Help! Boyfrndz just had their van and all their gear stolen in San Francisco. They are accepting donations to recover their stuff and continue on tour. Any donation of $5 or more gets you a download of Breeder their amazing new album that is reviewed below. Please help. http://boyfrndz.com/
Less than a year from the release of their EP Natures, Austin, Texas-based progressive rock band Boyfrndz are set to release their second full length entitled Breeder on April 1st. Here’s the catch though–it sounds completely different than anything they’ve put out before, but it still retains the impossible-to-label sound, and that’s what makes it their best effort yet.
Without a doubt, the first thing you’re going to notice about this album is the cover art. If you were on the internet in the late 90’s, the cover is likely to remind you of the dancing baby gif. that was floating around. It was one of the first things to go viral on the internet; a “meme” before there were memes, if you will. Lets not talk about memes, though. Ever.
Retaining the complex rhythmic nature of the music along with the reverby vocal and guitar production, the quartet manages to utilize these elements in a completely different and new way. The dreamy soaring vocals of Scott Martin blend perfectly with the spacier, unearthly, and almost shoegazy sound of the guitars Martin, and the driving rhythms of the bass and drums. The drumming on this album is insane. Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m listening to Aaron Perez, or a machine gun synced to a oddly timed metronome (seriously, listen to “All At Once”, the third track on the album).
Breeder takes you on a journey collectively, sure, but each song is a journey of itself. The album’s mesmerizing first track, titled “Intro”, puts you in a trance from the start and leads into the first single for the album “Each Others”, a mountain of the signature complex, groovy drum patterns, the satisfyingly melodic vocals, and the reverb laden guitar chords that Breeder has introduced. “Design”, the longest track on the album coming in at nearly 6 minutes, starts off as a slow piece that wouldn’t sound out of place as a serenade before it blows up in your face.
Imagine what it would feel like to be drifting through space, kind of like that Sandra Bullock movie Gravity, that came out a little while ago. That’s the mindset Breeder puts you in from the start, and it’s an unrelenting sound throughout the entire album, give or take the few musically insane moments where it feels like you’re on a battlefield rather than in space.
I usually like to fall asleep with some sort of music playing, and my favorite track on the album, “Dark Braining”, has almost always been the one that I drift off to. The hypnotizing verse and intricate guitar lead gives way to the drum-driven chorus that is somehow as delicate as it is explosive.
The idea that I’ve had regarding this band from the start is that I simply can’t get enough. With each release I have to have more.
Breeder is available through Brutal Panda Records April 1st. Pass it up and the joke is on you.
RATING: 5/5
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