ALBUM REVIEW: Faithful Johannes and Neocia – The House At Night

Butterfly Effect

Released: 11.10.24

Image by Amelia Read

“Hey Johannes, why do you always write about your childhood? Is it a subconscious distraction from your present problems?” It’s this succinct bit of fourth wall breaking on Hired Out which reveals the MO of Faithful Johannes and Neocia’s wonderful new album The House At Night. Johannes’ incredible knack for attention to detail has always been married to nostalgia, and here we are jostled through his past and present, with images and memories making ley lines between the two.

Like a Barratt Homes David Berman, Johannes is haunted by the past by means of abstraction: images of the past informing the present and the past being augmented by the present. Clutter is something to be addressed – physical, psychological, spiritual or otherwise – this is done quite literally on The Breaks, with Johannes reeling off a list of short-term ambitions, with the sad sense of futility that only so much is achievable. In the more abstract sense, lead single TV Raised Me is a bittersweet collage detailing remembered fragments of coverage of the Iraq war.

In Neocia (aka Jon Evans), Johannes (aka Tim Head) has found someone with as much attention to detail in his musicality and production as Johannes has in his lyrics and delivery. Songs flow into each other seamlessly with recurrent motifs, elevating the listening experience into something Lynchian and dreamlike; the whole record is evocative of that hinterland between sleep and consciousness, which is a perfect place for all of Johannes’ fragmented memory to live.

The music recalls a more hi-fi version of artists like Casiotone For The Painfully Alone in its plaintive piano chords and jittering beats, and its wonkiness is reminiscent of Anticon hip-hop, which as been looking over Johannes’ shoulder throughout most of his creative practice, but here, the achievements of Hymie’s Basement and cLOUDDEAD are matched in their ambition and idiosyncrasies.

An incredibly tight 14 tracks over 34 minutes or so means that ideas, both musical and lyrical are coming at you at a rate of knots, consolidating The House At Night as a testament to its creators’ musical imaginations. Surrender yourself to it, because it’s an absolute trip.

Enjoy the album in all its live glory at Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle on Saturday 19th October.