Billy Nomates: Cacti Track by Track Review

Billy Nomates is the moniker of Tor Maries who has built a name for herself from her sparse yet danceable arrangements. She's constantly gaining more fans, which was buoyed by the release of her 2020 self-titled album. Now, she's back with 'Cacti' and it looks like she's onto another winner. We took a look on a track-by-track basis.

 

Balance Is Gone

Immediately kicking into action with a gritty guitar riff, you're flung straight into a constantly distorting soundscape on this track. "I just go round and round" Billy shouts as you feel like you're doing a loop yourself. A song about getting completely knocked out of your own orbit, she decries healing and unwillingly embraces a cyclic life. For an opening track, it is an absolute adventure. 

 

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Black Curtains In The Bag

There's an instant mystique about these first two songs, with sounds that feel completely alien, strange whirrs and scattered drum beats draw you in. It's feeling like an experimental pop track, but first and foremost Billy's vocals are completely central to the arrangement, everything revolves around her.

 

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Blue Bones (Deathwish)

An amalgamation of guitar chords and electronic waves provide the beat for this song, which feels like it's about to set off and fly at a moment's notice. Singing of a dying connection between two people, she ponders on the differences and moments that signed the death warrant on the relationship.

 

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Cacti

This song seems to speak of a desire to strike out on your own path, to embrace territory that you usually wouldn't have considered in order to move forward. Some of the synth sections feel downright evil as if surrounded entirely by hostility. Yet, it also wants to get you up and moving.

 

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Saboteur Forcefield

We're taken back to a terrible evening experience where Billy is coming to a few realisations. Holding a love that isn't right is one of the most uncomfortable things you can face in your life and we're getting a close glimpse into uncomfortable territory. Tracks such as 'Saboteur Forcefield' are delivered with the greatest sense of vulnerability.

 

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Roundabout Sadness

A slightly shorter track that feels like we're trespassing upon Billy's own space. The keyboard sounds chaotic, almost like it could be played at a dystopian fairground ride. 

 

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Spite

The spikiest track to date, the guitar feels like it has dirt in its teeth as it snarls at you. "I know you don't love me, everybody knows it" she decries before the tempo gets knocked up. The chorus is a fantastic rush of energy, a raging stomper that is an anthem for any repressed anger you might have.

 

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Fawner

The tempo is taken down as the acoustic guitar is brought out for more tender musings. It sheds away that early mystique for quieter contemplations. Later on, we find ourselves amongst people in a bar as conversation flows and socialites convene.

 

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Same Gun

It instantly feels like you're running at the start of 'Same Gun' as if you're splashing through puddles. The drumming holds a steady tempo and you can hear deep breathing in the background. It makes for an intense experience that you're fully onboard with, the production just hits the spot.

 

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Vertigo

"Is this what I've waited for" we hear as Billy feels let down by a relationship not blossoming into the reciprocated love she thought it would. Comparing it to climbing a mountain for no reason, there's a bitterness that reigns supreme throughout this track. Songs like this make it feel like it's actually a good thing to have an outburst every now and then.

 

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Apathy is Wild

There's an intriguing amount of experimentation here, as textures have been played with and tweaked throughout the album whilst still feeling as though they belong to the same project. The layers of percussion on 'Apathy is Wild' are a particularly satisfying moment.

 

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Blackout Signal

It feels as if you're lost out in some dark void such is the sparse feeling you get from the instrumentals. It's an almost haunting sense you get as the album ends, we get one final outcry from Billy, one that feels more feral and unrestrained than anything else we've heard on the album prior.

 

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'Cacti' is an album that should not be forgotten when we look back at 2023 as January albums can be overlooked at times. What we get is an album from Billy that feels as though it has the right level of experimentation. As she embraces vulnerability, we are taken on an incredibly pleasing journey of sound. You'll want to dance, you'll want to shout the words back and even maybe tear your hair out a bit, it's a powerful effort.

 

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