Album of the Month - Divisions by Charlie Nieland

Based in New York, Charlie Nieland is an artist whose music has spanned many incarnations, from Her Vanished Grace to Lusterlit to his current solo projects. Having worked in the music industry for over three decades, Nieland has created film scores, co-wrote for Debbie Harry and also produced music for artists such as Rufus Wainwright, Scissor Sisters and Blondie.

Listening to Charlie Nieland’s new album, Divisions, takes you on a journey into the deepest depths of human emotion, connections, separations and unified forces. It’s an immaculate masterpiece, an all-consuming affair, that obscures its darkness, whilst projecting its light. It’s an album that taps into the nebulous corners of our mind, whist casting shadow puppets from our psyche.

Through the pensive pauses, heartfelt lyrics and pristine vocals, Divisions is an album that sinks into a rabbit hole of wonder, neo-psychedelia, whilst floating on a chimerical cloud of dream-pop. It’s an album whose tracks create a spiritual synergy of abstract art, animated by the sonic synthesia of intuition, improvisation and raw sentiments.

Like all the music Nieland has created and produced, Divisions is an album which awakens the senses and nourishes the soul. Through the speckled synths and jangly riffs, Divisions takes a technicolour trip to an Eastern horizon, reliving each moment twice in a polarised universe.

As the co-Producer and Technical Director at The Bushwick Book Club, Nieland writes about music, often thematically linked to the books he reads. Inspired by a collection of books, Divisions is a cinematic experience, with each track sounding like a film score, a standalone single, a cohesive spectrum, belonging to a different still frozen in time. Like an evolutionary tale of humanity, time travelling through its trials and tribulations, Divisions explores all things primal, repeated, regenerated and reborn. It’s an emotionally charged album, whose tribal beats, spectral synths and orchestral sweeps create a dark-wave ambience, likened to classic post-punk and baroque-pop.

As a songwriter, Nieland is steeped with dark romanticism and sugar-coated sentiments. He’s an artist who has perfected his craft, with acute observations and thorough insights. Intellectually weighted, Divisions is an album which celebrates the glory of books, whilst adding a sense of drama and emotional intensity. It’s extended art, taking the integral elements of life and creating a cosmic commentary of our very own existence.

Released in March 2021, Divisions is an album of sheer quality and meticulous dexterity which stands out amongst its peers. With 13 amazing tracks. it’s an album worth checking out and spending time inhaling each iota of emotion. In an age of technology and information overload, Divisions stimulates the senses and takes you to a place of solitude, reflection, tranquility and universal comfort.

Through the Zen synths, Always on Fire flutters, rises and levitates majestically like flames from the ashes. It’s a mesmerising track, whose acoustic strums flip and curve aside the serene vocals. Along with industrial clatters, looping riffs and sitar singes, Always on Fire creates an echo-chamber for the Slavic sentiments to simmer and surrender.

Divisions – The title name of the album, Divisions is a force of nature, a firebrand of energy that rotates and compresses at intense velocity. Through the Primal beats, Divisions pulsates robustly, whilst uniting its tribe. It’s an epic track, whose brooding bass hums in harmony like radio waves being emitted from the universe. Along with the pulsar riffs, Divisions spins like a neutron star, colliding with charged particles from its magnetic field.

Exploding is a cool breeze of happy-go-lucky dream-pop, that saunters amongst the sunset and swirls amongst the stars. It’s a wonderful track, whose jangly riffs and stellar synths create an ethereal ambience aside the rumbling beats. Along with the pensive vocals, and distant drones, Exploding collides with the debris from dark-wave, whilst shoegazing from afar.

The Falling Man descends from its melancholic muse and drifts into new territory. Through the eerie gust of spectral synths, The Falling Man floats through the murky mist, whilst resurrecting its deadpan vocals. It’s a moving track, whose delicate strums cascade and tip-toe into the chambers of baroque-goth. Along with the elongated vocals, The Falling Man stretches the imagination, whilst hanging precariously with earth-shattering sentiment.

I Refuse pogo-jumps into the post-punk arena of riotous rock, with cool conviction. It’s a commanding track, whose pulsating bass, tinny beats and razor riffs, angle-grind towards a distinct destination. It is also a track that goes back to basics and revisits the ethos of DIY punk, whilst remaining a testament to Nieland’s diversity and fluidity as a musician.

The Land of Accidents is a time-travelling catharsis, that dips into its primordial soup and delights us with its jangly rock. What could be a Bona-fide film score, unravels a stream of tension, wonder and wistful insights. It’s a brilliant track, whose thought-provoking lyrics and soaring vocals synchronise with the backdrop of flickering riffs and melodramatic motif.

Meta Incognito is a hypnotic track, whose jangly riffs, bustling bass and space-age synths create an electronic field for prog-rock, art-rock and neo-psychedelia. Along with the stripped down acoustics and drawn out vocals, Meta Incognito taps into the frequencies of folk-rock, whilst creating a grandiose of emotion and majestic musicianship. Like many of the songs on the album, Meta Incognito is a mood-shifter, a moon navigator, exuding a jittery energy that taps into hidden realms, whilst revealing subtle nuances and secret passages into your soul.

Through the thunderous beats, Another Night on Earth pulsates like a force of nature, aside the vortex of dream-pop swirls and whirls. A mesmerising track, it’s through the sun-drenched vocal harmonies that Another Night on Earth tilts towards neo-psychedelia, emitting a folk-dream ambience. Along with the wah wails, Another Night on Earth roams like a primitive predator beneath a kaleidoscopic sky.

Through the Tribal beats, angelic harmonies and oblique riffs, Tightrope is a duality of earthy grit and ethereal dreams. It’s a magnificent track, whose staccato strums and baroque undertones, create suspense and a succinct narrative. Along with Nieland’s inflamed vocals, Tightrope evokes a sense of melancholic euphoria, creating a paradox of emotions in one take. Ingeniously crafted, Tightrope is a track that heightens the senses, whilst leaving a trail of wistful intrigue.

Skin is a sublime, tender track, steeped in dreamy romanticism and poetic wonder. It’s a track of emotional depth, that ebbs and flows towards new wave rock. Through the intimate vocals, Skin reveals its deepest sentiments, whilst resonating against the orchestral sweeps. Along with the primal beats, curving riffs and shimmer synths, Skin sheds the clichés of alternative rock, bridging the gap between baroque-rock and classic post-punk.

Through the jangly riffs and rumbling beats, So Few Have So Much stays true to its goth-rock roots, whilst taking a quantum leap into third-wave post-punk. Like a hybrid of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Blur and Coldplay, So Few Have Much is a contemporary classic, that staggers and sways towards a harmonious haven. It’s a great track, which once again sees Nieland’s talent of intermixing an array of genres with an understated cool and originality.

Some Things You Keep To Yourself Is a track whose touching lyrics and tender vocals reach out, whilst remaining delicately aloof. Through the dream-pop swirls and holographic ripples, Some Things You Keep to Yourself shivers and quivers in unison, whilst being air-lifted to the stars. Hauntingly beautiful, Some Things You Keep To Yourself makes you feel like you are in a trance, floating on some higher level, astral projecting your dreams in another dimension.

Pawns – Through the vortex of neo-psychedelic, retro-causality and overlapping frequencies, Pawns vibrates in an eerie electromagnetic field, absorbing the light and mutating its dream-pop DNA to create a spectrum of sounds. Through the diffraction of drones, staccato thrashes and sonic stomps, Pawns peers through its eye of the sky, colliding with the remnants of an exploded star, a billion light years away. Along with the concentric swirls, whirls and spiralling electrons, Pawns drifts towards the choral collective like fireflies chattering with their antennas tuning into the magnetosphere of some far away galaxy.