Brickmason - Emergency Rice at Dusk

 Released: July 31

Combining elements of vaporwave and trap-adjacent beats, Brickmason’s newest album is a fun and sometimes frenetic-feeling collection of tracks. I think one of my favorite parts about it is that most of the songs feel like they just switch up on a dime, sometimes with little or no warning. It keeps things really interesting throughout, even if it feels a little jarring and out of nowhere sometimes. It often just takes some of the thematic elements of the track already established and feels like dragging them through the mud, just for fun. Even on just the first track, there’s this whole little breakdown part that makes you think the whole track is switching up, then a short pause, an then a return to the original theme from the start. It’s a cool collection of trickery and subversion that gives it a somewhat mad vibe while maintaining a sense of chill to it as well. 

One of my favorite moods on here is “That One Cat Who Never Looks Sad.” It almost feels like two or three tracks compressed together as it starts out with a particular theme that feels completely different about half way through. But even with the two disparate feeling parts, there’s the unifying feature of the bass, which is just so incredibly heavy and well-tamed. It thuds and thumps with a well placed low rumble, keeping a certain intensity as the more rapid fire elements of the percussion go off. There’s some other tracks that leans in more sparse and lo-fi directions like “Cherry Soda on a Rooftop in June,” a track with a much less intensive low-end treatment but still keeping that penchant for busy percussion and some flat out weird rhythms. 

Overall, it’s a really busy feeling album. It manages to sit somewhere in the realm of vaporwave but effectively combines some trap and even IDM elements to make an interesting composite. I wouldn’t really consider it to be like dance music, but it definitely inspires motion and has enough varied sonic elements to really give your brain a tickle.