Good Day Noir Family,
our “E.A.Poets Approved/Bands We Like” section is dedicated to Near Death Experience. I discovered this Band while shuffling songs on Spotify and I instantly liked the atmosphere of their songs.
Listening to NDX you are immediately impressed by the singer’s voice and his vocal interpretation.
Grit and desire are able to emphasize even more the deep and direct Lyrics that leave no escape from emotions.
A simple but at the same time refined sound full of contamination.
The choice of instruments and arrangements are very particular and immediately distinguishes the sound of this band.
A band of sure experience and you can hear that they are very close together while playing.
The choirs are fantastic and they manage to take the choruses to another level by making you explore heights that you are not used to.
Ealing, London psychedelic rock’n’soul band Near Death Experience (NDX) present Lord – their third soulful, uplifting single in six months – to help offset pandemic gloom. Opening with driving acoustic guitar and a beautiful chiming electric lead line, Lord is a modern-day spiritual that evolves into a rousing choral anthem Lord is a modern-day spiritual that evolves into a rousing choral anthem, appealing to the world’s innate spirit to shine for the good of all.
Always humbled to call the beautifully restored St Mary’s Church in Ealing their rehearsal home, little did the band know that it would gift them a Christmas classic. Searching for words to lay over a new chord run the band had started jamming, singer Ian Whiteling began singing through an old order of service left open on the lectern. With a few tweaks, Lord was born.
The low register verse and soaring chorus display Whiteling’s impressive range, with Bill Marten hypnotising with his warm wandering lead guitar. Meanwhile, NDX rhythm section – bassist Amar Grover and drumsmith Mike Sarjeant – wrap Lord in an irresistible slow groove that guides the song to a climactic organ-filled crescendo. All in all a very merry NDXmas!
Formed in 2016, NDX soon began playing many of London’s popular new-band ‘grass roots’ venues (Dublin Castle, Fiddler’s Elbow, Underbelly, Hope & Anchor) treating audiences to their distinct psych-tinged rock-and-soul sound. ‘Summer’ from the 2017 EP The Last Summer got airplay on BBC Radio London’s Introducing show with Gary Crowley, and subsequently the band played a set on the Bimble Inn stage at 2017’s Glastonbury Festival.
Tapping into Ealing’s great 1960s blues and R&B heritage, NDX launched ‘Ealing Live’ in 2018. To showcase and encourage more original live music in Ealing, West London, the band curated and played regular music nights – typically featuring three or four bands – in local pubs. These popular shows also led to NDX organising the Ealing Oxjam Festival in June 2019 which featured a raft of bands (and which also raised funds for Oxfam).
NDX’s first album, Mouth to Mouth, was realsed in July 2019 on the Charisma Bypass label. Later that month the band played at the Ealing Blues Festival and was then invited to play at September’s SoundBite Festival. NDX is currently writing and recording their second album for release in early 2020, and more Ealing Live shows are in the pipeline.
A rare gem of a Christmas song