Cloud Nothings
It’s been a crazy year for Cloud Nothings since they burst onto the music scene last winter. At the time main man Dylan Baldi was eighteen, living at home, and making lo-fi indie rock on a crappy computer in his parent’s suburban basement outside Cleveland. Since then, Cloud Nothings has released an EP and a handful of singles, and the band has put a few North American tours under its belt. With all the internet notoriety and their recent signing with Carpark, Cloud Nothings are now able to record somewhere besides the basement. For a producer, Dylan chose Baltimore’s Chester Gwazda, known for his work with Dan Deacon and Future Islands. Recorded this past August in a warehouse studio in Baltimore’s famed Copycat Building (home to the original Wham City and many of the city’s best musicians and artists), the self-titled Cloud Nothings album shines through with a crispness and boldness that Dylan has always envisioned. The songs now sound as they do live: full of energy, precision, and catchy bits. Dylan plays all the instruments on the album, but this time without the lo-fi scuzz. The excitement and emotion are practically jumping off the grooves.
Like Wavves, this basement lo-fi hero continues to clean up nicely, offering deceptively dense and increasingly clearer power-pop.
Somebody needs to sit Dylan Baldi down and teach him the value of conserving his hooks. The Cleveland teenager slashes though catchy melodies like broken guitar-strings on his full-length debut as Cloud Nothings, as if mad dashes of melodicism grew on trees. Surely an older, thriftier songwriter would have tried to…
A little more than a year ago, Cloud Nothings front man Dylan Baldi was cranking out a steady stream of effortless power…
Breezes in like a welcome breath of fresh air...Cloud Nothings’ self-titled debut breezes in like a welcome breath of fresh air, just weeks after Britain’s answer to Lady Gaga and My Bloody Valentine’s musical cousin were labelled as 2011’s musical compass.
Essentially the brainchild of Cleveland teenager Dylan Baldi, and arriving soon after last autumn’s ‘Turning On’ (a compilation of his early DIY singles), this ‘proper’ debut album was writt
Cloud Nothings' fizzy, punky pop doesn't outstay its welcome, says <strong>Michael Hann</strong>