Mad Nanna – I Made Blood Better LP (Negative Guest List) / “If I Don’t Sleep Tonight” b/w “Untitled” 7” (Wormwood Grasshopper) / “I Hit A Wall” b/w “Untitled” 7” (Quemada)
Listing, listless spew from a Tasmanian rock band that flops around like that goldfish at the end of the Faith No More video. I’ve been wrestling with this group’s LP and a handful of singles (all of which are featured in some other version, barely discernible from one another, on the full-length, and given some rehearsal-space jangle on B-sides that don’t bear names) for months now, and what they are intensely great at is the reveal; the build from listening to something so flatlined and deconstructed that it subverts the form. US Maple was good at this, too, and Mad Nanna sounds nothing like US Maple did at any point, so it’s not who you know, it’s what you know. That lack of enthusiasm in music would come off as a plus, that the band itself is more memorable than any one song of theirs … those are qualities that take some getting used to, due to their short supply. Maybe these guys have figured out how to make something out of nothing, in which case, these records would sit on a shelf with some very rarefied company. Not for everyone, but those few who will find inspiration in these words will love them. (http://negativeguestlist.blogspot.com) (http://wormwoodgrasshopper.blogspot.com) (http://quemadarecords.blogspot.com)
(Doug Mosurock)
