Nolan Potter Music Is Dead

Nolan Potter is putting the home-recording freaks to shame. The world had a year of global pandemic to lay out its grand ideas and the sum total of most artists “quar-riffs” wouldn’t push the constraints of a normal band practice (gosh, remember those?). Nolan Potter, in the meantime, has quietly painted a beatific masterpiece that veers from the whimsical to the wigged out, deftly weaving an untamed tapestry of sound all the while archly commenting on the present musician’s predicament—and he did it alone. No drum machine clattering in the background amidst tape hiss and four-track grime here—this is a fully realized, insanely well played, full on rock record that might even one-up his first album, 2019’s excellent Nightmare Forever. The guy’s got more chops than a beauticians’ college, across a wide array of instruments—no small feat, and easily overlooked when leaving the lyric sheet and credits on the dining room table. That the songs travel far, wide, up, down, backwards, and gamely spill out over the five minute mark with exceptionally loose interludes and diversions is just another marvel in this carnival of aural delights—it’s a gem of a record and it’s out on Castle Face.