UK, especially as live music has going through such a massive revival in the last few years. Hopefully Nozzle will be getting out and playing to promote this release, because the more I've listened to it the more I've found to like about it.