When they were first getting started back in 2007, No Age were EP fiends. They released five such missives on five different labels over just a few months, and soon after plucked tracks from them for their first full-length release, Weirdo Rippers. Since then the L.A. guitar-and-drums duo has toured so much, been written about so much, and released such a great album (Nouns), that those initial releases feel a little like ancient relics.
No Age's Dean Spunt and Randy Randall have decided to return to the EP, releasing four new tracks now rather than save them for a future long-player. It's a curious move since each sounds album-ready and none are hugely different from previous work, but this band doesn't really deal in long-form anyway-- both Weirdo Rippers and Nouns barely made it past the half-hour mark. It would be cool if these tunes were deemed worthy of an EP because they're a radical departure into dark noise, or a set of Hüsker Dü covers, or a conceptual suite about the human nervous system. But it's also cool that they're just another solid No Age record.
What makes Losing Feeling so solid is how it begins and ends. The opening title track simultaneously floats in place and hurtles forward, recalling the pulsing drift of Nouns' "Sleeper Hold". But now the band stretches a bit more, injecting the breaks with a little more tension, a little more bite. And a final rave-up shifts into high gear, turning a nice crescendo into a tidal wave. That infectious wash is matched on the opposite end of the EP by "You're a Target". Here the hectic rush of the opener gets drenched in a layer of shimmering guitar tones-- imagine Nouns' "Brain Burner" covered by the Pains of Being Pure at Heart.
Those two blasts would've made a killer 7", but the moodier songs in between build an intriguing bridge. "Genie" marries Randall's slow strumming to Spunt's simple whine, building rhythm without the aid of drums. "Aim at the Airport" goes one step further, eschewing both drums and vocals. Its looping guitar could probably fit on something released by Kranky or even Mego, but coming in between two No Age rockers, the wavy fuzz is clearly recognizable. It's not hard to imagine a voice and a drumbeat rising out of this mix were it to go on longer. The same can be said for Losing Feeling as a whole-- had No Age stuck in the studio for a few more hours, this could've easily been a stellar LP. Instead, it leaves little doubt that whenever their Nouns follow-up does emerge, it will have been worth the wait.
