THE BRACKISH - ATLAS DAY
This is the fourth album from Bristol-based avant-rock outfit The Brackish. From their 2014 debut Big Guys onwards, their style has hinged on blending composition and improvisation to form complex, yet accessible post-everything instrumentals. For this HalfMeltedBrain Records release, they've attempted a more accurate replication of their live sound, with the jazzier elements of their collective approach pushed to the foreground. There are elements of math rock and prog-metal that suggest polyrhythmically tricky forebears like Tortoise and Battles (and sometimes British contemporaries black midi); but there's also plenty of kraut-flavoured space and stoner groove to aid cognitive absorption for those more into headphonaut contemplation.
While some of their earlier material has an almost dancefloor-friendly, neo-bluegrass bounce, the predominant moods on this release are exemplified by either knotty and stormy epics or downtempo, jazzy dream pieces ('Leftbank'). While a propulsive beast like 'Beermoth' from their 2018 release Firm But Fair suggested a kinship with Can-influenced post-rock outfits like Cul de Sac, Atlas Day opener 'Deliverance' strays even further into space rock territory with a slow-building middle section reminiscent of an LSD march out of Hinten-era Guru Guru or Hovercraft's Akathisia. The track's crushing dynamics suggest Yob at their most transcendent and doom-laden, and its wind-down denouement captures some of the sardonic grandeur of King Crimson circa Starless and Bible Black. 'Dust Off Reaper', comparatively, has a hushed, sombre quality like some misty middle ground between Earth and Popol Vuh.
The dexterous dual guitar interplay between Luke Cawthra and Neil Smith is crucial to this album's success. There's plenty of the more brittle techniques found in the post-rock colourings of Enablers or Slint. The proggy elegance of 'Pretty Ugly' has an almost Dixie Dregs-like quality to its melodic structure, but there's none of Steve Morse's over-refined virtuosic sheen. Cawthra and Smith's shared and symbiotic approach to soloing favours an ophidian modalism that's able to subtly wend its way in and out of both guitarists' rhythmic and structural duties.
Suitably given its Beefheartian title, 'Pam's Chalice' favours avant-surf Gary Lucas meets Marc Ribot textures in a context similar to Don Caballero's more cohesive moods. Unlike those American math-rockers, The Brackish can stay in one time signature zone long enough to sustain emotive crescendos you would normally associate with acts like Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Mogwai. The francophilian 'Leftbank' suggests a clear-tone Steve Vai playing one of Frank Zappa's strictly genteel cantilevered mobile structures before drifting with echo contortions into another contrasting, but complementary section.
Finally, ‘Mr Universe’ gives drummer Matthew Jones an opportunity to display his skills at combining snare ghosting and double stroke/rim shot cross-hatching with a pleasurably constrained and integrated solo thrown in to the bargain. His experience with fellow Bristolean multicultural band Zun Zun Egui and bassist Jacob Myles Tyghe's background with the Talk Talk/Miles Davis-inspired melodic math rockers Port Erin must help give The Brackish its flexible rhythmic backbone. The duo are capable of sustaining and propelling the guitarists' most outré meanderings as well as supporting their more fiendish constructions. Atlas Day is a fine introduction to this group's richly nuanced sound, but their other albums are all worth checking out.
Atlas Day is available via the Bandcamp link below:
(C) Text by Jon Kromka 2021
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