Forget everything you think you know and start all over again. Nothink have found themselves tenuously lumped in with the spiky and contrived art/punk-rock scene most prominently lead by the likes of Jawbox and Fugazi. Nothink have guitars and a fondness for punk-rock records but, apart from the guitarist’s asymmetrical indie hair, there the similarity ends.
Sonic and spiritual reference points veer from Burning Airlines to The Get-up Kids via Fugazi, Sparta and Rival Schools. Juan Blas’s guitars swerve from the spiky signature of punk-rock to a keenly emotional, while Álex Ferrero and Miguel Peñas together make a furiously propulsive and hysterical rhythm section which drives Nothink at breakneck speed at all times. And then there is Juan Blas’s voice, fragile and angry, yelping and bellowing, eyes fixed to the horizon one moment and closed tight to shut out the night the next.
Lyrically Nothink are intriguing, mysterious and emotive; sonically they are intricate and explosive in equal measure. Bipolar Age is an astonishing debut album and you will love it. Nothink are the first band in many years that you feel you can care about. The sky is wide open for them.
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