Born of a communal houseful of artists and musicians in Vancouver, British Columbia, the collectively run group
N0v3l make tense, jumpy songs modeled closely on the groove-embracing dissonance of '70s and '80s post-punk. Their not-quite self-titled debut
Novel feels somewhere between a short album and a lengthy EP, with eight tightly wound tunes heavy on funky basslines that duel with jagged guitar leads and hyperactive rhythms. This particular intersection of danceable funk and angsty punk was well explored by originators like
Gang of Four,
Essential Logic,
A Certain Ratio,
the Pop Group, and an entire scene of post-punk bands decades before
N0v3l came around. The disco beat, auxiliary percussion, and swells of echo on the shouty vocals of "Sign on the Line" replicate the raw crackle of post-punk almost by the numbers. It's hard to hear the sharp vocal delivery and general rough-hewn push of "Natural" and not think of
Gang of Four. The off-kiltered rhythms and brittle guitar leads of "Are They" sound more borrowed from early-2000s acts like
Moving Units or
the Rapture, who were themselves studying post-punk when developing their sound. While the generous application of post-punk signifiers sometimes feels like listening to a copy of a copy, there's also something to
N0v3l's sound that places them in their own time. Amidst the bold-faced reference points to England’s frustrated working-class punk circa 1977, the chiming unison guitar lines that weave in and out of "To Whom It May Concern" sound very Canadian circa 2019, sharing a chorus-drenched tone and lackadaisical melodic approach not dissimilar to Canadian indie acts like
Mac Demarco or
Tops. It's a slight element, but it shows up again and again, giving otherwise completely stark songs like "Take You For" or "Will to Power" a distinctive lightness that keeps
N0v3l's songs from being mere remakes. Likewise, complex production and arrangement add unexpected instrumentation to the mix, dropping in synth or saxophone and abruptly shifting the feel of the track. At points it's hard to overlook the likeness to well-known innovators of the past, but the members have enough of their own fingerprints on the material to keep it interesting.