BRian Borcherdt (Dependent) Rating: NNNN Rating: NNNN
All vellum and lush textured paper, with delicate letterpress prints of butterfly wings, By Divine Right member Brian Borcherdt’s slim solo disc should be judged by its cover. Several degrees of separation away from BDR’s ecstatic pop fizz, the half-dozen gauzy, intricate tunes that Borcherdt has crafted shiver like a tower of glued-together toothpicks. The disc kicks off with a fuzzy mess of radio static that morphs into stop-and-start song structures resembling abstract art: ambient atmospherics, stripped-down acoustic guitar fragments, aquatic electric effects, filtered and distorted vocals and emo dynamics. This is the sound of raw emotion, like a barely suppressed scream. Dave Newfeld polishes the fragile sonic landscapes to an opalescent sheen with assured production, stretching them into three dimensions. If this is a vanity project, it’s a damn good one. Brian Borcherdt joins Heavy Meadows at the Cameron Wednesday (October 23).
