Best of NYC #59: Naam – Live at the Knit, May 14

We continue our "Best of NYC Countdown", covering every day one of the artists that made our Year End Best of NYC list (a chart compiled by a jury comprised of local bloggers, music writers, promoters, record sotre personnel and DJs). Many of the bands in this list will play The Deli’s Best of NYC Fest in Williamsburg in May (6 shows in 3 different venues between the 13 and the 15).

The trip-laden tactics and garishly galactic effects dispersed by Brooklyn’s very own psychedelic delight Naam require either a lot of patience or a handful of hallucinogens in order to fully absorb the fertile flow laid down on this group’s self-titled 10-track Tee Pee Records debut. Containing an abundance of blues-soaked swirls of mystical hard rock with its fair share of acid-induced reflective moments strewn in, Naam’s presentation is dipped in distortion and drenched in reverb, blending lengthy tribal doom movements with periods of sedated and meditative drone elements that encompass your entire headspace long after the final note is played. Secure with a sense of spirituality that propels Naam’s rocket ride towards the outer limits, this trio’s righteously sprawling musical projections showcase the lush qualities typical of praise songs from Eastern philosophies with a barrage of sinewy rock darting around the extreme spectrum without landing in one place for too long to create a head-spinning and soul-reaching array of transcendental goodness. – Mike SOS