The Brackish are a 4-piece experimental band from Bristol UK. First formed in 2012, the band have released five albums and are finalising their sixth.
Constantly evolving, the band draws inspiration from a wide range of musical influences, art, films, places and people.
The Brackish sound is characterised by its use of dynamics, long-form composition and improvisation. Face-melting heaviness gives way to gentle, spacious, improvised soundscapes, often within a single piece. Kraut-like grooves, polyrhythms, violent melodic statements and psychedelic, free-form improvisation are present in equal measure. Always expressed with a strong emphasis on melody and narrative, aiming to take the listener on multiple journeys of much-needed escapism.
PRESS
'Released in September 2023, Donor Zone is the fifth album from Bristolean experimental rock quartet The Brackish. The imaginative flair they demonstrated on their previous 2021 release on Halfmeltedbrain Records, Atlas Day, has transferred successfully back to Stolen Body Records, who released Firm But Fair in 2018. The twin guitar interplay of Neil Smith and Luke Cawthra rests securely as always on the bedrock grooves and transitional dexterity of bassist Jacob Tyghe and drummer Matt Jones. Jazz – the broadest of musical churches – is a crucial ingredient, allowing the cohesion of formal elements in four tracks that successfully combine longform composition and improvisation.
The martial manoeuvres of opener ‘Willox for a New Age’, conjure an atmosphere somewhere between John Zorn’s jazz noir concoctions and the polyrhythmic convolutions of Henry Threadgill’s Very Very Circus. An initially merry, if spiky, tone turns increasingly uneasy with each transition. This track sets the pattern for the album as a series of musical bridges spanning post-punk geometrics and the neo-psych textures of post-rock: challenging, yet pleasantly listenable initially, then increasingly fraught with menace, then concluding via some combination of satisfying climactic resolution or arcane subtractive improvisatory logic.
The buzzing clouds of snare and wonky bass of the title track suggest psych-dub spindrift out of Magical Power Mako’s Bluedot period. A false ending reminiscent of something off the second disc of Amon Düül II’s Dance of the Lemmings gradually has a ghostly procession return to undergo its final dissolution.
There’s a subtle intricacy worthy of Tortoise or Aerial M going on in the suspenseful buildup of ‘J and J’. While the payoff riffola recalls the more goofalicious aspects of Frank Zappa’s ‘Sinister Footwear’ arrangements, its final climactic return elevates itself with redoubled intensity and some scorching fuzz solo work from Cawthra.
The final track ‘Buabb’ is a paragon of the kind of stylistic contrast this foursome excels in. An Afrobeat inspiration transudes the guitar-drum interplay with a light hypnotic bound that builds towards an improvisatory section like some collision between Strictly Personal-era Magic Band and the Nels Cline Trio at their most freeform and frazzled. While there’s no shortage of moody passages on Donor Zone, there’s also a light-hearted, absurdist quality that The Brackish share with labelmates The Evil Usses. These groups operate on a scale of melodic engagement that’s closer to fellow psych outfits like The Osees than the austere exploration of just intonation and metrical intricacy that Horse Lords have made their métier. The Brackish have hit upon an instrumental rock formula that’s scary enough to provide frisson, but tuneful enough in their arty lunacy to attract a growing audience. A horde of music-loving organisms can thrive in these salty waters. ( Jon Kromka from ‘Aeturnal Flux’ blog )
Donor Zone' came out of the same sessions as the previous record and is a sonically different, texturally challenging, also much heavier situation than 'Atlas Day', but no less enthralling for these slight changes in aural perspective. The title track and the frankly extraordinary 'BUABB' are current favourites and as ever with their work, appreciation of the whole journey is certainly part of the trip, be it a darker more aggressive one than previously travelled. This deeply engaging storytelling by sound will definitely prove to be one of this year's best for me. ( album review - ' On Heavy Rotation' )
A musical hall of mirrors built with warped genius. Bristol-based four-piece The Brackish has become one of the must-see live acts of the area's rich music scene. And much of the delirious grandeur of their performances comes across on 'Atlas Day', their fourth long- player. Guitarist Luke Cawthra, formerly of Phantom Limb, manages to bring a disquieting yet serene touch to his playing on tracks such as 'Leftbank', which sways between Chet Atkins- style melodicism and a kind of musical delireum. Rhythms and melodies morph and melt away, only to rise again in a new form. This kind of esoteric instrumental material could end up a pretentious mess in less skillful hands but the band is superb, their grip on the slippery dynamics is sure throughout and always musically aware. Together they have a unique style: wilfully enigmatic, with flashes of dark humour throughout. If prog had an older, weirder brother he would be called The Brackish. Recommended. (Guitarist magazine review for ' Atlas Day ' album - 9 / 10)
'Bringing to mind the instrumental areas of “Tweez” era Slint in their guitar tonalities, they also tap the eternal build and release genius of Dave Pajo’s iconic group Ariel M. But they also go into some heavily unpredictable territory with breathtaking verve, guts and temerity. Going from deep harmonic abstraction, to driving, algebraic, Beefheartian romps to joyous, triumphant crescendos.' ( On Heavy Rotation' )
...' a more accurate replication of their live sound, with the jazzier elements of their collective approach pushed to the foreground. There are elements of math rock and prog-metal that suggest polyrhythmically tricky forebears like Tortoise and Battles (and sometimes British contemporaries black midi); but there's also plenty of kraut-flavoured space and stoner groove to aid cognitive absorption for those more into headphonaut contemplation. '( Jon Kromka )
At the core of the music are tight arrangements combined with improvisation, featuring interplay between two distinctive guitar voices. Each tune’s clear conception tells a story - changes of mood and rhythm add a compelling narrative to a vital and visceral sound. The broad vocabulary of the music - psychedelic, metal, jazz, kraut … - conjures echoes from Steve Reich to Sabbath, Can and Tortoise. 'It’s an album that is at once joyous and free yet, with a slight time signature change or introduction of a certain guitar affect, can make you feel queasy and uncomfortable. You can never second guess it or assume you know where the songs are heading as its relentless riffing can suddenly morph from Sabbath sludge to Television crispness.' Louder Than War album review
is the third album by Bristol four-piece The Brackish, but the first I’ve heard. My limited interactions with their other bands, all Avon-based and with origins going back a decade or more, didn’t prime me for liking this as much as I do: a set of instrumental pieces – approaching ‘heavy’ at times, often more meditative. The Brackish have a standard rock band setup, but often feel like a vehicle for their two guitarists, Luke Cawthra and Neil Smith. There are lots of great-sounding guitars on here: Neil Young Dead Man-type desert jamming, quasi-new age tinkling, bits evocative of weird marginal rusty post-rockers like A Minor Forest or someone (‘Birdman’) and rad squealy riff salad like Canterbury prog in a teenage metal basement (‘Bango’s Xmas’). And, lest bassist Jacob Tyghe and drummer Matt Jones read this and get the hump, they make for a crack engine-room too. Review of ‘Firm but Fair’ from Quietus
Firm But Fair (Stolen Body)The Brackish kicked off displaying a pleasantly alarming tightness. The first song had a punchy immediacy to it and straight away I was blown away by the skills, particularly, of their drummer as he span almost effortlessly around in what felt like a blender full of time signatures. Being an instrumental act, the decoration and complexity they achieved in the compositions was more than enough to satisfy the ears. In fact I think vocals would have convoluted the sound had they been there. The sharp guitar melodies kept a breakneck pace as they hurtled along beside each other like competing leads in the grand national; feeding through the pedals, they were coated in reverb and felt like air raid sirens echoing in almost orchestral unison Drunken Werewolf live review
'Whenever you’re ready to get weird, The Brackish will meet you there. The Bristol troupe’s fourth album, Atlas Day brings six songs and 38 minutes of ungrandiose artsy exploration, veering into dreamtone noodling on “Dust Off Reaper” only after hinting in that direction on the jazzier “Pretty Ugly” previous. Sure, there’s moments of crunch, like the garage-grunge in the second half of “Pam’s Chalice” or the almost-motorik thrust that tops opener “Deliverance,” but The Brackish aren’t looking to pay homage to genre or post-thisorthat so much as to seemingly shut down their brains and see where the songs lead them. That’s a quiet but not still pastoralia on “Leftbank” and a more skronky shuffle-jazz on “Mr. Universe,” and one suspects that, if there were more songs on Atlas Day, they too would go just about wherever the hell they wanted. Not without its self-indulgent aspects by its very nature, Atlas Day succeeds by inviting the audience along its intentionally meandering course. Something something “not all who wander” something something. JJ Koczan at the The Obelisk- review of 'Atlas Day '
