By This article previously appeared on Crossfader
Bandcamp Picks of the Week, as large and in charge as ever
Borusiade – A BODY
Genre: EBM
Favorite Tracks: “Breathe,” “An Aquarian Feeling,” “Silent (Replicant Version)”
Bucharest’s own Borusiade funnels out a tunnel journey comprised of cohesive techno dub-space: this is A BODY. The first album released by Borusiade, never-ending cycles of drum machines and synthscapes create an experience much like the queue music while waiting in line at a theme park. Minute after minute of experimental synth wears on, beginning to sound like a repeating loop on a pre-programmed, household church organ, and getting lost in the music is occasionally a challenge. “An Aquarian Feeling” mixes different bass lines, each building paces of gumminess and staccato trances on one another. As the longest track on A BODY at 7:42, “An Aquarian Feeling” knows its celestial place in space and time, only making sense among smoke machines and rotating lights, not a glum companion of the other tracks on A BODY. The only vocal that comes through at all is a faint “da da da,” making sense of depicting a feeling. “Undone” similarly does not contain distinctive lyrics, a sound piece growing and shrinking in size while its whispers slip in and out. A BODY may be cohesive, but is perhaps something to be stored in a time capsule and revisited in 25 years, living on another plane than music of the modern era entirely. “Silent (Replicant Version)” takes everything the album has demonstrated and applies it in a more exciting way; powerful and full of swagger, climbing octaves of synths and the repeating keyword “silent” lower you into a trance trance. “Cluster,” “Breathe,” and “Dormant” all exist in the same vein, exploring buzzes, fast drum beats, and anything else that might be manipulated from a synth pad. A BODY explores long durations of repeated synth sequences, a lesson in how to appreciate the simplest of sounds for their underlying complexity. You can listen to it here.
Hand-Me-Down Adventure – CHAPTER 3
Genre: Surf Rock
Favorite Tracks: “Green Skies,” “Red Eyes,” “Somethin’ About Some Thing,” “Take Me Back”
Hand-Me-Down Adventure plays the system by naming their first full length album CHAPTER 3, beginning their story in the middle, with details missing but conflict in full swing. Part of their Austin, TX origins is advertising that they’re even better live, and that the album recording is simply documenting that they exist in the system. CHAPTER 3 is focused on instrumental segments like the ones found in “Branch for Me,” entirely musical and merrily carrying on. Before becoming too engulfed in the tone set forth by the beginning of the album, an alarming change goes into the guitar sirens on “Red Eyes” for an imaginative wake up call. “Somethin’ About Some Thing” is grunge surf rock, musically whipping around and bordering on cheerful psychedelia in its delivery. “Branch for Me” and “Somethin’ About Some Thing” first appeared on their 2016 EP, AN INTRODUCTION TO HMDA, fetus forms compared to the versions on CHAPTER 3. Their appearances on this album feel at home and understood, sure of their attitude and no longer resting on being pretty—screams are crucial. CHAPTER 3 turns more vocally aggressive, with the crashing drums and cymbals on “The Facts” and “Patience” not fearing the incoherency and raw emotion attached to them. Ending CHAPTER 3 on “Patience” throws in the affirmative plan that, when Hand-Me-Down Adventure performs, there is a planned chaos that the album recording cannot capture. Including intense outbursts here and there, the Texas surf rock of CHAPTER 3 is a quirky package pleading to be showcased for its live energy. Check it out on Hand-Me-Down Adventure’s Bandcamp.
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