There are very few bands as innovative as Brandt Brauer Frick at work today. The German trio engineer extraordinary collisions between techno and contemporary classical composition, producing urgent, sprawling works build on the familiar foundations of dance music – but using a full acoustic ensemble.
Their debut album, You Make Me Real, was without doubt one of last year’s best – and if ‘Pretend’ is anything to go by, forthcoming followup Mr Machine is going to be even better. “Just for tonight we can pretend / That we are friends / Friends til the end” intones Ninja Tune’s Emika over an increasingly frantic, seven-minute series of crescendo and diminuendo. Individual musical figures are presented, repeated, then warped before being returned to the fray, while Morricone-esque violins are scratched at with something approaching full-blown violence.
‘Pretend’ is one of the very best tracks we’ve had the pleasure of posting as a Song Of The Day. Brandt Brauer Frick play Fabric as a three-piece on 5 October, and we highly recommend that you go.
Brandt Brauer Frick ft Emika – Pretend by The Line Of Best Fit
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