Nancy Garcia: Be the Climb (CD on Ecstatic Peace)

Band: Nancy Garcia
Label: Ecstatic Peace
Title: Be the Climb

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Band:Nancy Garcia
Title:Be the Climb
Reviewed By:Paul Waller
Date Published:05/07/2010

Label:Ecstatic Peace
Format:CD
Release Year:Label
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'Be the Climb' is a third of a whole. The other two parts are the live performance of 'I Need More' and the video which can be watched on You Tube. I haven’t seen Nancy Garcia live, but I have watched the film and listened to this (for my sins) many times over. The majority of reviews I have read of 'Be the Climb' have been based as much on the film as the album but I am sticking to my guts and ignoring the rather enjoyable footage of the crazy lady and am reviewing the album as a standalone piece. So, does it hold up as a record you would visit again and again?

The answer is 100% no. The electronic noise pieces are nauseating at hell. Even on first listen I find myself hating those parts. Now when I listen in the car I can skip them thank goodness. I own a fair few no wave albums. but the majority of them offer up more than the six minutes of distorted feedback of 'Pull It Out' or the bizarre squelchy racket offered up in From 'The Kneeling'. As for 'Overnight' the noise pulsates throbbing in and out of earshot. After a minute it becomes irritating and towards the finale you find yourself wanting to kill the very next person you see. Whether this is the desired effect I am not entirely sure, but it’s not enticing me to listen to again.

But, and this is a huge BUT. There are some brilliant tracks on here. When Nancy lays down an actual song to tape there is a little touch of the genius that shines throughout. No matter how many no wave electro crashes each linear song contains you can not strip away the lady’s pop heart.

The opening two tracks, 'These People' where Garcia’s voice sounds eerily like a young Liz Phair’s and the grrrrl fuzz and the electronica suss of 'Be the Climb' are fantastic slices of punky indie rock. 'Find Out' and 'Midweek Silence' are just as good if not better. The fade out line of “I wanna make something clear” is sill buzzing around my head like a trapped hornet. It’s rather smashing, which is so damn odd. How can she produce such solid material and such shoddy material at the same on the same record? It’s not as if the noisy instrumentals are linking tracks of a minute each. They are huge, sprawling and timely beasts that ruin the flow of 'Be the Climb' for me completely.

As a mini-album this would be an amazing statement of arrival. With Thurston Moore backing her and all the visual projects that go along side this album I suspect Garcia could have broken through to the top of her native New York art scene whereas as it stands she has crafted a rather approachable album and hindered it by including some utter drivel. It’s the musical equivalent of the England squad. By including a few duds the team just can not function as a whole.

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Frequently unlistenable, but also sometimes brilliant debut album from New York-based multimedia performer and experimentalist, Nancy Garcia

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Be the Climb - CD
Frequently unlistenable, but also sometimes brilliant debut album from New York-based multimedia performer and experimentalist, Nancy Garcia

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