Spacious, otherworldly organic house. The most experimental and political we’ve seen Nico yet. He brings in notes of post-punk, reggae, and synthesizer music to craft these bitter critiques of power that reside somewhere dense and overwhelming. They still maintain a lightness nonetheless—in the lulls, the near-silent ambient sections, the piano. Feelings of fear pervade throughout only to end in a kind of ironic sweetness. Remarkable. FCC on 6

1. (11:14) **** Killing Time—Extremely soft fade in, shattering piano and wind chimes. Sparse vocals. Forbidding.
2. (6:50) *** The Governor—Vocals, Rhodes piano, pulsating bass. Loud and urgent, weird transition from the previous but I like it.
3. (3:30) ** Leaves—Keys that sound like a zither to start, erratic ripples and drones, ends with a recording of a conversation in Spanish between a child and adult.
4. (6:34) *** No—Lyrics in Spanish, skittering reggae beat, strummed guitar and distorted keys. Crunchier noise in second half.
5. (9:55) **** Three Sides of Nazareth—Menacing, pounding beat and keys, harsh samples, lyrics in English. Reminds me of Suicide. Insanely catchy. Hissing ambient after four minutes before bringing back the samples and beat. “Lessons from a man that wore his pain like a list of all that he knew.”
6. (3:44) ** History Lesson—FCC “fuck”. Swaying doo-wop slow-jam. Biting lyrics that read like an ultra-condensed version of a history lesson. “Chapter one: We fucked up / Chapter two: We did it again, and again, and again, and again.”