Darker With The Day

This morning's episode features an interview with Nick & Katy, from local post-rock group Plainer.

Plus the following review, featured just before the Big Brave song, Canon: In Canon;

Big|Brave - A Chaos Of Flowers (Thrill Jockey)

Released April 19th

Montreal's Big|Brave return with A Chaos Of Flowers, their follow up to last year's, truly excellent, Nature Morte and their eighth album to date. A Chaos Of Flowers showcases the group at their most abstract and innovative, channelling the likes of Sunn0))) and other such purveyors of guitar minimalism. Waves of rumbling distortion and shrieking, howling feedback provide the backdrop for an album of intense vulnerability and bleak beauty.

Vocalist and guitarist Robin Wattie mined the public domain for lyrical inspiration, finding refuge in a series of familiar -and not so familiar- female poets of various eras and cultures. One example being Emily Dickinson, whose words, “I felt a funeral, In my brain” open the record, but also the Japanese feminist Yosano Akiko and E. Pauline Johnson, a Mohawk poet whose indigenous name was Tekahionwake.

Furthering the experimental sound of the record is the group’s choice of guest musicians, which include guitarists Marisa Anderson and Tashi Dorji as well as saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi. These guest musicians add further colour to a sonic palette that is alternately harsh and serene, with the band knowing precisely when to grab the listener by throat and when to allow them time to catch their breath.

A Chaos Of Flowers is an album designed to be devoured in its entirety, as a complete and total work of art, but that said, it is not without its highlights. Album opener and lead single, I Felt A Funeral, sets the tone early, alerting the listener that the next forty-odd minutes are not going be easy, whilst second single Canon: In Canon confirms this fact. A Song For Marie Part III provides an almost ambient interlude at the albums midway point, before the album steamrolls to its conclusion with Moonset, a devastating masterclass in shifting dynamics that culminates in a cacophony of crushing noise.

Big|Brave are one of the most engaging and interesting groups currently working in the confines of the "metal" genre, or indeed within anything that could be considered "heavy" music. A Chaos Of Flowers feels like both a sister album and a logical conclusion to their last record. This time, the group allow more space for atmospherics, lending the album a sensitivity less evident in its predecessor. A Chaos Of Flowers is an album of raw and feral power that pushes boundaries and bucks convention, taking the word “heavy” well beyond its logical conclusion; an essential album not just for metal fans, but for anyone with a willingness to be challenged and an ear for intensity.

Nick Stephan