posted 10/06/2006 (Fri) @ 01:19 pm
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Brazil - The Philosophy of Velocity (2006)
Re-Loused in the Comatorium
- On Safe-Cracking And Rubella
- Crime (And The Antique Solution)
- You Never Know
- The Vapours
- Cameo
- Candles (Cast Long Shadows)
- Au Revoir, Mr. Mercury
- Captain Mainwaring
- A Year In Heaven
- The Remarkable Cholmondley Chute System
- Breathe
- Strange Days
Jonathon Newby must have a set of pitch pipes tuned to Cedric Bixler’s vocal cords, because there are times that his singing inflection is a dead ringer for the current Mars Volta vocalist’s style. “The Philosophy of Velocity” itself plays like a sequel to that band’s 2003 release, “De-Loused in the Comatorium”–a punk’s brisk run through poppy fields planted with lyrical razorwire. Although Newby’s lyrics are considerably more “down-to-earth” when put up against contemporaries like the Mars Volta, it’s the uniquely energized crunch of this album that should earn Brazil a spot in today’s music scene beyond “that band that sounds like At The Drive-In with a piano.”
Their “Philosophy” bumps shoulders with various facets of Omar and Cedric’s bands, but at all the right moments: opener “Crime (And The Antique Solution)” busts out of the start-gate with a punishing-yet-trippy think-it’s-a-guitar riff and a vocal inertia that should win over naysayers within a few bars. The music is complex, but with stronger reliance on polyrhythm rather than the inclusion of “strange” rock instrumentation.
“A Year In Heaven”’s grand chording on piano suggests epic jazz-blues at first, but delivers a soupy feast of guitar experimentation and self-harmonizing from Newby, still underscored by the same piano. The song later enters an acoustic finger-plucked passage supported with woebegone electric piano arpeggios, then revs back up for a grand exit. Then we go down “The Remarkable Cholmondeley Chute System” in just under 50 seconds, and come across “Breathe,” a song which bears little resemblance to the Pink Floyd song of the same name, except perhaps in spirit. Among the most straightforward rockers on “Philosophy,” “Breathe” still manages to sound like nothing else being produced today. Even the Mars Volta don’t sound like this anymore.
Few modern artists possess the fearlessness required to repeat the experiments of yesteryear, and even fewer of them have the talents to come out of such re-experiments with something listenable in hand. Brazil have done it with their latest record. Even if it’s only a trip down memory lane, “The Philosophy of Velocity” is a trip any fan of concept albums and madman experimentation can’t afford to pass up.
Tags: emo, experimental, hardcore, metalcore, pop, punk, screamo
