Chicago duo Braince released their self-titled debut at the end of July and it caught my attention while doing some rounds on Bandcamp. What initially drew me in was the striking cover art, which had me unsure of whether I was about to hear some weird rock/punk or something more abstract and droning. Once I hit play the former proved to be true, and the bass/drums combination hinted at some Lightning Bolt type material but Braince soon proved to be a slightly different beast. There’s a similar volume and precision attack on display, but the songs run the spectrum of alternative rock, noise rock, punk and everything in between give this album a flair of its own.
At eight songs that come in around twenty minutes, Braince emphasizes short and sharp attacks that don’t linger too long on any one particular idea. The Lightning Bolt comparison might have you expecting denser noise upon pressing play, and while the volume is close on certain songs you’ll find it isn’t always the focus. Opener “Kween Qobra” has a looser rhythm and airier sound that gives off a bass driven take on surf rock and rock ‘n roll, while something like “Kassel Grey Skull” leans more into 90’s noise rock and its jagged edges. You probably noticed from the two previously mentioned tracks, but the band has some amusing song titles that give off a similar slant as Arab on Radar and others from the period that didn’t take themselves too seriously. As you make your way further into the material, sometimes you’ll get a bit more punk or some AmRep noise rock, but my ears also picked up some grunge and even early 2000s alternative at certain points. The fact that this is all run through the bass without any guitars take what might be more melodic and makes it uglier sounding on purpose, which helps give Braince some of their quirkiness. Admittedly some of the songs came and went without fully clicking in a way that they stood out in my memory afterwards, but the ones that did hit that sweet spot between noise rock and punk in ways that kept me wanting to come back.
The vocals are another area that have some unpredictability to them, as they switch things up from song to song. “Kween Qobra” has jagged edges to the singing that feels like a cross between At the Drive In and a number of different bands on Reptilian Records, while “M2XU” mellows out a little bit at the beginning but heads into weirder no-wave and punk territory at the end as both members throw out words at a pace that makes it sound like the song is about to implode. You’ve also got the likes of “Translam”, which has hints of rockabilly to the inflection, but then turns into an angry, punked up version of The Killers for a few minutes. The singing is where Braince really lets their quirks shine, and I’d love to see it only continue to warp and get stranger in the future.
Braince’s debut takes the bass and drums approach of something like Lightning Bolt and runs a bunch of additional genres through it. There is plenty of noise rock and punk, especially in the sharpness of the instrumentation, but when you add in everything from rockabilly to grunge it does give them a sound that’s hard to pin down but has a lot of appeal. Not every combination of these styles stuck with me over time and there is room for the duo to make their instrumentals as over the top as their vocals, but this is a great starting point and I’m glad to have stumbled upon this release. Braince is available from Dipterid Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
