Naima Bock

I loved Naima Bock's 2022 album Giant Palm, which was arty & elegant UK indie folk with great arrangements and a touch of Brazil. She has roots there, and while I think some reviewers overemphasized the connection, I do wonder if it influenced her layered compositional approach (she also included a cool cover of Nara Leão's "O Morro" on Giant Palm). One of my favourites that year.

She has a new album coming out in September, Below a Massive Dark Land, that is shaping up to be p compelling too based on the three tracks released so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpV3ljoIyw8

"Gentle," the opening track is a good snapshot of how she uses folk as a launchpad to move into pop that can somehow be both baroque and stripped down, moving from intimacy to community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wl20YHYO7o

And there's the jazzy, fuzzy "Kaley" which sounds a bit like Nico singing over a Van Morrison song (though not as retro as that formula sounds).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aef-C3MCkEc

The lovely "Further Away" is the most straightforwardly folk of the three, though even here some kind of synth string instrument makes a very brief and intriguing cameo.

i also loved loved loved her album from 2022. she's a brilliant arranger with an oddly beautiful sense of harmony. no two songs sound the same, and each one has an entrancingly memorable musical moment. "kaley" has been stuck in my head for the past few weeks, it's more direct and propulsive than the majority of her work, and i'm loving it. haven't heard "gentle" yet, but looking forward to it

this is the blurb i wrote for the album when i wrote up my favs of 2022 (re-reading the blurb reminded me that she once played bass in goat girl!)

Naima Bock’s Giant Palm gleams like a greenhouse during golden hour, organic and synthetic elements operating in harmony to create an album unlike any I’ve heard before. The album is a spiritual successor to Mort Garson’s horticultural synth music and Vashti Bunyan’s insular, pastoral ballads, with strains of folk from Brazil and England mixed in for good measure. Created in collaboration with co-producer/arranger Joel Burton, the former Goat Girl bassist’s solo debut is structured like the tree of its title, a variety of frilled fronds emanating from a knotty heart. In this case, everything stems from Bock’s endless wonder at the marvels of our natural world, which she expresses through plaintive, immersive, and unpredictable ballads. Some of my favorite moments: the psychedelically eerie call-and-response that begins “Every Morning”; the whimsically bluesy piano in “Instrumental”; the dissonant waltz that undergirds the haunting “Campervan”; and the beautiful harmonies that adorn her cover of the Portuguese-language bossa nova ballad “O Morro,” which ends the album on a nostalgic note.

hi voodoo chili! your brief mention of Giant Palm on the (iirc) pitchfork thread was what prompted me to listen to her in the first place. great blurb and "each one has an entrancingly memorable musical moment" is v otm

I was going to mention Goat Girl, but I've never listened to them (should I?) -- very little neo-post-punk does much for me so I haven't bothered seeking it out

i'm most familiar with their 2021 album, which i liked a lot (tho i need to check out their new one, which was produced by the same guy who produced the incredible 2023 lankum record). it does stem from the post-punk tradition, but they're pretty distinct from most of the artists in that new wave, particularly because they focus on creating atmosphere and singing with (unconventional, often haunting) harmony. no trenchant talk singing to be found.

i think naima only played on their first album from 2018

nice writeup, vc. love her voice, puts me in mind of Shirley Collins. the show I saw supporting Giant Palm, just Bock and violin/vocals from Oliver Hamilton, is one of my favorite shows from the last couple years. hoping maybe we get a full band this go-round.

Thanks vc!

I almost mentioned Collins as well as Anne Briggs though there’s something a bit more smooth glass and unworn about Bock compared to them

good lord, I thought the new album sounded wonderful on first contact. I did get a little distracted towards the end (by life, not due to the album), but wow so much lovely singing and playing throughout, lots of range in mood and always those compositional surprises

voodoo chili, she's playing in Brooklyn in October if you didn't see it (bitterly jealous tbh)

idk if my new dad lifestyle will permit me to attend haha, but good to have on the radar regardless.

the album is really beautiful. a bit livelier and less pastoral than giant palm but shares all the compositional strengths. the arrangements, too, are exquisite, particularly the vocal arrangements.

hey congrats on the new lifestyle! <3

thanks rob!

This album is fantastic. Are there really only three of us into it? ilm why u break heart ;_;

Does sound innaresting! Hey, I'll listen if one of you fellow folk-leaning ILXors tries Al Joshua's Skeletons at the Feast. Al has been my own "how is all the universe not in love with him" artist for years now.

love the record as well. and if you get a chance to see her live, don't miss it. just saw her for the second time and she's amazing--that voice--and utterly charming. played a Brazilian folk tune along with stuff from both albums.

Liking this on first listen. Reminding me of Adem a bit and Bridget St. John in places.