Ninja Sex Party, often shortened to NSP is an American musical comedy group made up of Singer Dan Avidan who performs as the character Danny Sexbang and Keyboardist Brian Wecht, who performs as character Ninja Brian. The group formed back in New York in 2009, but are currently based in Los Angeles.
In 2015 Ninja Sex Party were joined by TWRP who are the backing band for the group, previous to that all the instrumental sections were done by Brian. Ninja Sex Party to date have released 9 albums, six of which are original material, and the other three are cover albums. I have reviewed these entries to the NSP discography, and if you want to check that out for yourself then click here.
This album, their ninth release, debuted on October 22nd 2021 and is primarily a remix of selected tracks from previous albums (specifically NSFW, Strawberries and Cream and Attitude City) but include new instrumentals and vocals, as well as contributions from TWRP.
‘Formal Introduction’ opens with some lovely piano music, it really builds anticipation, all hopeful and sweet, the drum fill blending in, as further orchestral backing music is added to create a tremendous fanfare that lets us know something big is going to happen. My only complaint if I had one is that I really like the silly intros and outros of the older NSP albums, and as such missed their absence, but onwards and upwards I suppose.
‘Attitude City’ is originally from the album ‘Attitude City’ and I feel like this just adds more oomph, it hits harder and heavier than the original. You can hear, when listening to both consecutively, there’s an improvement in the overall audio quality. I liked the original but this newer version adds that little bit extra ‘attitude’ to ‘Attitude City’. I think this one would be awesome to hear live, and I’m not just saying that because I hope NSP will come back to Scotland soon.
‘Unicorn Wizard’ is one of my favourite tracks from Strawberries and Cream, and it’s also the only track from that album to get Leveled Up. I think this adds a lot to the original, the piano, the harder and heavier strings, it changes up things quite a lot from the original. I will say that it does tamper off the silliness a little, focusing instead on making awesome music. I don’t mind this per-se and it’s not completely without it’s goofy elements but the shredding guitar really shifts the tone of the track.
‘Road Trip’ is off the Attitude City and it finds a more subtle balance between old and new, it freshens things up, making them more powerful and complex but it has a lot more of what I remember from the original track. It has some really awesome guitar sections, truly phenomenal ones that blend really well with Dan’s vocal parts to create a really great song.
‘I Just Want To Dance’ is right off the first album NSFW and is one of my personal favourites, and this song steers into the absurdity and silliness the same way that I felt ‘Unicorn Wizard’ steered away from it. Both work, and both work in different ways, but this one was particularly enjoyable. Hearing Dan talk about Ninja Nonsense and sexploits, as well as his desire to dance, with the classy piano backing is great. Also I like that he name dropped TWRP who have been their fabulous backing band for a while now.
‘Dragon Slayer’ is another entry from Attitude City, and this is my favourite track from that album, and honestly I really think they did it justice, again, what they added was more depth and complexity to the instrumental backing, and obviously Dan’s voice has matured significantly over the years, so it’s become more technically proficient. The new elements such as the synthy dragon dance breakdown also add to the whole thing.
‘NSP Theme Song’ is from NSFW and it brings the original theme to a whole new level, it has something in common with Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce, and it’s just rad, what I love about this album is that it manages to take the originals and just take them to another level. I like the extra layers to the music, the energy and drive, this all makes for something even better than the original.
‘Party Of Three’ is from Attitude City and another personal favourite from that album, it’s funny and it’s another track that really shows how far Dan’s come vocally, and he was no slouch before. Also a surprise cameo by Arin was awesome. I liked this track, and like many of the others, the newer elements don’t detract from the whole, but add something.
‘6969’ is also from Attitude City, and it also featured Arin again. I think this one was probably closest to the original. Which is good because the original ‘6969’ was awesome. It does add that extra oomph I talked about earlier, making an already great track even better.
‘Dinosaur Laser Fight’ is from their debut album NSFW and it was a lovely way to round off this new one, it has beautiful piano chords that perfectly accompany Danny’s heartfelt vocals. It’s also amazing how nice, and sweet he can sound when he’s literally talking about dinosaurs having a laser fight.
So that’s what I thought of Ninja Sex Party and their latest album ‘Level Up’ and if you want to check that out for yourself then head on over to Spotify. Make sure and support the band by following them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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