NOBRO – Live Your Truth Shred Some Gnar

That NOBRO have The Distillers as one of their few recognisable touchstones speaks volumes of their ability to hybridise sounds until any such influence is on the horizon; they only share a Mach 10 energy, anything else is entirely distinct.

From bassist/vocalist Kathryn McCaughey’s punk-esque epiphany – post-break up with a prominent Montreal musician, McCaughey vowed to be “more than just a footnote on this person’s Wikipedia page” – the musician needed only her own raw skill and that of a few others: namely drummer Sarah Dion, guitarist Karolane Carbonneau and keyboardist/ percussionist Lisandre Bourdages.

NOBRO swiftly sparked a blaze through their Montreal scene in 2016 with their debut, independent seven-inch and later released their debut EP in 2020. For the new EP, producer Thomas D’Arcy fleshed out their demos while the band retain their raw power – Stooges style.

Above all, the EP capitalises on NOBRO’s boundless sense of fun; a powerful, braggadocious vapour that works throughout most of the EP: whether through the dynamic change in bright one-two punch opener ‘Better Each Day’ – topped by vibrant blasts from Bourdages – or the ramshackle charm of the acoustic-centred final track. Only on ‘Eat, Slay, Chardonnay’ does this slip into a happy-clappy pastiche.

The EP’s charm is also conveyed by the rickety sense the band’s untamed sound creates, most gloriously represented by Sarah Dion’s drumming dervishes – constantly holding a brilliantly dirty edge. This is especially true of the mayhem closing the sludgy ‘Get With U’, where the drums, and the whole band, play as if on a cliff edge.

McCaughey’s vocals, in their alternation between smooth and scree-scattered yowls, ebb and flow with a similarly fiery zeal as the ballast packed into the band’s loud/quiet dynamics.

The breakdowns on the EP – on the barnstorming ‘Bye Bye Baby’ or the sludgy ‘Not Myself’ – are rife with Carbonneau’s unhinged slides and molten hot notes, McCaughey’s rubbery basslines and yelps comparable to only Iggy and Amyl’s not-too distant relative, are like nothing but the chaos of adolescence crammed into a few dozen frenetic seconds.

‘On Live Your Truth…’, NOBRO walk an adrenaline-fuelled trapeze: an almost perfect middle-point between brawny, bullish and another form of punk-rock with nimble choices and dynamics.

7/10

Words: James Kilkenny

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