There are bands, and then there are brotherhoods. The former does not the latter make, but the five members of Nightbox grew up in the same town, went to the same school and fell in love with the same sounds. Then three years ago they moved to Toronto together, shacked up in an old Kensington Market red-brick and got down to business making sounds of their own.
Their bond is uncommonly deep and so is their musicality. Attend a Nightbox show and you’ll be struck by just how many ideas are expressed in tandem, all constructed to fit together like some bizarre Techno-color pop puzzle. You’ll marvel at their music’s ability to gyrate your body and brain at the same time, and you’ll experience a sort of synesthesia where you can’t tell which instrument is keeping time and which is sounding a melody; bass lines, guitar licks and tom fills all ducking and weaving around each other in a helix of awesome. You will no doubt, begin to get a sense of the glorious noise these five young Irish lads are creating.
And the world is starting to take notice. After releasing their debut EP in 2011, critical and commercial reaction was noteworthy on a world scale. The music video for single “Pyramid” earned heavy rotation on Canadian music television stations, and the track was selected to appear on the prestigious French label Kitsune’s Maison Compilation 11. It was chosen by NME as a Top-10 download, stating it takes on “a fresh sound of its own”, while UK’s Dazed & Confused magazine raved it “takes a hedonistic approach with high energy results on a new breed of dance.” The EP’s release in Japan on Rallye Label, sold out 1,000 copies on its initial offering.
Nightbox proceeded to tear up festival tent stages on both sides of the Atlantic, most notably during their barnstorming sets for packed houses at Reading & Leeds and Ireland’s Electric Picnic Festival, where BBC exclaimed “The glitchy synths and the guitars sound delightful… and by jove do they know how to write a hook”, ranking Nightbox’s performance Top-10 of the entire festival. Chops were honed, experience was gained, and bonds were formed with thousands of new fans.
Nightbox have retreated to the studio for the last six months to record their first full-length album with MSTRKRFT production wiz Al-P. An ardent, burgeoning fan base and a raft of industry power brokers are all eager to get their ear-mitts on the results. Recent direct support slots for Ellie Goulding, Cults, Death From Above 1979, and Canadian & UK tours with Juno Award winner Lights, have confirmed that this band’s positioned to make some serious waves in 2013. Dance floors will be soaked. Bring a mop.