After two full years of trotting the globe, Nessie & Her Beard have returned to the studio and emerged with their latest EP, Antigua y Barbuda. A y B, a wild departure from the propulsive noise of BOLD/HARD, celebrates the tropical vibrance of life in the Caribbean. Musical influences surge from both the Greater and Lesser Antilles, incorporating calypso, rumba, ska, merengue, and more. Despite the pervasive island ambience, the instrumentation and production of Antigua y Barbuda is pure Her Beard, courtesy of OCR's finest. Antigua y Barbuda straddles the fine line between world music and the otherworldly, melding space-age electronics with exotic percussion and warm vocals. Nessie takes a step back from her previous lyricism, instead playing kazoo, lip trumpet, slide flute, whistling, and speaking Spanish on two tracks. As usual, Her Beard brings their diverse musical knowledge to the table, vividly painting the songs with ghostly sounds from strange and wonderful bygone eras. Antigua y Barbuda is a musical treat that evokes a sweltering twilight on the beach as only Nessie & Her Beard are able. For both the Her Beard habitué and the Nessie novice, Antigua y Barbuda has to Be Heard to be believed.
