popanz
NAP EYES (CA)
w/ NATIVE SET (NL)
Dienstag, 20. Mai 2025 
Bumann & Sohn, Köln
Einlass 19:00, Beginn 20:00
Tickets

The fifth full-length release from Canadian indie rock band Nap Eyes features five tracks running at least six minutes and two adaptations of poems by Alexander Pushkin and W. B. Yeats.
The album often also throws song structures open to unexpected twists and diversions: more than half the tracks on The Neon Gate unfurl at their own sweet pace over six minutes or more. The results can be revelatory - The Line of Best Fit 8/10
Jamming is an intrinsic part of Nap Eyes’ aesthetic, but the songs that are tightened up provide welcome contrast. Neon Gate is a varied and satisfying recording.— Dusted Magazine 8/10
While the music has incorporated a more expansive but similarly idiosyncratic palette. Fripp-esque sustain, synths and drum machines colour a beautifully constructed record that brings to mind Aztec Camera’s High Land, Hard Rain or Scritti Politti’s Songs To Remember. - Uncut 8/10
The best songs here are warmed and colored by instrumental flourishes, as with the bright guitar and piano notes on “Demons” or the opening electric noodle of “Tangent Dissolve.” - Pitchfork 7.3/10

NATIVE SET from Amsterdam has been crafting jangly guitar pop for over ten years, on four albums and one EP. Their music has roots in ’60s beat and college rock, in equal parts reminiscent of the Kinks and the Feelies. VPRO calls them the "nonchalant pioneers of the Dutch DIY." MOJO once dubbed them "classic-indie artisans." Their latest album, In Air Quotes, released October 2024, contains the, by now, Naive Set hallmarks of infectious melodies, 4-part harmonies, bouncy rhythms, and expressive wordplay, to create music both easy on the ears and pleasing on repeat.
“They were charmingly naive and I taught them some worldly things.” — Ian F. Svenonius

https://www.napeyes.com/