Belgium has its fair share of multi-instrumentalist bands, dEUS being the most obvious. BRNS would be another pick of mine, as their debut album, Wounded, demonstrates.
There’s a lot going on within the first minute of the nine-track LP, as opener, Clairvoyant, has layer-upon-layer of sound, guitar twiddle, percussion, vocal yelps and shouts, odd electronic noises and just general weirdness. This is a good thing, though, because the band are able to conjure all these different pieces into a musical whole. There is songcraft here, in bucketloads.
However, it’s not as easy to pigeonhole their sound as it is to enjoy the final results of what could have been a joyless cacophony in less competent hands. Here it’s all about attention to the details that add texture to the songs. Take the percussive highlights in Deathbed as an example. The music itself sits back, letting the drums and vocals leads things. The spaces are filled with what feel like more improvised guitar lines and these interesting auras of percussive colour that stand out across the every track.
In reviews the album is often described as an ‘orgy of sounds’, which is both true and a distracting way to talk about this debut. It’s part shoegaze, part grunge, part experimental post-rock, so of course the guitars shimmer as a wall of sound; however, the use of what I would say are ‘cute’ synth moments and the inclusion of a drummer who enjoys making full use of the kit, you’re never focused on a single element for any length of time. And the more you listen, the more you discover. This also means it’s not an album you tire of.
While it doesn’t display its hooks like an indie peacock, it delights more and more each time you listen. The Story of the Bible is an great example of this, building and building, bringing in different parts like some sort of mad orchestral outpouring, but also managing to hold it all together with a coherent kernel at the centre of it. It’s unfair of me to mention Radiohead’s Paranoid Android here, as the two songs are so obviously different, but they also both move you through scenes in a song without you feeling like it’s a Dr. Frankenstein creation. BRNS’s songs are a little more raucous and a lot less prog, though.
The final track, Lights, ends the album in the same way it starts. More standard in its composition, but no less interesting for it. It’s a collection of songs that you’d be anticipating seeing live, which I think is often the hallmark of a great album. Streaming, CD or vinyl might be the closest I will ever get, though. I’ve enjoyed this album for over a decade and it still instils an energy and euphoria in me that has dissipated for many other albums of the time.
Perhaps it will for you, should you be unaware of this album.