Colossal Letdown - Brainscraper

 Released: July 17

Brainscaper is, succinctly put, a brief but pleasantly brain-tickling album. It only consists of three tracks, two of which are short and the final piece is well into longform territory at over twenty minutes. The first two dip us into distinct landscapes, the first of which is a more aggressive and persistent piece. “Brainfreeze” sounds a bit like its name implies, with a an unrelenting digital clipping sound that feels like a powered up CRT monitor scrubbing aggressively against your face. “Brainbirds” somewhat changes this dynamic with a slow and lower undertone, but makes up for it with the rather birdlike sounds being squeezed out to accompany this low growl.

Once we get to the final and longest track, “Brainscraper,” the atmosphere stays predominately the same but the directions in which the track goes are numerous. With all of the sounds squeezed out of the previous two track, this final piece goes beyond as a a wild variety of squelches, beeps, grinds, chips, and anything else come rolling out in flowing fashion. The best way I can describe it is like a river of sound winding its way around rocks, sticks, and other debris and creating all these divots and diversions in the sound. It’s a surreal listen, especially because the sound feels distorted and clanky, but not an overwhelming wall of sound that hits you everywhere all at once.