The Land of Nod were a space rock/post-rock duo between 1995 and 2005 from Cheltenham, England, comprising guitarist Ant Walker and bass guitarist Dave Battersby. The band's first release was the track "Floating around in the bubblebuzz", which was released on the Voyage to the Cosmic Underworld: Volume One EP in 1995 on Ochre Records. The following year, they released two tracks on a split 12-inch EP with The Bass Cadets, and in January 1998 they released another split single with Ectogram.
The band's first dedicated release was a four-track 10-inch EP in July 1998, which was followed in February 1999 by the debut album, Translucent. The band then released an album a year until 2003's Colli De Pedona. Their 2001 mini-set Mont Ventoux was themed on the Tour de France; The title track is a reference to one of the highest summits in the race, "Anquetil" was named after five times Tour winner Jacques Anquetil, and "Sommet" featured the voice of Eddy Merckx.
The band also recorded a session for the B-92 radio station in Yugoslavia, these tracks included on the US compilation Reality Channel. In the same year they contributed four exclusive tracks to the Seasons compilation album on Ochre Recordson which featured interpretations of the seasons of the year, with other tracks by Longstone, Lakescene (Walker's side-project), 90° South, and Stylus. The Land of Nod
Links to Peel[]
Peel had a copy of the band's joint single with The Bass Cadets in 1996, but did not play any of the Land Of Nod's tracks on his programme. It was only until 1998, that he started to play their material and he was so impressed by their December 2002 album, Inducing The Sleep Sphere, that he nominated it as one of his records for January 2003 (Peel's Record Box). In March 2003, the band recorded a session for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 show and they headlined the Cheltenham 'John Peel Night' in October 2005, which was the last time the band performed together.
Sessions[]
NOTE: Ken Garner's The Peel Session book mistakenly mentions their recording date as 20th March 2004.
1. Recorded: 2003-03-20. First Broadcast: 22 April 2003
- Half Light / Colli Di Pedona / Inducing The Sleep Sphere / Ice Station Nod
Other Shows Played[]
- 1998
- 20 January 1998: Spiral (split 7" with Ectogram - Spitsbergen Part 4 / Spiral) Ochre
- 25 April 2000: Chronicle Blueprint #2 (7" - Chronicle Blueprint #2 / Lake Merrit) Enraptured
- 22 June 2000: Chronicle Blueprint #2 (7" - Chronicle Blueprint #2 / Lake Merrit) Enraptured
- 16 August 2000: Second Sight (LP - Timeless Point) Ochre
- 22 August 2000: Ice Station Nod (LP - Timeless Point) Ochre
- 24 August 2000 (Radio Eins): Ice Station Nod (LP - Timeless Point) Ochre
- August 2000 (FSK): Reality Channel (CD - Timeless Point) Ochre
- 12 September 2000: Second Sight (LP - Timeless Point) Ochre
- 27 September 2000: Reality Channel (LP - Timeless Point) Ochre
- September 2000 (FSK): Reality Channel (CD - Timeless Point) Ochre
- 29 November 2000: Missing Mass (v/a CD - Interface) Space Age
- 2001
- 03 May 2001 (Radio Eins): Orientation Point (album - Mont Ventoux) Silber
- 22 May 2001: Anquetil (album - Mont Ventoux) Silber
- 31 May 2001 (Radio Eins): Orientation Point (album - Mont Ventoux) Silber
- 2002
- 16 April 2002: Seeing Into The Great Void (2xLP – Archive: 02) Ochre
- 02 January 2003: Half-Light (LP - Inducing The Sleep Sphere) Ochre
- 08 January 2003: Elevator (LP - Inducing The Sleep Sphere) Ochre
- 09 January 2003 (Radio Eins): Half-Light (LP - Inducing The Sleep Sphere) Ochre
- 10 January 2003 (BBC World Service): Half-Light (LP - Inducing The Sleep Sphere) Ochre
- 14 January 2003: 'A Sequence Of Speed (LP - Inducing The Sleep Sphere)' (Ochre)
- 16 January 2003 (Radio Eins): Close To Conscious (LP - Inducing The Sleep Sphere) Ochre
- 22 January 2003: Close To Conscious (LP - Inducing The Sleep Sphere) Ochre
- 22 January 2003 (Radio Mafia): A Sequence Of Speed (album - Inducing The Sleep Sphere) Ochre
- 23 January 2003 (Radio Eins): 'A Sequence Of Speed (LP - Inducing The Sleep Sphere)' (Ochre)
- 24 January 2003 (BBC World Service): 'Le Sommet A Mont Ventoux (LP - Inducing The Sleep Sphere)' (Ochre)
- 28 January 2003: 'Le Sommet A Mont Ventoux (LP - Inducing The Sleep Sphere)' (Ochre)
- 06 February 2003 (Radio Eins): 'Le Sommet A Mont Ventoux (LP - Inducing The Sleep Sphere)' (Ochre)
- 07 February 2003 (BBC World Service): Close To Conscious (LP - Inducing The Sleep Sphere) Ochre
- 11 February 2003: Change Of Mind (LP - Inducing The Sleep Sphere) Ochre
- 18 February 2003: 'Shimmering (LP- Inducing the Sleep Sphere)' (Ochre)
- 17 September 2003: 'Summer House (LP- Seasons: An Ochre Records Compilation)' (Ochre)
- 24 September 2003: The Season of Decay (Various LP - Seasons) Ochre