Nigel Chapman is not the first guy to play on the rich homophony between "wine" and "whine"— both can help people loosen up a bit, but they’re also physically intolerable in excess. In all likelihood, Chapman is the first guy to use it in the context of an Omar Khayyam text. Whine of the Mystic is a necessarily dense title for a band like Nap Eyes, its multitudes containing additional multitudes. This is a drinker’s album, for the kind of drinker who does so alone, publicly, poring over popular 11th-century tomes. And like most other musicians you’d associate with this pastime, Chapman speak-sings dense lyrics in a nasal, weary bray tinted with sarcasm—the content portrays him as a wise man, the delivery as one someone who isn't 100% trustworthy.
It’s no surprise then that Chapman, ruminative dude he is, has thought through this image of himself and what it says about him and what he wants it to say about him. While Nap Eyes works up a Kiwi-rock rollick on "No Man Needs to Care", Chapman struggles to get to the revelation contained in the title—"Well, I was reading in my book/ Just so that everyone would come take a look/ Nobody even dares." Chapman doesn’t seek companionship at the moment, it’s the noticing that gives him pleasure. Meanwhile, on "Delirium and Persecution Paranoia" he analyzes the meaning behind every gesture—"What am I trying to say by way of/ Eat with my door in a closed position?/ What am I trying to say to you/ When I sleep with my door in ajar position?"
Still, Whine of the Mystic is musically plainspoken and direct. There’s enough rhythmic jangle and lead twang to have it scan as "rootsy" or "folksy" even though Nap Eyes don’t actually appear to be a folk or roots band. Perhaps they are if you consider the G0-Betweens or the Velvet Underground as their respective nation’s folk music. Whine of the Mystic was recorded live with no overdubs, and they sound limber enough to let loose, but capable of keeping it together. As untraceable feedback leeches through the mix, Seamus Dalton’s constant kick drum stays just enough within the grid during "Dark Creedence", while "Delirium and Persecution Paranoia" and "No Fear of Hellfire" emulate Chapman’s mental cycling by vamping out for over seven minutes; they're all highlights and all come off like impromptu, extended live versions of songs originally planned to clock in at half their length.
Chapman’s a biochemical researcher by trade, a career that presumably requires so much focus and passion that there’s no off-switch. The same could be said for being a musician, so naturally songs about Nap Eyes ("Night of the First Show") mingle with ones that incorporate Chapman’s day job. "Make Something" could certainly be about the drudgery that accompanies both—"By and large, my only success comes from the things I do begrudgingly." It also has him complaining of, "One sickness of brain protein aggregation/ One of upregulated oncogene"—rifle through your old biochem notes and Chapman’s referencing the growth of cancer cells to explain a hangover or heartbreak. Granted, the vocabulary interrupts the flow of the music like tiny cork pieces in your wine glass, but they’re necessary for Chapman to establish his personal P.O.V. within music that deals in very familiar tones and ideas—at any given point, he could be mistaken for Dan Bejar, Adam Granduciel, Cass McCombs, and of course, Dylan or Van Morrison.
It won’t be long before we find out the degree to which Nap Eyes developed their own voice—Whine of the Mystic was a short-run 2014 release in their native Halifax, reissued by Paradise of Bachelors in anticipation of an LP due next year. For the time being, Chapman is more inclined to question his own inner monlogue. On "Dark Creedence", he finds himself at mass on Christmas Eve, drinking sacramental wine even though he can’t understand the reasoning behind it. At least until he recognizes how the ritual parallels with his voluntary usage of wine as a spiritual guide and mental lubricant rather than a blotter. He sighs, "Just get my drinking under control/ And I will live again," but note he doesn’t plan on quitting, just finding the right balance.
