BRASSTRONAUT play NXNE on June 15 at a tba venue. Rating: NNNN
There’s something calm and confident about Brasstronaut’s second album, 10 tracks of atmospheric, spacious soundscapes pushed along and given shape by Edo Van Breeman’s intimate vocals, gentle melodies and space-themed lyrics.
The Vancouver jazz-influenced indie rock band uses an uncommon mix of instruments. Clarinet and trumpet share equal room with piano and synths, bass and slide guitar, noise and drums. But even the brass tones suggested by their moniker have a soft, muted quality. For Brasstronaut, texture is everything.
But so is inventive songwriting. Opener Bounce establishes the peaceful tone, The Grove’s surprising polyrhythmic loops seem to collapse into each other, Falklands brings in touches of Field Musicesque pop-prog alongside a transcendent chorus, Moonwalker’s lovingly plaintive, and Revelstoke Dam is a little bit baroque.
Gorgeously inventive.
Top track: Moonwalker
