Bright
Full Negative (Or) Breaks
(Ba Da Bing!)
The thing that I enjoy so much about independent music is that for every band I hear of and enjoy, there are inevitabley tons more that I haven't heard of that I end up enjoying nearly as much. There are weeks when I'm reading about groups or get information from friends when I literally hear of 10 more artists that I want to check out at some point in the future. Not only that, but sometimes an album will find its way into my hands by a group that I've never heard of before that reminds me that there are tons of talented artists out there doing my thing that I would never hear of otherwise.
Bright is such a band and although they don't really do anything new or mindblowing with their sound, they've put together a very solid release that draws together influences from all kinds of different genres and put it together into a spacey, droney, rocking time. There are bits of Spiritualized, early Mogwai, and even bits of free jazz and just plain rock. With their swirling melodies and minimal amount of vocals, this disc is all about creating great sound textures, and that the group does over the course of 9 tracks and 55 minutes.
The first track is one of the longer ones on the disc and after awhile of quiet drumming and interplay between a bit of guitar feedback and some plucking, things slowly drift into a more thick sound with all the instruments gaining in intensity. About halfway through the track, things calm down again a bit as singer Mark Dwinell gets out a few vocals, but the track surges again before drifting off to nothingness again by the end. The second track on the disc, "Yeah! Holy Stones" is about half as long as the first one, and about twice as urgent in terms of sound. It still keeps the same lush sounds that the first one had, but the vocals of Dwinell play a much bigger part.
Some of the best tracks on the album comes at two-thirds of the way through the album as the group changes up their sound ever so slightly. On "I'm Colliding" and "Blue Lines," they cut out a bit of the spacey sounds and turn more to a full-fledged rock sound and while there are still layered guitars and a lush sound overall, it helps to break up the slight monotony that the group built on the first 5 tracks. On the last two tracks (including the epic-length eighth track "The Spire Will Be Your Landmark."), the group goes back into the familiar, drifting territory, but again create some excellent, spacey melodies.
Overall, it's an album that may appeal to the groups mentioned above, as well as those who like other artists like Windy And Carl (albeit, Bright has quite a bit less drift overall to their sound). Although some of the tracks at the beginning of the disc sound somewhat homogenous, the disc is still an interesting one from a fairly unknown group.
Rating: 6.5
