Nedry

Nedry's glitchy sounds burst out of their dark enclave onto hundreds enjoying the afternoon sun on the outdoor New Music Stage - NME

"... it was a jaunt back to the main stage that provided the highlight of the event. Having been captivated by their album Nedry were a must see for me, and they did not disappoint. Often musicians with a heavy reliance on electronics can struggle in a live setting, but the opposite was true for this astounding three piece. As Matt Parker and Chris Amblin brought their respective noise from guitars, laptops and pads, vocalist Ayu Okakita put across a performance that was nothing short of spellbinding. Like a conduit for the music her voice and dancing twisted and turned into an almost tribal hypnotic performance. After the first song she politely asked the audience to step forward, drawing them closer in, before weaving her transfixing-spell again. Walls of complex beats and waves of sub-bass shook the venue, bowling families starred on in disbelief and it became apparent that Nedry are a serious contender for greatness." - The Line of Best Fit

Summary: The British trio named after a character in Jurassic Park releases its debut album featuring band member Ayu Okakita's voice as a looped instrument.

Metacritic Rating: 82 (Universal Acclaim) - Metacritic

I'd like to test my skills in foretelling the future of the music business and want to propose a bet: Nedry's album “Condors”, which you might never heard of until now, will be high up on the “Best records of 2010” lists. Why? Just listen to it: It's like a rebirth of Trip-Hop. It's Ayu Okakita's haunting vocals. It's Chris Amblin and Matt Parker's clever beats. It's the emotion mixed with hard Electro sounds. It's brilliant! Well, the bet stands – and Nedry's gig at the Reeperbahn Festival will prove my point! - Reeperbahn Festival

Phew! We are a little out of breath here at Recommender Towers. Mainly because we’ve just had it whipped from us upon hitting play on Nedry’s songs. We call them songs, but that’s a little misleading, they’re really life-changing experiences! The kind of experiences you get when dipping your LCD-fuelled head into a bucket of jelly, whilst someone rams a mains electricity cable up your ass! It’s not for the flimsy music fan out there. It’s for the intellectual, for the strong silent types, for those wanting to know what fresh air really tastes like. The kind of fresh air Nedry supply drifted down from the top of some mystical Japanese mountain and it washes over you like a baptism of fuzzy lusciousness. Upon listening to their track A42, (mp3 listed below), you will hear it’s analogue drum roll beginning, with it’s distortion and drifting keys. It’s simplicity defined, but once you get past this initial stage we suggest you tuck your head between your knees, plane-crash-bracing-stylee, as the tune drops it’s warped bassline and booming beats. It’s dark and moving stuff, but it’s Ayu Okakita’s lifting vocals that truly blow you away. She joined Chris and Matt from her native Japan earlier in 2009 to begin realising their sound and what has developed hasn’t been heard, or even attempted, since the likes of Bjork or Portishead. It’s bravery is astonishing, its beauty impossible to resist. Thankfully this has been noticed and picked up by Huw Stephens of Radio One and additionally earned them a tour supporting 65 Days Of Static in 2010. Their debut, Condors, is officially released in Spring next year. (MB) - Recommender Mike

When I met two thirds of Nedry recently (Ayu the singer was in Japan, where she's from), they shared the good news that they've signed to Monotreme Records, home of 65daysofstatic. I breathed a sigh of relief, because when a band is as good, as versatile and as daring as Nedry, you kind of hope the wider world will stand up and take notice on a bigger scale. This will happen now as their Condors album gets released in the new year and Nedry’s post-dubstep, shoegazy brilliance will make them stand out from the crowds in 2010 when the 80's will still dominate. But there's room for everyone of course. Especially Nedry.

(Huw Stephens) - Kruger Magazine - December 2009

"(Nedry) reinvent the (trip-hop) genre on their terrific debut, a futuristic sonic collage of dreamy glitch-folk, shimmering electronica and weapons grade dubstep percussion."
******** UNCUT

"Featuring soaring vocals and spectral soundscapes, this London trio look set to become the first mainstream dubstep indie band."
THE GUARDIAN

"Nedry are evolving trip hop in an enticing fashion"
BBC MUSIC

"Highly innovative stuff"
ROCK-A-ROLLA

"Frenetic Warp-esque IDM with swampy overdriven guitars & gut-wrenching sub-bass"
NME

"Nedry stake out enchanted realms of their own"
THE INDEPENDENT

"From the very first listen it sounds seminal"
********* THE LINE OF BEST FIT

"Exquisite vocals...deep subterranean booms and slowly bifurcating beats"
******* DROWNED IN SOUND

"Bold and outstanding"
********* THE 405

"Sublime and essential"
******* THE MUSIC FIX

"It's genre-jumping wonders are something to behold...how this is a debut LP is beyond belief"
********** THE STUDENT PRESS

"Quite astonishing"
********* MUSIC OMH

"Remarkable"
********** SUBBA-CULTCHA

"Just a little more than 30 minutes are sufficient to the Londoners Nedry, to express their immense talent [...] A debut in the big way which could lead them to get the top!"
******** METALLUS (Italy) - Various

It was only a matter of time before Dubstep started to seep into the world of art rock. Enter Condors, Nedry’s first proper full-length on the vastly underrated British indie Monotreme Records. It builds upon the momentum started by Thom Yorke’s The Eraser, and brings that energy into a sonic territory that’s like imagining the result of Massive Attack recording for the Hyperdub label. Though it features just eight songs in just more than 25 minutes, Condors is an impressive document from an innovative new trio that has the BBC buzzing.

By Ron Hart - Pop Matters

Nedry have been making waves of late, partly thanks to the ongoing support of BBC Introducing’s Huw Stephens, but mainly because their debut mini-album Condors is all kinds of awesome, a murky suburban trawl with just the slightest hint of light at the end of their breathy glitch-hop. Live, they override technical problems to imbue this sense of nocturnal uncertainty even more forcefully, not bad for 4:30pm on a sunny afternoon. In a startling set, the highlight is six minute opus ‘Apples & Pairs,’ a wistful day dream turned dark as lead singer Ayu Okaita immerses herself fully in the quiet intensity of the music. There’s a strange bond between them on stage, a shy intimacy almost as though they’re supporting each other through the bleak landscapes swirling out in front of them, and this simple presence juxtaposed with the scale of their sound, makes for something that captivates far beyond the sum of its parts.

Simon Jay Catling - Gods In The TV

Having already received high praise from Q and Radio 1’s Huwe Stephens Nedry’s debut album is certainly worth the buzz…
Nedry are Marr Parker, Chris Amblin and Ayu Okakita, who I believe met on Myspace. After a year of online interaction between 2007 and 2008, they decided to brave it up and meet face to face in spring 2008. The music they make can be described as a cross between the haunting beauty of Boards of Canada, the provocation of Radiohead, the darkness that Sneaker Pimps projected through songs such as ‘Clean’ and the chilling element of Bjork’s repertoire. So basically, electro meets dub meets rock.

I’m going to cut to the chase; this is one of the best things I have heard for a long while, which, for some reason, has completely thrown me. A lot of this type of music generally impresses me but not quite enough – perhaps it is a little too cheesy, or has too much of a pop element, or is too obscure but Nedry get the balance just right and it has been a long time since I have been this satisfied with an electro album. The music is intertwined without flaw, the songs are structured with great intelligence – there is not too much going on but it is still interesting and, unlike a lot of other records made in a similar style, listening to this is not a chore, it is thoroughly effortless and enjoyable. It does not make you uncomfortable; instead it provokes thought and consideration. What I particularly love is the use of vocalist Ayu’s voice – it is more like an instrument than lead vocals and it flits in and out of the music perfectly and is nothing short of amazing to listen to.

This may be their debut and Nedry may have only existed for less than three years, but ‘Condors’ is remarkable. The only disappointment is that it ends after eight tracks. - Subba-Cultcha

They say that there’s a first time for everything, and with that in mind I set off to the Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen for a night hosted by the Line of Best Fit with the sole purpose of checking out support act, Nedry. The fact that the London-based trio’s trip-hop/dubstep/post-rock debut release has gathered an impressive collection of positive reviews since its release in February, recent airplay on Radio 1 and forthcoming sets at both Roskilde and Sonar - whilst also being on heavy rotation on my play list – saw me keen to catch them before the hype machine rumbles by and whisks them off to larger venues.

Nedry live are an enticing blend of electronica and bugged out, shoegaze tinged post rock. In my hypothetical world of music mathematics, this roughly equates to subtracting the 90’s and Folk influences from an early Lamb, then multiplying the result with some serious sub-bass. Playing through a set comprising material from their album, such as ‘A42’ and title track ‘Condors’, vocal melodies are looped and layered over an ever-shifting backdrop of beats, samples and instruments.

‘Apples and Pears’ immerses the crowd in a daydream of hazy vocals, meandering guitar line and snatches of barely there lyrics, before delivering a rude awakening courtesy of a base-line so dirty I practically had to cross my legs. While the intense instrumental ‘Scattered’ sees singer Ayu clamber onto a side platform and indulge in a bit of primal screaming accompanied by electric guitar riffs and a frenzied beat bashed out on a drum machine.

Considering they have been playing together live as a full group for just little over a year, Nedry turn in a performance that is energetic, enthusiastic and impressively slick. When their set is cut short due to a late start and need to make way for the headliners, the disappointment from the crowd is obvious – a sentiment echoed from the stage with “I was really looking forward to playing the next song!” – and I’m already looking forward to when the band return to London after their post-festival hiatus with a full set and their name at the top of the bill. - The 405 Music Blog

Condors might be Nedry’s debut, but the album calls upon deep roots: the UK-based group is the three-headed combination of electronica producers Matt Parker (aka Earthkeptwarm) and Chris Amblin (aka Ekocam) and vocalist Ayu Okakita, a veteran who released two “pop” albums with Universal Music Japan, founded several bands, etc. (hers is a career that runs parallel with Björk’s, an artist she is often compared to). Together, they craft a transparently pieced-together eclecticism; one that dodges between genres while avoiding shocking transitions.

Establishing this template with track one (“A42”), Parker and Amblin nimbly flit from a crunchy 8-bit intro to throbbing dubstep bass and a tenuous wall of delay-splashed guitar chords and fey synths. Over this, Okakita sensually coos and builds a bed of harmonies and dreamy purrs of “come close to me, no one’s awake.” For “Squid Cat Battle,” electric guitar accents–then slams against–a slink of heavily compressed drum machine with the vocalist delivering her desperate PJ Harvey-esque squeals and moans via myriad approaches (i.e. bone dry to tiny telephone to majestic echoes). The title track employs a driven, almost crump-worthy rhythm of fizzing cymbals, tabla and bass drum under Okakita’s steady “higher, higher, higher, higher” and the producers’ counterpoint of blues and noodling prog rock (think Battles).

Experienced as a whole, Condors is a multi-course meal that features some familiar dishes and some foreign with ingredients that require a bit of acclimation–but they’re all delicious. - URB Magazine

IN ENGLISH

First things first. Nedry is a trio formed by Chris Amblin, Matt Parker and Okakita Ayu. These three people were as "entities" Nedry musicals before birth. Amblin is Ekocam and mixes his musical legacy analog electronic sounds, placing your subject between downtempo, ambient and post-rock, equidistant between, for example, Telefon Tel Aviv and Explosions In The Sky. Parker is Earthkeptwarm, prolific producer with significant attachment to dubstep and steamy; distorisiones guitar, elements of soul-disk space or are common in their work. And Ayu Okakita is a Japanese singer who in 2005 emigrated to London, where he worked with various musical projects. Sometime in 2007, these three musical entities are discovered by the network and begin to exchange views and opinions on what and how it should be the music. In 2008 they decide to meet and explore all the "back-up internetil" who had contributed, this time with hand tools. As a result, in late 2008 Amblin and Parker start making direct Nedry under the label. After the Christmas holidays, Ayo returns from Tokyo, adhering to the band and finalizing its foundation.

If you take the sound of Ekocam, Earthkeptwarm and Ayo and amounts, you get as a result the sound of Nedry: roughly dubstep beats, downtempo atmospheres and haunting yet warm voice of the Japanese. But for now, impossible to label Nedry within a genre that already exists. Wait for a couple sets out on the same wavelength and some smart journalist Pitchfork 've already named a new genus. Just a clever journalist, but in this case the BBC ("God Save The BBC", the queen give a shit), was commissioned to make a final effort the trio to head out in the English musical scene. Then the guru Huw Stephens invited to play live on his show "Huw Stephens Introducing ..."which is like a fresh seafood zarzuela coming of the British Isles as a podcast. It was November 2009 and "Condors", their debut album, was already self-published and autodistribuído, rolling on the blogs. With direct petardazo the BBC and work as an album, a matter of time that a label release of this album ... In this part of the story is where Monotreme Records.

The sound of this trio is well-matched digitally difficult to classify does not mean it is also difficult to digest. Quite the contrary. The formula for success is that each band member contributes what in their individual projects was their strong point, the exact dose rate, the exact dose of melody, the right dose of sentiment. The perfect balance. As in "A42"or"Apples & Pears, "which open the disc majestically. Displaying their weapons to the security of a band traveled, confident people who have been known since childhood, with the serenity that comes from knowing that one is doing things right. Both items are a sliding travel between organic sounds, MPCs, loops and dreamy vocal lines Ayu's voice, which at times sounds like Björk set of diazepam and Jónsi doing falsetto. And suddenly, a blast of sub-bass like a slap you back to the ground. "Four Layers Of Pink"is a bridge to something darker, an interlude in which the Japanese dialogue with herself through her voice and the loops of the latter, to be fed to give rise to "Squid Battle Cat" . The electric guitar sound to the listener anticipates, which will hear from now it will not be so pleasant. Everything is dark, without losing the dream everything becomes more sordid based guitar strumming and streak noise. It even seems that Ayu Okakita is a bit unbalanced. "Scattered"is an instrumental piece in the same vein as its predecessor, but rise in tempo and served on a base shear drill'n'bass.

"Condors"recover the spirit reminiscent of the beginning of the disk, Ayo has returned to his senses while running Amblin and Parker afrobeat percussion and riffs" if it could not be another turn of the screw to the invention. The album closes back to the atmosphere of the enchanted forest, the organic sounds, the rustle of the machines, Ayu's voice mingled with his own echo manipulated and looped. I say "Go Where The Dead Birds, "a crescendo continued to get open up a cross hole in his stomach. So far, my favorite song for the approaching end of the world in 2012.

Monica Franco

EN ESPANA

Vayamos por partes. Nedry es un trío formado por Chris Amblin, Matt Parker y Ayu Okakita. Estas tres personas existían como “entes” musicales antes de que Nedry naciera. Amblin es Ekocam y su legado musical mezcla la electrónica con sonidos analógicos, colocando su materia entre el downtempo, el ambient y el post-rock, equidistante entre, por ejemplo, Telefon Tel Aviv y Explosions In The Sky. Parker es Earthkeptwarm, prolífico productor con apego al dubstep sensible y vaporoso; distorisiones de guitarras, elementos del soul o del space-disco son comunes en sus trabajos. Y Ayu Okakita es una vocalista japonesa que en 2005 emigró a Londres, donde colaboró con diferentes proyectos musicales. En algún momento de 2007, estos tres entes - Playground Magazine

April 16, 2010

Nedry “Condors” (37%, 450 Votes)
VV Brown “Travelling Like The Light” (30%, 369 Votes)
The Radio Dept. “Clinging To A Scheme” (7%, 89 Votes)
La Strada “New Home” (7%, 85 Votes)
Caribou “Swim” (4%, 47 Votes)
Merle Haggard “I Am What I Am” (3%, 36 Votes)
The Apples In Stereo “Travellers in Space And Time” (3%, 33 Votes)
Roky Erickson With Okkervil River “True Love Cast Out All Evil” (3%, 31 Votes)
Rufus Wainwright “All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu” (1%, 15 Votes)
Willie Nelson “Country Music” (1%, 14 Votes)
Sweet Apple “Love & Desperation” (1%, 13 Votes)
Horse Feathers “Thistled Spring” (1%, 12 Votes)
Cornershop “Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast” (1%, 10 Votes)
Trans Am “Thing” (1%, 6 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,210 - Magnet Magazine

With its debut full-length, London's Nedry presents a level of craftsmanship that can take bands a decade to achieve.

A buzzing, semi-glitched electro base — with amorphous, synthesized bass lines — is accented by alternately canorous and distorted guitars. High-voltage drum-and-bass trades with careful balances of electro-acoustic indie elements.
And this is all before mentioning the head-turning vocals of Ayu Okakita, who draws rightful comparisons to Bjork throughout Condors. Her breathy delivery could use development into more of its own style, but any way that you slice it, this is one hell of a freshman effort. - Alarm Press

There are enough wannabe cool student druggies about to make dubstep into some sort of national scene. It’s one that’s got a lot of talent invested in it too, with artists like Burial making some genuinely groundbreaking music, whilst the likes of Kieran ‘Four Tet’ Hebden have been dancing around similar soundscapes for quite a while. However, there’s been an alarmingly limited crossover to mainstream culture, with a few articles in New York Times and the NME, as well as Skream’s remix of ‘In for the Kill’ being amongst the few notable exceptions.

It’s a genre based upon a good idea. With Condors, Nedry are building upon this solid foundation to make something truly breathtaking. Whilst the album has been knocking around for a few months, it’s only now that it’s being given the exposure that it so rightly deserves. Originally being put out by themselves, it caught the attention of music bloggers around the UK, as well as the attentive ears of Huw Stephens, who gave the band a memorable session on his show. Monotreme records have stepped in to give the record a proper release, and it’s obvious why.

Whilst the rhythms are firmly entrenched in dub, there’s more than a splattering of everything that’s good about modern music in this. And whilst the twitchy, glitching guitar work and broken beats would make a truly magical instrumental piece, it’s the vocals of Ayu Okakita that furnish the record with the distant warmth that makes it so arresting. There’s more than a nod to Portishead and the trip-hop genre in her lingering, beautiful singing that acts as the perfect counterpoint for the dark, electronic sound that it’s layered upon.

The fact that this is a debut release is almost beyond belief, and the confidence that seeps from every second of the record is almost contagious – from the very first listen it sounds seminal, with every song having its own unique identity and purpose. Nedry may be making a noise that resembles a dark, computerised future, but they do it with the personality that dubstep seems to have cut out. As soon as final track ‘Where the dead birds go’ finishes, there’s little else you want to do other than stick opener ‘A42’ on again and let it wash over you. Condors is a record that pretty much has it all, and if music is to do anything great this decade, it could do worse than taking notes from this.

BY MATTHEW BRITTON - Matthew Britton - Line of Best Fit

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jan/20/new-band-nedry

The background: Nedry are a London trio who, like the xx, incorporate space, eerie FX, glitchy textures and dubstep techniques. Much of their music is instrumental, but when Ayu Okakita starts singing in that high, haunting way of hers, you immediately think of a team-up between Björk and Burial, a cuter, more girly Beth Gibbons, or Joanna Newsom signed to Hyperdub. One comparison has been to "Thom Yorke's Eraser with a bit of a dubstep vibe and some post-rock influences", which is astute although even laughing boy can't manage a vocal quite this soaringly poignant.

On A42, the opening track on Nedry's debut album Condor, Okakita's vocals are whispery and soft but never weak and they contrast perfectly with the ever-changing beats, which are sometimes skittering and fast, other times slow, as though someone put a donk in the drum machine. It's lovely, like a spectral ballad mangled by a grime producer. Apples and Pears, the second track on the album, is even lovelier. As arrestingly pretty as anything on the xx record, here Okakita warbles in tongues over slo-mo rhythms and numerous twitches and detonations as well as gently picked acoustic guitar. It's a dark, dolorous electronic sound that shows that dubstep at its most lugubrious yet "song-like" isn't too far removed from trip-hop.

Excitingly, this is all happening "in-house": Nedry, an anagram of "nerdy", are a fully self-contained unit as far as we can tell, creating the music and producing it on their MPCs and DAWs. They only began performing, producing and recording in summer 2008, and since then they've toured with Maps and Pivot among many others from the digital margins and generally threatened to become the first mainstream dubstep indie band. Condor had a "soft" release a while ago, but now, with amazed/amazing responses to it in the press and radio, the Monotreme label has decided to give the album a proper release. We haven't heard the whole thing, and even if we did we'd probably put Apples and Pears on repeat and been inclined to ignore the rest at least for a few days, but from all accounts it represents a considerable advance towards a future where pop is routinely produced with dubstep measures in mind.

The buzz: "Gently skittering electronics and slow-building, spacious ambience – Nedry's gorgeous, minimal soundscapes are tailor-made for the wee hours."

The truth: Apples and Pears? Cor blimey luv a duck this is beautiful and no mistake guvnor see you down the rub a dub oi Rickaaaay!!!

Most likely to: Haunt your waking hours.

Least likely to: Use cockney rhyming slang.

What to buy: Debut album Condors is released on 22 February by Monotreme.

File next to: The xx, Bjork, Portishead, Four Tet.

Links: myspace.com/nedrymakesmusic - The Guardian Newspaper

********

Dubstep meets dream-pop on dazzling debut

Trip hop is a dirty word nowadays, partly because of all the tediously tasteful mediocrities once yoked together under this vague umbrella label. But the London-based trio of Matt Parker, Chris Amblin and Ayu Okakita reinvent the genre on their terrific debut, a futuristic sonic collage of dreamy glitch-folk, shimmering electronic and weapons-grade dubstep percussion. The stand-out here is "Apples And Pears", a sublime folktronic epic intertwined with skull-shuddering robo-dub basslines, which feels like a futuristic step forward from Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' or Portishead's 'Third'. Likewise "Where The Dead Birds Go", a Bjorkishly exotic flurry of world music from another planet.

Stephen Dalton - Uncut Magazine - Stephen Dalton

"sent shiver's down my spine….like Thom Yorke’s Eraser with a bit of a Dubstep vibe and some Post-Rock influences…”
- Huw Stevens

"....eyeing post-rock's rainswept soundscapes from afar while ensuring the bass and beat are kept running"
- Kev Kharas - The Stool Pigeon

Gently skittering electronics and slow-building, spacious ambience - Nedry's gorgeous, minimal soundscapes are tailor-made for the wee hours. - Q Music Magazine

With the prevalence and impact 140bmp bass music has had on the nightlife of a city like London, it was never going to be that long before people like Nedry started fusing the bass frequencies and dubstep drum patterns into 'conventional' song writing. Fusing beautiful, unwavering female vocals with equal parts pristine guitars and sine-wave bass the band certainly do make an arresting noise, fusing genres and styles without making an almighty clang such an act sounds like it might on paper.

Whilst a track like 'Four Layers Of Pink' breeds drone brilliance and the title track manages to perpetuate that new 'post-indie' spiky guitar sound seamlessly with hand claps and percussion ripped straight off the last Skull Disco compendium, it's just those moments, where a completely unannounced bass-heavy sound wave comes into earshot, that don't really sit right.

Pushing a similar strain of modernistic music embrace as Portishead did on the superlative return Third, the Nedry trio are certainly adept at their guitar and vocal combos, evoking everything from Bjork to Joanna Newsom and Beth Gibbons herself; and when they're fusing this talent with the subtle waves and the techno punch on closer 'Where the dead birds go' and undoubted highlight 'Swan Ocean', it's highly innovative stuff.

Oli Marlow - Sept/Oct 2009 Issue
- Rock-A-Rolla