ITS MEMBERS having been through the major label wringer, Toulousain post-rock outfit BRUIT ≤ had no desire to make the same mistakes again; and its members decided to strip back to that initial spark: the creative act.
The initial trio of bassist and violinist Clément Libes, drummer Damien Gouzou and guitarist Théophile Antolinos didn’t even intend to ever play live, but to experiment with sound in a studio environment.
A couple of years and a brace of live videos into its career, cellist Luc Blanchot joined; a direction had been set for an expansive, multi-instrumental approach to post-rock. A deal with Elusive Sound followed; as did their debut EP, Monolith. Recently Julien Aouf has taken over the drum stool.
BRUIT ≤’s debut album, The machine is burning and now everyone knows it could happen again, is now ready, with a digital release scheduled for April 2nd and vinyl to follow; and they’ve released a taster single, “Renaissance”, the video for which you can watch below.
It’s a beguilingly pastoral, folky inversion of the post-rock style, which has of late cleaved a little towards a math-rocky, hardcore direction; alive with acoustic instrumentation, it blossoms across eight minutes and is possibly closest in kin to Rachel’s and ASS – even Derbyshire’s wonderful Haiku Salut. There’s no tricky time-signature riffing here.
As it builds it picks up a more sprightly rhythm, electronics and droning feedback nestle in and find a home’ and it’s that rising feedback which, with a shoegazey quality and delicious scorch, carries the track home.
The band say: ‘The piece evokes a humanity reborn from its ashes and rebuilding itself from nature.
“Mehdi Thiriot has created a video clip, woven with symbols that illustrate the everlasting conflict between nature and culture.” And it’s that video you can watch below, Mehdi’s cameras a silent commentator as humanity cycles rashly through boom and bust.
The band say of the forthcoming album: “We don’t consider this album to be a compilation of separate tracks; but more like a poetic interlude, where every moment introduces the next.
“We prefer long formats because we consider that our modern society disconnects us from our biological and natural rhythm. We think that music should be a medium of reappropriation of our given time.
“We have decided not to diffuse our music on corporate streaming platforms, because we believe they contradict the philosophical and political ideals we defend.”
BRUIT ≤’s The machine is burning and now everyone knows it could happen again will be released by Elusive Sound on April 2nd; pre-orders are now being taken over at Bandcamp.
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