Album Review: Nudity – Nudity Is God’s Creation

Cardinal Fuzz have built a reputation as a label that is dedicated to bringing out some of the strangest and most unique recordings ever committed to wax, this time they have released Nudity Is God’s Creation. This is a retrospective release of recordings by Nudity dating from 2005 to 2010 of what is described as “orgasmic interstellar mayhem”. Formed in 2004 in Washington DC, Nudity only ever released a couple of self distributed CD’s and a solitary slab of vinyl, released via Discourage, but no actual album was ever released. But now those determined seekers of strangeness at Cardinal Fuzz have unearthed their back catalogue, along with a few bonus tracks, and put the whole shebang onto on one handy double album.

Nudity Is God’s Creation opens in fine style with Now I’m Resting, a savage fuzzy garage punk number that any lover of primitive proto punk will adore, This Man continues the fuzzy assault but with an added lysergic element thrown into the mix, and by the third track, Moon Druids, the acid appears to have well and truly kicked in. It wouldn’t be a Cardinal Fuzz release without a few extended psychedelic soundscapes, and the first of these, Birdsong, slows the pace down and ups the dose. Midway through the album the psychedelic connection is well and truly confirmed, with a faithful cover of the early Hawkwind classic, Hurry On Sundown, and after this you get a return to the proto punk vibe with Elevate In Rotation. Nudity Is God’s Creation ends in true Cardinal Fuzz fashion with four extended slabs of psychedelic strangeness, Rubicon, The Nightfeeders and Make Up, saving the strangest trip for last with Le Premier Voyage Du Capitaine.

Nudity featured Dave Harvey, John Quittner, Josh Hayes, of Feral Ohms, and Eryn Ross, of Growling, the fact that this band are a favourite of psyche aficionado Julian Cope should tell you everything you need to know about Nudity, this is a raw mix of garage punk and psychedelia, that if I didn’t know better I would swear was a product of the late 1960’s or early 1970’s. For me the album is at it’s best when it’s dishing out raw slabs of acid drenched garage rock, but the extended slices of psychedelia are not to be ignored. For those who are fans of the music that informed the first wave of punk, or for those who are sat in a suspicious haze, Nudity Is God’s Creation is an album that is worth exploring.

Nudity Is God’s Creation is a strictly limited release and can be ordered here