We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

This Gift

by Naked (On Drugs)

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £5 GBP  or more

     

  • Limited Edition Deluxe Cassette
    Cassette + Digital Album

    All tapes a pro dubbed on Red shells, the 2 panel inlay has been printed on 300gsm recycled paper. Comes with a insert printed on 300gsm recycled paper.

    Includes unlimited streaming of This Gift via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

1.
2.
Death Dance 04:03
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Portrait 04:04
8.
9.
This Gift 08:04
10.
The Hotel 05:23

about

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PxMSXO298U

They lifted the car onto the pier. It was a tiny, lime green Spacer and it had seen better days, even before someone took it for a drive on the seafloor. I peered through the passenger window into the car's dripping insides. From the soggy pillows stacked on the seat in front of the wheel, I guessed the driver couldn't have been more than 4'10". He or she was nowhere in sight.

In the narrow backseat sat a brightly wrapped parcel. Lime green, just like the car. I stooped forward. The gift was a sinister one. It sat in a washed-out pool of blood. Next to it was a live sea bass, gasping for water in clockwise spasms across the brown leather.

The report came back from forensics two days later. I didn't like the sound of it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FORENSIC CASE REPORT
Mr. John A. Jones,
Coroner
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I proceeded to a thorough examination of the parcel found in Miss Lee Ann XXXXXXX's car. Here is a list of the items found in said parcel:

-Two severed human fingers. One male, one female .No matches found in the database. Bound together by a single green velveteen ribbon.
-A plastic toy dinosaur, about 4 inches long. "For N. A., w/ love" engraved on the bottom.
-A 3 x 3 inches single square of cut out skin, encased in glass. Preliminary analysis ties it to Ms. XXXXXXX.
-A matchbook. Three matches left. Inside reads "The Hotel, 17 Tycho Cr., 9066, M."
-A cassette tape. Labeled 'This Gift.' Apparently the latest recordings by infamous British gang 'Naked (on Drugs)'. I will go into further details about this particular item, as it appears to bear strong relations to the case. The gang has been gaining strong popularity among today's teenagers in spite of its unsavory name. Word on the street is that they have been keeping a low profile for the last couple of years. None of our sources could give us a reliable account of their activities during that time. However, the analysis of the content of the tape seems to establish a chilling resemblance between the songs and the few leads we have on Ms. Lee Ann XXXXXXX's disappearance. The victim is even mentioned by name, twice. The music itself is a rather distasteful blend of popular tunes, rock'n'roll and disharmonic noise, flavored with the saxophone sound that is all the rage in devious circles at the minute. We asked a renowned musicologist for his expert opinion on this drivel and he committed suicide shortly after the listening session.

I also performed an biopsy of the fish (Centropristis striata) found in the victim's car. I was dumbfounded to discover a pair of white nylon pantyhose, size small, in the animal's stomach.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had worked with Jones before, on another hopeless case. I didn't like the guy. His speech was coated in too much sugar, his forehead was too long. His skin never seemed to be dry. He was one fishy son-of-a-bitch.

REVIEWS:

"After years of gestation, Naked (On Drugs) finally released his first album. And it's great.

We had no news from Naked (On Drugs) for more than two years, with the release of their EP Lee Ann's Skin , nice short format or their gothic and mannered style was already wonders. But since, nothing more, not even small news. Even their Facebook page has been inactive for over a year, leaving only a small tribute to Bowie at the beginning of last year. Finally, the French Sébastien Perrin and the Mancunian Luke Byron Scott reactivated the project a few weeks ago, as if by surprise, and announced their first album, The Gift , just a week before its release.

And in the meantime, the project, without being properly unrecognizable, has nevertheless changed a lot, and not only because the titles already known have been re-recorded. Already, a change of scenery and actors: the group goes from Sways Records to Tombed Visions, an underground Mancunian label and an indefinable editorial line, if not a will to balance all their outputs in cassette format. Above all, it's the line-up that has completely changed: if we still find the Franco-British duo, the group has also seen a crowd of guests arrive, mostly illustrious unknowns being part of the scene of Manchester. Finally, unknown but one: David McLean , who works in many formations and who officiates, just like patron of Tombed Visions.

After two years of silence and many changes, therefore, the band released their first album, a dark concept album whose atmosphere is reminiscent of Moss Side Story by Barry Adamson , with polar atmosphere, jazzys of brass, an obsession The aesthetic. Let us be honest, however, hard to find here a coherent and serious narrative, despite the careful packaging and the texts published by the group, evoking a murky history of murder. For all that we will be able to ignore all this confusing universe, the whole never sounding too mannerized or pretentious. And above all, we will concentrate on the album itself: a 43-minute slaughter, completely barred but disconcerting, endearing.

Because the music itself is not necessarily light: of course, the album is sold as a very aestheticized machin, these brass and this song make tons and contribute to give the album a vaguely lounge. But from the lounge to the John Zorn . From noisy jazz to Naked City , from the post-punk of psychopaths to the Heat . Sébastien Perrin's crooner voice (which has changed a lot since the group's debut) is reminiscent of Scott Walker 's most disconcerting works as well as the Nick Cave of the Birthday Party period (Araki Dinosaurs would have had a good place on Prayers On Fire ). It's lounge but it's especially noisy and venerable, it's brilliantly orchestrated but it knows how to play with our nerves (the screams of "The Hair Suit" or "Johnny Jones", and especially the interlude "Abnormally Safe "Are monuments of disquieting strangeness). Finally, to continue to list references more or less obvious, we will mention Suicide , whose shadow hovers notably on the title song, and its 8 minutes terribly strange.

We will not say more about the album, it is an extremely dense, compact and powerful disc, which is all the more remarkable because I had forgotten until the existence of this group. I would like to conclude by saying that This Gift is the most confusing, fascinating and appealing album that I listened to in 2017. And that's good, right?"
- BLACKSAD, Give Violence A Chance

"Debut albums don’t come more fully realised than this set of noir-esque jazz-punk tunes by Manchester collective Naked (On Drugs). Purportedly in the works for a good few years, the proceedings invariably linger around the gravitational pull of vocalist Sébastien Perrin. He commands a Nick Caveian presence over the songs, but similar to the Bad Seeds the backing bad prove potent voices in colouring the music. Guitarist Luke Scott nimbly flits between some Frippian noodling and reverb-laden gangsterland, bassist David White and Alexander Pierce anchor the group on some potently No Wave repetitions, while Tombed Visions label runner (and Gnod’s part time sax man) David McLean along with Perrin litter the foreground with saxophones, bass clarinets, pianos, and synthesizers.

Tunes like ‘The Hair Suit’ are chaotically funky in that James Chance or Lounge Lizards sort of way, while ‘Boudoir Fingers’ is a demonic jazz club nightmare, backlit and drenched in cigarette smoke. The title track could almost resemble a Mancunian drum-heavy Factory Records classic, were it not too psychedelic to be entirely downbeat. Perrin’s a commanding presence at every turn, pushing his voice to some really guttural extremes on the title track only to then croon as beautifully as Scott Walker on moody closer ‘The Hotel’. The songs are utterly masterful and Blue Velveteen, filled with fantastic hooks, yet drenched in a pre-Hays Code aura. Without reaching for the obvious cliches of murky sax lines or sexy guitar twangs weaving through reverbed tension (it gets pretty damn loud!), the noir-esque atmosphere is so strong one imagines the band donning both sharp suits and world weary expressions, lighting up Gauloises between tunes."
- Tristan Bath, The Quietus

credits

released February 10, 2017

David McLean - Saxophones, piano, backing vocals
Sébastien Perrin - Vocals, saxophones, bass clarinet, synthesizer, programming
Alexander Pierce - Drums, percussions, water bottle, chair rack, backing vocals
Luke Scott - Guitar, dead flies, backing vocals
David White - Bass, synthesizer, backing vocals

Allie Bell - Backing vocals, screaming
François Carolo - Violin
Alexander Cook - Noise saxophone, backing vocals
Connor Haynes - Backing vocals
Sandy Uray - Additional percussion

Engineered by Godot and Kin
Produced by Godot and Kin & Sébastien Perrin
Mastering by Godot

Music by Naked (on Drugs)
Words by Sébastien Perrin except This Gift by Luke Scott


Recorded at Spirit Studios & other places

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Tombed Visions Records Manchester, UK

Tombed Visions is a Manchester based cassette label specialising in improvisation, ambient music, experimental electronics and noir aesthetics and aims to showcase the fringes of contemporary independent music. All releases are limited edition and packaged with care, combining a love of graphic design, photography, typography with the wondrous sounds released. ... more

contact / help

Contact Tombed Visions Records

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like This Gift, you may also like: