Nonconnah - Nonconnah vs. the Spring of Deception

Memphis spouses Nonconnah’s inspired mix of drone, shoegaze, ambient field recordings, and cloaked pop affections sonically carpet your psyche and fill the voids you didn’t know were there as if they were a craving you’ve carried with you for ages, finally sated. You may not move to this music, but it will change you like rain on a withered meadow.

“The latest Tennessee duo Nonconnah immerses the listener in a sepia-toned, wood-paneled moment when our current era of hyper mediation was still in its infancy; of corduroy couch cushions, analog gaming consoles and televangelists bleating through nocturnal static. On ‘An Escape From Doomscroll Valley’, a child’s voice enthuses about angels. Later, on the lengthy ‘When They Opened Their Mouths They Sounded Like Shrieking Birds’, a woman makes lofty spiritual claims over sombre strings, revealing the poignancy of the desire to transcend fragile human conditions. Album closer ‘…Like Some Distant Star Collapsing’ aestheticises self-erasure: a tone cloaked in distortion so fuzzy it disappears.” -The Wire

"Despite the changes in instrumentation, there’s an internal consistency to the work of Nonconnah. Their music conflates past and present while looking toward a future that may or may not involve spiritual apocalypse. Legends intermingle with fantastic imaginings, pre-recorded music with live instrumentation. While old cassettes are a primary part of the LP mix, Magpie leaves a new voice mail on an analogue tape recorder. The album ends with “…Like Some Distant Star Collapsing,” which starts with the album’s loudest drone, but finishes with a train whistle and a serenade of strings and bells. In execution and in theory, it sounds like coming home." - A Closer Listen

“…a fantasy-like hybridised version of psychedelia…droning soundscapes, eerie voiceovers and field recordings that take the listener on a voyage to the outer limits…diesel-fueled drones that make the heart explode. Alongside synths that rain glitter from the skies…wholesome, panoramic walls of noise that undulate and cascade, ducking and weaving through the orbits. It’s these large-hearted moments of sonic defiance that feed into a sparkling ambience…oscillating between ethereal bliss and a storm of sound…it’s an exploration of sound that reaches out into the unknown, and during a time when the world feels like it’s about to implode, Nonconnah Vs. The Spring of Deception feels like the soundtrack to a different place altogether.” - Sun 13

“The duo Nonconnah…has often delighted us on these pages. When genre terms such as drone, post-rock, ambient or shoegaze are used in descriptions (or attempts at descriptions), then at first glance these are stakes that seem to mark out the terrain in which the duo from Memphis moves quite well. However, these ultimately only partially manage to adequately describe the very unique sound of Nonconnah…This is music that seems to come from the ether as well as from the shortwave radio.” - African Paper