Big Brave: "Au De La"

After being impressed by what  I  have previously heard from this Montreal based band, I went into this with high expectations. They are brings a more hypnotic and dense element to this album in the first song this is done with  an industrial clang set against her almost post-punk vocals, to create an energetic layer over what would other wise be droning. The song fakes you out stopping before they wind back into the sonic throb. The throw down a heavier hammering to drive the point on on the songs climax. "Look At How the World Has Made a Change" starts with a very spiritual atmosphere with a meditative quality enhanced by the chant of the vocals. This drone does however make me lose sit of where on song begins and the other ends. This does make the album an engaging listen and of those you can just leave on, however in the iPod generation where you are consuming your music more often than no on shuffle mode, how each song stands on its own becomes increasingly important. It takes them til the seven minute mark for the song really to start taking form as her vocals begin to take on a more indie rock exclamation.

"Do no harm do no wrong..." is birthed from ebbs of feedback and distortion that could have radiated off the previous song. Her vocals remain at the more powerful emotive place they ended on the previous which further makes this seem like  an extension of it. It climaxes in the final few seconds of the song, but for some reason this song doesn't feel like it is as fully formed as the other. It is like it's story was never told with a proper resolution. There is a teasing hesitance to " And the Waters Go" that makes it  more challenging list to those of not familiar with the more droning elements of bands like Swans. It is darker and more doomy which is a direction that works for me.



The pulse of "Re Collection 2" drags with a post-apocalyptic drone her vocals float over. At thirteen minutes they take their time bringing it to a boil and coloring it with tons of atmosphere along the way. The song breaks down into feed back and static buzz at the five minute mark until male vocals begin to call out from the distance. She joins in with them. Before it swells into noise and dies back down. One point of interest is that Jessica Moss from Thee Sliver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra lends her violin to a few of the songs on this album, but not in the  conventional manner so doesn't expect to be able to pick out strings from the crazy din going on. Overall this album has much more drone than there previous work so that can be an acquired taste at point on the album I'll give it an 8.5.

This album will be released on Southern Lord September 15th.


BIG | BRAVE - AU DE LA ( LP Trailer / Southern Lord Records ) from MB on Vimeo.