We Know About the Need is the debut album from Bracken, the shrouded-in-mystery solo venture of Chris Adams (otherwise voice and co-sound designer of Leeds legends Hood). It’s a blunt introduction, with the first track picking up as if mid-song: the head-nodding beat and aqueous guitar plucks of “Of Athroll Slains” sounding like some lost instrumental transmission from the Wu’s 36 Chambers picked up by CB radio and rebroadcast here. Bloops, beeps and squelches of strings swirl about, as Chris’ voice comes through sounding wonderfully wrecked and world-weary. The heavy dub bass reigns supreme (here, and throughout We Know) as an orchestra of myriad sounds plays, each holding the rest together like the disparate million moving parts of city life.
Second song and lead single “Heathens” is a boldly ambitious burst of intricately woven sound. Opening with a loosed breath and an ethereal voice running through its atmospheric pulse, the track soon catches melody and bounces down a hallway of deep dub bump. The vocals grab onto their own reverb and ride (stuttering a la Prefuse 73’s cut-ups), as an errant horn squeals and the guitar notes are chopped and coiled into a melody that would recall Phoenix’s “Too Young” if it wasn’t for the profoundly heavy space they occupy. “Fight or Flight” is a gorgeous six-minute exercise in pacing—a musique concre`te masterpiece carved out of guitar, organ, cello and unrecognizeables. The organic chemistry of the Books and the spaciousness of Boards of Canada both come to mind, but Bracken burrows deeper than the former and plays a million times warmer than the latter. Chris’ ghostly call pushes up against the ceiling of sound, nearly cracking under the weight, singing beauty and heartache with tape effects catching notes and ringing them ad infinitum.
We Know About the Need is full of so....... więcej