NCM

To bestow the moniker of power trio on New Paltz punk three-piece NCM, while entirely appropriate, doesn’t quite do justice to the band as it’s heard on its second full-length platter.

True, this group has the energy and reckless abandon of a train on the verge of jumping the track, but beyond the sheer brute aural force there is an intricacy of structure and intuitive command of the vocabulary of rock. Take “Change the Conversation,� which kicks off with drummer Justin Pettinati’s ferocious backbeat and rages along on the wave of founder/front man Pete Crotty’s grinding guitar and ragged-but-right vocals. Amid the song’s coruscating volume, the delicate plinking of a piano appears before Crotty tosses off a totally unexpected guitar break of Chuck Berry-style licks and the track finally fades into exuberant, Ramones-like “hey, hey, hey� chants. On “Purge,� an acoustic guitar transitions into a wash of wah-wah and the vocal harmonies of Crotty and bassist Lara Hope; the dynamic then alternates between righteous guitar-scrubbing and hard-rock balladry. But despite its labyrinth-like structure, the song is entirely coherent and riveting.The great appeal of this disc is that NCM is not beholden to a single sound; instead, the band embraces aural diversity with an experimental glee that is focused and exhilarating.
www.ncmmusic.com. - The Chronogram

NCM is shorthand for non compos mentis, which translates from Latin as an unsound mind. While this New Paltz band sings enthusiastically of hallucinations and imaginary conversations, the tightly crafted arrangements and harmonies are quite lucid, if turbo-charged, with pile-driving rhythms. On this, the band's third full-length, NCM's nucleus of Pete Crotty (guitar/vocals) and T-Milt (drums) reprises many songs from its 2007 debut, Escape from Myopia, with production and instrumental contributions from Earl Slick (David Bowie). The arrangements of the songs here don't differ significantly from the versions on that release, but the mix does boast a fuller, more muscular hard rock sound.
The opener, "Change the Conversation," blasts out of the gate with some mighty low-end bass and Chuck Berry-style riffing. It's a song in which the hooks latch on and don't let go, the perfect score for a rock 'n' roll Saturday night. The yowling dissatisfaction of rockers like "Bah Bah Dead Sheep" and "Dissolution" are leavened with a folk-country streak, exemplified on the optimistic "Apples," which features an earnest vocal by Crotty and is punctuated by plaintive steel and acoustic guitar. The opening bars of "Unwound" deceptively resemble the beginning of the Jackson 5's "ABC"—before the crunch of the electric guitars kicks in and drops out briefly for some girl group-like vocal refrains. NCM, a veteran act of three national DIY tours, is adept at putting in sly musical references of this sort, making genre pigeonholing difficult.

- CHronogram

NCM's new "Escape from Myopia", here we have an album that shows us what independent rock and rol is all about! This self made, self produced, and self distributed album, is a testament to NCM's DIY lifestyle abd their commitment to keeping things simple and true.

This New York trios full length debut delivers a one, two punch of melodic energy that is reminiscent of the early Seattle movement that later became known as Grunge-it has a raw, gritty and aggressive sound that is pure and honest as rock and roll can get. Upon Hearing the new singles "Change The Conversation," "dissolution," and Weeding My Garden" you are sure to hear that NCM is poised for something big. - Hat City Entertainment(Danbury,COnn)

With none other than the iconic Mister Rogers exhorting young people to talk about the things we feel inside, NCM's new long player blasts off with BAA BAA Dead Sheep, all sharp bright drums, aggressively filthy bass, and gianormous guitar�topped off by guitarist/singer/songsmith Pete Crottys punkstyle declamations and occasional full band weeoo background vocals. Mid CD things go a bit Americana (G String,Apples) taking advantage of bassist Lara Hope's strong vocal presence, before bringing it back to harder/faster (Saturn, Youre To Blame), riding the rock solid gyrations of drummer Justin. NCM is one of the hardest working bands in the area (March 15 at 60 Main, New Paltz; March 19 at Snapper Magees, Kingston), so you should have no trouble experiencing the group close up. - Roll Magazine