See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Danielle Furfaro
Brooklyn Daily
This band has the power of avant garde.
In composing tight melodies that form the anchors for sprawling improvisational songs, the Brooklyn-based psychedelic band NYMPH channels legends such Can and Sun Ra.
“I love pop music and its form, but it’s so challenging to push the boundaries and use techniques of repetition and pulsating rhythms to create a trance of epic listening,” said NYMPH founder and lead composer Matty McDermott.
The seven-piece band incorporates jazz, progressive rock and African rhythmic sounds into frenzied, extended jams that could take a turn at any moment.
McDermott, who plays guitar, founded NYMPH as a solo recording project in his bedroom seven years ago. Shortly after, he added his girlfriend, Eri Shoji, as vocalist. Soon, the band was touring across the United States.
While they were in Athens, Ga., they connected with another psych band called Dark Meat and started to share shows and support each other. Eventually, NYMPH absorbed the five members of the 15-piece Dark Meat who moved up to Brooklyn.
“It was a big lure to complete that puzzle piece,” said guitar and synth player Jim McHugh, who was one of the members to join from Dark Meat. “We are all involved in a million projects and NYMPH is one of the dearest and the most productive.”
The band will perform at the Spy Festival this weekend, along with Ava Luna, Chris Forsyth & The Solar Motel Band, Charles Gayle, Seaven Teares, Driphouse, and Loren Connors & Suzanne Langille among others.
NYMPH at the Spy Festival (285 Kent Ave. between S. First and S. Second streets in Williamsburg, spymusicfestival.com]. Sept. 8, 9 pm, $10.