NaGUST:

Fermi

After five fucking EPs—one whole year’s worth of music—NaGUST, formerly known as MoonSpeak, has finally released her debut full-length album under this current alias: Fermi.

In my Technobabble review (and briefly in my Manifestation re-review), I made a request—no, I challenged NaGUST to produce a full-fledged LP, simply because I felt like it was time. She has five whole EPs in the bag—some decent, some not-so-decent—but all of these smaller projects had the effect of not only honing many of NaGUST’s skills in creating evocative or emotionally captivating music, it especially helped to develop and carve out a distinct musical niche or style for her—which is what I’ve been waiting to happen since the Atmos EP.

Now, whether this album is NaGUST’s response to my challenge, or just something that she’s had in the oven for a while, I don’t know, but I went into this debut hoping to hear songs that raise the bar for her—not just in terms of her sound, but also in terms of theming—or her ability to convey a particular message with her music, because to me, that’s sort of what a full-length album ought to be—a complete artistic expression. If EPs are tasters, LPs are the main course, and it’s important for the main course to leave some kind of impression on the “customer”.

Well, I’m delighted to report that, not only was this album just brimming with very colorful and interesting themes, messages, and potential interpretations, it also contains some of NaGUST’s most well-structured and enjoyable music yet, all amounting to a very solid record.

Right away, judging from the album title (likely named after the so-called “Fermi paradox”; a controversial proposition that brings to question the existence of extraterrestrial life in the universe), we can infer that NaGUST is trying to head back to her thematic roots: Space. Either the record is about humans penetrating Earth’s barrier in search of E.T.s, or something else entirely, the sounds produced on this record are indeed very cosmic, and this is evident in the song titles here as well (“New Earth”, “Through The Sunset Eye”).

Personally, I like to think the record is about extraterrestrial life discovering Earth, but ultimately deeming it unworthy of habitation, due to the many horrors that are present here.

This album kicks off with “A Flash in the Dark”—an excellent opener, perfectly setting the tone for the rest of the album, with its ethereal, enigmatic atmosphere slowly creeping itself in, like an alien mothership making its way towards Earth. They finally arrive in the song “New Earth,” and its busy, yet chilled beat suggests how much more technologically advanced they are to us. From there, the aliens engage in all sorts of antics as they peregrinate their new world, but after discovering all its inadequacies, they abruptly leave in the song, “Our Faded Glory.”

I have to take a moment to talk about the melodies on this thing. In the song “Though The Sunset Eye,” one of my favorites on this LP, we are introduced to this wonderfully somber melody—the sort of which I wasn’t aware NaGUST was capable of creating. It’s… genuinely good. The synth layers that coalesce in between the curious piano notes sound beautiful.

She does it again later on, too, in the song “Cochlegram” (sic)—which is, bizarrely enough, probably one of the cuddliest songs NaGUST has ever produced, with this dainty, lightly frolicking beat that makes me picture bouncing on clouds in a pale, pink sky. Nevertheless, there’s still something oddly unnerving about this track, too, like everything is going okay, but at the same time, everything is not okay, making it feel sort of like a painkiller, or an antidepressant. Not many artists can mesh the feelings of bountiful, playful happiness with such a subtle layer of perturbing anxiety. Of course, this may not have been intentional at all, and I’m merely projecting, but that’s the thing—if you can get your audience to experience such complex emotions with your music, you’re doing something right. You’re doing something really right.

I’m not sure where those two songs fit in in the album’s narrative, exactly, but honestly, I prefer to keep things loose and ambiguous. There are a large number of possible interpretations here—and honestly, I’m not here to tell you that my interpretation is the right one, and NaGUST herself would tell you that there is no right one. Even if she had a concrete idea going into a song, she appreciates that there can be multiple perspectives, and that, to her, is the beauty of art.

Other songs worthy of note include “Western Nostalgias,” a unique track that tackles another one of NaGUST’s tried-and-true subject matters—nostalgia. The beat is inspired mainly by ‘90s video game music, and I could easily hear it playing over some JRPG’s “hub town”. There’s also the track “Intelligent Systems,” which is curiously named after the same game company that brought us Paper Mario and Fire Emblem, I believe. Considering NaGUST’s predilection for Japanese RPGs, I’d have to assume the track was inspired by a Fire Emblem OST—but I can’t be sure, because I’ve never played any games in that series.

The penultimate track, “Nightmare Insomnia”, is the album’s nadir—emotionally speaking. As the title would suggest, it’s the darkest piece on the record. It’s at this point in the album that the E.T.s realize that either they are not best fit for our world, or our world is not best fit for their level of sophistication, or what have you. It’s a very moody song that begins with these eerie descending synths that make my heart sink, like something terrible just happened. This song plays directly after the warm fuzziness of “Cochlegram,” too, so those feeling of perturbation that I described were very real indeed. Earlier, I described “Cochlegram” as a sort of painkiller, or something to mask the fear—“Nightmare Insomnia” is that painkiller wearing off. It’s a perfect example of a theme coming full circle, and I definitely commend NaGUST’s effort here.

Now, of course, the album comes not without its issues. The first big issue I can see here involves pacing. In the past, I’ve busted NaGUST’s chops over having some songs that are of an ambitious length (stretching past the eight-minute mark on some occasions), but contain very little substance therein—making for a boring or tedious listen. I hate to be “that guy”, but on this record, we appear to be having the exact opposite problem! There are a couple songs that don’t even hit the two-minute mark, and could certainly afford to go on for much longer.

The song “New Earth”—a decent enough track on its own—sort of serves as the record’s true “beginning”, and allows us to immerse ourselves in the album’s world for a bit. If it lasted at least three minutes, I feel like the album would flow a lot better, because if there’s one thing that this album thrives on, it’s flow. Additionally, the final track, “Our Faded Glory”—are you kidding me?! That was one of the most spectacular closers you’ve ever had, and you’re just gonna end it at the 1:30 mark!? Honestly, the song was very well-crafted, but it ends just as soon as you start really getting into it! That had to be intentional. It feels so obviously truncated.

After that song ends, and your balls start turning blue, you get treated to the album’s bonus track, “Nostalgia Moro.” I think it’s supposed to be an addendum to “Western Nostalgias”. Honestly, I’m not feeling this track—it can’t help but feel like the mediocre throwaway track that it is. Apart from sounding very unfinished, it just seems like an unnecessary tack-on.

I also wasn’t feeling the song “External Crises”—probably my least favorite track. Honestly, the piano chords at the beginning just sound… random. The synthesized violins that swallow these piano chords were not only devoid of any emotion whatsoever, they, along with the glitchy, unintelligible vocal sample that starts playing in the middle of it all, just felt like NaGUST was trying to fluff up the song with more purpose or meaning than it actually had. I tried to listen to it from a variety of different angles, to appreciate the ambience, but it doesn’t do anything for me.

Ultimately, I was left quite satisfied with this record. I thought it elevated NaGUST’s artistic integrity to an extent where I finally may just start listening to some of these tracks in my spare time—something I’ve been waiting to say for a very long time, because the same honestly can’t be said for much else of her work. I feel like if she keeps it up, and exposes her music to more people, I think she could easily develop something of a following—though, of course, I respect that that may not be something she’s too interested in pursuing.

But I was very impressed, overall, and I’m happy that I can give another one of her records something above of a 6/10.

7/10

…And here’s to a future 8/10 record.

Favorites:
A Flash in the Dark
Through The Sunset Eye
Western Nostalgias
Cochlegram
Our Faded Glory (way too short though ugh)

Least favorites:
External Crises
Nostalgia Moro