Brocade was performed live in the studio rather than put together from multiple recording sessions, giving the entire album the feeling of an opera or perhaps a requiem mass. While it certainly isn’t “classical” it feels like a substantial work that is best enjoyed in its entirety.
“Loft” the first track on the album begins with dissonant guitar fuzz that sublimates like fog into the clear undulating rhythms that sound oddly similar to something by The American Analog Set.
“Yon” takes the listener on a magic carpet ride a la Mike Oldfield and Tubular Bells. It is 11:19 of simple melody and lush square wave pads that rise and fall in a most contemplative mode.
The almost thirteen minute-long “Spiral Arms” is a space odyssey of a track that creeps along slowly before re-entering real time with the driving fuzz-punk guitar riffs of “How to Be Clean.”
The final track, “Music For Three Synthesizers” is an exquisite seventeen-minute journey closing the album through arpeggiated synth leads and swelling pads that almost, but not quite, come close to the sonic geographies of Sigur Ros.
With Brocade Landing have created a fifty-four minute masterpiece in five parts. Aficionados of dreamcore and stargazing electronic music should definitely check this out.
