Sula Bassana aka Dave Schmidt’s solo career has spanned some 20 Years. The tracks on Nostalgia were written between 2013 and 2018 and recently finished up. I guess the best way to describe the music on Nostalgia is laid back. While much of Sula’s later solo work has focused on electronics like 2021’s excellent Loop Station Drones, and his past and current band work (Electric Moon, Zone Six and others) has focused more on spacey improv jamming, Nostalgia is more of a rock record with echoes of Sonic Youth and Indie Rock. The record opens up with a slow nine minute piece called “Real Life” which is a beautiful downer of a tune that almost seems to want to careen out of control but somehow manages to stay on course. “We will Make It” follows and again clocks in at nine minutes and really drives home the Sonic Youth influences with the alternative tunings and hush hush singing style. The title track follows with a slow string intro followed by some scraping guitar and flute and slow strumming guitar. “Wurmloch” is the longest track on the record clocking in at over ten minutes with some spacey keys and a nice intro before the Motorik beat kicks in for liftoff. The track keeps building and building and is more of what I guess I would have expected. “Mellotraum” closes things out on a drifting airy note that is somewhat in the dream pop realm of a band like Mallory without the singing.
The record isn’t at all what I was expecting and i find that refreshing. it’s yet another side of a musician that I have followed in many incarnations and it’s never been dull. More of a lazy rainy day record than something I would put on to rock the house. Killer artwork by Hervé Scott Flament as well.
I got my copy from Juno but you can get it directly from Sulatron.
