Nimrod by Nimrod

The third and final Nimrod album, released in 1997. Original one sheet text below:

ye old one sheet
Artist: NIMROD
Title: NIMROD
Format: CD in nifty acetate enhanced jewel box.
Release Date: JANUARY 20, 1997
Bar Code: 7 5971-81022-2 2
Catalogue #: SCRATCH # 22

Sooner or later, most of us give up on the rock and roll. All that aggression wasted on bashing and screeching and seeming to be angry about....about..well who knows....it all seems so silly after awhile. The gentlemen of Nimrod played the thud/noise rock sweepstakes (albeit with mucho sophistication and humour) for their first two albums, ending up a little short of the Jesus Lizardian popularity frontman Zev Asher had hoped of. Fact was, they were just simply too disorienting a rock ensemble to really appeal to the black rock T-shirt market, beyond their core audience of a few thousand faithful who drank their ginseng because they somehow knew.

Since 1994's The Mighty Hunter/Lab 36b, wholesale changes have swept over the mothership Nimrod. Drummer and resident loose wheel Sam Lohman is no longer in the band. Surviving members Tim Olive and Zev Asher replaced his powerhouse drumming...well,... with no drumming at all. Alongside the rhythmic departure goes as well any faint resemblance to typical song structure the boys may have employed. Bass player/chief composer Tim Olive has been busy playing/recording/releasing music with Beauty Pear and Twerdocleb. Vocalist/sounds champ Zev Asher has recorded and released much material as Roughage, as well as been exhausting himself making a feature length documentary exploring underground culture in war torn Croatia. I believe I will go out on a limb and venture forth the brave statement that the period between albums has seen Nimrod undergo profound artistic growth. To think it took twenty two releases for Scratch to get to utter that phrase!

As on Nimrod's previous albums, this one features many collaborations with Japanese musicians. This time, rather than cameo appearances, the guests play a much more significant (one third) role. Nimrod (the album) is a series of duets recorded live to DAT in Japan between Tim Olive and: Masahiko Ohno (Solmania), Seiichi Yamamoto (Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba), Kosei Yamamoto (ambient/new age/fusion solo artist...I'm told has albums on ECM-is that possible?!), and Kazuhisa Uchihashi (guitarist and collaborator with Altered States, Otomo Yoshihide's Ground Zero, as well as Hans Reichel and Fred Frith). The raw duos were shipped overseas to Asher in Vancouver, where he digitally manipulated, added sounds and murky narration, and basically completed the puzzle. What we have here with album number three is basically a baffling free form collection of pieces that somehow fits under a number of genres: Outside jazz, noise, soundtrack, ambient...pushing this recording into any of these corners is taking the easy way out...The reality is this is a damn strange album that will challenge most if not all who dare, and reward grandly those who come back a few times for more.

STILL AVAILABLE
NIMROD-Grandson Of Ham CD (Scratch # 6)
NIMROD-The Mighty Hunter/Lab 36b Picture disc LP/CD (Scratch # 16)